.bin
Is .bin a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .bin in its own right, as of 8 October 2026. Identity Digital named .bin as the backup string of two of its applications: .archive and .expo.
A short, techy string with real meaning for coders and file hosts, but its file-extension baggage keeps it a niche, price-driven buy.
developers, file- and snippet-hosting services, and tooling projects that want a short tech-flavored name ("paste.bin", "firmware.bin"), plus a smaller tail of waste and storage businesses
Nobody has applied for .bin 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 almost exactly: a one-syllable everyday English word that is simultaneously a ubiquitous file-type suffix, so the string is sold on brevity plus a double reading that no single industry or community owns, which forces an open generic registry with no natural anchor tenant.
A bare three-letter filename abbreviation whose entire pull is that technical readers parse it as a format rather than a word, the same binary/extension reading .bin leans on, and it needs the same thing to be true: that a convention from inside file systems transfers to a public namespace.
The plain-container half of the bet: a short generic noun for a thing you put stuff in, offered as an open namespace where the value is the everyday object word itself, with the complication that a well-known company already answers to the same string.
What a .bin domain is
.bin 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 .bin in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .bin domain extension real yet?
.bin 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 .bin domain?
You can’t yet. A .bin 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 .bin was .zip, delegated on 15 September 2014.
Is .bin a real TLD?
Not yet. .bin is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .bin as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“ASL2693T-T63809 · Agador Slip, LLC · replacement string of .expo ASL2693T-T82538 · Agador Slip, LLC · replacement string of .archive”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited), at its floor. The string carries several real meanings: binary executables and the Unix /bin directory, pastebin-style snippet hosts, and bins in the waste, storage and retail sense. That gives it genuine word-hack value (recycle.bin, paste.bin, trash.bin) and makes it plausible as a primary identity for a handful of developer-tool and file-sharing projects, which is why it sits above the vanity band: demand is not purely event-driven, and a short three-letter string on a registry that, per the record, is an established portfolio operator applying with a standard (non-brand) application suggests broad registrar distribution. It stays out of the 50-69 band because adoption would need explaining in almost every case, the aftermarket would be thin, and the string doubles as a common file extension. By analogy (flagged as analogy) to the file-extension TLDs delegated in the prior round, such as .zip and .mov, that overlap tends to produce security pushback, auto-linking confusion in email and chat, and filtering by some security products, which depresses serious primary-identity use even where registrations happen on price or novelty. The record shows one application, filed as a replacement string for .expo, with no contention recorded; the applicant facts inform adoption likelihood only. Main market uncertainty: whether .bin finds a sticky developer or snippet-hosting anchor use that normalizes it, or whether it settles as a novelty namespace alongside the earlier extension-style strings.