Is it too late to buy a .si domain? (2026)
No, it is not too late to buy a .si domain, but it is too late for obvious names. As of 18 October 2026 every single-word AI term we checked was taken, while coined names were still free at registry prices of about €10 a year.
No, it is not too late to buy a .si domain, but it is too late for the obvious names. As of 18 October 2026, every single-word AI term we checked was taken, and so were the easy two-word combos. Coined names are still free at registry prices of about €10 a year, so the work now is naming, not luck.
That's the short version. The rest of this page is the evidence: how fast the registry filled up, which names went first, what the taken ones cost to buy back, and the window next autumn when a lot of rush-bought names may come loose.
If you're new to the topic, start with our guide, things to know before you buy a .si domain. It covers the registry rules, the price table and the redirect setup. This post picks up where it stops: you've decided you want one, and you're worried you're late.
Is it too late to buy a .si domain in October 2026?
It is too late to buy a .si domain that is one common English word, and probably too late for any name a stranger would guess in five seconds. It is not too late for a distinct brand. Coined and unusual two-word names still come back with no WHOIS record, which usually means you can register them today at normal retail prices.
The reason is simple. The .si rush was not driven by founders picking brands. It was driven by people grabbing words. Hostinger looked at 34,582 .si names its own customers registered between 23 September and 7 October 2026 and found the average customer bought about three names, with 11.7% of them four characters or shorter. Only 3.2% had an explicit AI term in them. That pattern hoovers up short words and dictionary words first and leaves invented names alone.
So the useful question is not "am I late?" It is "which part of the name space is still open?" The answer to that is narrower than most buying guides admit, and wider than the panic on X suggests.
How many .si domains have been registered since the SI order?
The .si zone more than doubled in about four months. Dynadot put the registry at 186,337 names in June 2026 and 202,673 in September. When we read the counter on register.si on 18 October 2026, it showed 426,559 .si domains and 102 accredited registrars.
The jump lines up with two dates. On 22 September 2026 the US president said at the UN that the government would say "super intelligence" instead of "artificial intelligence". On 29 September he signed the order that moved federal agencies from AI to SI. Netcraft tracked the registry through both: 4,794 names registered in the 24 hours after the speech, and 13,603 in the 24 hours to 1 October, against 3,515 names in the whole of the month before.
| Date | Total .si names | Source |
|---|---|---|
| June 2026 | 186,337 | Dynadot |
| September 2026 (before the speech) | 202,673 | Dynadot |
| 23 September 2026 | 198,535 | Netcraft, reading register.si |
| 18 October 2026 | 426,559 | register.si counter, read by us |
The September figures don't line up perfectly because Dynadot and Netcraft read the counter on different days. The direction is not in doubt. Roughly 220,000 names were added in a few weeks, to a namespace that had taken 34 years to reach 200,000.
Which kinds of .si names are already gone?
All ten single-word AI terms we tested were registered, and so were three obvious combinations. Four coined names came back with no record. We ran each through who.is, which reads the official whois.arnes.si server, on 18 October 2026.
| Name | Status | Created | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| copilot.si | Taken | June 2017 | Held via MarkMonitor, locked |
| prompt.si | Taken | August 2018 | |
| vector.si | Taken | February 2021 | Nameservers, no site |
| tokens.si | Taken | November 2022 | |
| agent.si | Taken | March 2023 | |
| agents.si | Taken | June 2024 | |
| neural.si | Taken | April 2025 | |
| reasoning.si | Taken | November 2025 | Parked at Sedo |
| inference.si | Taken | 29 July 2026 | |
| embeddings.si | Taken | 20 August 2026 | |
| agentdesk.si | Taken | 20 September 2026 | |
| inferencelab.si | Taken | 26 September 2026 | |
| tokenmeter.si | Taken | 2 October 2026 | |
| evalforge.si | No record | Likely free | |
| agentorchard.si | No record | Likely free | |
| promptkettle.si | No record | Likely free | |
| tracewren.si | No record | Likely free |
Two things stand out. First, eight of the ten single words were gone before 2026 even started. The good dictionary .si names were never waiting for you, rush or no rush. Second, the rush itself ate the predictable pairs. Nobody needed to be clever to think of "agentdesk" or "tokenmeter", and both were registered between 20 September and 2 October, the two weeks after the president first floated "SI" in a 19 September post.
This is a small sample, chosen by us, so treat it as a field test, not a census. But it matches what the registry numbers suggest. Speculators register names that other people will search for. A name only you would think of is the safest kind left.
What does a taken .si name cost to buy from its owner?
Expect low thousands for an average resale and five figures for a good single word. TLD Investors counted 194 reported .si sales worth $658,400 in the 30 days to 9 October 2026, using NameBio data. That works out to about $3,400 per sale.
The top of the market is much higher. The same roundup lists Staffing.si at $50,000, Hollywood.si at $30,000 and Runtime.si at $28,888, all sold between 2 and 10 October. Dynadot reported Recursive.si at $20,000 and Higgsfield.si at $14,925.80.
Asking prices are a different planet. Slovenian outlet N1 found build.si listed at $10 million and seed.si at $8 million in late September. An asking price is a wish. It tells you what a holder hopes for, not what anyone paid.
Compare that with the fresh-registration route. The registry charges registrars €10 a year before VAT, and retail starts around $12 a year (Dynadot listed $12.39 in June). Say you run a two-person AI agent startup with $40k in the bank. A $3,400 resale would eat close to a tenth of that, for a redirect domain that, as we explain below, shouldn't be your main address anyway. For most early teams the maths says: register a coined name, don't buy a word.
