Names that end in something other than .com may soon multiply, and the first public list of who wants what has arrived. On 7 October 2026, ICANN revealed that it received 1,615 applications for new domain extensions, a number that matters to anyone who owns a brand, a blog, or a small online shop. In this article, we will explore what the figures show, the dates that lie ahead, why launches will be slow, and how to avoid paying for names that cannot be bought yet.
The Figures ICANN Published on Reveal Day
ICANN, the nonprofit that coordinates the internet’s naming system, announced on 7 October 2026 that it had received 1,615 applications in the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round. Applications were accepted from 30 April to 12 August 2026, and the October announcement, called Reveal Day, was the first time the full list of requested extensions became public. ICANN’s chief executive, Kurtis Lindqvist, said that “Reveal Day marks an important milestone for the next expansion of the Domain Name System” and that ICANN “remains focused on administering a fair, transparent, and predictable evaluation process.”
A gTLD, short for generic top-level domain, is the ending after the last dot in a web address, such as .com, .org or .shop. Each application asks ICANN for the right to run one such ending as a registry, which means keeping the master list of names under it and selling them through registrars. Winning one is therefore a business decision rather than a naming exercise, and that explains why so many of the applicants are companies protecting their own names.
Breakdown by Type
ICANN split the 1,615 applications into several categories. Brand applications lead with 333, which suggests that many companies want an ending that only they control, usually one that matches their own name. The remaining categories are much smaller, as the table shows.
| Category (ICANN) | Applications |
| Brand | 333 |
| Applicant Support Program applicants | 51 |
| Internationalized Domain Names | 21 |
| Community-based | 16 |
| Self-identified geographic name | 15 |
| Variants | 9 |
ICANN reports these groups separately, and the announcement does not say whether one application can sit in more than one of them, so the safe approach is not to add the rows together. Simple arithmetic on ICANN’s total shows that brand applications make up roughly one in five of the 1,615. The Applicant Support Program exists to help organizations that might otherwise struggle to take part in an expensive process. Internationalized Domain Name applications are for endings written in scripts other than the Latin alphabet, which matters to anyone who reads and writes in another script. Variants, as I read the label, are alternate forms of a string that an applicant also wants.
Regional Split
The regional split is more lopsided than the category split.
| Region (ICANN) | Applications |
| North America | 864 |
| Europe | 506 |
| Asia, Australia and the Pacific | 218 |
| Africa | 16 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 11 |
North America and Europe together account for 1,370 of the 1,615, which is simple arithmetic on ICANN’s own numbers. The pattern probably says more about who can afford the application process and who has a strategic reason to enter it than about where internet users live, but ICANN’s announcement does not explain it, so treat that reading as my opinion rather than a finding.
Where Other Reports Differ
CircleID, an industry news site, reported the same day that the 1,615 are active applications from 481 applicants. It also said one further application, for .wdo from the World Data Organization, was under administrative review, and it noted overlapping bids, with .ace drawing three separate applications. CircleID’s regional tallies differ from ICANN’s because it counted applicants rather than applied-for strings, so both sets of numbers can be correct at once. ICANN’s page does not state the number of applicants, which means the 481 is CircleID’s figure alone. ICANN also describes its totals as a snapshot taken on 7 October, with final numbers to be confirmed on String Confirmation Day, so expect small movements.
One caution about reading too much into the totals: an application is a request, not a promise. ICANN’s figures describe how many parties asked, and they say nothing about how many will succeed. A count this large is better treated as a map of interest than as a forecast of how many new endings will exist, and the final tally of strings that reach the public will almost certainly be smaller, though ICANN has not said by how much.
