State of Available .com Names (2026)
Updated 2026-05-30
The short version
- Brandable single-word .com domains are effectively extinct: the overwhelming majority of real-word .coms are already registered.
- Coined and compound names (two real words fused, or an invented word) have a far higher chance of an available .com than single real words.
- Availability varies sharply by niche: crowded niches like food and mom blogs are harder than newer or more specific categories.
- Every figure on this page is measured against the live .com registry via RDAP, not estimated, and refreshes automatically.
DomainGenius generates brandable names and verifies each one against the live .com registry in real time. That means we accumulate something most naming tools never measure: how often a genuinely brandable name still has an available .com. This page reports what our dataset actually shows, refreshed automatically and stamped with the date it was computed.
The data, as of 2026-05-30
In other words: across 3,677 brandable name ideas we checked against the live .com registry, roughly 92.6% were already taken. Only 272 were registrable at standard price.
Why so few good .com domains are available
There are more than 160 million registered .com domains, and roughly 100,000 new ones are registered every day. Short, real, pronounceable words were claimed years ago, often by domain investors who hold them for resale at four and five-figure prices. So when you brainstorm a name that is a single common word, the .com is almost always gone or priced as a premium. The scarcity is not random: the better and shorter the word, the longer ago it was taken.
Which name styles still have available .com domains
The names that survive the availability filter follow patterns. Compound names that fuse two real words (think Mailchimp, Headspace) are far more likely to be free than either word alone. Coined or near-words, a real word with one brandable mutation (Flickr, Olipop, Spotify), are the most available of all because they are unique strings. Single dictionary words are the least available. This is why our generator leans on compound and coined styles when a niche is crowded: it is following where availability actually lives.
Availability by niche
Not all niches are equally picked over. The table below shows, for each niche where we have checked a meaningful sample, how many candidate names we verified against the registry and how many were available. Crowded consumer niches tend to show lower availability; newer, more specific, or more technical categories tend to show more room. These are live counts from our dataset, not estimates.
| Niche | Names checked | Available | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tech blogs | 728 | 16 | 2.2% |
| Mom blogs | 504 | 68 | 13.5% |
| Recipe blogs | 466 | 45 | 9.7% |
| Fashion blogs | 353 | 40 | 11.3% |
| SaaS / software | 342 | 7 | 2.0% |
| Food blogs | 238 | 14 | 5.9% |
| Parenting blogs | 186 | 3 | 1.6% |
| Online courses | 176 | 9 | 5.1% |
| Fitness blogs | 164 | 6 | 3.7% |
| Finance blogs | 158 | 9 | 5.7% |
| Other / general | 129 | 23 | 17.8% |
| Etsy / printables | 123 | 20 | 16.3% |
| Beauty blogs | 110 | 12 | 10.9% |
How we measured this
Every name our tool generates is checked against the authoritative .com registry using RDAP, the registration data protocol mandated by ICANN, with a DNS lookup as a fallback. A name is counted as available only when the registry confirms it is unregistered, and we filter out premium-priced domains separately. We store each checked name with its verdict, and this page aggregates that store at request time. Because availability genuinely changes as domains are registered and expire, the numbers here move over time, which is exactly what makes them current rather than a one-time snapshot.
What this means if you are naming something
Do not get attached to a single dictionary-word .com: the odds are against it being free at standard price. Instead, brainstorm in the styles that survive: fuse two words, or take a niche word and apply one brandable mutation. And check availability before you fall in love, not after. The whole reason we built DomainGenius is to do that check on every name automatically, so you only ever consider names you can actually register today.
Frequently asked questions
How many .com domains are already taken?
More than 160 million .com domains are registered, with roughly 100,000 new registrations per day. In practice this means almost every short, common, real-word .com is already owned, frequently by investors who resell them at premium prices.
Are any good .com domains still available?
Yes, but they cluster in specific styles: compound names (two real words fused) and coined or near-words (a real word with one brandable mutation) are far more likely to be available than single dictionary words. The available set on this page is drawn entirely from those patterns.
What kind of name is most likely to have an available .com?
Coined and near-word names are the most available because they are unique strings no one has registered. Compound names are next. Single real words are the least available. This is why brandable-name tools lean toward coined and compound styles for crowded niches.
How do you check if a .com is available?
We use RDAP, the ICANN-mandated registration data protocol, querying the authoritative .com registry, with a DNS lookup as a fallback. A name counts as available only when the registry confirms it is unregistered. It is the same source of truth registrars rely on.
Is this data current?
Yes. The figures are computed from our live dataset and refresh automatically, and the page is stamped with the date it was last computed. Because domains are registered and expire continuously, the numbers genuinely move over time rather than being a fixed snapshot.
By the DomainGenius team. We generate brandable names and verify each one against the live .com registry; this study aggregates that first-hand dataset.
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