How are domain names priced?A guide to domain name valuation

In the past year, the domain secondary market has undergone a series of significant changes, with the most notable being the rapid rise in the value of .AI domains. While the rest of the market remains quite robust, overall enthusiasm has decreased compared to 2021. If you are a domain investor holding domains with various extensions, and you want to understand how to value them, domain pricing is closely related to factors such as the extension, meaning, length, and additional value of the domain. In this comprehensive domain valuation guide, you will find detailed information on valuing domains, which we hope will be helpful to you.

1. Short Single-Word .com Domains

Examples: Help.com (sold for $3,000,000), Throne.com (sold for $150,000)

Price Range: $50,000–$500,000+

Note: Common, branded, and popular words increase the value of a domain. While there is no upper limit, extraordinary sales like Voice.com for $30 million are outliers.

2. AI Domains

Examples: Agents.ai (sold for $125,000), You.ai (sold for $700,000), Pics.ai (sold for $50,000)

Price Range: $0–$1,000,000

Note: Influenced by artificial intelligence, computational terms, and industry-related names. Currently, the most popular domain extension with potential long-term trends or fashion trends.

3. Longer or Uncommon Single-Word .com Domains

Examples: Closure.com (sold for $45,000)

Price Range: $10,000-$50,000+

Note: Brandable, popular words, or variants of more common or shorter words can increase the value of a domain.

4. Three-Letter .com Domains

Examples: HKL.com (sold for $27,500), NFC.com (sold for $160,000), MAX.com (sold for $1,500,000)

Price Range: $20,000–$100,000k+, may exceed seven digits

Note: Popular abbreviations can add value.

5. Two-Letter .com Domains

Examples: IT.com (sold for $3,800,000)

Price Range: Hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars

These are very rare and not often available for sale.

6. 3-Character .com and 2-Character .com Domains (Combinations of Numbers and Letters)

Examples: b5d.com (sold for $630), 5f.com (sold for $56,000)

Price Range: Prices for 3-character domains may be between $500 to $3,000, while 2-character domains are expected to be $50,000 and above.

7. Two-Word .com Domains

Examples: CloudTech.com (sold for $50,000), ValueMattress.com (sold for $3,888)

Price Range: $1,500–$50,000+

Note: Brand or popular keywords that can increase the value of a domain. Pairings must make sense, as two random words without meaning in context are of little value.

8. Non-.com Extensions

① Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

Examples: .ca, .de, .uk

Price Range: 10-25% of equivalent .com prices

② Alternative Extensions

Examples: .net, .co, .io, .org

Price Range: 5-20% of equivalent .com prices

Note: .io and .ai extensions have gained wide acceptance in the tech industry, with prices steadily rising in recent years.

③ New Domain Extensions

Examples: .xyz, .tech, .club

Price Range: 1-10% of equivalent .com prices

Investments in new top-level domains (TLDs) should focus on keywords and pairings forming common phrases. Buyers have too many alternative choices for investing in long-tail keywords.

9. Number of .com Domains

Examples: 01.com (sold for $1,820,000), 509.com (sold for $106,000), 6439.com (sold for $25,505)

Price Range: NN domains might be in the millions, NNN might be $100,000 and above, NNNN is usually $20,000 and above.

Please note that these domains often have high demand in China.

10. Factors that Add Value:

Singular (versus plural) or related to current events (major global and political events), financial services, the automotive industry, cryptocurrency, cannabis, or blockchain-related areas often have higher value. Currently, NFT/nifty, coin, and crypto domains are very popular.

11. Factors that Decrease Value:

Just as some adjectives increase value, others tend to decrease it. We find that these adjectives often reduce value: explicit terms, past tense words, or wordserms with a negative connotation. We also do not recommend investing in COVID-19-related domains. Many markets have banned them, and they are associated with unethical or immoral behavior.