🤖 AI Domain Name Generator & Availability Checker

Generate 20-100 brandable website names with AI, check them across your preferred extensions, and compare a ranked shortlist in one workflow. The Actor combines AI naming, domain availability, public RDAP/WHOIS registration evidence, transparent scoring, GoDaddy purchase checks, and alternatives for unavailable domains.

▶️ Try AI Domain Name Generator & Availability Checker on Apify

✨ What can you do with this Actor?

• 🤖 Generate up to 100 domain stems from a product or business description.
• 🎨 Guide the naming style, tone, language, length, or words to avoid.
• 🌍 Search across 1-10 popular or custom extensions such as .com, .ai, .io, or .co.uk.
• 🔎 Check up to 500 supplied domains or name stems instead of generating them.
• ✅ Classify every domain as available, taken, or unknown.
• 🪪 Run a WHOIS domain lookup with RDAP preferred and public WHOIS as fallback.
• 🛡️ Return registrar, dates, nameservers, DNSSEC, and statuses when public data is available.
• 💳 Check GoDaddy purchase availability and pricing for every run.
• 💡 Generate and registrar-check alternatives when requested names are unavailable.
• 🏆 Rank names by fit, pronunciation, memorability, brandability, length, and TLD availability.
• 🔌 Automate through Apify clients, REST API, schedules, and webhooks.

The Actor does not register domains, perform trademark clearance, or guarantee that a registrar will sell a name.

👥 Who is this domain name generator for?

Built for 🚀 founders, 🏢 business owners, 🎨 naming teams, 🔬 domain researchers, and 🧑‍💻 developers who need a scored, auditable domain shortlist or API workflow.

🎯 Use cases

AI domain name generator and checker

Generate 20-100 domain stems from a product brief, expand them across selected TLDs, check availability, and rank the results. Use the optional instructions field when you need a particular tone, language, length, or naming pattern.

Startup and business name generator

Turn a startup brief into domain-ready ideas. Compare fit and brandability, then see available extensions for each stem. This is domain research, not legal name validation.

WHOIS domain expiration lookup

The registration object can contain registrar, creation and expiry dates, nameservers, DNSSEC, and statuses. RDAP is preferred; WHOIS is the optional fallback.

Domain availability API

Run through REST, JavaScript, Python, Make, n8n, schedules, or webhooks. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

⚙️ How it works

1. Describe your product, audience, and differentiator, or supply names you already have.
2. When no names are supplied, the configured AI model generates up to your selected maximum; the Actor expands and deduplicates stems across your selected extensions.
3. RDAP, DNS-over-HTTPS, and optional WHOIS classify and enrich domains.
4. GoDaddy adds purchase and renewal data. When a candidate is unavailable, the Actor can add purchasable AI or deterministic alternatives.
5. Candidates are scored, ranked, filtered if requested, and saved as one dataset item per fully qualified domain. The run summary is saved separately in the SUMMARY key-value-store record.

🎛️ Input

Field	Default	Description
description	Example prefill	Product, audience, and differentiator used for AI generation and fit scoring. Leave empty only when supplying domainNames.
maxCandidates	20	Maximum number of AI-generated names, from 20-100. Ignored when domainNames is supplied.
generationInstructions	Empty	Optional naming style, tone, language, length, or words to avoid.
tlds	com	One or more popular extensions used to expand generated names and supplied stems.
additionalTlds	Empty	Custom country-code or industry extensions. Leading dots are optional.
domainNames	Empty	Up to 500 full domains or stems to check instead of generating names.

The public form groups these six controls into generation, customization, extension, and supplied-domain sections. Provide either description or at least one item in domainNames. Popular and custom extensions are combined and deduplicated, with a maximum of 10. A full domain such as example.co.uk is checked as supplied; a stem such as example is expanded across the selected extensions. Inputs that expand beyond 3,000 fully qualified domains are rejected.

AI credentials are managed by the Actor owner through encrypted environment variables. Users do not need to provide an AI key.

