.model
Is .model a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.model is contested: 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are OpenAI, GoDaddy Registry and Identity Digital. XYZ Registry named .model as a backup string for its .bao application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .model as a backup string for its .ddd 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 four already run TLDs, 22.02M names between them. Two run one of .model's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .actor and GoDaddy Registry .photo. Journey To The West and OpenAI run none.
Will names sell?
A word with real pull in both AI and fashion, so niche projects can wear it well, but no industry treats it as a default address yet.
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. .model’s closest 2012 strings hold .actor 4K, .bot 23K and .photo 17K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .actor, held 3,612 names, June 2026. .bot held 23,099; .photo held 16,503. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a one-word English occupation noun for a look-and-perform trade where the primary registrants are individual talent (plus their agencies) hanging a personal portfolio identity on the string, so the TLD only works if a diffuse, non-technical, agency-mediated profession adopts it as its own namespace.
Same bet on the other reading of the string: a short generic noun naming a class of software artifact that developers deploy and address individually, betting that an emerging technical category will want its own namespace before the category's shape (and its one or two dominant platforms) is settled.
Same bet as a creative-asset noun that has to serve two buyers at once — practitioners claiming a professional identity and marketplaces/catalogs of the asset type itself — with the risk that the word is so plain and so widely used that no group treats it as their home.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .model included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- XYZ Registry × Link Freedom Group
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
ai developers and ML platforms publishing named models, plus modeling agencies, individual fashion or 3d-artist portfolios, and hobbyist model-making communities looking for a literal, memorable identity
What a .model domain is
.model 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 .model domain extension real yet?
.model 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 .model domain?
You can’t yet. A .model 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 .model was .actor, delegated on 26 February 2014.
Is .model a real TLD?
Not yet. .model is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .model is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- XYZ Registry · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
GEL2647T-T32512 · Glass Emotion, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-157 LFGL2683T-T25843 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .ddd · Deactivated NA2631T-T46213 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-157 OOL2614T-T37173 · OPENAI OPCO, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-157 XL2625T-T82038 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .bao · Deactivated
“GEL2647T-T32512 · Glass Emotion, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-157 NA2631T-T46213 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-157 OOL2614T-T37173 · OPENAI OPCO, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-157”ICANN
“.model · Future Tech · “The trained system behind modern AI.””Journey To The West Corporation
“.model · Culture · “The reference point.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: strong niche TLD (50-69), at its floor. The string carries unusually broad semantic load: 'model' is simultaneously the core noun of the AI industry (language models, model cards, model registries), the identity word of the fashion/modeling world, and a hobbyist term (scale models, 3D models). By analogy, .ai converted a semantically loaded string into a category standard once the AI wave arrived, and .design sustained genuine primary-identity use among designers; .model could plausibly ride the same AI tailwind as a home for named models, demos, and portfolios (analogy, not observed demand for this string). It is above the 30-49 band because at least two real buyer groups (AI teams and modeling professionals) have credible primary-identity use cases rather than volume-or-price registrations only. It is below the 70-89 band because no major category currently defaults to it: AI companies overwhelmingly publish models under their own brand domains, and the fashion world's online identity runs through social platforms and agency sites, so adoption needs explaining and the aftermarket is speculative. Registration volumes, pricing, and comparable-string sales data are unknown, so this is reasoned qualitatively. Main market uncertainty: whether AI developers will adopt any third-party TLD as a canonical namespace for model identities within 5 years, or keep models as paths under their existing brand domains, which would confine .model to the smaller fashion/hobbyist niches.