Top Things You Should Know Before Registering a .AI Domain Name

When I got into the industry, there were no smartphones. The extension .MOBI was launched so websites could send mobile users to a domain that would render properly on a phone. Back then, every site essentially had two versions: your desktop site and your mobile site.

Some .MOBI names sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but then the smartphone came along, and the whole thing fell apart. TBH I have not sold a .MOBI domain in ten years maybe more.

Fast forward 13 years, and the world has shifted again—this time in a big way. We’ve got AI. And with it, the .AI domain extension. Most people assume .AI means Artificial Intelligence, and for most registrants, that’s what it represents. But in reality, .AI is the country code for Anguilla.

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Where is Anguilla?

Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory located in the Caribbean, spanning 35 square miles in size. It’s in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles—east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and just north of Saint Martin. In so many words, it is on that strip of islands on the eastern side of the Caribbean that is right in the heart of hurricane alley.

• GDP (2023): $416M
• .AI registrations (August 2025 Estimated): ~650,000

Quick math: if we round GDP up to $500M and assume wholesale for .AI is around $65 a year per domain, that’s ~$42M annually from .AI registrations—about 8–10% of Anguilla’s GDP, or about $2,600 per resident per year! Pretty incredible.

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What is a ccTLD?

ccTLD = Country Code Top-Level Domain

• Always two letters (based on ISO-3166 country codes).
• Managed by the local government or designated operator.
• Some have restrictions (like .ca requiring Canadian presence).
• Others act more like generics (like .ai, .tv, .me, .ly, and .co).

Examples:

• .us → United States
• .uk → United Kingdom
• .de → Germany
• .ai → Anguilla
• .tv → Tuvalu
• .me → Montenegro
• .ly → Libya
• .co → Colombia
• .io → British Indian Ocean Territory
• .vc → Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• .gg → Guernsey
• .ee → Estonia

In short, the country controls what happens on its extension. Canada requires Canadian residency, for example! .AD does not allow you to sell its domains.

COM, NET, ORG are TLDs. They are not ccTLDs.

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Rules Specific to .AI

• 2-year minimum registration
• Renewals must also be in 2-year increments
• Transfers require 2 years paid upfront (moving a domain from one registrar to another)
• Maximum term: 10 years (same as .com, .net, .org). I have never seen a domain extension have a limit less or more than 10. They could exist, but I have never heard of it.

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Restrictions to Know

Being a ccTLD, Anguilla can impose restrictions at any time. Thanks to how much .AI contributes to their economy, they’ve kept things fairly open, but here are the areas where rules apply:

Financial Services

• Offering banking, investment, or securities services on .ai requires a valid license.
• Example: Launching Bank.ai without being a licensed institution could result in suspension or loss of the domain.

Gambling / Gaming

• Online gambling is regulated in Anguilla.
• You need a license if you’re operating casinos, betting, or lottery services on a .ai. Interpret this as you see fit, but I would be cautious if I were opening a betting affiliate on a .AI domain.

Name Servers

• At least two authoritative name servers are required.
• They must be on separate IPs/subnets.
• They must be working—if they don’t resolve, the registry may reject a registration or renewal.

Imagine paying $100K+ for a .AI and it doesn’t renew because your DNS was misconfigured? Slim odds, but it can happen. Solution: renew for 10 years when you buy it, or at least point it somewhere valid—even a simple redirect to your LinkedIn page.

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Additional Information

About a year ago I interviewed Vincent Cate on my podcast. He was the head of the .AI registry at the time (it has since transitioned to Identity Digital, which manages hundreds of domain extensions). Really interesting guy btw! Huge bitcoin fan as well!

Back then, the entire .AI namespace was literally run off a single small server sitting on a shelf in a tiny office—a place that, believe it or not, also had a Bitcoin ATM and even offered paternity tests. In the video, he actually points to the server itself. I took a pic of that moment where Vince points at the server where all of .AI was happening.

If you skip to 37:30 you can see that moment, though I recommend rewinding a few minutes earlier, where we talk about some of the other restrictions .AI had back then, many of which have since been updated to align more closely with standard registry policies, as well as discussing their disaster plans in case of a hurricane, and other really interesting tidbits about the .AI domain extension and the island nation of Anguilla.

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Registration Growth

• July 2022: ~75,314 registrations
• July 2023: ~196,292 registrations — a 160.8% year-over-year increase
• October 2024: ~533,068 registrations
• January 2025: ~598,007 registrations

Compared to Other TLDs

TLD	Estimated Domains
.com	160,000,000
.org	11,000,000
.xyz	4,800,000
.co	3,000,000
.io	1,600,000

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Final Thoughts

All in all, .AI is a fantastic extension and has exploded in popularity. Values continue to surge, as does demand, but remember—outside of tech and crypto circles, many people still don’t fully recognize it yet. In comparison to many other extensions, .AI is still a quite small ccTLD but it is experiencing explosive growth.

If I were running a company on a .AI, I’d also secure the matching .com. For example, if I had Saw.ai, I’d also grab SawAi.com, forward it, and make sure MX records were set up there to catch misdirected emails. If you’re using [email protected], you’ll want [email protected] forwarding into it. This is because people still make mistakes.

If you are considering buying a .AI domain name or are on the fence about buying one, mention this article and send us an email to [email protected]. We would be happy to discuss your specific situation with you.