The .ai Gold Rush: How 1,559 AI Tools Name Themselves
Name an AI startup and you hit two questions almost immediately: do you grab a .ai domain, and do you put “AI” in the name? We checked what 1,559 tools in the toolhunter.ai directory actually chose. The result is a snapshot of a naming gold rush — with a surprising amount of restraint hiding underneath it.
The .ai land grab
Here's how the tools split across top-level domains:
- .com — 638 tools
- .ai — 474 tools
- .io — 132 tools
- .app — 64 tools
- .co — 43 tools
- .org — 17 tools
- .net — 16 tools
.com still leads, as it does nearly everywhere. But the real story is .ai: at 474 tools — almost one in three — it has blown past .io, the old default for tech startups, by nearly 4×. That's striking for a domain that isn't cheap. A .ai registration runs roughly $70–100+ a year with a two-year minimum, versus about $10 for a .com. The extension belongs to Anguilla, a Caribbean island of around 15,000 people, which has reportedly earned tens of millions a year from an AI boom it had nothing to do with.
Putting “AI” in the name
Domains are only half the branding decision. The other half is the name itself:
- 377 tools (24%) put “AI” directly in their name
- 73 tools (4.7%) go further and put “GPT” in the name
Nearly a quarter of tools literally spell out what they are. It's the fastest way to signal “this is an AI product” — and in a land grab, clarity beats cleverness.
The double-downers
243 tools — about 1 in 6 — do both: a .ai domain and “AI” in the name. Maximum signal, zero ambiguity. It's the branding equivalent of a neon sign.
But most tools don't actually shout
Here's the twist. Despite the gold-rush optics, the single biggest group — 885 tools, 57% — do none of it: no .ai domain, no “AI” in the name, no “GPT.” They picked an ordinary name on an ordinary .com and let the product do the talking. The tools that break out often don't need “AI” in the name at all. It's a decent tell about maturity: the more confident the product, the less it leans on the label.
What it means
Naming is a hype-cycle barometer. Right now, putting “AI” front and center buys instant clarity and a little momentum. But labels age fast — “AI” in a name will one day read the way “e-” or “smart-” or “.com” does now: a timestamp. If you're naming a tool today, the data says the crowd is genuinely split, and a striking share of the most durable brands sit quietly in the 57%. Browse the whole set on the full directory, or see where all these tools actually cluster in our companion piece on the most crowded corners of AI.
Method & caveats
Based on the 1,559 tools in the toolhunter.ai directory that list a website. “Domain” is the registered top-level domain of each tool's primary URL; “AI in the name” counts the standalone token “AI”/“ai” (so “Fair” or “Chair” don't trigger it). Figures reflect our curated catalog, not every AI product in existence, and we refresh it continuously — expect the .ai share to keep climbing.