.muse
Is .muse a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.muse is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Meta. Radix named .muse as a backup string for its .official application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A pleasant creative-sounding word, but filed as a brand TLD, so expect company-only use rather than an open market.
the applicant's own products, campaigns and services under a brand-operated namespace; third parties in the arts, design and AI-creativity space would only matter if the registry were ever opened to public registration
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .official application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
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: a short, warm abstract noun with no industry behind it, so the registry is wagering that registrants will adopt the word purely for how it feels rather than because it labels what they do.
Another single evocative English noun whose value has to be created by positioning and marketing, since no profession, community, or product category would ever describe itself with it.
Also an emotional abstract noun sold on connotation, but it is a far more universal consumer word with an obvious use case (romance, dating, gifting), where muse has no equivalent ready-made demand pool.
What a .muse domain is
.muse is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Brand. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .muse domain extension real yet?
.muse 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 .muse domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .muse name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .muse was .joy, delegated on 5 December 2015.
Is .muse a real TLD?
Not yet. .muse is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .muse is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“MRHL2653T-T87062 · Meta Registry Holdings LLC · primary”ICANN
“MRHL2653T-T87062 · Meta Registry Holdings LLC · primary RTIS2674T-T10767 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .official · Deactivated”ICANN
“Radix has applied for these TLDs; we do not own or operate them today.”Radix
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The verified record shows the sole live application is of ICANN type 'brand', filed by Meta Registry Holdings LLC; the one standard (open) application, from Radix, is recorded as deactivated. Under a brand application the addressable buyer is the operator itself, so over the next 5 years addresses on .muse are best understood as internal product or campaign identities, not a market. By analogy (flagged as analogy), dot-brands from the 2012 round have mostly seen light or sporadic use with no third-party aftermarket, and a few were later retired; a well-resourced operator can run a tidy set of branded addresses, but that is utility to one company, not resale value. It is not in the 30-49 band because there are no registrations at volume or on price to speak of and no open demand channel on the record. It is not in the 1-9 band because the string is a short, legible generic word with creative, arts and inspiration connotations (compare, by analogy, the modest but real niches of open creative TLDs such as .art, .design or .studio), and a large operator does have a realistic, if narrow, use for it; if the registry were opened, the string's generic appeal would plausibly lift it into the usable-but-limited band. Main market uncertainty: whether the operator uses the namespace visibly for consumer-facing products (which would raise familiarity and the string's latent value) or leaves it largely dormant, as many brand TLDs have been by analogy. Figures on any brand-TLD usage rates are unknown here and are not asserted.