.co Domain Statistics 2026: Registrations, Cost, and Startup Use

The .co extension has passed 3.3 million registrations in 2026, making it one of the 20 most-used domain endings in the world, and it has become the go-to alternative when the .com a startup wants is already taken. Although .co is officially the country code for Colombia, only about 1 in 27 .co names is registered inside Colombia; the rest belong to businesses worldwide that use it as a short, brandable stand-in for .com. Google treats .co as a generic domain that ranks globally with no country penalty, and registration runs roughly 25 to 40 US dollars a year. Here are the current .co domain statistics and what each number means if you are weighing one for your brand.

Key .co domain statistics for 2026

How many .co domains are registered?

More than 3.3 million .co domains are registered in 2026, which puts the extension inside the top 20 endings globally. Growth has been steady since the extension relaunched for worldwide use in 2010, when Colombia lifted the rule that required a local presence to register. The overwhelming majority of owners have no tie to Colombia at all. They picked .co because it reads as a clean shortening of "company," "corporation," or "commerce," and because the exact name they wanted was still free where the .com was long gone.

Is .co a Colombian domain?

Technically yes, and in practice no. The .co code was assigned to Colombia as its country code top-level domain, but roughly 1 in 27 registered .co names actually sits with a registrant in Colombia. Since 2010 anyone in the world can register one with no residency or business requirement, so it functions as a global, generic extension rather than a national one. That shift is exactly why startups from San Francisco to London use .co without a second thought about geography.

How much does a .co domain cost?

A .co domain costs about 25 to 40 US dollars a year to register and renew at standard registrars, which sits above a .com but well below tech-favored endings like .ai. First-year promotions sometimes drop the price into single digits, but the renewal is the number that matters over time, and it does not fall back to .com levels. Short, dictionary-word, or keyword-rich .co names are often flagged as registry premiums and can list from a few hundred to several thousand dollars a year, or sell once on the aftermarket for a fixed price. Our guide to what a domain name costs breaks pricing down by extension.

Why do startups use .co domains?

Because .co gives a founder a short, exact-match brand that .com can no longer offer. The one or two-word .com for most product ideas was registered years ago, but the .co version is frequently open or affordable, so a company can own its name outright instead of settling for a hyphenated or padded .com. The ending also carries a modern, startup-native feel: it has been used by well-known tech brands and reads instantly as "company." Once a founder secures the name, the next step is usually to stand up the site on it quickly and start building an audience.

Is .co good for SEO?

Yes. Google places .co in its list of generic country code domains, which means it is treated like .com or .net rather than being locked to Colombia in search results. A United States business on a .co can rank for United States buyers with no built-in disadvantage from the extension. The name itself is neutral; your content, backlinks, and site quality decide where you land. The only real SEO caveat is human, not algorithmic: a small share of visitors may still type .com out of habit, which is a recall issue rather than a ranking one.

How does .co compare to .com?

By scale they are worlds apart. There are roughly 160 million .com registrations against about 3.3 million .co, so .com is nearly fifty times larger and remains the default people type. Where .co wins is availability and freshness: the name you actually want is far more likely to be open, and it signals a modern brand to the tech-aware audience. The trade-offs are habit and, in a pinch, recovery time, since an expired .co has a shorter redemption window than a .com. For a full side by side, read our .co vs .com comparison.

Which well-known brands use .co domains?

Plenty, which is part of why the extension reads as credible. Twitter, now X, has run its link shortener on t.co for years, and Google operates g.co as a short official redirect. The startup platform AngelList grew up on angel.co before later expanding, the video app Vine used vine.co, and Overstock famously rebranded to o.co for a stretch to show off a single-letter name. These examples matter for a buyer because they prove .co is not a fringe ending; large, sophisticated companies chose it on purpose when they wanted something short and memorable. A .co on your own site sits in familiar company.

Is .co more available than .com?

Yes, and that is the single biggest reason to consider it. The .com space has been so thoroughly registered that most one and two-word names were claimed years ago, and the ones that trade on the aftermarket often run into five or six figures. Because .co is younger and smaller, the matching .co for a given idea is frequently open at the standard price or available for a reasonable one-time aftermarket fee. For a founder who cares about owning the exact brand rather than the exact ending, that availability gap is the whole argument.

Should you buy a .co domain in 2026?

For a startup, SaaS product, or personal brand where the ideal .com is taken or unaffordable, a .co is a strong, credible choice, and availability is the main reason to move on it. Weigh the higher renewal against the value of owning an exact-match name you could never get in .com, and check whether the specific name is a registry premium before you commit. Short, memorable .co names change hands on the aftermarket with secure, escrow-backed transfer. Browse what is available now among .co domains on BoldDomains, or compare the field with our roundup of the best domain extension for your business.

Figures above are drawn from public TLD registration data, registry reporting, and registrar pricing surveys, and reflect the most recent numbers available at the time of writing. For the full market picture across every extension, see our domain name statistics hub.