.machine
Is .machine a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.machine is contested: 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XYZ Registry, Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group. 0G named .machine as a backup string for its .robot application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the three already run TLDs, 26.76M names between them. Three run one of .machine's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .equipment, Identity Digital .industries and Identity Digital .tools. Link Freedom Group runs none.
Will names sell?
A playful word ending for AI and robotics projects; fine for side projects and lab pages, but serious teams will mostly reach for .ai instead.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .machine’s closest 2012 strings hold .equipment 5K, .tools 30K and .industries 8K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .equipment, held 4,944 names, June 2026. .tools held 30,491; .industries held 7,519. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: an unowned generic industrial-goods noun sold to machine shops, dealers and manufacturers as their primary identity, which only works if a fragmented trade sector adopts a category word nobody can claim exclusively.
Same bet in structure — a plain implement noun with a physical-trade meaning and a software/abstract meaning, so it must win either an industrial buyer or a tech buyer without being naturally owned by either.
Same manufacturing-sector buyer and same reliance on the industrial trade choosing a generic descriptor for its identity, though it reads as a company-name suffix rather than the object-category noun that .machine is.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .machine included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- XYZ Registry × Link Freedom Group
AI, robotics, automation, and industrial-IoT builders who want a literal, machine-flavored identity; secondarily hobbyists and maker brands using it as a suffix hack (e.g. a product name that reads naturally before .machine).
What a .machine domain is
.machine is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .machine domain extension real yet?
.machine is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .machine domain?
You can’t yet. A .machine name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .machine was .equipment, delegated on 6 November 2013.
Is .machine a real TLD?
Not yet. .machine is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .machine is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 0G · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“ASL2693T-T79647 · Agador Slip, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-142 LFGL2683T-T84042 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-142 XL2625T-T14287 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-142”ICANN
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
A2652T-T75760 · Zero Gravity Labs Inc. · replacement string of .robot · Deactivated ASL2693T-T79647 · Agador Slip, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-142 LFGL2683T-T84042 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-142 XL2625T-T14287 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-142
“.machine · AI & Tech · “Make life simpler, work smarter.””Link Freedom Group
- Band: usable but limited (30-49), at its low end. The string is a common English word with a clear AI/automation resonance, and the current wave of interest in AI agents and machine-to-machine services gives it a plausible buyer story over the next 5 years. But by analogy (flagged as analogy) to descriptive tech generics like .computer, .systems, and .network, such strings have tended to see modest registration volumes, little primary-identity use by serious companies, and thin aftermarkets; there is no verified demand data for .machine itself, so specifics are unknown. It sits above the vanity band (10-29) because the word maps directly onto a large, well-funded category and a robotics or ML-infra startup could credibly adopt name.machine as a real identity, not just a gag. It stays below the strong-niche band (50-69) because within its own category the incumbent default is elsewhere: the analogy suggests .ai has absorbed most of the credibility premium for machine-intelligence branding, leaving .machine as an explained, second-choice address rather than one with sustained demand. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and lists this one under 'AI & Tech'; a large-portfolio applicant is a neutral fact here and mainly signals a breadth strategy rather than a single-string marketing push, which tempers adoption expectations. Main market uncertainty: whether the machine-agent economy produces a naming convention where 'machine' (the literal noun) beats 'ai' (the field) as the identity suffix buyers actually want.