ICANN 85 Mumbai: New Domain Extensions Open for Applications April 30 — Here Are the Exact Dates and What to Expect

At ICANN 85 in Mumbai this week, the organization finally confirmed what the domain industry has been waiting years for: new gTLD applications officially open April 30, 2026. After more than a decade since the first round in 2012, anyone — companies, organizations, entrepreneurs — can apply to run their own domain extension.

This is one of the biggest structural changes coming to the domain name industry. Here's the complete timeline, what's new this time around, and what it all means if you're buying, selling, or building on domain names.

The Complete New gTLD Timeline

ICANN laid out a detailed schedule at the Mumbai meeting. Here are the key dates:

Application Window: April 30 – August 12, 2026

• April 30, 2026: Applications open. This is the last day of ICANN's promised "April" window — true to form for an organization not known for being early.
• August 12, 2026: Application window closes after 104 days. It doesn't matter when you submit; it's not first-come, first-served. Day 1 applications are treated the same as Day 104 applications.
• Application fee: Expected to be in the $200,000+ range, similar to the 2012 round's $185,000 fee adjusted for inflation and process costs.

Processing Phase: August – October 2026

• After the window closes, ICANN enters a quiet processing period of at least two months.
• During this time, ICANN staff will review applications and prepare for the public reveal.
• If the volume matches 2012 (approximately 2,000 applications), ICANN expects to be ready for Reveal Day before their next meeting.

Reveal Day: Before October 17, 2026

• Reveal Day is when the world finds out what strings have been applied for. In 2012, this was a major industry event — revealing which companies were competing for which extensions.
• ICANN 87 begins October 17 in Muscat, Oman (assuming the meeting isn't relocated due to Middle East conflicts, which ICANN is monitoring). The goal is to have Reveal Day before this meeting.

The New "Replacement Strings" Feature

This is the biggest procedural change from 2012. After Reveal Day, applicants will have 14 days to swap their applied-for string to a pre-selected "replacement string."

Why does this matter? In the 2012 round, applicants were locked in. If you applied for .shop and discovered you were competing against five other applicants, you were stuck in an expensive contention battle. This time, you can pivot.

Scenarios where this helps:

• You applied for .cloud but find yourself in a contention set with Amazon and Google — you can swap to your backup string
• Your string faces likely objections from trademark holders — you can switch before the fight begins
• The competitive landscape looks different than you expected — adapt instead of being trapped

String Confirmation Day: ~November 2026

• After the 14-day swap window, String Confirmation Day locks everyone into their final choice.
• This also starts the 104-day objection period, during which companies and organizations can object to applications based on intellectual property rights, public interest, community rights, or other grounds.
• Governments can also object through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), though a full consensus would be needed to block an application outright.

Objection Period Ends: ~February 2027

• The objection window is expected to close around February 2027.
• Meanwhile, in December 2026, ICANN will conduct the Prioritization Draw — a lottery determining the order in which applications are processed and ultimately delegated.

What Happened in 2012

For context, the first round received 1,930 applications for 1,409 unique strings. Some highlights from that round:

• .app was the most contested string, with 13 applications. Google eventually won it.
• .web attracted 7 applications and is *still* not fully resolved over a decade later.
• Google applied for over 100 strings. Amazon applied for 76.
• The average time from application to delegation was about 2 years, though some took much longer.
• Many gTLDs that launched never gained significant traction. Extensions like .guru, .ninja, and .xyz had very different outcomes.

What This Means for Domain Buyers

If you're a startup founder, business owner, or domain investor, the new gTLD round will affect the domain market in several ways.

1. Hundreds of New Extensions Are Coming

Expect another wave of new domain extensions hitting the market in 2027-2028. Some will be generic terms (like .shop, .app from the first round), some will be brand TLDs (like .google, .apple), and some will be geographic or community-based.

Curious what extensions are already available? Check our domain extensions guide for a comprehensive overview of current TLDs.

2. Premium .com Values May Actually Increase

Counterintuitively, the first gTLD round in 2012 didn't hurt .com values — it arguably helped them. When hundreds of new extensions launched and most failed to gain traction, it reinforced .com as the default. This time may be different with more mature alternative TLDs, but premium .com domains remain the safe bet.

Use our domain value estimator to benchmark your current domains before the market shifts.

3. .AI Domains Continue to Surge

While we wait for new gTLDs, the existing alternative TLD market is red-hot. DNJournal's latest sales chart shows Bot.ai sold for $1.2 million — the largest publicly reported .ai domain sale ever. Other notable recent sales include:

• PrivateLLM.com — $250,000 (Afternic)
• Durable.com — $125,000 (upgraded from Durable.co via Lumis brokerage)
• CoinPrime.com — $51,000 (Sedo)
• Pay-Equity.org — $46,000 (NameJet)

The Durable.com sale is particularly interesting — it's a company that upgraded from .co to .com, paying $125,000 for the privilege. This pattern of startups "graduating" to .com remains strong. Browse available options on our premium domains page.

4. China's Domain Market Is Shrinking

In a notable counter-trend, China's .cn registrations declined by about 50,000 to 20.77 million, according to CNNIC's latest report. The internationalized .中国 extension has been in freefall for five years — from 210,000 names in 2021 to just 159,480 now.

This matters because China was one of the biggest growth engines for domain registrations globally. If the world's largest internet population is registering fewer domains, it suggests structural shifts in how businesses establish their online presence — potentially through super-apps, social platforms, and mini-programs instead of traditional websites.

How to Prepare

Whether you're a potential gTLD applicant or a domain buyer watching from the sidelines, here's what to do:

1. Audit your domain portfolio now. Understand what you have, what's expiring, and what gaps exist. Our domain search and Whois lookup tools can help.

1. Watch for the application guidebook. ICANN will publish detailed rules and fees before April 30. This document will answer specific questions about costs, requirements, and evaluation criteria.

1. Monitor your brand strings. If someone applies for a gTLD that matches your trademark, you'll want to know during the objection period. Start thinking about which strings matter to your business.

1. Consider domain pricing trends. With market uncertainty coming, check domain pricing across registrars to make sure you're getting fair renewal rates on your current portfolio.

1. Don't panic-buy. The new extensions won't be live until 2027-2028 at the earliest. You have time to be strategic rather than reactive.

The Bottom Line

The second new gTLD round is real, it has dates, and it's happening in less than two months. Whether it produces the next .app (success) or the next .guru (forgettable) depends on who applies and how they execute.

For most domain buyers, the practical advice hasn't changed: secure the .com if you can, pick a strong alternative TLD if you can't, and build something worth visiting regardless of what comes after the dot. Use our domain generator to explore creative naming options across all available extensions.

The domain industry just got a lot more interesting.

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