.vpn
Is .vpn a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.vpn is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Innovation Service Limited and Identity Digital. XServer named .vpn as a backup string for its .geek application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A clear product-category name for VPN sellers and affiliates, but the big VPN brands already live on .com, so demand stays narrow.
vpn providers, privacy-software resellers and affiliate/review publishers who want a self-describing address for a product line or campaign
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .geek 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 almost exactly: the generic name of a single consumer-facing security/privacy software product category, where the natural registrants are the competing vendors in that category and the string only works if one of them can own it as a primary brand rather than everyone treating it as a neutral descriptor.
Also a security-service category expressed as a clipped acronym that insiders read instantly, with the same buyer type (providers of protected connectivity/communications), but it is trade jargon rather than a term end consumers shop by, so its identity pool is far narrower.
Draws the same pool of registrants, but it is the broad abstract field noun rather than the name of one purchasable product, so it has to work as a whole-industry namespace instead of a product-category identity the way .vpn does.
What a .vpn domain is
.vpn is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .vpn domain extension real yet?
.vpn 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 .vpn domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .vpn name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens.
Is .vpn a real TLD?
Not yet. .vpn is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .vpn is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“ASL2693T-T37161 · Agador Slip, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-247 ISL2626T-T66950 · Innovation Service Limited · primary · contention set 2026-247 XI2694T-T10138 · XRegistry Incorporated · replacement string of .geek · Deactivated”ICANN
“ASL2693T-T37161 · Agador Slip, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-247 ISL2626T-T66950 · Innovation Service Limited · primary · contention set 2026-247”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a single, globally understood product category with a large consumer and business market behind it, so registrations will plausibly happen at volume from affiliate marketers, resellers and defensive brand holders, and the word carries a real meaning across languages. It does not reach the 50-69 band because the established VPN vendors are already firmly branded on .com and treat the generic word as a category, not an identity; by analogy with narrow product-category TLDs such as .host, .hosting and .cloud (flagged as analogy), the typical outcome is a modest base of marketing and redirect uses rather than genuine primary-identity adoption, and the aftermarket for such strings has tended to be thin. It sits above the 10-29 band because, unlike a joke or vanity string, there is a durable commercial category with ongoing search and affiliate activity, so demand is not merely event-driven. On the record, the string drew three applications, two of them in a contention set with one deactivated; the applicants' identities are noted only as a signal that registry operators with portfolio experience saw a market, which supports adoption likelihood at the margin. Main market uncertainty: whether any of the leading VPN brands adopt a .vpn address as a primary or heavily promoted identity, versus the TLD being populated mainly by affiliate and review sites; a secondary uncertainty is whether registry pricing is set at a premium that suppresses volume, as has happened with some security-themed strings (analogy).