The ICANN New gTLD Program: Next Round is moving towards its goal of opening an application window in the second quarter of 2026.
With that said, let’s talk about some time periods and what they mean to you.
dotBrand Countdown – Application and Launch
dotBrand Timeline: 12 Months Before Application Window Opens
Current estimates are that the application window will open as early as late April of 2026. That is just under one year from now. One year in the corporate world can be very short, and with budget cycles and fiscal years varying widely from company to company, getting the following in order in that time is key:
Financial Preparation
The $227,000 application fee will need to be submitted as part of the application process during the application window (see below). Talk to your finance group and confirm that all of your prerequisite process steps are completed, such that the funds will be available in the application window. If your fiscal year ends in May or June of this year, you will want to get going with this process as soon as possible.
Stakeholder Planning for Application and Utilization
Working together across functional groups in your organization is paramount, as a number of strategic decisions can be made early on, such as:
- Which company name will be the official applicant and owner of the dotBrand gTLD?
- What functional group will own the project internally?
- How do we imagine using our dotBrand when it is first awarded and in the future?
- Will we charge our internal users to register their dotBrand domains?
This planning can take some time, but it will be your North Star during the entire process, so we advise starting now.
Vendor Selection
As running a gTLD requires coordinating several parties into a single, sizeable effort, picking vendors is vital. Price, service levels, experience in the space, and other factors can play into this decision-making process. Markmonitor can assist you in getting the right service package set up to meet your needs as a registry operator, and — a theme is developing — starting soon is important.
Information Gathering
As we approach the application window, the required information and supporting materials (documents, etc.) will need to be gathered.
The application questions are currently in draft form and will be codified in the final Applicant Guidebook (AGB), which should be completed by December of this year. Markmonitor can assist applicants by guiding them through the information-gathering process and compiling and writing a draft application.
All of these activities bring us to the next relevant time period:
dotBrand Timeline: 12-week Application Window
The application window, expected to open in late April of next year, will last a minimum of 12 weeks (roughly 3 months) and could last as long as 15 weeks.
In this window, a final application will need to be submitted, and the application fee paid.
This window will be in the spring and summer months (either April-July or April-August) of the northern hemisphere, so consider when you plan to take your vacation or holiday next year.
While this is the first important milepost of the race, there is still a lot of road to go on the race to a gTLD, which gets us to:
dotBrand Launch Timeline: 2 Years Post-Application
After application comes a number of steps such as pre-evaluation processes, community input and dispute resolution, string evaluation, contention set creation and resolution (including auctions), applicant evaluation, application evaluation, and contracting with ICANN.
Depending on the number of applications submitted (anywhere from 500 to 3,500), the estimated lifecycle duration of these processes is a minimum of 13-18.5 months. Include additional steps like objections, Community Priority Evaluation, and/or auctions, and those could add 3-6 months more to this total. Putting those two timeframes together gives us a range of 16-24 months, or up to two years, followed by the time it takes to complete delegation and launch.
dotBrand Timeline: 12 months + 12(up to 15) weeks + 2 years
The current timeline as we know it:
- 2025 December – The final Applicant Guidebook is published.
- 2026 April – The application window opens.
- 2026 August – The application window closes.
- 2028 TBD – Your gTLD is likely launched.
All these timeframes are important, but boil down to the following:
- Start now (the clock is ticking).
- Do the pre-work (financial preparation and stakeholder planning are big).
- Pick the right partners (Markmonitor is here to help you).
- Stick with it (it’s a long effort, but worth it)!
Reach out to the experts at Markmonitor, and we’ll assist you in making these timelines work for you.
