Country-code domains (ccTLDs) now make up almost a third of reported domain sales, up from about one in eight five years ago. That is the clearest finding from more than 28,000 reported sales in the NetMark comps database. For anyone pricing a domain name, the extension is no longer a footnote to .com. It is often the main driver of the price.
This report looks at four extensions where that shift shows up very differently: .ai, .co, .gg and .us. It also tests how well NetMark’s pricing model handles them.
Country codes are taking a bigger share of the market
The count share more than doubled in five years, and the jump came after 2023. The dollar share grew faster still, from 5.5% to 16%. It would be 23.4% if not for a single sale: ai.com went for $70 million in February 2026. Even the biggest .com deal of the period was driven by artificial intelligence.
.ai: from a country code to a category
.ai is Anguilla’s country code, but buyers now treat it as the extension for artificial intelligence. The market changed after ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
In 2025 and 2026 alone, the database records 352 reported .ai sales worth $23.2 million. The top sales are one-word names bought by AI startups: bot.ai ($1.2M), wisdom.ai ($750K), cloud.ai ($600K), genesis.ai and lotus.ai ($400K each). Before 2023, a big .ai sale was $50,000.
The lesson is that a ccTLD can be repriced by a single technology wave. The price follows what the letters mean to buyers, not the country behind them.
.co: the steady alternative to .com
.co (Colombia) has grown more slowly, with no AI-style jump. The median reported .co sale was $10,000 in 2026, up from $7,200 in 2023. That is roughly three times the .com median of $3,500.
The top of the .co market keeps climbing. symphony.co sold for $180,000 in July 2026, nova.co for $160,000 in November 2025, and cv.co for $130,000 in August 2026. Short dictionary words carry the most value. Real three-letter English words on .co sold for a median of about $15,000 since 2023, with car.co at $90,000 at the top.
.co also shows how fragile boom-era prices can be. Its 2021 median of $11,728 fell to $5,000 a year later. Buyers who price from 2021 sales will overpay.
.gg and .us: two very different stories
.gg (Guernsey) has been adopted by gamers, because “gg” means “good game.” Reported sales are rare but rising in value. The record in the database is x.gg at $115,000 in July 2026, followed by hype.gg ($40,000) and nano.gg ($30,000). With only six reported .gg sales in 2026, a median of $13,500 is a signal, not a benchmark.
.us is the opposite case. It is a true national extension with no second meaning, and its prices have stayed flat. The median reported .us sale has held between $4,600 and $7,600 since 2023, and the best recent sale was power.us at $17,000. Reported .us sales fell from 13 in 2019 to one so far in 2026.
The contrast makes the main point. Country codes rise in price when buyers give the two letters a meaning. A country code that just means its country behaves like a regional extension.
How well the pricing model reads country codes
NetMark Intelligence is centered correctly on .ai and .co, but it misses rare high-end .gg sales and underprices .us. We tested its retail estimate against recent reported sales (2024–2026), pricing each name as of the day before it sold.
| Extension | Sales tested | Median of estimate ÷ sale price | Estimate within 2× of sale | Missed low / high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .co | 30 | 0.98 | 67% | 5 / 5 |
| .ai | 30 | 0.98 | 53% | 8 / 6 |
| .us | 15 | 0.65 | 73% | 3 / 1 |
| .gg | 10 | 0.93 | 40% | 4 / 2 |
The .ai misses run in both directions, which fits a market still finding its level. The .gg misses are the standout names: x.gg sold for $115,000 against an estimate of $43,370. On .us, the model sits about a third below actual sales, so it is conservative where the market is quiet.
What this means for buyers and sellers
- Price the meaning, not the extension. .ai and .gg gained value because the letters mean something to a buyer group. .us has no such meaning, and its prices show it.
- Use recent sales only. Sales from the 2021 boom and from before ChatGPT mislead in both directions. Comps older than three years should be treated as background.
- Compare like with like. A three-letter .co word and a six-letter .co word are different markets. Length and real-word status matter more on country codes than on .com.
- Expect wide ranges. Country-code markets have fewer sales, so one strong buyer can set a record. Treat single high sales as ceilings, not as the going rate.
- Watch the next wave. .ai shows that a ccTLD can be repriced within two years. The next extension to gain a meaning could move just as fast.
About the data
Yearly medians and market shares use the 28,853 sales reported by DNJournal in the NetMark comps database, January 2019 to October 2026, so every year is measured the same way. Named sales and the three-letter .co comparison also draw on the database’s other sales feeds. Country codes are two-letter extensions plus second-level forms such as .co.uk. Medians are used instead of averages, so one record sale cannot skew a year. 2026 covers January to October. Small samples (.gg, .us) are stated where they appear. Model results come from NetMark Intelligence v6.1, a shadow model that is not used for live pricing.