Key Dates From the Replacement Window to the 2027 Draw
The timeline matters more than the headline number, because it shows when anything can change for an ordinary website owner. ICANN has published firm dates for the next few months and left later milestones undated. The table puts them in order.
| Date | Milestone |
| 30 April to 12 August 2026 | Application submission window |
| 8 to 21 October 2026 | Replacement Period (00:01 UTC on 8 October to 23:59 UTC on 21 October) |
| 17 November 2026 | String Confirmation Day |
| 17 November 2026 to 16 March 2027 | Community Input and Objections Period |
| 27 November 2026 | Refund request deadline (23:59 UTC) |
| 19 December 2026 to 4 January 2027 | ICANN year-end closure |
| First half of 2027 | Prioritization Draw (expected) |
| After the draw | String Evaluation Stage (expected to last 180 days) |
| Later milestones | No dates announced yet |
Replacement Window Closed in October
For two weeks in October, applicants could swap their application for a replacement string. The point of such a window, as I read it, is that an applicant who discovers a rival with the same string, or a string that now looks risky, can change course without abandoning the whole application. Whether anyone used the option will only become visible when ICANN publishes its updated list, so both the 1,615 total and the names attached to it may shift.
String Confirmation Day on 17 November
On 17 November 2026, ICANN will publish the final string list together with updated contention sets. A contention set is a group of applications for the same or confusingly similar strings, and it has to be resolved before any member of it moves forward. The same day the Community Input and Objections Period opens, the 65 percent refund window begins. For site owners, the practical value is simple: it is the first date on which you can check a settled list for words that matter to your business.
Input, Objections and the Refund Choice
The wider community can respond to applications in several ways: by posting application comments, through Early Warnings from members of the Governmental Advisory Committee, through notifications that a singular and a plural version of the same word are in play, or by filing formal objections. That input period runs from 17 November 2026 until 16 March 2027. Applicants who reconsider can withdraw by 27 November 2026 and receive 65 percent of the evaluation fee back, though the figures I have do not state the fee itself, so I will not guess at it.
By simple arithmetic, the refund deadline falls ten days after the list is final. Some applicants will probably use that short stretch to bow out, especially those who find themselves in a crowded contention set, but that is an expectation and not something ICANN has said.
Pauses and the Draw
ICANN’s year-end closure runs from 19 December 2026 to 4 January 2027, which limits what can happen over the holidays. A Prioritization Draw is expected in the first half of 2027, and the String Evaluation Stage is expected to last 180 days. Everything after that has no date yet. Any promotion that names a launch month for a specific new extension is therefore guesswork.
ICANN states its deadlines in UTC and runs the program centrally, so the calendar is the same everywhere. A shop owner in Lagos, a blogger in Manchester and a studio in Sydney all face the same dates, and local rules only matter later, when a country-specific trademark office or consumer regulator becomes relevant to a particular launch.
Most New Extensions Will Be Slow to Appear
ICANN states plainly that no 2026-round applications are contracted or delegated. That is a short sentence with a long consequence: every one of the 1,615 applications still has to pass through several stages, and any of them can stall or end. The exact rules sit in ICANN’s program documents, so the stages below are a general guide to how such rounds work rather than a legal reading.
Evaluation
Each application is reviewed to see whether the applicant can run a registry and whether the requested string is acceptable. Reviews of this kind typically look at technical and financial capability, at whether the string is too similar to an existing one, and at whether it touches sensitive territory such as geographic names or community interests. ICANN expects this stage to take 180 days, and that is for the work itself, before delays caused by objections or disputes.
The overlap with the community period matters. While evaluators work, the Community Input and Objections Period is open, so concerns raised by governments, communities or other businesses can feed into decisions about particular strings. For an applicant, that means a clean technical review does not guarantee a smooth path, because a serious objection can add time or end an application altogether.
Contention
When several applicants want the same string, the group has to be sorted out before anyone proceeds. CircleID’s example of .ace with three applications shows how common this is. Rounds like this have generally resolved such cases through negotiation, mergers of applicants, or an auction-style mechanism, but the 2026 rules are ICANN’s to describe, and anyone with a stake should read them directly.
Contracting
An applicant that clears the earlier hurdles signs a registry agreement with ICANN, which sets the obligations of the operator toward users, registrars and the wider system. Until that agreement exists, an application is a request and nothing more, and no one can lawfully offer registrations under it. Contracting is also where the operator takes on ongoing duties, such as handling abuse reports and keeping the registry running reliably, which is why applicants with thin plans sometimes withdraw before reaching it.
