The .ai Domain Boom Isn’t Over — It’s Splitting Into Two Markets

The .ai market isn’t crashing. It’s bifurcating. Where you sit on the .ai market in 2026 depends entirely on which tier you’re in. And where premium .ai now actually closes will surprise anyone still treating the .ai market as monolithic.

TL;DR: Has the .ai domain boom peaked?

Tier-by-tier, the answer is different.

• Speculation tier (sub-$5K): Yes. Volume contracted 27% year-over-year on Namecheap, which holds 92% of this tier.

• Mid-tier ($5K to $50K): Flat. Volume slightly down, average prices stable.

• Premium tier ($50K to $500K): No. Spaceship.com and Atom.com average $60,850 and $27,592 per .ai sale respectively. Both stable or growing.

• Ultra-premium tier ($1M+): No. bot dot ai cleared $1.2M on Sedo in February 2026, the first publicly-reported seven-figure .ai sale. AI.com sold for $70M (a .com, not a .ai, disclosed February 2026).

The market peak is real but specific. It’s the cheap-end speculation flow that has cooled, not the .ai category itself.

Methodology

This analysis covers October 29, 2025 to April 27, 2026 (current window) compared against May 1, 2025 to October 28, 2025 (prior window). Both windows are 181 days, identical methodology, no overlap.

The current window contains 3,651 publicly-reported .ai sales across 21+ aftermarket platforms. The prior window contains 4,949 sales using the same methodology.

This analysis expands on our prior 2026 marketplace reports by incorporating aftermarket platforms (Spaceship.com, Atom.com, Catched.com, Park.io, and others) that weren’t included in our initial dataset. Where figures differ from earlier reports, this analysis represents the more complete picture.

Excluded from the dataset: private brokered sales that aren’t publicly reported, wholesale registrar transactions, and new registration data (we track sales, not registrations).

For broader 2026 domain market context, see our analysis of 113,408 domain sales across all TLDs.

The volume contraction is real

Three metrics, two consecutive six-month windows. The headline trajectory: volume and total value contracted; average price rose. This is the math of a bifurcating market.

The .ai market lost 1,298 sales in six months. That’s a 26.2% drop in transaction volume.

The interesting question is where those missing sales went. Of the 1,298 missing sales, Namecheap accounts for 1,259 of them. That’s 97% of the entire market’s volume decline concentrated at a single marketplace. Every other tracked marketplace was effectively flat in the same period: Spaceship.com grew 6.5%, Sedo held at exactly 32 .ai sales, Atom.com slipped 12.5%, Afternic dropped 23.7%.

Namecheap is the "buy a .ai for $12 and try to flip it for $500" tier of the market. It’s the speculation engine. And that speculation engine slowed by more than a quarter in six months.

This is not a sign that the .ai market is dying. Premium-tier .ai sales held. AI startup demand for .ai branding hasn’t softened. What this is, instead, is a sign that the easy-money speculation phase of .ai is ending. The "$12 register, $500 flip" trade is harder than it was 6 months ago.

Why the average .ai price went up while volume went down

This is the part that looks paradoxical at first. The average .ai sale price rose 16.4%, from $2,921 to $3,401, in a market where volume contracted 26%.

It’s not a paradox. It’s mechanical.

When the cheap end of any market contracts faster than the rest, the average price mathematically rises. Pre-contraction, the market did 4,949 sales totaling $14.5M (average $2,921). Post-contraction, it did 3,651 sales totaling $12.4M (average $3,401). Fewer cheap sales remained in the mix; premium sales held. Average shifts upward.

"Higher average sale price" does not mean "the market is hot." It means "fewer cheap sales, premium sales held."

This is the kind of statistic that gets used misleadingly. A registrar or AI domain news outlet reporting "average .ai price up 16%" without context would be reporting a half-truth. The full picture requires the volume number sitting alongside it.

