.mate
Is .mate a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .mate in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Link Freedom Group named .mate as the backup string of its .auth application.
Nobody has applied for .mate in its own right.
Will names sell?
A friendly slang and word-play ending (auto.mate, room.mate) with real novelty appeal, but few serious projects would make it their main address.
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. .mate’s closest 2012 strings hold .mom 85K, .kiwi 13K and .meet 51.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .mom, held 84,879 names, June 2026. .kiwi held 12,948; .meet held 51. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a short everyday relational person-word with no industry or service behind it, sold as an open registry where the warmth and universality of the word itself is the entire product, and the primary buyer is anyone who wants a friendly personal or consumer-brand identity rather than a category claim.
Same bet in its cultural register: a colloquial in-group term that a national audience hears as its own vernacular, so the registry's value depends on people wanting to wear an identity marker rather than describe a business.
Similar buyer if the string is read as companionship rather than greeting: a plain-speech connection word aimed at consumer social, dating and community apps putting their whole brand on it, though it is a verb naming an activity where the target is a noun naming a person.
indie makers and small brands wanting a playful word-hack name (auto.mate, esti.mate, team.mate), plus Australian and British consumer brands, dating and social apps, and yerba mate or lifestyle products leaning on the 'friend' connotation
What a .mate domain is
.mate is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. Nobody has applied for .mate in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .mate domain extension real yet?
.mate is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .mate domain?
You can’t yet. A .mate 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 .mate was .mom, delegated on 19 August 2015.
Is .mate a real TLD?
Not yet. .mate is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .mate as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now replacementICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T31637 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .auth”ICANN
“.mate · Lifestyle · “Always by your side.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string has two real demand sources: cultural warmth ('mate' as friend in Australian and British English, plus yerba mate and chess associations) and an unusually rich set of English word hacks, since many common words end in -mate (auto.mate, esti.mate, ani.mate, room.mate, team.mate, check.mate, ulti.mate). By analogy with other hack-driven strings such as .ing and .ly, that word-ending supply generates genuine registrations and some memorable product names, but hack domains have historically tended to serve as campaign or redirect names more often than durable primary identities, and the non-hack use ('brand.mate') reads as casual rather than credible. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no single category where .mate is a plausible primary-identity default with sustained demand; adoption would be scattered across lifestyle, tooling hacks, and regional slang, and each use needs explaining. It is above the 10-29 band because the hack inventory plus the lifestyle and companionship framing give it broader, repeatable utility than a pure joke or event string; a meaningful minority of small products could genuinely live on it. Applicant facts are stated neutrally: the string is announced by Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and published its catalog ahead of Reveal Day, listing .mate under 'Lifestyle' with the tagline 'Always by your side.'; a large-portfolio applicant suggests the string would launch as one of many, which by analogy with earlier portfolio registries often means standard-registrar distribution rather than category-building marketing, tempering adoption expectations. Registration and renewal volumes for .mate itself are unknown, and comparable-TLD figures are unknown; all outcome judgments here are qualitative analogies. Main market uncertainty over the next 5 years: whether -mate word hacks convert into paying, renewing registrants who use the names as primary identities, or remain a thin layer of novelty and redirect registrations.