Every single TLD we track at Instant Domain Search is growing in 2026. Not some of them — all of them. That's never happened before. In previous years there were always winners and losers: .com shrinking while .ai surged, .net declining while niche TLDs grew. This year, the entire market is expanding.
Global domain registrations hit 386.9 million at the end of 2025, up 6.2% year-over-year, and the pace has only picked up since. Below is what we're seeing across the most popular domain extensions, based on data from our own TLD pages tracking registrations, growth rates, and secondary market pricing. If you're looking for a domain name or just trying to understand where things are headed, this is the most complete picture we can give you.
.com — 303.7 Million Registrations, +18% Growth
Last year, we noted a -0.1% dip in .com registrations and wrote about "classics fading." We were wrong. .com now sits at 303.7 million registrations, growing +18% year-over-year, with 4.58 million new domains added in a single month. For context, .com registered more domains in March 2026 alone than .me, .ai, and .dev TLDs have in total.
The aftermarket reflects the same momentum. Average .com resale prices jumped +63.6% year-over-year to $23,264, and the biggest domain sale in history happened here: ai.com sold for $70 million in April 2025. The buyer, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek, paid entirely in cryptocurrency and launched the domain during Super Bowl LX. The previous record was Voice.com at $30 million.
.com benefits most when the internet grows, because every new business, market, and country coming online still defaults to .com first. That hasn't changed.
.xyz — 10 Million Registrations, +240% Growth
We didn't even mention .xyz in the original version of this post. In 2026, it's the fastest-growing TLD by a wide margin:
- 10 million total registrations (just crossed the milestone)
- +240% year-over-year growth, the highest of any TLD we track
- 571,202 new registrations this month — more monthly volume than .ai, .io, .app, .dev, .co, and .me combined
The unusual part: aftermarket prices dropped -43.6% year-over-year to an average of $3,038, even as registrations exploded. Every other fast-growing TLD has rising resale values. .xyz is getting cheaper as it gets bigger, which usually signals a shift from speculative hoarding to actual use.
What's driving it
Alphabet uses abc.xyz as their corporate domain, which gave .xyz credibility early on. The extension is category-neutral, so it works for anything — tech, creative, personal, commercial. Web3 adoption helped too, since ENS lets .xyz domains function as decentralized identifiers, and projects like Mirror.xyz and ENS.xyz were early high-profile endorsements.
One nuance: Japan's largest registrar, GMO/Onamae, offers .xyz domains at deeply discounted first-year pricing, and their registrations grew roughly 2.5x in the past year. That inflates the headline numbers. The organic growth is still massive, but the 240% figure isn't purely demand-driven. Renewal rates over the next 12 months will show how much sticks.
.ai — 1 Million Registrations, $239K Average Resale Price
.ai crossed 1 million registrations on January 2, 2026. There were 60,000 .ai domains in 2022 and 354,000 in 2023, so getting to a million took about three years. Growth is running at +95% year-over-year with 56,218 new registrations last month.
The secondary market is where .ai really stands out. Average resale price: $239,516 — roughly 10x what .com aftermarket domains cost and the most expensive of any TLD by a wide margin.
Some notable sales:
- ai.com: $70 million (largest domain sale ever)
- fin.ai: $1 million (first .ai domain to hit seven figures, now used for Intercom's Fin AI customer support agent)
- you.ai: $700,000
- cloud.ai: $600,000
- rush.ai: $300,000
Year-over-year aftermarket price growth for .ai is only +7.7%, which suggests the market has found its equilibrium — it's just a very high one. Supply is still under 1 million total domains while demand from AI startups keeps intensifying.
How Anguilla benefits
.ai was originally the country code for Anguilla, a Caribbean island with about 15,000 residents. In 2025, the island earned an estimated $93-95 million from .ai domain fees alone, covering nearly half its national budget. Registration costs $140 for two years with a roughly 90% renewal rate.
If you're building an AI startup, .ai is essentially table stakes at this point. We wrote about how we built our AI-powered business name generator using similar tools.
.app, .io, and .dev — Developer TLDs
For years, .io was the default for startups and developer tools. .app has now taken the lead:
- .app: 1,934,676 total registrations (+37% YoY)
- .io: 1,720,622 total registrations (+33% YoY)
- .dev: 728,796 total registrations (+45% YoY)
.app leads .io by over 214,000 domains and the gap is widening. .dev is the smallest but fastest-growing at +45%.
Why .app and .dev are pulling ahead
Both require HTTPS enforced at the browser level through HSTS preloading — a security advantage .io doesn't have. Google operates both registries, which adds infrastructure stability.
.io faces a separate issue: in May 2025, the UK and Mauritius signed a sovereignty transfer agreement for the Chagos Archipelago, the British Indian Ocean Territory whose country code is "IO." If "IO" gets removed from the ISO 3166-1 standard, ICANN's retirement policy would trigger a five-year phase-out. There's precedent for extensions outliving their countries — .su (Soviet Union) still has over 100,000 active domains — but the uncertainty is enough to give some startups pause.
Aftermarket comparison
- .app: $42,718 average resale price (+18.4% YoY)
- .dev: $36,854 average resale price (+122.9% YoY)
- .io: $24,661 average resale price (+10.7% YoY)
.dev resale prices more than doubled. .io has the cheapest aftermarket and the slowest price growth of the three, which tracks with the governance uncertainty.
