.set
Is .set a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.set is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Identity Digital. .top (Zhongze) named .set as a backup string for its .con application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. ShortDot named .set as a backup string for its .age application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .set as a backup string for its .key 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
Three of the 4 are tied to a registry that runs TLDs today. Identity Digital, Link Freedom Group and ShortDot filed 414 applications between them across the round.
Will names sell?
A flexible English word with clever name-hack appeal (mind.set, sun.set), but no industry treats it as a serious default 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. .set’s closest 2012 strings hold .case 45, .box 3K and .spot 2K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .case, held 45 names, June 2026. .box held 2,752; .spot held 1,606. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Like .set, it is a short, everyday English noun-verb with several unrelated meanings and no single industry that owns it, so the bet is that registrants bring their own meaning to a blank generic word rather than the string delivering a ready-made category audience.
Same wager as .set: a common, container-ish, semantically loose word sold as a flexible open registry where value comes from short memorable phrases and brand-adjacent uses, not from a defined vertical of buyers who would put their primary identity on it.
Another generic, polysemous short word applied for as an open string whose demand has to be created by marketing and phrase-building, though it leans slightly more toward place/locator meaning than .set's fully abstract collection sense.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .set included.
- Link Freedom Group × Identity Digital
- Link Freedom Group × ShortDot
- Identity Digital × ShortDot
- Link Freedom Group × .top (Zhongze)
- Identity Digital × .top (Zhongze)
brandable-name hunters and hack-domain collectors chasing suffix plays like mind.set or as.set, plus lifestyle, fitness, music (DJ sets), and collectibles projects wanting a short generic word
What a .set domain is
.set is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .set domain extension real yet?
.set 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 .set domain?
You can’t yet. A .set 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 .set was .case, delegated on 30 October 2016.
Is .set a real TLD?
Not yet. .set is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .set is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- .top (Zhongze) · first recordedICANN
- ShortDot · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- ShortDot · now abandonedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
HS2699T-T21952 · Heir Superiority, LLC · primary LFGL2683T-T28609 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .key · Deactivated NA2626T-T96751 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · replacement string of .age · Deactivated NPL2622T-T30875 · NETDREAM PTE. LTD. · replacement string of .con · Deactivated
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“.set · Lifestyle · “Grouped for greatness.””Link Freedom Group
- Band 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a short, universally known English word, which supports broad registration volume, and it carries an unusually rich suffix-hack surface: mind.set, sun.set, head.set, hand.set, as.set, clo.set all read as complete words, an appeal pattern analogous (flagged as analogy) to the hack-driven demand seen on verb-completing TLDs like .ing and .ly, where a handful of hacks fetched real money while the long tail stayed thin. It is not in the 50-69 band because no single buyer category needs .set as a primary identity: 'set' is semantically diffuse (collections, tennis, DJs, film sets, math), so every adoption requires explaining, and hack demand is historically shallow and event-driven rather than sustained, again by analogy to prior hack-heavy TLDs. It is above the 10-29 band because the word is genuinely versatile and brand-friendly enough that some lifestyle, fitness, music, and collectibles projects would plausibly use a .set name as a real identity, and the best hacks should command modest aftermarket interest rather than pure novelty value. Applicant facts are neutral context: LFG filed more than 300 strings in the 2026 round and lists .set under 'Lifestyle' with the tagline 'Grouped for greatness.', suggesting a broad-portfolio open registration model rather than a vertical community push, which points to volume-and-price adoption dynamics. Main market uncertainty: whether the hack inventory (especially as.set for finance/crypto and mind.set for wellness) converts into serious primary identities that anchor an aftermarket, or stays a vanity curiosity, which is the difference between the top and bottom of this band over the next 5 years.