.ai Passed 1 Million Domains and Raised Prices in 2026

How many .ai domains are registered?

The .ai extension passed one million registered domains on January 20, 2026. Domain Incite reported the milestone on February 3, 2026, citing a post by the Government of Anguilla. About a year earlier, .ai held roughly 587,000 names. That is close to double in a year.

This post is about market data. If you need the basics of the extension, read our earlier post on .ai domain names. Here we look at prices, sales and what they mean for a founder choosing a name.

Anguilla controls the .ai country-code domain, and registry fees matter to its economy. Domain Name Wire reports that .ai makes up about a quarter of the Anguilla government’s revenue. Identity Digital took over running the registry in January 2025.

How much did .ai prices go up in 2026?

The registry raised wholesale prices by about 14% on March 5, 2026. Domain Name Wire reported that the two-year minimum went from $140 to $160 wholesale. Domain Incite gave the increase as 14.3%, which matches the math: $20 on $140.

The wholesale price is what registrars pay the registry. Your registrar adds its own margin, so your price will be higher. The renewal bill hits every year, which matters if you hold many names. A renewal fee that looks small on one name adds up across a portfolio.

What were the biggest .ai sales in 2026?

Bot.ai at $1.2 million is the top .ai sale of 2026 so far. DNJournal reported it as a record-breaking Sedo sale on February 24, 2026. The price beat the $750,000 paid for Wisdom.ai in October 2025, which was a record at that time. Our team helped the buyer of Wisdom.ai on that deal.

Here are the top .ai sales on DNJournal’s year-to-date chart as it stood in mid-September 2026:

These are reported sales only. Many deals never get reported, so the chart shows the top of the market, not the middle. The chart does not name buyers or say why they paid. We can see that short, common words fill most of the list. Bot.ai, Free.ai, Neo.ai and Lotus.ai are all plain English words. That fits what we see in .com: a simple word is easy to say, spell and remember, and buyers pay for that.

How does that compare to the AI.com record?

It is not close. AI.com sold for $70 million, according to the Financial Times and TechCrunch, which called it the highest price ever disclosed for a domain sale. DNJournal lists it first on its 2026 chart, ahead of every .com and .ai sale. CoinDesk reported that the buyer, Crypto.com’s CEO, paid in cryptocurrency in April 2025, and the news came out in February 2026.

So the best .ai sale of the year is under 2% of the best .com sale. That gap says something about how buyers rank the two. A .com is the default. A .ai is a strong second choice that tells people what you do. Read our post on how .ai fits in the wider market for our broader view.

Is the .ai aftermarket a bubble?

We do not think the data supports a plain yes or no. Registrations doubled in a year, prices rose, and seven-figure sales arrived. Those are the signs of a hot market. They are also signs of real demand from AI companies that need a name.

Here is what we can say from the data. Reported .ai prices are far below top .com prices. Registry costs rise over time, and Anguilla’s budget depends on them. A buyer who pays six figures for a .ai name should have a business reason, not a flip plan. We cannot predict where prices go next, and a registry price rise does not by itself prove that resale values will follow. Anyone who says they can is guessing.

Should an AI startup still try to own the .com?

Yes, in time. A .ai name is a fine place to launch and costs far less than a premium .com. Many founders start there and upgrade when revenue allows. This is the same path we describe in our startup domain upgrade guide.

A simple plan for AI founders:

1. Launch on the .ai you can afford, and register obvious typo and .com variants if they are cheap.
2. Put the .com on a watch list from day one.
3. Set a budget line for the .com. Reserve it before you raise your next round.
4. Ask a broker to approach the .com owner quietly. Our stealth acquisition service is built for that kind of approach.
5. Read the .com vs .ai vs .io vs .co guide to compare costs and trade-offs.

An owner who knows a funded AI company wants the name will raise the price. A discreet approach protects your budget.

Next step

If you run an AI company and want the .com, tell us which name you want. We approach owners quietly, and every deal goes through third-party escrow.