.online — 5.6 Million Registrations, $188K Average Resale Price
Our previous post mentioned .online in passing. The data says it deserves more attention:
- .online: 5,597,627 total domains (+79% YoY)
- 234,277 new registrations this month
- Average aftermarket price: $188,005 (+83.8% YoY)
That makes .online the second most expensive TLD on the aftermarket after .ai — nearly 8x what .com resale domains cost. Notable past sales include betting.online at $400,000 in 2023.
.online is also bigger than .me, .app, .io, .ai, and .dev combined, and it grew 79% in a year. The word "online" is universally understood and industry-neutral, which gives it broad appeal. The high aftermarket prices suggest investors see lasting value, particularly in verticals like gaming, finance, and insurance where keyword-rich domains matter.
.net and .org — The Comeback
Last year we reported .net was shrinking (-0.61%) and .org was barely growing (+0.39%). Both trends have completely reversed:
- .net: 24.5 million domains, +10% YoY, 332,730 new this month
- .org: 20.9 million domains, +15% YoY, 270,120 new this month
.org aftermarket prices nearly quadrupled
.org resale prices jumped +298.7% year-over-year to $51,747 average — the biggest aftermarket price increase of any TLD we track. .org domains now cost more than double what .com domains cost on the secondary market ($51,747 vs. $23,264).
The driver is straightforward: nonprofits, open-source projects, and community organizations need strong domains, and .org carries a trust signal that other TLDs don't. It's managed by Public Interest Registry (itself a nonprofit), and as good names get locked up, scarcity keeps pushing prices.
.info and .co
These two don't get much attention, but their numbers are solid:
.info: 10.4 million registrations, +32% YoY. Aftermarket prices up +96.7% to $13,964 average. "Info" translates across 37+ languages, which gives it natural international appeal. Retention rates suggest these registrations are sticking.
.co: 7.1 million registrations, +24% YoY. Aftermarket prices up +115.9% to $15,199 average. Originally Colombia's country code, .co has been repositioned as shorthand for "company." It's popular with funded startups and widely recognized as a legitimate .com alternative.
.me — 2.6 Million Registrations
.me reached 2,627,291 total registrations, up +25% year-over-year. The monthly numbers are more interesting: 38,502 new registrations this month is a +72.3% month-over-month spike, one of the largest we've seen across any TLD.
Aftermarket prices rose +110.1% to $12,752 average. The appeal is simple — .me creates readable URLs like hire.me, about.me, and follow.me. It works well for portfolios, resumes, personal sites, and link-in-bio pages.
Aftermarket Rankings: A Different Hierarchy
The aftermarket tells a completely different story than registration counts. Here's how TLDs rank by average resale price:
- .ai: $239,516
- .online: $188,005
- .org: $51,747
- .app: $42,718
- .dev: $36,854
- .io: $24,661
- .com: $23,264
- .net: $20,864
- .co: $15,199
- .info: $13,964
- .me: $12,752
- .xyz: $3,038
.ai domains cost 79x what .xyz domains cost on the resale market. .org costs more than .com. The secondary market runs on scarcity, brand value, and industry demand — not raw registration volume.
Overall, 2025 saw over 190,000 domain sales above $100, generating $314.7 million in total value — a 67% increase from 2024. The aftermarket and expired domains market is becoming a real asset class.
What's Coming: New TLDs from ICANN
ICANN is opening applications for entirely new TLDs from April 30 to August 12, 2026 — the first new round since 2012, when roughly 2,000 applications produced over 1,200 new extensions. The application fee is $227,000.
New internationalized domain names covering 300+ languages are expected to be a major part of this round. If you care about where domain extensions are headed long-term, this is the biggest structural change on the horizon.
How to Pick a Domain in 2026
Picking the right domain comes down to a few decisions:
- Start with .com. Still the largest and most recognized extension, and growing faster than it has in years. If your ideal .com is available, take it.
- Match the extension to your audience. AI tools → .ai. Developer product → .app or .dev. Nonprofit → .org. Personal brand → .me.
- Check aftermarket prices early. Average resale prices range from $3,038 (.xyz) to $239,516 (.ai). Know what you're getting into before you start negotiating.
- Consider who runs the registry. Verisign (.com/.net), Google (.app/.dev), and Public Interest Registry (.org) offer long-term stability. That matters.
- Search across multiple TLDs at once. Instant Domain Search shows real-time availability as you type, so you can compare options before committing.
- Check domain history. If you're buying a previously registered name, make sure it isn't carrying spammy backlinks or a bad reputation. Our guide on expired domains covers what to look for.
More on naming: how to choose a domain name and how to come up with unique business name ideas.
Summary
Every TLD we track is growing in 2026. Here's what matters most:
- .com is surging — 303.7 million registrations, +18% growth, $23,264 average resale price.
- .xyz hit 10 million registrations with 240% growth, though promotional pricing in Japan is a factor. Renewal rates will tell the real story.
- .ai crossed 1 million and averages $239,516 on the aftermarket. The $70 million ai.com sale set a new record.
- .app passed .io as the largest developer TLD, while .io faces governance uncertainty from the Chagos sovereignty transfer.
- .online is underrated — 5.6 million domains, $188,005 average resale, second only to .ai on the aftermarket.
- .org aftermarket prices nearly 4x'd to $51,747, now more expensive than .com on the secondary market.
- The aftermarket grew 67% to $314.7 million in total sales volume in 2025.
- New TLDs are coming — ICANN opens its first application round since 2012 on April 30, 2026.
The best time to register the domain you want is before someone else does. Search for yours at Instant Domain Search.