.mcp
Is .mcp a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.mcp is contested: 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital, OpenAI, Google Registry, ShortDot and Radix.
A timely bet on the AI agent-tool protocol wave: genuinely useful to MCP server builders if the protocol endures, narrow if it fades.
developers and companies publishing Model Context Protocol servers and agent-tool integrations, plus AI infrastructure vendors wanting a protocol-native address for their connector products
One of 46 ICANN 2026-round applications Radix announced on its own applications page. Radix states it intends to build and operate each TLD it wins.
One of the 80 strings ShortDot published for the ICANN 2026 round. ShortDot states it has submitted 40 applications, but publishes the 80 strings without revealing which 40 are applications and which 40 are designated replacements. The submission claim is therefore applicant-level, not string-level: nothing in the source says ShortDot applied for THIS string. Catalogued, not announced.
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet that a just-born category of software component needs its own address space, sold to the vendors and developers shipping those components rather than to any consumer audience, and it only works if the category outlives its hype window.
Same bet that a technical standard's acronym can become the namespace of the implementer community that lives around that standard, where the registrant base is vendors proving conformance rather than anyone with a brand to place.
Shares the shape of a named technology serving as the identity layer for the third parties who build on it, but the 2012 version was a mature corporate platform name rather than a two-year-old open protocol acronym, so the risk profile is inverted.
What a .mcp domain is
.mcp is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .mcp domain extension real yet?
.mcp 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 .mcp domain?
You can’t yet. A .mcp 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 .mcp was .bot, delegated on 5 December 2015.
Is .mcp a real TLD?
Not yet. .mcp is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .mcp is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“CRRI2564-T28613 · Charleston Road Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-151 NA2626T-T80159 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-151 OOL2614T-T45092 · OPENAI OPCO, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-151 RTIS2674T-T17682 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · primary · contention set 2026-151 TCL2632T-T27609 · Tidal Case, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-151”ICANN
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“Radix has applied for these TLDs; we do not own or operate them today.”Radix
- The string maps directly onto the Model Context Protocol, an open protocol for connecting AI models to tools and data that has seen broad developer mindshare across the agent ecosystem; exact adoption figures are unknown. I place .mcp in the 50-69 strong-niche band at 58. It is not in the 70-89 band because it is not a category standard: the AI/developer categories already default to established TLDs, MCP servers are today discovered largely through registries, package managers and marketplace listings rather than through domains, an aftermarket for the string is unproven, and any registration needs the buyer to already know the acronym. It is not in the 30-49 band because demand is not merely volume-or-price driven: there is a genuine primary-identity use case (a canonical, self-describing address for a hosted MCP server or connector product), the buyer pool is well-funded AI tooling companies, and by analogy with developer-focused TLDs such as .dev and .tech (flagged as analogy) protocol-adjacent strings can sustain real end-use when the underlying ecosystem grows. The applicant is a large portfolio registry that states it intends to operate the TLDs it wins, which supports the assumption of a competent commercial launch. My main market uncertainty, independent of delegation: whether MCP remains the dominant agent-tool protocol over the next 5 years and whether server identity ever routes through DNS at all — if discovery stays inside registries and app stores, .mcp compresses toward a vanity/speculative string; if domain-based server addressing becomes a convention, it climbs toward the top of its band or above.