.mode
Is .mode a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.mode is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Link Freedom Group. Suffix named .mode as a backup string for its .solo 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
None of the 2 is tied to a registry that runs TLDs today. Link Freedom Group and Suffix filed 182 applications between them across the round.
Will names sell?
A catchy word for playful names like dark.mode or beast.mode and European fashion brands, but few serious projects would build on it.
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. .mode’s closest 2012 strings hold .moda 3K, .style 12K and .now 27K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .moda, held 2,500 names, June 2026. .style held 12,070; .now held 27,481. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Almost literally the same bet: a short non-English word for fashion sold as an open generic that a boutique or style brand puts its primary identity on, working only if buyers read the foreign-language meaning rather than needing a plain English category noun.
An abstract quality noun rather than a category with a countable registrant population, so it wins the same way .mode would — as expressive brand vocabulary any lifestyle, design or retail buyer can appropriate — and fails the same way if nobody feels obliged to own it.
The same short-evocative-English-word bet where value comes from phrase completion and tone (dark.mode, shop.now) rather than from membership in a trade, so demand depends on marketing creativity instead of a census of businesses.
hobbyist developers and gamers wanting a clever right-of-the-dot hack (dark.mode, god.mode), plus fashion-adjacent brands in markets where the word means fashion, and app makers naming feature modes
What a .mode domain is
.mode is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .mode domain extension real yet?
.mode 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 .mode domain?
You can’t yet. A .mode 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 .mode was .moda, delegated on 14 January 2014.
Is .mode a real TLD?
Not yet. .mode is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .mode is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Suffix · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T81151 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary SI2639T-T74123 · Suffix Inc. · replacement string of .solo · Deactivated”ICANN
“LFGL2683T-T81151 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary”ICANN
“.mode · AI & Tech · “Choose your mode, set your pace.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string is a short, real dictionary word with two distinct pulls: in English tech/gaming culture it enables memorable domain hacks (dark.mode, beast.mode, turbo.mode) and loosely fits AI product framing around agent or model modes; in French and German the word means fashion, opening a second, unrelated demand pool. That breadth should produce registrations at volume and some fun aftermarket flips, which is why it sits above the vanity/joke band: demand is not purely event-driven and a small number of products could plausibly use a .mode address as a real identity. It does not reach the strong-niche band because no single category treats the word as its namespace: an AI or software company gains no credibility signal from .mode over .ai or .com, and fashion buyers already have word-specific alternatives, so primary-identity use would need explaining and would likely stay rare over the next 5 years. By analogy (flagged as analogy), generic single-word TLDs like .style, .fashion, and .moda have tended toward thin, discount-driven registration bases with shallow aftermarkets rather than category-standard status, and .mode has less category ownership than any of those. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed a very large portfolio of strings in the 2026 round and lists this one under AI & Tech with the tagline "Choose your mode, set your pace."; a portfolio-scale operator suggests broad availability but no single-string marketing push, which caps adoption expectations. Main market uncertainty: whether the domain-hack novelty converts into renewing, identity-grade use or behaves like a fad wave that churns after year one.