Legacy API and advanced inputs

For backward compatibility, the runtime still recognizes the controls below, but they are intentionally excluded from the public input schema and published task presets:

Input	Behavior
checkAvailability	Availability checks are always enabled. This legacy flag is ignored.
onlyAvailable	Keep only results classified as available; summary counts still describe every checked candidate.
includeRegistrationData, whoisFallback	Control RDAP metadata and the optional public WHOIS fallback. Both are enabled by default.
maxConcurrency, requestTimeoutSecs, requestRetries	Control availability request concurrency, timeout, and retries.
scoreWithAi, weights	Disable AI scoring or override the six score weights: length, pronounceability, memorability, brandability, zone, and fit. Deterministic scoring remains available.
aiProvider, apiKey, model	Select a supported provider (openrouter, groq, openai, or anthropic) and optionally override the model. Environment keys are preferred.
generationPrompt, scoringPrompt	Customize AI generation and scoring instructions.
checkRegistrarPricing	GoDaddy availability and purchase/renewal pricing are always requested. This legacy flag is ignored. The Actor requires a residential or custom proxy configuration.
onlyPurchasable, maxRegistrationPrice	Filter by GoDaddy purchase status or purchase price. Both require checkRegistrarPricing: true.
generateAlternatives, maxAlternatives, alternativeCheckLimit	Control the default-on generation and registrar checking of purchasable alternatives for unavailable candidates. AI alternatives are used when an AI client is available, with deterministic fallbacks.

Registrar options include registrarMarket, registrarPageUrl, registrarRequestTimeoutSecs, registrarProxyConfiguration, and registrarStrict. The API also accepts the older includeRegistrarRecommendations and maxRegistrarRecommendations aliases.

🚀 Example: generate startup domain names

{
  "description": "An AI assistant that turns customer interviews into a prioritized product roadmap for SaaS teams",
  "maxCandidates": 20,
  "generationInstructions": "Prefer short, confident names that are easy to pronounce internationally",
  "tlds": ["com", "ai"],
  "additionalTlds": ["co.uk"]
}

📊 What data does it return?

Field	Description
domain, stem, tld, rank	Domain identity and final position.
availability, available	Four-state status (available, taken, unknown, or not_checked) and a Boolean when availability is known. available is omitted for unknown and not_checked.
evidence	RDAP, DNS, registrar status, and methods used. Null subfields are omitted.
registration	RDAP/WHOIS registrar, handle, dates, nameservers, DNSSEC, and statuses when public registration data is found. The object is omitted when no data is available.
registrar	Optional GoDaddy availability, purchase/renewal pricing, premium/restricted flags, aftermarket data, and market metrics.
scores, score, scorePercent	Six component scores and weighted totals.
availableTlds, zoneAvailability	Availability for the same stem across selected extensions.
source, description, domainUrl, checkedAt	Candidate origin, input context, HTTPS domain link, and timestamp.

Results are sorted with available first, then unknown, not_checked, and taken; score percentage, score, and domain name break ties. rank is assigned after any output filters. The SUMMARY record contains generated/checked/saved counts, status counts, registration count, AI and registrar configuration, and up to ten top available domains.

registration contains public registration infrastructure data. Fields without data are omitted instead of being returned as null.

{
  "domain": "openai.com",
  "availability": "taken",
  "evidence": { "rdapStatus": 200, "method": "rdap" },
  "registration": {
    "source": "rdap",
    "registrar": { "name": "MarkMonitor Inc.", "id": "292" },
    "expiresAt": "2029-01-19T19:28:24Z",
    "nameservers": ["ns1-02.azure-dns.com", "ns2-02.azure-dns.net"],
    "dnssec": { "signed": false, "status": "unsigned", "dsData": [] }
  }
}

🔌 API example

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/devcake~startup-domain-searcher/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"description":"An observability tool that turns production traces into regression tests","tlds":["com","ai"]}'

❓ Frequently asked questions

Can I use AI to generate domain names?

Yes. Provide a description of your product, audience, and differentiator. The configured AI model generates valid lowercase stems, expands them across your selected extensions, checks availability, and ranks the results. The Actor owner supplies the encrypted provider key.

How does the WHOIS lookup work?

The Actor first requests RDAP, then uses WHOIS when RDAP has no record and DNS does not prove availability. Public results may include registrar, expiry, nameservers, and DNSSEC, but privacy redaction and registry policy can leave some values empty. These lookup settings are managed automatically.

Can I check domains I already have?

Yes. Add domainNames in the form or through the API. Full domains are checked as supplied; bare stems are expanded across tlds. This mode does not require an AI key unless you also request AI scoring or AI-generated alternatives.

Does the Actor check registrar prices?

Yes. Every run requests GoDaddy availability and purchase/renewal pricing through an Apify or custom proxy. Registrar failures can still fail soft unless registrarStrict, onlyPurchasable, or maxRegistrationPrice requires the pricing data.

How can I generate unique domain names?

Describe what the product does, who it serves, and what makes it different. The Actor normalizes and deduplicates AI suggestions before checking multiple extensions and ranking available candidates first.