.pot
Is .pot a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.pot is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital and GoDaddy Registry. Link Freedom Group named .pot as a backup string for its .ppp 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 two already run TLDs, 22.02M names between them. Two run one of .pot's closest 2012 strings: GoDaddy Registry .beer and GoDaddy Registry .vodka.
Will names sell?
A novelty domain riding cannabis slang and kitchen puns; fun to own, but few serious brands would make it their main address.
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. .pot’s closest 2012 strings hold .beer 151K, .vodka 2K and .porn 8K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .beer, held 150,521 names, June 2026. .vodka held 1,803; .porn held 8,196. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: the everyday colloquial noun for a regulated recreational intoxicant, sold to a long tail of small producers, retailers and enthusiast culture who would put primary identity on the category word rather than a brand — it only works if a licensed, stigma-shedding vertical decides a keyword TLD signals legitimacy better than .com.
Same structure one notch narrower: a single-substance consumer-category generic whose registrant base is producers, distributors and bars operating under age/advertising restrictions, betting that a controlled-product vertical will self-organize under its own product word.
Parallel on the stigma axis rather than the product axis — the blunt vernacular word (not the polite euphemism) for a legal-but-restricted category where banking, ad platforms and mainstream registrars create friction, so the TLD's appeal is unambiguous self-identification by an industry the mainstream keeps at arm's length; nothing in 2012 bets on a substance that was still federally illegal, so no true parallel exists.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .pot included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
cannabis dispensaries and lifestyle brands wanting a wink-and-nod address, plus kitchenware and cookware sellers playing on the literal meaning; mostly marketing microsites and defensive grabs rather than primary identities
What a .pot domain is
.pot is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .pot domain extension real yet?
.pot 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 .pot domain?
You can’t yet. A .pot 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 .pot was .beer, delegated on 15 May 2014.
Is .pot a real TLD?
Not yet. .pot is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .pot is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T80397 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .ppp · Deactivated NA2631T-T39802 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-190 TCL2632T-T51366 · Tidal Case, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-190”ICANN
“NA2631T-T39802 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-190 TCL2632T-T51366 · Tidal Case, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-190”ICANN
“.pot · Lifestyle · “Storage for every shelf.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/joke/narrow). The string's real energy is the cannabis slang meaning, with a secondary literal cookware/storage reading that matches the applicant's published 'Lifestyle / Storage for every shelf' framing. By analogy (flagged as such), beverage- and kitchen-themed TLDs like .vodka, .beer, .cooking and .kitchen have historically drawn thin registration bases and almost no primary-identity use by serious brands, and a slang string likely performs similarly or worse for mainstream buyers. It is not in the 30-49 band because demand over the next 5 years looks event- and novelty-driven rather than volume-driven: cannabis businesses operate under advertising and payment constraints that push them toward conservative .com identities, and cookware brands have little reason to explain a slang-loaded address; the aftermarket would likely be a handful of pun names, not a sustained market. It is not in the 1-9 band because the cannabis double meaning gives it a genuine, if shallow, buyer pool: dispensaries, headshops, and cannabis media could plausibly register short puns at meaningful (if small) volume, which clears the no-realistic-market bar. Applicant context: the string was announced by Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round; a portfolio applicant of that breadth suggests broad-catalog distribution rather than a dedicated category push, which tempers adoption expectations but is stated neutrally. Main market uncertainty (launch assumed): whether cannabis-sector marketing norms in major legal markets liberalize enough over the next 5 years that a slang TLD becomes an acceptable brand identity rather than a liability.