Domain Valuation Guide – Updated for 2023

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The biggest change in the domain secondary market over the course of the past year has been the meteoric rise in the value of .AI domains. The rest of the market has been fairly strong, but there is definitely not as much heat as there was just back in 2021. Of course, if you need a domain broker, we are happy to help however we can.

Ryan McKegney
CEO, DomainAgents

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Short, one-word .com domains

  • Example: Help.com (sold for $3,00,000 USD), Throne.com (sold for $150,000 USD)
  • Price range: $50,000 – $500,000+
  • Watch out for: Common, brandable, and trendy words as these can increase the value of a domain.
  • There is no upper limit, but sales like Voice.com for $30M are outliers.

.AI Domains

  • Example: Agents.ai (Sold for $125,000), You.ai (Sold for $700,000), Pics.ai ($50,000)
  • Price range: $0 – $1,000,000
  • Watch out for: Industries that are likely to be impacted by Artificial Intelligence, computing terms, first names.
  • Currently the hottest domain extension out there. The domain extension may be a long term trend or a fad.

Longer or Uncommon One-word .com domains

  • Example: Closure.com (sold for $45,000 USD)
  • Price range: $10,000-$50,000+
  • Watch out for: Brandable, trendy words, or variations of more common or shorter words which can increase the value of a domain.

Three-letter .com domains

  • Example: HKL.com (sold for $27,500 USD), NFC.com (sold for $160,000 USD), MAX.com (sold for $1,500,000 USD)
  • Price range: $20,000k -$100,000k+, potentially over 7 figures
  • Watch out for: Trendy abbreviations that can increase value. 

Two-letter .com domains

  • Example: IT.com (sold for $3,800,000 USD)
  • Price range: $500,000 to several million
  • These are extremely rare and don’t sell often.

3-character.com and 2-character.com domains (a mix of numbers and letters)

  • Example: b5d.com (sold for $630 USD), 5f.com (sold for $56,000 USD)
  • Price range: 3-character domains are likely to be in the $500-$3,000 range, while 2-character domains are expected to be $50k+.

Two-word .com domains

  • Example: CloudTech.com (sold for $50,000 USD), ValueMattress.com (sold for $3,888 USD)
  • Price range: $1,500 – $50,000+
  • Watch out for: Brandable or trendy keywords that will increase a domain’s value.
  • The pairing has to make sense.  Two random words together that don’t make sense in the context of each other are worthless.

Non .com suffixes 

  • Country domain suffix
    • Example: .ca .de .uk
    • Price range: 10-25% of .com equivalent
  • Alternate suffix
    • Example: .net .co .io .org
    • Price range: 5-20% of the .com equivalent
    • Watch out for: .io and .ai extensions. Within the tech industry, there is a wide acceptance of .io and .ai domains and prices have been pushing higher and higher in recent years.
  • New domain suffix
    • Example: .xyz .tech .club
    • Price range: 1-10% of the .com equivalent
    • Any investment in new TLDs should focus on the best of the best keywords and pairings that form common phrases. There are too many alternative options for buyers to invest in long tail keywords.

Number .com domains

  • Example: 01.com (sold for $1,820,000 USD), 509.com (sold for $106,000 USD), 6439.com (sold for $25,505 USD)
  • Price range: A NN will likely be in the millions, a NNN is likely to be $100k+, and a NNNN is generally $20k+ 
  • Note that these domains are generally in higher demand in China.

Factors that increase value:

  • Domains that are singular (vs. plural), or are related to current events (i.e. major global and political events), financial services, the auto industry, cryptocurrency, cannabis, or blockchain tend to be higher in value. Currently, domains with NFT/nifty, coin, and crypto are hot.

Factors that decrease value: 

  • Just like there are modifiers that increase value, we’ve found that these modifiers tend to decrease value: porn terms, past tense words, and words or terms with negative connotations.  We also don’t recommend investing in COVID related domains. Many marketplaces have banned them and they have been associated with bad or unethical behavior.