Where premium .ai actually closes

This is the structural finding most coverage of the .ai market has missed.

Of the top 20 .ai sales of the window (each $100K or higher), the volume leader Namecheap closed exactly one: synthetic.ai at $110K. Premium .ai concentrates on specialist marketplaces.

Namecheap dominates .ai sales by volume. 3,373 of the 3,651 total .ai sales in the window cleared on Namecheap. That’s 92.6% market share.

But of the top 20 .ai sales of the window, Namecheap closed exactly one (synthetic.ai at $110K). The other 19 cleared elsewhere.

Spaceship.com handled 49 .ai sales averaging $60,850, including 8 of the top 20 sales of the entire window (terafab.ai $174K, fragment.ai $135K, amber.ai $115K, surface.ai $110K, certify.ai $110K, odds.ai $110K, confidential.ai $105K, evo.ai $100K). It is the quiet premium .ai venue.

Atom.com handled 49 .ai sales averaging $27,592, including 3 of the top 20 (genesis.ai $400K, free.ai $350K, leo.ai $150K). Brand-name domain marketplace, premium positioning.

Sedo handled 32 .ai sales averaging $44K. One of those was bot dot ai at $1,200,000 (February 2026), the first publicly-reported seven-figure .ai transaction.

For sellers, the implication is concrete: tier your listing by price expectation. Sub-$5K .ai goes to Namecheap. Premium .ai ($50K+) goes to Spaceship.com, Atom.com, or Sedo, with broker representation. Don’t list a premium .ai on Namecheap and expect to get premium prices. The buyer pool there isn’t shopping at premium tiers.

For a full breakdown of how each marketplace performs across all TLDs, see our domain marketplace comparison guide.

What’s selling at the top: notable .ai sales of late 2025 and early 2026

Recent premium .ai sales tell the bifurcation story concretely. These all closed in our analysis window.

• bot.ai sold for $1,200,000 on Sedo (February 22, 2026). First publicly-reported seven-figure .ai sale. Source: Domain Name Wire.

• genesis.ai sold for $400,000 on Atom.com (April 9, 2026). Premium single-word .ai.

• free.ai sold for $350,000 on Atom.com (April 2, 2026). Common-word premium.

• terafab.ai sold for $174,257 on Spaceship.com (March 22, 2026). Industrial-AI vertical brand premium.

• speed.ai sold for $165,000 brokered through LegalBrandMarketing (January 12, 2026).

• vesta.ai sold for $160,000 brokered through DomainAgents.com (April 9, 2026).

• leo.ai sold for $150,000 on Atom.com (December 18, 2025).

• intuitive.ai sold for $125,000 on Afternic (November 15, 2025).

For context outside the .ai TLD, AI.com sold for $70 million in April 2025, disclosed publicly in February 2026 by Andrew Allemann at Domain Name Wire. That’s a .com domain with an AI keyword, not a .ai domain (a different category). But it signals that ultra-premium AI-themed branding is still commanding record prices at the top of the market.

What this means for you

The bifurcation has practical implications depending on which side of the .ai market you’re on.

Q: I'm a domain investor sitting on .ai inventory. What do I do?

Tier your inventory. Sub-$5K .ai: list on Namecheap but lower expectations. The speculation tail is contracting. $5K to $50K mid-tier: list on Afternic and Namecheap as a dual-listing. Premium $50K+: list on Spaceship.com or Atom.com with broker representation. Don’t over-list premium .ai on Namecheap; the buyer pool there isn’t at premium prices.

For pricing comparables, our Sales History tool shows recent .ai sales by keyword, length, and marketplace.

Q: I'm an AI startup founder shopping for a .ai. Are prices coming down?

At the speculation tier (sub-$5K Namecheap listings), yes. Inventory is more available, less competition from other buyers. At the premium tier ($50K+ for short-word .ai like leo.ai, vesta.ai, speed.ai), no. Prices are stable. If you can stretch to mid-tier, this is the most favorable buying environment in 18 months.

