.skill
Is .skill a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.skill is contested: 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Squarespace, OpenAI and Alibaba. Kingfish LLC named .skill as a backup string for its .agnt application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string.
Clean word for AI-agent skills and learning brands; a real niche now, bigger only if agent ecosystems adopt it as an address.
builders of AI-agent capabilities and skill registries, plus learning, training and talent-portfolio brands wanting a short, self-explaining address
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .agnt application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string
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 as .skill: an uncountable capability-noun sold to the people who teach or certify competence, where registrants have to build a phrase around it ("welding.training") rather than own the word outright.
Also a bare competence word with no industry that owns it, monetized the same way — as the right-hand half of a constructed claim ("tax.expert" / "python.skill") by individuals and small providers asserting ability, not by an institution putting its primary identity there.
Another singular abstract mass noun in the learn-a-capability space whose success depends on the same unproven premise — that learners and course sellers will adopt a verb-ish/attribute word instead of a concrete category like .courses or .academy.
What a .skill domain is
.skill is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. 3 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .skill domain extension real yet?
.skill 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 .skill domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .skill name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .skill was .training, delegated on 28 December 2013.
Is .skill a real TLD?
Not yet. .skill is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .skill is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“ELL2677T-T65704 · Elegant Leader Limited · primary · contention set 2026-214 OOL2614T-T76768 · OPENAI OPCO, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-214 SRL2616T-T12396 · Squarespace Registry LLC · primary · contention set 2026-214”ICANN
“ELL2677T-T65704 · Elegant Leader Limited · primary · contention set 2026-214 KL2668T-T13029 · Kingfish LLC · replacement string of .agnt · Deactivated OOL2614T-T76768 · OPENAI OPCO, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-214 SRL2616T-T12396 · Squarespace Registry LLC · primary · contention set 2026-214”ICANN
- Band chosen: strong niche (50-69). The string is a common, singular English word that reads naturally as a suffix (a topic or capability dot skill), and over the next 5 years it has two plausible primary-identity uses: the AI-agent world, where modular 'skills' are an established term for packaged agent capabilities, and the older learning/training/talent market. The verified record shows three confirmed standard applications (Alibaba, OpenAI, Squarespace) in one contention set, which I treat only as a neutral signal that well-resourced operators see demand in the string. Not the band above (category standard): 'skill' is an attribute rather than a category, there is no single market where it would be the unexplained default the way a country-code-turned-AI namespace became for AI companies, and agent-skill naming could consolidate on other words (tool, plugin, agent) instead. Not the band below (usable but limited): unlike generic attribute strings that attracted volume mainly on price, the agent-skill use case gives a genuine primary-identity reason to register, and the learning market offers steady, if modest, baseline demand. By analogy (flagged as analogy), expertise-flavoured generics such as .expert, .guru, .training and .academy settled into small, renewal-sensitive niches rather than becoming brand standards, which anchors the score in the lower half of the band; the AI angle is what lifts it above those analogues. Main market uncertainty: whether 'skill' remains the dominant term for packaged agent capabilities and whether addresses on the TLD get wired into how those capabilities are discovered or installed, versus the term drifting to another word and leaving .skill as a learning-site vanity choice.