xdomain.news

New gTLD Program: the 2026 round

The first chance to apply for a new top-level domain in fourteen years. The window closed on 12 August 2026 with more than 1,600 applications — around 300 fewer than the 1,930 filed in 2012. Nobody outside ICANN knows what was applied for: that becomes public on Reveal Day, and ICANN has not yet said when that is.

1,600+primary applications
1,100+with a backup string
54days to the reveal ceiling
1,930in the 2012 round
A number that is widely misquoted. ICANN wrote that of the 1,600+ primary applications, more than 1,100 “included applications for replacement strings”. That means 1,100 applicants also named a backup string — not that the round shrinks to 1,100. The 1,600 figure is itself provisional: ICANN cannot confirm the total until every evaluation fee is paid.

Timeline

Only two of these dates come from ICANN naming a date. The rest are arithmetic from durations written into the Applicant Guidebook, and are labelled as such.

  1. Application window30 April – 12 August 2026
    confirmed

    The submission period ran fifteen weeks and closed at 23:59 UTC on 12 August. ICANN says most applications arrived in the final days.

    source
  2. Evaluation fee payment19 August 2026 at the earliest
    confirmed

    Widely reported as a 19 August deadline, which is not what ICANN wrote. The fee is due on “whichever date is later”: 23:59 UTC on 19 August, or seven days after the applicant’s invoice was sent. An applicant invoiced on 14 August had until 21 August. The real cut-off is per-applicant and is not public, which is also why the application count stays provisional.

    source
  3. Reveal Dayon or before 14 October 2026
    derived from the rules

    The Guidebook commits ICANN to publishing every application that passed the Administrative Check “no later than nine weeks following the close of the application submission period”. Nine weeks from 12 August is 14 October. Two caveats are written into that promise: “absent extraordinary circumstances”, and a clause allowing a revised timeline if the volume of applications prevents processing in time — live with 1,600+ filed. Note also that Reveal Day covers applications that passed the check, not automatically all of them.

    source
  4. Replacement Period14 days after Reveal Day
    derived from the rules

    Applicants who pre-designated a backup string when they applied get 14 days to switch to it. The swap is irreversible, silence means keeping the original, and a replacement identical to another applicant’s string is not allowed. This is the Guidebook’s “Replacement Period” — not to be confused with the separate .Brand String Change Request.

    source
  5. String Confirmation DayReveal Day + 14 days
    derived from the rules

    ICANN republishes the list with each applicant’s final string and an updated set of contention sets. ICANN’s own applicant-journey page projects November 2026, but that sits awkwardly with the nine-week Reveal ceiling: 14 October plus 14 days is still October. The mid-September announcement should settle it.

    source
  6. Prioritisation Drawwithin 30 days of String Confirmation Day
    derived from the rules

    The order in which applications get processed is decided by a physical lottery — paper tickets at 100 US dollars each, bought in person. Reported as December 2026.

    source
  7. Objection filing period104 days from String Confirmation Day
    derived from the rules

    Often described as the trademark window, which undersells it. Objections may be filed on four grounds — string confusion, legal rights, limited public interest and community — and the clock starts at String Confirmation Day, not Reveal Day. Application comments and GAC early warnings run on the same 104 days.

    source

What Reveal Day will publish

The Guidebook commits ICANN to publishing the applied-for strings, the identity of each applicant, the designated replacement strings, and the contention sets where several applicants want the same string — plus the public portions of each application. Contention sets get republished at six later checkpoints, so this is a moving dataset, not a one-off list.

In 2012 the equivalent list appeared as HTML, CSV and PDF at once, with the columns String, Applicant, Website, Location, Region, Primary Contact, Email, IDN?, A-Label, English Meaning, Script Code, Community?, Geographic?, Application ID. ICANN has made no commitment about the 2026 format. This site is built to ingest whichever of those arrives, plus the fields 2012 did not have — replacement string, variant strings and contention set.

Is anyone else tracking this?

No public tracker of the actual applications exists, and none can until Reveal Day — the data is not public. The closest thing is Stringtel, a free tool from Domain Incite that analyses string risk and collects bids applicants have announced themselves (over a hundred as of May). ntldstats covers registration volumes for already-delegated TLDs, not applications.

Coverage

Verified 21 August 2026 against ICANN's announcement of 13 August and the 2026 Round Applicant Guidebook (V2-2026.04.24). Where ICANN says “expects”, this page says expects.