The short version
Once a day NameDaemon downloads the list of every registered .com name, compares it with the day before, asks the registry about the names that matter, and scores them. This page explains each step, what the numbers mean and, just as important, what they cannot tell you.
The daily run, live
- .com names in the newest zone
- 167,425,489zone of 10 Oct 2026
- Zones processed
- 5since 6 Oct 2026
- Last successful run
- 14 hours ago
- Zone coverage
- 100%last 5 days: 5 of 5 days
Read from the daily run’s own records. Coverage is the share of days we hold a processed zone; it is not website uptime.
These four figures are read from the records the daily run writes about itself, not typed in. Zones processed is how many different zone days we have processed since we started. Coverage is the share of the last 30 days (or of the days since we started, if fewer) for which we hold a processed zone. It measures how complete our data is, not whether this website was reachable, so we do not call it uptime. A day on which ICANN’s service published no new zone counts as a gap.
Where the data comes from
- The zone file. ICANN’s Centralized Zone Data Service gives approved users the list of every .com name that has nameservers, published by the registry operator, Verisign. We download it each morning. It holds names only: no owner, no registrar and no expiry date.
- The registry’s public lookup (RDAP). For the names that matter we ask the registry itself whether a name is registered, in its redemption period or pending delete, and when it last changed. These are live, slow, polite requests within the registry’s limits.
- Public DNS, blockchain nodes and the Internet Archive for the few tools that need them, such as Domain health and the Domain audit. Each source is named on the About page.
A snapshot is dated by the zone file’s own serial number, not by the day we downloaded it. The file we fetch in the morning describes the zone as it stood the day before, so every number on this site is a day or two old, and every result says which day it is from.
How a drop is detected
- 1. Compare two days. We compare today’s zone with yesterday’s. A name that was in yesterday’s zone and is not in today’s has left the zone; a name that is in today’s and was not in yesterday’s has appeared. The daily counts are on the State of .com page.
- 2. Ask the registry. A name that left the zone may have been deleted, or may only be on hold. For the names worth watching, RDAP tells which: “not found” means it is not registered, “redemption period” means the owner can still get it back, “pending delete” means it is about to be released, and an ordinary answer means it is still registered.
- 3. Estimate the day. RDAP does not give the date a name will drop, so we add the usual wait to the date it last changed: about 5 days for pending delete, and about 35 days for redemption (30 days of redemption, then 5 of pending delete). It is an estimate, and can be off by a few days.
- 4. Check again, more often as the day gets close. Names far from dropping are looked at weekly and names about to drop more often. When the registry says “not found” the name is shown as available, and the best ones are confirmed live before we say so.
- 5. Tell you. A daily digest, name watches and Pro alerts go out after the day’s zone has been processed.
What a score means
A name’s score runs from 0 to 100. It is a heuristic, and the Domain score tool shows every part of it:
- Length, up to 30 points. Full marks up to 9 characters, then 5 points off for every extra character.
- Word demand, up to 45 points. How many registered .com names start or end with the same words. A name built the way the market already builds names scores higher.
- Readability, up to 25 points. Points come off for awkward joins: a doubled or tripled letter where two words meet, four consonants in a row, a first word that is a verb form or a plural, and a plural or an adverb as the second word.
- A bonus of 15 points for a single real dictionary word. The total never goes above 100.
The score tells you how a name is built, not what it is worth. The Domain appraisal reports a name’s strength and deliberately gives no price, because a price needs sales data we do not have.
What we cannot know
- What the registrar does before the registry does. A registrar decides what happens to an expired name in the weeks before the registry’s redemption and pending-delete stages. Many give the owner a grace period to renew, put the name up for auction, sell it through a partner, or delete it earlier or later than another registrar would. We see none of that, only the zone and the registry. A name that looks about to drop may be renewed, sold, or never reach the registry’s pending delete at all.
- The exact time of a drop. Drops run in the registry’s own daily batch, at a time we cannot see in advance. Popular names are taken within seconds by automated backorder services, so a name on a list is rarely one you can get.
- Whether a name that left the zone was deleted. It may be on hold or have lost its nameservers while still being registered. Only the registry’s answer settles it.
- Names registered without nameservers. They are never in the zone, so “not in the snapshot” does not mean “available”. Only the live registry check does, and your registrar has the last word.
- Anything that happens between two snapshots. A name registered and deleted within one day is never seen, and we cannot tell a brand new registration from an old name that was given nameservers.
- Who owns a name, or what it is worth. The zone holds no owner details, and the score is not a valuation.
The Limits page goes through the rest, tool by tool.
What we publish and what we do not
The numbers on State of .com and in the weekly reports are aggregates: counts, shares and lengths, each with its date. We do not publish, sell or give away the list of names. ICANN’s terms do not allow the zone to be passed on, so a tool shows only the few names that answer your question, such as the matches for your keyword, and there is no download or bulk export.
The weekly report
Every Sunday evening a report on the week in the .com zone is published in the Updates and Reports category of the blog. It is written automatically from the same daily numbers, not by an AI, and it says plainly when a week is short because our history is young or a day’s zone had not arrived. It lists no domain names.
Found something wrong?
Every result carries the date of the snapshot it comes from, so you can check it against the registry’s own RDAP lookup. If a number looks wrong, or a name was not what we said it was, tell us through the contact page. We will look at it and either fix it or explain it.