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DNS Checker(beta)
Three-character domain availability: 47,952 valid combinations, density measured across 50 TLDs

Three-Character Domain Availability

There are exactly 47,952 possible 3-character domain names, forty-seven thousand nine hundred fifty-two. If one three-character domain were registered every minute, the entire namespace would be filled in just over 33 days. In .com, that happened decades ago.

Using letters only (a–z), there are 17,576 possible domains. Only 17,576 three-letter combinations exist, fewer than the number of days in 50 years. Every single three-letter .com was registered by the late 1990s.

Allowing both letters and digits (a–z, 0–9) creates 46,656 combinations. With digits included, there are about as many combinations as minutes in a single month. A small enough space that major TLDs are completely saturated.

Here's how saturated each TLD is at this length.

Analysis by Ishan Karunaratne
Data updated daily. Last snapshot: August 25, 2026
47,952 valid domain combinations

thousand valid combinations

all valid 3-character domain labels (a–z, 0–9, hyphens)

Alphabetic combinations

thousand alphabetic

263 using a–z

Alphanumeric combinations

thousand alphanumeric

363 with digits 0–9

Average saturation

saturation

across 50 TLDs

Total registered domains

.com registered

>99.9% of total

Which TLDs Are Most Saturated at 3 Characters?

1
Registered47,824
Saturation>99.9%
2
Registered45,620
Saturation>99.9%
3
Registered44,407
Saturation>99.9%
4
Registered37,836
Saturation>99.9%
5
Registered29,184
Saturation>99.9%

How Full Is Each TLD at 3 Characters?

#TLDRegistered% Full (Alpha)
1.com47,824
>99.9%
2.xyz45,620
>99.9%
3.net44,407
>99.9%
4.org37,836
>99.9%
5.info29,184
>99.9%
6.mobi27,895
>99.9%
7.app27,166
>99.9%
8.top24,294
>99.9%
9.ch22,931
>99.9%
10.se19,788
>99.9%
11.one16,737
95.2%
12.lol16,598
94.4%
13.casino15,190
86.4%
14.biz15,072
85.8%
15.homes13,695
77.9%
16.world13,497
76.8%
17.dev13,369
76.1%
18.vip13,164
74.9%
19.asia13,161
74.9%
20.life13,097
74.5%
21.bet11,681
66.5%
22.icu11,007
62.6%
23.shop10,933
62.2%
24.buzz10,766
61.3%
25.pro9,793
55.7%
26.digital9,419
53.6%
27.online9,390
53.4%
28.nu8,957
51.0%
29.email8,309
47.3%
30.li8,042
45.8%
31.club7,859
44.7%
32.lat7,713
43.9%
33.click7,586
43.2%
34.services7,463
42.5%
35.tech7,451
42.4%
36.agency7,423
42.2%
37.live7,416
42.2%
38.bio7,140
40.6%
39.group7,024
40.0%
40.site7,018
39.9%
41.fun6,937
39.5%
42.ink6,896
39.2%
43.pics6,883
39.2%
44.solutions6,852
39.0%
45.rest6,070
34.5%
46.ltd6,058
34.5%
47.studio6,051
34.4%
48.ovh5,959
33.9%
49.today5,836
33.2%
50.best5,700
32.4%

What Are Three-Character Domain Names Worth?

The three-letter class, called LLL in the trade, is the backbone of acronym branding. Companies that lead with initials built durable identities on them, from IBM to CNN to UPS. Every three-letter .com was claimed by the late 1990s.

A liquid resale market keeps typical LLL .com prices in the five-figure range, and pronounceable, vowel-friendly combinations climb well past that. For a fresh registration the only openings are in newer extensions such as .xyz, .top, and .icu.

Why Can’t I Find a Three-Character .com Domain?

All 17,576 possible 3-letter .com domains have been registered since the late 1990s. The same applies to .net, .org, and most legacy TLDs, there are zero 3-character names available for new registration in these extensions.

Why 3-Character Domains Are So Valuable

Three-letter domains (often called “LLL domains” in the industry) are prized for their brevity, memorability, and branding potential. Common uses include:

  • Corporate abbreviations, Companies like IBM (ibm.com), CNN (cnn.com), and BBC (bbc.co.uk) built global brands on 3-letter domains.
  • Acronyms and initialisms, Industry terms, organization abbreviations, and product codes.
  • Premium resale, Average 3-letter .com domains sell for $10,000–$50,000. Pronounceable combinations (e.g., "bix", "lov", "zap") command $50,000–$500,000+.

For new registrations, look at the newer gTLDs in the table above. Extensions like .xyz, .top, .icu, and .online still have 3-character availability, often at standard registration prices.

Explore Three-Character Availability by TLD

How Are These Combination Counts Calculated?

Domain name labels (the part before the dot) follow strict character rules defined in RFC 5891 and RFC 1035. DNS Checker calculates three tiers of possible combinations for each domain length:

Alphabetic (a–z)

263 = 17,576

Only the 26 lowercase letters. The simplest calculation, each position has 26 choices, so 3 positions gives 263.

Alphanumeric (a–z, 0–9)

363 = 46,656

Letters plus digits. Each position has 36 choices. Domain names are case-insensitive, so uppercase and lowercase are equivalent.

All Valid Labels

47,952 total

Includes hyphens, but with restrictions. The total is not simply 373 because hyphens have placement rules.

Character SetCharactersFormula3-Char Combinations
Alphabetica–z (26)26317,576
Alphanumerica–z, 0–9 (36)36346,656
All Valid Labelsa–z, 0–9, hyphen (37)With placement rules47,952

Hyphen Placement Rules

  • No leading hyphen, the first character must be a letter or digit (36 choices, not 37)
  • No trailing hyphen, the last character must also be a letter or digit (36 choices)
  • No double-hyphen at positions 3–4, labels like xn--example are reserved for internationalized domain names (IDN) under RFC 5891 §4.2.3.1. A hyphen in position 3 and position 4 simultaneously is not permitted in standard registrations.

These constraints mean at 3 characters, the double-hyphen rule at positions 3–4 is automatically satisfied since the last character must be alphanumeric. All three counts are mathematical constants that never change, only the number of registered domains (shown in the table above) changes daily.

Frequently Asked Questions

Data updated daily. Last snapshot: August 25, 2026