Delegation and Launch
Delegation is the technical step of adding the extension to the internet’s root zone, so that names under it can resolve in browsers and email systems. After delegation, the registry usually opens in phases, often with an early period for trademark holders before general sale, and registrars have to decide whether to stock the extension at all. The first moment an ordinary person can buy a name is therefore the last step in a long chain.
Because no one can say how many applications will survive each stage, ICANN has not given launch dates, and I would treat any claim of an exact opening day with suspicion. Even the order in which applications move is not settled until the Prioritization Draw takes place, which makes early timing forecasts weak in a second way.
Brand extensions may behave differently from the rest. A company that applied for its own name does not need a public sales launch, so such an ending could go live quietly, appear on the company’s own sites and marketing, and never be offered to anyone else. That is one reason the phrase go live needs care: for a brand ending it may mean the owner starts using it, and for an open extension it means the public can register names. The two events can be far apart, and only the second one affects most readers.
For registrars and hosting companies, the delay has a business side too. They must decide which new endings are worth adding to their catalogs, update their systems, and train support staff, and they will usually wait until an extension has a delegation date and clear rules. That is one more reason a new ending will not be sold to the public overnight, even after a registry is ready.
Brands, Small Businesses and Search Rankings
Most readers of this article do not run a registry and never will. What matters to them is whether the new list changes anything about their own domain, their trademark, or their search visibility. The honest short answer is that very little changes this year, but there are a few sensible watching points.
The context matters here. The facts in this article come from ICANN and from a trade news site, and the program is global, but much of the activity and most of the reporting is US-centered, as the 864 North American applications suggest. Readers elsewhere should check whether their national domain registry or trademark office has said anything about the new round, because rules for country-code endings and local trademark protection differ from place to place.
Brand Owners
The 333 brand applications are the clearest sign that large organizations see value in controlling their own ending. A brand extension is usually run for the owner’s benefit rather than sold to the public, so ordinary customers may never be able to register under it. If you own a trademark, the useful action on 17 November is to scan the settled list for your name and for obvious variations, and to ask a trademark professional what rights you have if someone else applied for something close.
Trademark protection mechanisms exist for launches, and the Trademark Clearinghouse is the best-known example. In general terms, it is a central database where rights holders record their marks so they can use early registration periods and receive notices when matching names are registered in new extensions. Rules, fees, and eligibility change, so check ICANN’s current description before relying on that summary. Defensive registrations, meaning names bought only to keep them from others, make sense when an extension goes live and carries a real risk to your brand. Buying across every new ending would be expensive and would mostly protect against threats that never arrive.
Small Businesses and Bloggers
If you run a local shop or a blog, you have no reason to rebrand or move your domain because of this list. Your existing address keeps working, your email keeps working, and your search history stays attached to it. A new ending might be attractive later if a short, memorable name is available and the extension is well run, but that is a branding decision, not a rush.
The sensible watching step is modest. On 17 November, look at the final list for anything that matches your business name or trade and note it down. If an extension that fits your sector goes live in the future, you can compare it against your current domain with real prices and rules in front of you.
Search Rankings and Trust
Site owners often ask whether a keyword-rich ending such as .shop or .photography would help them rank. Google has said publicly that it treats new extensions like other ones, and I would take that statement at face value while suggesting you check Google Search Central for the current wording, since it can be revised. In practice, a domain mainly affects how memorable your site is, how trustworthy it looks in a result, and how easily people can type it correctly from a business card or a podcast.
That makes familiarity a real factor. Visitors recognize a common ending without a second thought, while an unfamiliar one can raise small doubts, especially for a site that asks for payments or personal details. For most small sites, the ending matters far less than content quality, clear contact details, and a secure checkout.
Pre-Registration Offers Deserve Suspicion
Whenever a new batch of extensions is announced, a second market appears around it: offers to reserve, pre-register or “secure” names under extensions that do not exist yet. The key fact for readers is blunt. No 2026-round names can be registered today, because no application is contracted or delegated. Anyone selling an actual registration under one of these endings right now is selling something that cannot exist.
