.prototype
Is .prototype a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .prototype in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Identity Digital named .prototype as the backup string of its .yeah application.
A fitting label for test builds and design demos, but the word itself says "not the finished thing," so few projects will live on it.
product designers, hardware makers, hackathon teams and prototyping tools who want an address for a work-in-progress build or demo rather than a permanent brand
Nobody has applied for .prototype 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 bare product-lifecycle stage word sold as identity to engineering and product teams, resting on makers wanting the stage of work rather than a market category or a brand as their address.
The other end of the same lifecycle vocabulary - an abstract stage noun with no consumer meaning, whose only plausible registrant is the same small build-shop audience labelling an artifact or environment rather than a business.
Shares the generic practice-noun bet aimed at studios and product shops putting their craft on their primary identity, but it names an established profession with a mass registrant base where .prototype names a transient artifact with no standing community.
What a .prototype domain is
.prototype 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 .prototype in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .prototype domain extension real yet?
.prototype 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 .prototype domain?
You can’t yet. A .prototype 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 .prototype was .dev, delegated on 18 December 2014.
Is .prototype a real TLD?
Not yet. .prototype is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .prototype as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
“TT2652T-T65067 · Toddler Logic, LLC · replacement string of .yeah”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited, at its floor. The string is a real, descriptive tech/design word with a plausible use case: a company or maker publishing a staging build, a concept demo, or a hackathon entry at name.prototype, and no-code or hardware-prototyping tools giving each user project such an address. By analogy with other descriptive-word TLDs run inside large registry portfolios (flagged as analogy), distribution through a broad registrar channel tends to produce steady low-volume registrations driven by price and fit rather than by brand pull, which is what this band describes. It is not in the 50-69 band because the word signals impermanence; a serious project would rarely choose it as its primary identity, so sustained demand and genuine primary-identity use are unlikely and the aftermarket would stay thin. It is not in the 10-29 band because, unlike a joke or event string, prototype names a recurring activity across software, hardware and design, giving it a repeatable if secondary use. The applicant on the record is Identity Digital (Toddler Logic, LLC), filed as a standard, replacement-string application whose primary string is .yeah; that portfolio context is used here only as a mild positive for distribution reach. Main market uncertainty: whether the work-in-progress connotation is a liability (buyers avoid it for anything public) or an asset (it becomes the conventional home for demos, the way some developer-oriented TLDs became the conventional home for side projects; analogy flagged). The score assumes the former dominates over the next 5 years. Registration volumes, pricing and comparable TLD figures: unknown.