Questions

Short answers. The rules are the authority where these differ.

What am I actually buying?

A placement. While you hold a word, your name, logo, one line and link sit on that word's page and beside it on the board. You are not buying the word, any rights in it, or anything you can sell on. The placement lasts until someone pays more.

What does a word cost?

A dollar, if nobody holds it. If somebody does, a dollar more than they paid. You can bid any whole-dollar amount above that floor; there is no upper limit. Above $1,000 you will be asked to type the amount a second time. Bidding well above the floor is how you make a word expensive for anyone else to take.

What happens when someone takes my word?

Your listing comes down and theirs goes up. Your bid is spent — you had the placement for as long as you held it. We email you, once, with the new price and a link to take it back for a dollar more. You stay in the word's history permanently.

Do I get a refund if someone takes my word?

No. Losing a word to a higher bid is the game working, not a fault. You are refunded in full in exactly two cases: two people paid the same price at the same moment and you lost the race, or we made a mistake. A listing removed for impersonating a brand is not refunded.

Why can't I bid on nike, or google, or tesla?

Because they are not words. Only entries in the English dictionary are on offer — 63,666 of them — and proper nouns are refused at source. apple is available because it is a fruit. nike is a name. This is a product rule, not a legal judgement, and it is why the site can exist at all.

Is this gambling?

No. There is no chance, no prize, no pool. You know the exact price before you pay and you receive exactly the placement you paid for, immediately. Losing it later to a higher bid is an advertising term ending, not a bet resolving.

Isn't this just another pay-to-rank board?

The auction is the same shape as the boards that appeared in 2026, and we say so. What is for sale is different: a word from the dictionary rather than a rank, with attention data behind each one and a hard rule against brand names. Whether that difference is worth a dollar is yours to decide.

What can my listing say?

Your name, a logo, a link, one line for the board, a longer pitch for the word's own page, button text, and an offer. All of it must be yours — you may not present as a brand you are not. No chat or invite links, no sexual content. The full list is in the rules.

Why is my link's domain shown next to my name?

Because a display name is whatever you typed, and the destination is not. Showing where a listing actually goes is how a visitor can tell a real brand from someone borrowing its name. It applies to everyone.

Someone holds a word that is my company's name.

Then bid. A dictionary word belongs to nobody, and no complaint removes one from the board. A grocer holding apple is not doing anything wrong, and neither would Apple be.

Someone's listing is pretending to be my company.

That is different, and it is the one thing you can report, at /disputes. A listing may not present itself as a brand the bidder is not — in its name, logo or copy. If upheld, it comes down within a business day, the bidder is not refunded, and the word reopens at $1 for anyone, including you.

Who takes my payment?

Dodo Payments, as merchant of record. They are the seller for the transaction, they handle tax, and their name is what appears on your statement. We never see your card.

The price is in dollars — why was I charged in rupees?

Dodo bills in your local currency at their rate. The board records the dollar amount you bid, and that is the figure that counts for taking and defending a word.

Will you email me?

Once, when someone takes your word. Nothing else. Every notice carries a link that stops them, and stopping them changes nothing about your listing.

Can I delete my listing or my data?

Write to contact@oust.ink. Your email address can be removed on request. The record of who held a word and for how much is public and permanent — it is the ledger the whole site rests on — but it carries your listing name, not your email.

What do the “readers today” figures mean?

How many people read that word's Wikipedia article in the last full day, and how that compares with the word's own 60-day median. It measures unusually talked about, not commonly said, which is why the is never at the top.