The 25 Most Expensive Domains Ever Sold (2026 Update)
Record domain sales are the aftermarket's favorite folklore, and the numbers deserve more scrutiny than they usually get. Some figures were confirmed by both parties, some leaked through brokers, some were paid partly in stock, and a few famous "sales" were not domain sales at all. This list ranks the 25 largest publicly reported domain-only transactions as of late 2026, with the caveats attached where they belong. Prices are as reported at the time of each deal, not adjusted for inflation.
The all-time top 25
Figures come from public reporting, primarily DNJournal's sales charts, NameBio's database and contemporaneous press coverage. "Reported" means exactly that: several of these numbers were never formally confirmed by both sides.
| Domain | Reported price | Year | Buyer / note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. AI.com | ~$70 million | 2025 | Reported in April 2025; the parties never formally confirmed the figure |
| 2. CarInsurance.com | $49.7 million | 2010 | QuinStreet, insurance lead generation |
| 3. Insurance.com | $35.6 million | 2010 | QuinStreet again, months apart from CarInsurance.com |
| 4. VacationRentals.com | $35 million | 2007 | HomeAway, partly a defensive buy |
| 5. PrivateJet.com | $30.18 million | 2012 | Nations Luxury Transportation |
| 6. Voice.com | $30 million | 2019 | Block.one; all cash and publicly confirmed, the cleanest mega-sale on record |
| 7. Internet.com | $18 million | 2009 | QuinStreet, media portfolio deal |
| 8. 360.com | $17 million | 2015 | Qihoo 360, Chinese security company |
| 9. Insure.com | $16 million | 2009 | QuinStreet, its fourth entry in this table |
| 10. Chat.com | $15.5 million | 2024 | OpenAI; consideration reportedly included shares |
| 11. NFTs.com | $15 million | 2022 | Undisclosed buyer at the crypto cycle peak |
| 12. Sex.com | $13 million | 2010 | Clover Holdings, after years of litigation over the name |
| 13. Icon.com | $12 million | 2025 | AI advertising startup Icon |
| 14. Crypto.com | $12 million | 2018 | Reported price for the exchange rebrand; never confirmed |
| 15. Hotels.com | $11 million | 2001 | Bought years before the brand went global |
| 16. Tesla.com | $11 million | 2016 | Tesla, after roughly a decade of pursuing the owner |
| 17. Fund.com | $9.99 million | 2008 | Closed just before the financial crisis bit |
| 18. Porn.com | $9.5 million | 2007 | MXN Ltd |
| 19. Fb.com | $8.5 million | 2010 | Facebook, from the American Farm Bureau |
| 20. HealthInsurance.com | $8.13 million | 2019 | Top publicly charted sale of its year |
| 21. We.com | $8 million | 2015 | WeWork |
| 22. Business.com | $7.5 million | 1999 | The dot-com era benchmark for years |
| 23. Diamond.com | $7.5 million | 2006 | Ice.com, online jewelry retailer |
| 24. Beer.com | $7 million | 2004 | Reported figure from a corporate transaction |
| 25. Z.com | $6.8 million | 2014 | GMO Internet, Japan |
The top ten reported prices side by side; AI.com's ~$70M figure, never formally confirmed, would clear the confirmed record tier by more than double
Why the biggest famous deals are missing
Three names people expect here are excluded on definition. Cars.com is often quoted at $872 million, but that figure is an accounting valuation of the domain inside a company acquisition, not a price anyone paid for the name alone. LasVegas.com was a long-term lease reported at around $90 million spread over decades, so there was no sale to rank. And Business.com appears twice in domain folklore: the $7.5 million 1999 domain sale listed above is real, while the $345 million figure from 2007 was the acquisition of the whole business built on it. This list tracks domain-only transactions, which is the number that actually matters if you are buying or selling a name.
What do the record sales have in common?
Every one of the 25 is a .com. Even in the middle of the .ai boom, with .ai names taking a reported 29% of 2025's top 100 public sales, the record tier still belongs to .com, because record buyers are companies purchasing the one canonical version of their name. Beyond the TLD, three patterns stand out:
- One-word generics dominate. Insurance, voice, chat, fund, beer, diamond: category-defining dictionary words priced for the single buyer who can monetize the whole category.
- Vertical buying sprees create clusters. QuinStreet alone accounts for four entries and roughly $119 million between 2009 and 2010, all insurance and finance names bought to feed lead-generation economics.
- Corporate upgrades and defense buys fill the rest. Tesla.com, Fb.com, We.com and Hotels.com were companies buying the exact name of their brand, often after years of operating on a workaround like teslamotors.com.
The 2024-2026 additions follow the same logic with new money: Chat.com went to OpenAI, Icon.com to an AI advertising startup, and AI.com, if the reported ~$70 million is accurate, would be the largest domain-only price ever disclosed. The AI funding cycle is doing for domains what insurance lead generation did in 2009-2012, a story covered in detail in the .ai boom in numbers. Timing is the quieter pattern: 17 of the 25 deals closed before 2016, and after a long lull at the very top, the AI cycle produced three entries within about a year.
Where does the next record come from?
Almost certainly from another AI-era upgrade buy, and possibly one nobody hears about. Public trackers see a fraction of the market: NameBio recorded roughly 190,300 sales worth $244 million+ across all of 2025, and that is an estimated 5-10% of retail activity, because brokered mega-deals routinely close under NDA. The all-time list above is really the all-time list of deals someone chose to disclose.
It is also worth being clear about what these records are not: none of these names came out of expiry auctions or drops at record prices. Record names are bought from patient long-term owners through brokers. The drop is where the supply chain starts for the mid-market instead, where investors research expiring names with tools like DomCop, catch them for two or three figures and resell them for four. If you are selling rather than sightseeing, the mechanics that actually apply to your name are in our guide to how to sell a domain.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI.com really the most expensive domain ever sold?
By reported price, yes: roughly $70 million in April 2025. The figure came through industry reporting rather than a joint announcement, so treat it as reported, not verified. If accurate, it more than doubles the previous benchmark.
What is the largest fully confirmed cash sale?
Voice.com at $30 million in 2019. Block.one announced the purchase, the seller confirmed it, and it was paid in cash, which makes it the cleanest data point at the top of the market.
Why is Cars.com not number one at $872 million?
Because no one paid $872 million for the domain. That number is a valuation assigned to the name inside a corporate acquisition. Domain-only rankings exclude it for the same reason they exclude company acquisitions generally.
How are record domain sales verified?
The strongest confirmations come from both parties announcing the deal, from prices surfacing in corporate filings, or from venues reporting into trackers like NameBio and DNJournal. Reported-only figures rest on broker and press sourcing, which is why careful lists label them reported rather than confirmed.
Do record sales mean my domain is valuable?
Not by themselves. Industry consensus puts portfolio sell-through at roughly 1-2% per year, and records are extreme outliers created by one motivated corporate buyer. What records do change is pricing psychology at the top, which filters down slowly. For pricing a real name, comparable sales beat headlines; see buy now vs make offer vs auction.