.wise
Is .wise a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.wise is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Wise and Link Freedom Group. Suffix named .wise as a backup string for its .create 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
None of the two runs a TLD today.
Will names sell?
A pleasant adjective for advisers and wordplay names, but expect mostly budget and novelty registrations, not serious primary identities.
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. .wise’s closest 2012 strings hold .ally 25, .discover 102 and .best 54K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .ally, held 25 names, June 2026. .discover held 102; .best held 54,475. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a consumer-finance company whose name is an ordinary English word applying for that word as its own closed namespace, so the value hinges on the brand having eclipsed the dictionary meaning in customers' minds rather than on selling registrations.
Also a payments brand claiming a common English word it does not own linguistically, betting that a single-word .brand carries the trust and recall of a regulated financial identity while accepting permanent confusion with the generic sense.
Covers the alternate reading in which the string is treated as a bare aspirational adjective sold to all comers, an open-registry bet on qualitative-word appeal rather than on one company's identity, which is why it is only a partial parallel.
advisers, coaches, and financial-guidance brands wanting a trust-flavored name, plus wordplay registrants exploiting the English '-wise' suffix (like.wise, clock.wise) and brandable-name speculators.
What a .wise domain is
.wise is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Brand category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .wise domain extension real yet?
.wise 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 .wise domain?
You can’t yet. A .wise 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 .wise was .ally, delegated on 24 March 2016.
Is .wise a real TLD?
Not yet. .wise is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .wise is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Suffix · first recordedICANN
- Wise · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T34391 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-255 WPL2688T-T32887 · Wise Payments Limited · primary · contention set 2026-255”ICANN
“LFGL2683T-T34391 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-255 SI2639T-T23718 · Suffix Inc. · replacement string of .create · Deactivated WPL2688T-T32887 · Wise Payments Limited · primary · contention set 2026-255”ICANN
“.wise · AI & Tech · “Smart moves, wise choices.””Link Freedom Group
- Assuming delegation and general availability, .wise lands in the 30-49 'usable but limited' band; I score it 32. The string is a genuinely positive English adjective and doubles as a native suffix ('-wise'), which supports two demand pools: advisory and financial-guidance positioning (a coach or planner using name.wise) and suffix domain hacks. By analogy, adjective and persona TLDs such as .guru, .expert, and .cool have historically drawn price-driven volume registrations with weak brand signal and thin aftermarkets, and I expect .wise to behave similarly over the next 5 years; suffix-hack demand, by analogy with vanity hack namespaces, tends to be clever but shallow and rarely becomes a serious primary identity. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no category where .wise is a plausible primary-identity default with sustained demand; adoption would need explaining everywhere it appears. It is above the 10-29 band because the word's broad positive meaning, advisory-niche fit, and hack potential support steady volume registrations beyond event-driven novelty. The applicant lists the string under 'AI & Tech' with the tagline 'Smart moves, wise choices.', but the string itself carries no inherent AI meaning, so I do not credit an AI premium. A complication known from general market knowledge: 'Wise' is also in use as a prominent fintech brand name, which could chill some serious commercial adoption on an open registry; I treat this qualitatively only. Main market uncertainty: whether the advisory/finance-guidance niche actually adopts adjective-TLD identities at meaningful renewal rates, or whether demand collapses to first-year promo registrations.