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The 2026 round of the New Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program offers opportunities for various organizations: to enhance security, strengthen brand image, build community ecosystems, and gain a competitive advantage in the evolving digital landscape.
News Summary:
- ICANN has now opened the application window for the 2026 round of the New gTLD program, with a deadline of August 12. This program provides opportunities for businesses, communities, governments, and other organizations to integrate their global online presence into their digital strategies.
- Operating a generic top-level domain allows organizations to take control and flexibly manage their digital brand assets, enhance resilience against cyber threats, and gain a competitive edge. A recent study shows that 92% of marketers believe gTLDs help create brand differentiation, build user trust, and improve search engine optimization (SEO) performance.
- The 2026 round will accept applications for top-level domains (TLDs) in 27 different writing systems, significantly expanding the number of languages supported by Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), covering hundreds of languages including Arabic, Chinese, Devanagari, Thai, and more.
Los AngelesMay 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS), today announced that the application window for its 2026 round of the New gTLD program is now open. A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is the part of a web address that comes after the last dot. This marks the first time in over a decade that businesses, communities, governments, and other organizations have the opportunity to operate unique digital assets such as .brand, .city, and .industry for their own use, their customers, or their members.
ICANN Opens Application Window for New Generic Top-Level Domains
A Strategic Tool for the Digital Age
A gTLD is a global digital identifier that can serve as the core of an organization’s digital presence, enabling autonomous control over the domain name ecosystem. The previous round in 2012 introduced over 1,200 new gTLDs, including brand domains like .microsoft and .sky, geographic domains like .africa and .berlin, and generic term domains like .bank and .eco. New gTLDs have demonstrated advantages in building brand trust, fostering local digital ecosystems, and providing users with more intuitive navigation.
Key Benefits of Operating a gTLD
A gTLD serves as a unique digital home, offering organizations:
- Control and Flexibility: Define your own digital ecosystem by determining who can register under your domain.
- Security: Enhance online transactions and build a robust defense against cyber threats to protect your brand and customers.
- Competitive Advantage: The vast majority of marketers (92%) agree that gTLDs offer advantages in differentiation, trust-building, and SEO.
ICANN President and CEO Kurtis Lindqvist said: “gTLDs are unique digital tools that can be used in meaningful and innovative ways to help organizations achieve their long-term goals. Whether it’s branding a company, promoting a geographic region or city, strengthening a community, or conducting business to offer domains under a new registry, new gTLDs can become innovative tools for facilitating business operations, cybersecurity, and communication.”
The 2026 round will expand the number of languages available for Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), accepting applications for gTLDs using 27 different writing systems, covering hundreds of languages (such as Arabic, Chinese, Devanagari, and Thai). This expansion will bring a more accessible and user-friendly internet experience to billions of non-Latin script users.
How to Apply
The application submission window will close on August 12, 2026. Applicants must submit their applications through the online TLD Application Management System (TAMS) available here.
Applicant Resources
The Applicant Guidebook is the authoritative guide for any entity interested in applying for a gTLD. It includes application questions, requirements, and processes, guiding applicants through the submission and evaluation process.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to review TAMS-related resources before submitting their applications. These resources include system user guides, demo videos, and other helpful tools, all available here. Additional resources, including frequently asked questions, topic overviews, webinar recordings, and more, can be found on the 2026 Round Resources webpage.
About ICANN
ICANN’s mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global internet. To reach another person on the internet, you need to type an address (a name or number) into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers worldwide. Founded in 1998, ICANN is a nonprofit public benefit corporation that brings together global community participants to govern its operations.