.io Domain Statistics 2026: Registrations, Cost, and Growth

The .io extension holds roughly 1.76 million registrations in 2026, having passed one million live domains in mid-2025, and it remains the default choice for tech startups, developer tools, and SaaS brands. Registration costs about 60 US dollars a year on average, far more than a .com, and Google treats .io as a generic domain that ranks worldwide with no country penalty. The one open question hanging over the extension is the Chagos Islands handover from the United Kingdom to Mauritius, which could eventually affect the country code but has changed nothing operationally so far. Here are the current .io domain statistics and what each number means if you are deciding whether to buy one.

Key .io domain statistics for 2026

How many .io domains are registered?

About 1.76 million .io domains are registered in 2026, and roughly 1.28 million of them resolve to a live website. The extension crossed the one million mark in mid-2025 after more than a decade of steady growth. Almost none of those owners have any tie to the British Indian Ocean Territory, the tiny archipelago the code was originally assigned to. They chose .io because IO reads as input and output in computing, which makes it a natural fit for developer tools, APIs, and technical products.

How much does a .io domain cost?

A .io domain costs about 60 US dollars a year on average to register, though promotional first-year prices dip as low as 15 dollars at some registrars and list prices reach 125. Renewals settle in the 48 to 60 dollar range. That is several times the price of a .com, which runs 10 to 20 dollars a year, and the gap is pure registry pricing rather than any difference in how the name works. A short, real-word .io is almost always already owned, so a memorable one is bought on the aftermarket, where prices run from a few thousand dollars into six figures. Our guide to what a domain name costs breaks the pricing down by extension.

Why do startups love .io domains?

Because .io signals technology instantly and the good names are still gettable. The .com equivalent of most product ideas was registered years ago, but the .io version is often free or affordable, so a founder can secure an exact-match brand without a huge aftermarket spend. The extension also carries the right associations for the audience that matters: developers, investors, and technical buyers read .io as a modern, engineering-first brand. GitHub Pages, many open-source projects, and thousands of SaaS tools run on .io, which reinforces the pattern every time a new startup picks one.

Is .io good for SEO?

Yes. Google treats .io as a generic top-level domain, the same bucket as .com, .net, and .org, so an .io site is not tied to any single country in search results and can rank globally. That matters because .io is technically a country code for a territory almost no one is targeting. Because Google removed the geographic association, a United States startup on an .io ranks for United States buyers exactly as a .com would. The name itself is neutral for ranking; your content, links, and site quality do the work. If you want the full reasoning, see whether newer extensions like .ai domains are good for SEO, which follows the same logic.

What is happening with .io and the Chagos Islands?

The .io code belongs to the British Indian Ocean Territory, and in May 2025 the United Kingdom signed a treaty to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. That raised a fair question: if the territory changes hands, what happens to the domain? The short answer for 2026 is nothing yet. The IO code is still assigned in the ISO 3166-1 standard, the registry keeps operating normally, and existing names renew as usual. Any real change would only begin if IO were formally removed from that standard, at which point ICANN's retirement policy would open a multi-year phase-out window rather than switching anything off overnight. We cover the buyer angle in depth in our guide to whether the .io domain is going away.

How does .io compare to .com?

By scale they are not close. There are about 163.6 million .com registrations against roughly 1.76 million .io, so .com is nearly a hundred times larger and remains the extension most people type by default. Where .io wins is availability and signal: the name you want is far more likely to be free, and it tells a tech audience what you are the moment they read it. The trade-offs are cost and habit, since .io renews at several times a .com and some mainstream users still assume .com. For a full side by side, read our .io vs .com comparison.

Should you buy a .io domain in 2026?

For a developer tool, API, or SaaS product aimed at a technical audience, yes, an .io is a strong, credible choice, and the availability of good names is the main reason to act. The Chagos situation is worth knowing but is not a reason to avoid the extension today, since nothing operational has changed and any transition would be gradual. Weigh the higher renewal cost against the value of owning an exact-match brand you could never get in .com. Short, real .io names change hands on the aftermarket, and a buyer typically closes the deal through a signed transfer agreement that protects both sides before funds and the domain move. Browse what is available now among .io domains on BoldDomains, each with secure, escrow-backed transfer.

Figures above are drawn from public TLD registration data, registrar pricing surveys, and reporting on the 2025 UK to Mauritius treaty, 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.