TLD value comparison · by the numbers
Which extension is worth more? Measured, not guessed.
The same name is worth different money in different extensions. This compares six TLDs by the median of reported one-word sales — sample sizes shown, .com held as the baseline — and shows your own name’s appraised range on each. No extension is being sold to you here.
Ranges are wholesale: the middle half of reported investor-to-investor sales for this name’s class, adjusted by the same named factors on every row — only the TLD multiplier differs. For any single extension’s full itemized record, retail range, and confidence grade, run it through the appraisal tool.
Informational only, not professional advice. Multipliers describe medians of reported aftermarket sales — not the odds any given name sells, and not which extension suits a business. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is sent or stored.
How the comparison works
Multipliers retrieved July 2026 · Last reviewed: July 2026
The measured multipliers
Each multiplier is the median price of reported Dictionary / English Word sales on that extension over the past three years in the NameBio public sales database, divided by the same cell’s .com median. Holding the name-quality cell fixed — one-word dictionary names on every row — isolates the extension’s own effect from the quality of the names sold on it.
| TLD | Median sale | Reported sales (n) | × vs .com |
|---|---|---|---|
| .com | $1,711 | 1,163 | ×1.0 |
| .ai | $699 | 3,923 | ×0.41 |
| .org | $611 | 1,014 | ×0.36 |
| .net | $523 | 697 | ×0.31 |
| .io | $404 | 1,609 | ×0.24 |
| .co | $405 | 744 | ×0.24 |
These six are measured because they have enough reported one-word sales to read a defensible median. Every other extension gets the engine’s wide ×0.1–0.5 judgment band instead of an invented multiplier — labeled as such, graded confidence C.
Why medians, not averages
Most extension comparisons you’ll find quote average aftermarket prices, and most of them exist to sell registrations of the extension being compared. Averages of domain sales are dominated by a handful of eight-figure outliers — a single reported $70M sale moves an entire extension’s “average” into six figures while describing nothing a typical seller will experience. The median is the reported market’s actual center: half of reported sales closed below it. It’s a less exciting number, which is usually a sign it’s the honest one.
How the per-name comparison works
Each row of the comparison is our appraisal engine pricing your name on that extension — the full pipeline behind the homepage tool, with its methodology published there. The name’s class, length, and word-frequency factors are identical on every row; only the TLD multiplier differs, so the table shows exactly what the extension itself does to the number. Rows keep the engine’s honesty rules: a weak name that clears the ~$100 reporting floor on .com can land in renewal-cost territory on a ×0.24 extension, and the row says so instead of printing a number below the data’s resolution. Three-character names refuse on .com only — 1–3 character .coms trade as a liquid asset class the model won’t pretend to price — while pricing as acronyms elsewhere. That asymmetry is the engine’s documented rule, shown as-is.
What a multiplier can’t tell you
- It’s measured on one-word dictionary sales and applied to every class of name — a labeled approximation. NameBio’s free tier can’t cross TLD × class, so we use the one cell dense enough to measure everywhere and say so rather than fake six more tables.
- Reported sales only. Venues report sales from roughly $100 up, and the overwhelming majority of registered domains never sell at all — typical portfolios see 1–2% annual sell-through. A multiplier describes the reported market’s center, not the odds of selling.
- .ai is the moving figure. Its multiplier is a three-year median while its market has been rising year over year, so between our annual re-reads the current-cycle .ai premium is likely understated. That direction of error is stated here rather than silently tuned away.
- Resale medians don’t settle “which TLD should I pick.” Audience trust, memorability, email deliverability, and acquisition cost are real and absent from sales data — so they’re absent from this tool, and we say so. For the full decision — the measured half and the judgment half, each labeled — see our guide on choosing .com vs .io vs .ai for a startup.
Frequently asked questions
Other sites say the average .ai sale is six figures — why are your numbers so much lower?
Because averages of aftermarket sales are dominated by a handful of headline outliers — the ai.com sale, reported at $70M, alone drags any ".ai average" into six figures while telling you nothing about a typical name. We use the median of reported one-word dictionary sales per extension (for .ai, $699 across 3,923 reported sales), and we divide by the same cell on .com so name quality is held fixed and only the extension's own effect remains. Half of reported one-word .ai sales closed below that median — that's the honest center of the market, and it's why our multipliers look modest next to registrar marketing.
Is the .com always worth more?
By the median, yes — every measured alternative trades at a fraction of the .com cell (the next best, .ai, at ×0.41), and .com carries roughly 72–74% of all reported aftermarket dollar volume. But a median is a center, not a ceiling: individual .ai and .io names out-sell weak .coms routinely, and the multiplier says nothing about any single name. It describes where the middle of each extension's reported market sits.
My extension isn't in the table — what's its multiplier?
We don't know, and we won't guess a precise number. The six measured extensions are the ones with enough reported one-word sales on NameBio to read a defensible median. Anything else gets the appraisal engine's wide ×0.1–0.5 judgment band — labeled as a judgment call, graded confidence C — because an invented multiplier with two decimal places would be the exact black-box behavior this site exists to avoid.
The .com is taken — should I buy the .io or .ai instead?
That's a business decision, and this tool computes rather than advises. What the numbers say: measured on resale medians, the alternatives run ×0.24–×0.41 of .com, so if resale value is the concern, the discount is real and quantified. What the numbers can't see: whether your audience trusts the extension, whether the .com's owner will confuse your customers, what the registration and renewal actually cost you, and everything else that makes a name right for a business. Those aren't in reported sales data, so they're not in our output.