.aiq
Is .aiq a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .aiq in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. AI Safety Asia named .aiq as the backup string of its .agt application.
A coined AI-flavored string that reads as a near-miss of .ai; memorable for a few AI brands, but a thin, hard-to-explain namespace.
AI startups and assessment or benchmarking projects that want a short coined "AI quotient" style brand, plus speculators chasing the AI naming wave
Nobody has applied for .aiq in its own right.
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: a coined abbreviation that owns no word of its own and borrows all its pull from a dominant string it sits next to (.com / e-commerce, as .aiq sits next to .ai), so the registry is selling proximity to someone else's demand rather than a category anyone already names themselves after.
Same bet in demand mechanics: a short, memorable, meaning-free string with no community or trade that uses it as a label, so registrations have to be manufactured through price and promotion rather than pulled in by people who already call themselves that.
Same bet: a three-letter non-word open registry whose only assets are brevity and an incidental reading the market may or may not supply, with no profession, category or community obliged to put its primary identity on it.
What a .aiq domain is
.aiq is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. Nobody has applied for .aiq in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .aiq domain extension real yet?
.aiq 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 .aiq domain?
You can’t yet. A .aiq name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens.
Is .aiq a real TLD?
Not yet. .aiq is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .aiq as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- AI Safety Asia · first recordedICANN
“ASAA2567-T97759 · AI Safety Asia Limited · replacement string of .agt”ICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string is a coined blend, not a dictionary word or established category label; its most natural readings are "AI + IQ" (an AI-quotient or AI-assessment connotation) or simply a one-letter deviation from .ai. That proximity cuts both ways: it borrows the AI boom's attention, but it also makes any .aiq address look like a typo of a .ai address, which weakens it as a serious primary identity. By analogy (flagged as analogy), coined short strings from the 2012 round that lacked a clear generic or geographic meaning mostly settled into event-driven or speculative demand rather than sustained primary-identity use, while the TLDs that captured AI-sector demand were the ones with the literal, unambiguous term. It is not in the 30-49 band because there is no obvious volume driver: no large existing community uses "aiq" as a label, so registrations would depend on promotion and price rather than organic pull. It is not in the 1-9 band because the AI theme is real, three-letter strings are easy to remember, and a handful of AI-assessment, AI-literacy or AI-benchmark brands could plausibly adopt it as an identity. The applicant on the record, AI Safety Asia Limited, filed .aiq as the replacement string for its primary .agt application; stated neutrally, that pattern suggests a namespace more likely to be run narrowly or with a mission framing than as a mass-market retail TLD, which would further limit open adoption and aftermarket depth. Main market uncertainty: whether "AIQ" becomes a recognized shorthand for AI-capability measurement over the next 5 years (which would lift it toward the 30-49 band) or remains an opaque coinage that buyers must explain.