For valuation before you negotiate, our free Domain Value Analysis tool gives a baseline appraisal you can sanity-check against comparables.

Q: Is .ai still a good investment category in 2026?

For premium acquisition: yes, premium .ai is holding. For speculation flipping: harder than it was. The "register cheap and flip in 30 days" trade has thinned. If you’re investing for 12-24 month holds at the premium tier, the data still supports the thesis.

If you’re investing at any tier, our guide to finding and buying premium domains smartly covers the analytical framework.

Q: Will .ai prices recover or keep falling?

Honestly: we don’t know. Our data describes what happened over the past six months, not what comes next. The volume contraction could continue (continued speculation washout) or reverse (if AI startup funding accelerates). What we can say with confidence: premium-tier .ai pricing remained stable for the past 12 months despite volume changes around it. Premium .ai behaves more like quality real estate than like crypto. The speculation tier behaves more like crypto. Treat them as separate asset classes.

The .ai market across four price tiers. The "boom peaking" finding applies to the speculation tier specifically. Three other tiers are flat, stable, or breaking records.

FAQ

Q: Why are .ai domains so expensive?

The .ai ccTLD (originally the country code for Anguilla) became the default extension for AI-related businesses and products from 2022 onward. Demand from AI startups seeking brand-aligned domain names drove aftermarket prices up sharply. At the premium tier, short single-word .ai domains (leo.ai $150K, speed.ai $165K, vesta.ai $160K) command $100K to $400K because they function as brand assets for an entire AI product category, not just a URL.

Q: Has the .ai domain market peaked?

At the speculation tier (sub-$5K sales on Namecheap), yes. Volume contracted 27% year-over-year, with Namecheap accounting for 97% of the market's volume decline. At the premium tier ($50K+ on Spaceship.com, Atom.com, and Sedo), no. Sales volumes held stable and notable transactions including genesis.ai ($400K), and free.ai ($350K) cleared in the Oct 2025 to Apr 2026 window.

Q: What is the highest .ai domain sale ever?

The highest publicly-reported .ai domain sale is bot.ai, which sold for $1.2 million on Sedo in February 2026, the first publicly-reported seven-figure .ai transaction. For context, AI.com (a .com, not a .ai) sold for $70 million in April 2025 (disclosed February 2026), the largest domain sale of any extension ever recorded.

Q: Are .ai domain prices going down?

At the speculation tier, yes. The average Namecheap .ai sale price is $1,138, down from the speculative highs of 2024, and buyer competition for sub-$5K .ai names has eased. At the premium tier, prices are stable. Short single-word .ai domains continue to command six-figure prices from AI startup buyers seeking category-defining brand assets.

Q: Is .ai still a good domain for an AI startup?

For brand alignment, yes. The .ai extension has mainstream AI-brand recognition that .com and other extensions lack in the AI sector. The practical question is budget. If you can register an unregistered .ai name at standard rates, it is excellent. If you are evaluating aftermarket premium .ai ($50K+), the brand premium is real but the investment is significant. The current buyer's market at the speculation tier ($5K and under) makes this a more favorable acquisition environment than 18 months ago. 

What’s next

The .ai market hasn’t peaked. Speculation in .ai has.

For the speculation tier, that means the easy-flip phase of the .ai market is winding down. For the premium tier, it means category-defining .ai assets are still moving at six-figure prices. For founders, it means the cheap end is more buyer-friendly than it has been in 18 months.

The next quarterly update covers May to October 2026, when we’ll see whether the speculation contraction continues, stabilizes, or reverses.

To spot the next emerging TLD before its own speculation tier peaks, Bishopi’s Domain Trends tool tracks registration patterns, sales momentum, and TLD-level trajectory data in real time. The .ai story is what happens when you see the early signals. The Domain Trends tool is built to surface those signals for whatever the next .ai turns out to be.