Will rush-registered .si names come back on the market?
Some will, and the window to watch is autumn 2027. Hostinger found more than 90% of its .si registrations came from 30 September 2026 onward. Any of those bought on a one-year term comes up for renewal from late September 2027, and holders who don't renew lose them.
Here's how release works. A .si name that isn't renewed goes into quarantine. Openprovider lists the quarantine as 28 days after expiry or deletion, and during it only the old holder can restore the name for a fee. After that it's deleted and anyone can register it again.
How many rush names will drop is unknown. Nobody has a renewal rate for 2026 .si buyers yet, and anyone who quotes one is guessing. What we do know points both ways. Netcraft saw just over half of the .si names it tracked at Dynadot listed for sale, which is the behaviour of people who bought to flip. Some of them won't find a buyer, and some of those will let the names lapse. On the other side, renewal costs about €10 plus margin, which is cheap enough that many will hold on for another year just in case.
If you want a specific taken name, the realistic plan is a backorder at your registrar, set up well before October 2027, plus a note in your calendar to check the WHOIS record when its anniversary passes.
How do I find a good .si name that is still free?
Pick a brand you'd want on .com or .ai anyway, then check .si. Don't start from "what's left on .si". Start from a name that is yours, because that is the part of the namespace speculators skip, and it's the name you can defend later.
A short process that works:
- Write down 20 candidate names that are invented or unusual pairs (two real words that don't usually sit together, like "orchard" with "agent").
- Cross out any that are a single dictionary word or the first combo a stranger would type. Those are almost certainly gone.
- Run the rest through a WHOIS lookup. "No WHOIS data" on .si usually means unregistered. A record with a 2026 creation date and parked nameservers means a speculator got there first.
- Check the same name on .com and .ai, so the .si can point at a main domain you also own.
- Register at a registrar from our guide's price table, on a multi-year term (.si allows one to five years), with auto-renew on.
It also helps to know you're not the only one trying. Hostinger counted 11,623 customers behind its 34,582 names, so on average each buyer wanted three.
Should a .si name be your main domain or a redirect?
Make it a redirect. Google treats .si as a country code for Slovenia, so a main site on .si starts with a geographic signal most AI startups don't want. A 301 from your .si to your .com or .ai keeps the SI story without that cost.
We cover the search side in detail in is a .si domain bad for SEO, so here's the practical part. A redirect domain is cheap, which changes the buying maths. If the .si is a second door rather than the house, a coined name at $12 a year is fine. Paying $3,400 for a word you'll only ever redirect is hard to justify.
The one case for paying up: your brand already exists and someone else holds the exact .si. That is a brand-protection problem, not a naming one, and our post on what to do when someone registered your startup's name on .si walks through the dispute route and when buying it back is cheaper.
Once a .si redirect is live, the harder question is whether anyone uses it. Most analytics tools fold redirect traffic into "direct", next to the visits AI assistants send that also arrive with no referrer. Clerion reports ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Copilot as their own channel, so you can see whether your .si door, or an AI assistant, is the thing bringing people in.
Do this tonight
- Write 20 coined or unusual two-word names for your product and cross out every single word.
- Look up the survivors on a WHOIS tool and note which return no record.
- Check the same names on .com and .ai, and keep only the ones free on at least one.
- Register the winner on .si for two or more years with auto-renew on, and point it at your main domain with a 301.
- If you still want a taken name, set a backorder now and put its 2027 anniversary in your calendar.
Related reading
- Things to know before you buy a .si domain: registry rules, prices by registrar and redirect setup.
- Are .si domains a good investment?: the case for and against buying .si to resell.
- Which AI startups use .si domains?: who is actually building on .si, and how.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a .si domain cost in 2026?
The .si registry charges registrars €10 a year before VAT, and retail prices start around $12 a year (Dynadot listed $12.39 in June 2026). Buying a taken name is different: reported .si resales averaged about $3,400 in the 30 days to 9 October 2026.
Are single-word .si domains still available?
Rarely. All ten single-word AI terms we checked on 18 October 2026, including agent.si, prompt.si and inference.si, were registered, and eight of them were taken before 2026. Coined or unusual two-word names are where availability is.
When do expired .si domains become available again?
A .si name that is not renewed goes into quarantine, listed by Openprovider as 28 days, when only the old holder can restore it. After that it is deleted and anyone can register it. Many rush-era names come up for renewal from late September 2027.
How many .si domains are registered now?
The register.si counter showed 426,559 .si domains on 18 October 2026, up from 202,673 in September 2026 according to Dynadot. The jump followed the US move to say super intelligence (SI) instead of AI.
Do I need to be in Slovenia to register a .si domain?
No. The .si registry requires no local presence or company, so anyone can register a .si name through one of the accredited registrars, of which register.si listed 102 in October 2026.
Should I buy a taken .si domain from a reseller?
Usually not, unless it protects a brand you already have. Most AI startups should use .si as a 301 redirect to their main .com or .ai, and a coined name at about $12 a year does that job as well as a $3,400 word.
Sources
- Register.si: .si domain registry homepage and counter
- Netcraft: 'Super Intelligence' Executive Order Fuels Nearly Hundredfold Increase in .si Domain Registrations
- Hostinger: What 34,582 .si domains say about Super Intelligence
- Dynadot: .SI Domains: Why Slovenia's TLD Is Getting Attention
- FindCheapDomains: How Much Are .si Domains Selling for After the Rush?
- N1: Spletne strani z domeno .si naprodaj tudi za več kot milijon dolarjev
- Openprovider: .si domain rules
- who.is: WHOIS lookup for agent.si