@VA3TWT 

I will monitor the heat after turning down the wi-fi power.  I'm more inclined to return the router as I believe this is a design flaw or I got a bad one.  I shouldn't have to put fans on the unit to cool it.

@VA3TWT , same problem on my newly bought router!  Spec would be 40°C according to TP-Link helpdesk.  Mine was sent back, now I am without 'new' router = bad service.

My router is standing in free space (25°C ambient) on top of a speaker. ( 50°C = 122°F)

@VA3TWT 

I have been using my router for almost 1 month, I realised last week it was hot to the touch when suddenly I lost Internet connection and when to check my router: lights were of except 2 of them that were orange/red. I reset my router and started working again, I think it might overheated and stopped working. I think we shouldn't need to use a fan to cool it down as this will mean something was not well designed.

@Ayuwokin Nobody wants a router with a fan.   There already is a huge heatsink inside which should suffice. If the router heats up perhaps the cooling paste was not well fit or intel is providing chipsets which don't meet requirements. Anyhow, end customers should never face these problems. "return to manufacturer" is the only good option and maybe get another type of router if this really is a design fault. I think TP-link should do a call-back like Volkswagen 

@VA3TWT 

It is normal on this router to be hot... not to worry.

Where I live you can buy quite  small silver fans for £7.99 just the right size. I use one for the AX50 router and one for side panel on PC desktop case which does not have its own fan, due to oversized CPU heatsink .

Its more of a problem getting TP Link to properly update their firmware for this model

@VA3TWT 

My heat gun is registering the router's bottom at 50°C. This is midday, with 2 laptops, 2 cellphones, and one wired desktop computer on the network. CPU is ~30-50% usage when I looked. Router is only a month old, in a well-ventilated space on top of a desk.

To me this seems like the route is poorly designed. Not sure if sustained 50°C is good for it long term.

I only noticed and looked into this because we were having internet issues and picked up the router, but honestly the outtages could have been my ISP-- They've been doing maintenance in the area.

@VA3TWT my Archer AX50/AX3000 runs so hot that the ink on the labels at the back disappered, and they could be easily erased by a smudge.. I have no idea how Intel could build the processor in it so bad, or heat intensive for a 800mhz processor.. It doesn't matter if I stop the wi-fi or not, it is hot all the time, even when the router it is not connected to the network, the cpu is at 19-25-30% without doing nothing.. And the chip on that board was supposed to releaf the CPU from the traffic burden..

I am really disappointed. I am pretty sure it is because of the intel cpu or chip inside, not sure how broadcom routers like AX30 and AX10 are..

@AntonK 

The Archer AX20 is based on a Broadcom chipset and has the same housing as the AX50. 

That AX20 has recently been followed up by the new AX21 model, which appears to be based on the same hardware as the AX20, but features a housing with an improved vent design.

So maybe the housing that TP-Link designed for use with the AX10/AX1500, AX20, AX50/AX3000 routers just doesn't provide adequate venting for the more powerful models?