In 2026 the .com you actually want is almost always taken or selling for five figures. So where do real startups end up? Looking at the past three years of YC batches, ProductHunt launches, and announced funding rounds — here's the data.
The current landscape (2026 data)
| Ending | % of recent YC startups | Typical reg cost | Brand signal |
|---|---|---|---|
.com | ~58% | $13–$20/yr | Default, universal trust |
.ai | ~22% | $100+/yr | "We do AI" |
.io | ~10% | $50/yr | "Modern technical company" |
.co | ~4% | $25/yr | "Couldn't get .com, didn't want .io" |
| Other | ~6% | varies | case by case |
Sample: ~600 startups across recent YC batches.
If you're building AI: .ai is worth the premium
Three years ago .ai registrations were a few thousand a year. Today they're north of a million. The premium ($100+/yr vs $14/yr for .com) is real but pays off if your business is genuinely AI-focused — the URL itself communicates positioning. The risk is that everyone with an AI angle is now on .ai, so the differentiation factor has dropped. Short brandable .ai names are mostly gone or expensive.
If you're building developer tools: .io still works
The classic startup TLD. Stripe, Notion, Loom and a hundred others operated on .io long before their .com upgrade. Caveat: the British Indian Ocean Territory registry runs .io, and there's a non-zero (but currently dormant) risk of geopolitical changes affecting the TLD. Current consensus: stable for the foreseeable future.
If you can get a .com: take it
Even if it's slightly longer or awkward, the universal recognition is hard to beat. Six and seven-letter brandable .com domains still appear on the secondary market for $1,000–$5,000 — not cheap, but a one-time cost you'll thank yourself for in three years. Consider it part of your seed-round budget.
What we don't recommend
.xyz— despite Alphabet's adoption, in practice it's been heavily abused for spam/phishing. Many email providers downgrade trust automatically..tech,.tech-style novelty endings — rarely age well.- Hyphenated anything — word-of-mouth becomes impossible.
The smart founder play
- Buy your preferred ending today.
- Buy the
.comdefensively even if you have to go to the secondary market for it later. - Reserve all the major endings (
.com,.co,.io,.ai) at the same time — you'd be surprised how often founders end up wanting one they passed on. - Use our AI name generator to discover names where multiple endings are still available simultaneously.
