.mech
Is .mech a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .mech in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Link Freedom Group named .mech as the backup string of its .ship application.
Nobody has applied for .mech in its own right.
Will names sell?
A niche address for robotics builders and mecha fans; evocative and fun, but few serious ventures would make it their main web identity.
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. .mech’s closest 2012 strings hold .physio 972, .vet 13K and .plumbing 3K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .physio, held 972 names, June 2026. .vet held 12,565; .plumbing held 2,723. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a clipped, colloquial name for a hands-on practitioner trade, sold as primary identity to thousands of independent one-shop operators who must accept the abbreviation as the name of what they do.
Same clipped-profession-as-identity bet with the same small-practice buyer, but its second meaning (veterans) splits the audience the way "mech" splits between mechanics and machines, so the string has to win a definition fight before it wins registrations.
Same underlying buyer — the local skilled-trade service business putting its craft on the right of the dot — but it is the unabbreviated trade-category noun rather than the insider clipping, so it needs no comprehension leap the way the target does.
robotics and hardware startups, mecha-gaming communities and studios, and mechanical-services businesses wanting a short, machine-flavored name
What a .mech domain is
.mech is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. Nobody has applied for .mech in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .mech domain extension real yet?
.mech 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 .mech domain?
You can’t yet. A .mech 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 .mech was .physio, delegated on 19 June 2014.
Is .mech a real TLD?
Not yet. .mech is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .mech 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-T74740 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .ship”ICANN
“.mech · AI & Tech · “Heavy metal.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string has real semantic breadth: 'mech' evokes robotics and hardware, mecha gaming and anime culture, and mechanical trades, so registrations at volume are plausible and some hobby or community projects would genuinely use it. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no sign of a buyer group for whom .mech would be a primary-identity default over the next 5 years; robotics and hardware companies overwhelmingly gravitate to incumbent tech-signal TLDs (analogy from how funded startups cluster on established extensions), and gaming communities already have entrenched homes. It is not in the 10-29 band because the demand is broader than a single joke or event: multiple distinct buyer groups (robotics, gaming culture, mechanical trades) could each sustain modest ongoing registration demand, which is more than shallow vanity uptake. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed a large portfolio of strings in the 2026 round and lists .mech under 'AI & Tech' with the tagline 'Heavy metal.', which suggests a broad-catalog play rather than a dedicated community push; portfolio-operated niche TLDs have historically tended toward price-driven volume rather than curated category adoption (analogy). Main market uncertainty: whether the mecha/robotics culture audience treats .mech as an identity badge (the way some gaming communities embraced a short culture-coded TLD, by analogy) or ignores it as one more novelty extension.