The domain extensions people talk about, and their real cost
Last updated: 2026-09-19
Some extensions are not chosen for their price but because people are talking about them. The strangest case of these months is .si, the domain that registrars are selling as the extension of artificial intelligence. This page collects what their own pages say, the registry's numbers, and what it really costs — at the registrars we track.
Why this is being talked about now: SI instead of AI
In September 2026 something happened that affects words before it affects technology. On 29 September the White House signed the executive order “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence”, requiring US federal agencies to use “super intelligence”, abbreviated SI, instead of “artificial intelligence” (AI) in official communications.
Then it kept going: on 6 October the Department of Justice extended the wording to its own offices, court filings included; on 8 October a public post called anyone still saying artificial intelligence “THE ENEMY”.
Two qualifications, because here we only say what the sources say. The order applies to the US executive branch: it does not bind companies, researchers or journalists, and it carries no penalties. And more importantly: the industry already uses “superintelligence” for something else — an intelligence exceeding human ability in nearly every field, which does not exist today. The statutory definition is still the 2020 one, because only Congress can change it.
What this has to do with domains. An extension gets chosen with the words people happen to have in mind, and in the US there are now two: AI and SI. .si reads exactly as SI — it is Slovenia's country code, and it happens to match the order's abbreviation. That, however, is our reading, not data: nobody has measured how many .si registrations came from it.
.si: what the people selling it say
.si is the top-level domain of Slovenia: it has existed since 1992, it is managed by ARNES (Academic and Research Network of Slovenia), and it has no residency restrictions — anyone, anywhere, can register one.
“For Super Intelligence brainiacs” — Namecheap, in namecheap.com/domains/registration/cctld/si/
“sta ora guadagnando terreno anche tra le aziende focalizzate sulla superintelligenza” — Spaceship, in spaceship.com/it/domains/cctld/si/
How big is this trend, in numbers? The registry counts circa 217.265 worldwide, lo 0,054% delle registrazioni di domini globali. That is a small fraction of the market, and it should be said plainly: this is not a place where the name you want is easy to find.
What it costs, registrar by registrar
| Registrar | First year | Renewal | First 3 years | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| spaceship | 10,60 € | 10,69 € | 31,98 € | 2026-10-13 |
| dynadot | 11,10 € | 12,45 € | 36,00 € | 2026-10-13 |
| namecheap | 13,81 € | 13,81 € | 41,43 € | 2026-10-13 |
Prices are as the registrar publishes them, VAT excluded, and the first year is the undiscounted one: where a first-year promotion exists we do not show it, because a price that disappears after twelve months is no help to someone choosing a name. The three-year column is the figure that matters: first year plus two renewals.
The full comparison is in /en/domains/.
The other technology extensions we track
| Extension | Registrar | First year | Renewal |
|---|---|---|---|
| .io | hostingsolutions | not published | 52,50 € |
| .io | netsons | 78,09 € | 78,09 € |
| .io | namecheap | 58,89 € | 67,82 € |
| .io | dynadot | 46,01 € | 47,17 € |
| .io | namesilo | 34,80 € | 62,47 € |
| .io | porkbun | 26,31 € | 47,66 € |
| .io | spaceship | 46,19 € | 46,19 € |
| .ai | hostingsolutions | not published | 141,00 € |
| .ai | dynadot | 76,40 € | 76,40 € |
| .ai | porkbun | 73,81 € | 73,81 € |
| .ai | namecheap | 82,99 € | 102,62 € |
How we read these numbers
- The quotations are the registrars' own words, quoted with the page they come from. They are not our opinions and we do not interpret them.
- The registry figures (registration count, share of the total, managing body) are those published by the cited sources: we do not recalculate them.
- The prices live in
config/domini.yaml, field by field, with source and date of reading.