.think
Is .think a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .think in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Intercap named .think as a backup string for its .mind application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .think as a backup string for its .thing application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Nobody has applied for .think in its own right.
Will names sell?
A catchy verb for idea brands, think tanks, and campaigns; memorable, but rarely a serious project's primary web 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. .think’s closest 2012 strings hold .talk 1K, .read 2 and .how 4K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .talk, held 1,425 names, June 2026. .read held 2; .how held 3,596. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a bare English verb for a mental/verbal act with no industry that owns it, so its whole value rests on registrants completing a phrase after the dot rather than on any pre-existing category of buyer.
Another single cognitive-action verb with no natural registrant class, sold on aspirational wordplay and likely defended as a brand-adjacent halo string rather than as an open market of businesses that call themselves that.
Same abstract-function-word bet — meaningless alone, valuable only if people build sentence-style names on it — though it leans more toward instructional utility than .think's identity-of-ideas positioning.
consultancies, think tanks, coaches, media and education brands built around ideas, plus AI and product startups wanting an evocative campaign or slogan-style domain
What a .think domain is
.think is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. Nobody has applied for .think in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .think domain extension real yet?
.think is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .think domain?
You can’t yet. A .think 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 .think was .talk, delegated on 25 March 2016.
Is .think a real TLD?
Not yet. .think is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .think as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Intercap · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“IRI2679T-T33645 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .mind · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T87687 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .thing · Deactivated”ICANN
“.think · Lifestyle · “Minds in motion.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string is a common English verb with genuine branding energy: it fits thought-leadership, consulting, education, and idea-driven media, and it supports slogan-style names and domain hacks (re.think, over.think), which by analogy with other hackable strings tend to drive memorable secondary use rather than primary identities. It also resonates with AI-era positioning, where 'thinking' machines are a live cultural theme, which could lift demand at the margin. It is not in the band above (50-69, strong niche) because, reasoning from analogy with verb and lifestyle gTLDs from the earlier expansion round, such strings have generally settled into price-driven volume registrations and campaign or redirect use rather than sustained primary-identity adoption in any one category, and there is no incumbent buyer group for whom .think is the expected address. It is not in the band below (10-29, vanity/narrow) because the word is broad, positive, and professionally usable across consulting, education, media, and AI branding, so registration demand over the next 5 years plausibly extends beyond jokes or one-off events. Applicant context: the string is announced in Link Freedom Group's published 2026-round catalog under category 'Lifestyle' with the tagline 'Minds in motion.'; a very large multi-string portfolio applicant suggests broad-market registry positioning rather than a single-community push, which slightly tempers expectations of concentrated category marketing. Pricing, launch strategy, and volumes are unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether idea-economy buyers (consultancies, creators, AI startups) will adopt a verb TLD as a primary identity at all, or continue treating such strings as campaign add-ons to a .com.