The string everyone wants

Thirteen companies filed for .agent. The contention list includes OpenAI, Meta, and Google through its Charleston Road Registry, alongside registry operators like XYZ.COM, Radix Technologies, and iPollo.

This is only the second time ICANN has opened the gates. The first round, in 2012, added more than 1,200 new endings to the internet. This time the board received 1,615 applications from 481 applicants, and 891 of those, more than half, are already fighting someone for their string.

There is precedent for how expensive these fights get. In the last round Google paid $25 million at auction for .app. Whoever wants .agent badly enough should expect the bidding to start somewhere in that neighborhood.

Read the shopping lists

OpenAI filed for 15 strings: .openai, .chatgpt, .gpt, .codex, .agent, .agi, .asi and .mcp among them. Nine face competition. Seven companies want .agi. Five want .mcp, the open protocol for plugging tools into models, which OpenAI, Google and three others all want to name after themselves.

Google's registry filed 39, far fewer than the 101 it asked for in 2012. The list reads like a product catalog: .gemini, .deepmind, .waymo, .fitbit. Thirteen are contested. Meta filed 18, including .facebook, .instagram, .whatsapp, .llama, .superintelligence and .wearables.

Then there is the quiet end of the ledger. Anthropic asked for .anthropic and .claude. Microsoft asked for .copilot and .msft. No competing applicants for any of those four. Their four strings face no competing applicants, though they must still pass ICANN's evaluation and delegation process. The labs that asked for the industry's nouns are going to an auction.

Crypto showed up too: Coinbase wants .base, Tether wants .tether and .usdt, ENS Registry wants .ens, all uncontested. Five companies filed for .crypto and two for .bitcoin.

What happens next

Applicants that filed backup strings can switch during the replacement period, Oct 8 through Oct 21. ICANN publishes the final list of strings on Nov 17. Contested strings go to community priority evaluation first, a process expected to take about 180 days. Where that doesn't settle it, the rules provide for an auction. Private auctions and private settlements are banned. A prioritization draw is scheduled for the first half of 2027. Nothing here resolves quickly.

The read

The names are outpacing the products. OpenAI is bidding for .agi while its own agents are being questioned by regulators, and it wants .agent at a moment when every press release defines "agent" differently. None of that stops a domain from being useful. Whoever wins .agent gets a permanent piece of internet grammar, and the 2012 round showed a good ending can be worth real money.

The practical version: if you built a brand around .agent, redraw the plan. Your namespace is now a thirteen-way fight with an auction at the end of it. The labs will be fine. They always file early.

Sources

  1. [1] TokenPost — OpenAI, Meta and Google Compete for .agent in ICANN's 2026 RoundRead source
  2. [2] The Register — ICANN reveals bids for new top-level domainsRead source
  3. [3] Domain Name Wire — Google applies for 39 top level domain names: .agent, .waymo & moreRead source
  4. [4] dig.watch — ICANN published 2026 new gTLD round applicationsRead source