Signs of a Weak Offer
Be cautious when a seller guarantees you a particular name, uses language such as “limited early access” or “priority reservation”, asks for a payment that is not clearly refundable, or sets a deadline that has nothing to do with ICANN’s published dates. A guarantee is impossible while contention sets are unresolved, since a string may be merged, withdrawn, or rejected altogether. Pressure to pay before 17 November, or before any other date that the seller invents, should raise the level of caution rather than lower it.
How a Legitimate Interest List Differs
Some registrars do collect non-binding expressions of interest, so that customers can be told when an extension becomes available. A fair version of this is free, makes no promise about winning a name, and says clearly that registration may never open. If a payment is requested, the terms should say what happens to your money if the extension is withdrawn, delayed, or never delegated. If you cannot find those terms in plain language, that tells you what you need to know.
It also helps to ask a simple question before paying anything: who decides whether this name will ever exist? The answer is ICANN and the process described above, not the seller. A reputable business will accept that answer and describe its offer accordingly, whereas a pushy one will avoid the question and return to urgency.
If You Have Already Paid
Keep the receipt, the page or message that made the offer, and any promises in writing. Contact the seller and ask for a refund under their stated terms, and if that fails, your bank or card provider may have a dispute process. This is general information rather than legal advice, and the rules differ by country, so a consumer protection office or a qualified adviser can help with your own situation.
A Sensible Order of Choices
The calm response to a long list of future extensions is a short list of small actions, in an order that costs little and keeps your options open. None of them involves buying anything this month.
First, do nothing to your current domain. If your site works and your email works, the new round changes neither. Moving to a new ending later would mean setting up permanent redirects from every old address, updating email, profiles and printed material, and rebuilding trust with returning visitors, and none of that is justified by a list of applications.
Second, mark 17 November in your calendar. That is when the final string list and updated contention sets appear, which is the first moment when the names you care about are settled enough to be worth reading. Third, decide whether you own anything that needs watching. If you hold a registered trademark, discuss it with a professional before the input period closes on 16 March 2027, because that window is where the community can raise concerns about applications.
Fourth, ignore any invitation to buy a name under an unlaunched extension, including those wrapped in the language of waiting lists and early access. Fifth, follow the source. ICANN publishes program updates on its website, and the dates in this article are the ones to check there, because plans of this size do shift. If you want to read the stages in detail, the program documents are the place to begin.
Finally, keep perspective. A new extension will have to earn its place in customers’ memories before it adds value, and most established sites will do better by improving their content, speed, and checkout than by chasing a different ending.
If you manage domains for clients or for a company, add one more habit: write down which extensions you already hold and who is responsible for renewing them. When new endings eventually open, the question of what to register will come up in meetings, and a clear inventory of your current names, with renewal dates and registrar logins, makes that conversation short. It also guards against the quieter risk of letting a valuable existing name lapse while attention is on the new ones.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. When Will the First New Extensions Go Live?
ICANN has not published launch dates, and it says no 2026-round applications are contracted or delegated. Evaluation alone is expected to last 180 days, and later milestones have no dates yet. Treat any exact launch date you see in an advertisement as unsupported.
2. Can I Buy a Domain Under One of the New Extensions Now?
No. None of the applied-for extensions has reached the contracting or delegation stage, so no registrations exist to buy. Any seller offering one today is offering a promise, not a domain.
3. Does a New Extension Help My Site Rank Higher in Google?
Google has said it treats new extensions like others, though you should check Google Search Central for the current wording. A domain ending mainly affects branding, memorability, and trust. Content quality and a good user experience matter more for most sites.
4. Should I Buy Defensive Domains Now?
Not yet, in most cases. Defensive registrations make more sense once an extension that could harm your brand is close to launch, and a trademark professional can tell you which ones carry real risk. Buying across every new ending would be costly.
5. Which Dates Should I Watch?
The most useful ones are 17 November 2026, when the final string list is published 27 November 2026, the refund request deadline for applicants, and 16 March 2027, when the Community Input and Objections Period ends. The Prioritization Draw is expected in the first half of 2027.
6. How Can I Follow Updates on the Program?
ICANN’s website carries the program announcements, schedules, and lists. Check it directly rather than relying on marketing emails, since the dates can change and sellers have a reason to make timelines sound closer than they are.
