.proxy
Is .proxy a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.proxy is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Identity Digital. Innovation Service Limited named .proxy as a backup string for its .faq application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A technical word with one real buyer group, proxy and scraping services, but most of them will keep .com as the front door.
proxy, scraping and privacy-infrastructure vendors, plus developers wanting a descriptive hostname for a relay or gateway endpoint
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .faq 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 narrow, jargon-adjacent product-category noun whose primary identity holders are the vendors selling exactly that one piece of security/privacy software, so the string's value rests on a single competitive vendor category wanting to own its own product word.
Same bet in shape — the name of an infrastructure service that an entire class of providers sells, where the buyer is a service operator putting its identity on the thing it rents out rather than on a brand or a place.
Same bet one level broader: a generic trust/infrastructure abstract noun that any provider in the field can claim, so it works only if the word itself reads as a credential, which is the weaker half of what .proxy is betting on.
What a .proxy domain is
.proxy is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Infrastructure. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .proxy domain extension real yet?
.proxy 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 .proxy domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .proxy name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens.
Is .proxy a real TLD?
Not yet. .proxy is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .proxy is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string names a real, commercially active sector (residential and datacenter proxy providers, scraping infrastructure, privacy relays), and many such businesses already carry the word in their brand, so there is a plausible pool of defensive and descriptive registrations plus some genuine use as a product or endpoint hostname (e.g. a gateway at something.proxy). It is not in the 50-69 band because, by analogy with other service-noun TLDs aimed at hosting and network vendors (.host, .hosting, .network, .cloud), a few of which found steady registrations but few of which displaced .com or .io as the primary identity of serious vendors in their category, adoption of .proxy would need explaining and the aftermarket would stay thin; the word also describes what a company sells rather than who it is, and carries a grey-market tone (geo-unblocking, bot traffic) that reputation filters and corporate buyers may treat cautiously. It is not in the 10-29 band because the demand is not event-driven or purely vanity: the sector is persistent, developer-facing, and names hostnames descriptively, so a floor of real technical use is likely across the next 5 years. Applicant facts from the record: Identity Digital holds the confirmed application; a second application was deactivated (a replacement string of .faq); contention count 1. An operator with wide registrar distribution plausibly improves availability and channel reach, which supports the floor of the band rather than the ceiling. Main market uncertainty: whether proxy-infrastructure vendors treat a .proxy name as a credible primary identity for a paid B2B product, or only as a redirect and endpoint label, and whether abuse-filtering of proxy-related hostnames depresses legitimate use. These inferences are from analogy; no registration figures, prices or sales counts are in the verified-facts block, so all volumes are unknown.