ICANN 2026 New gTLD Round

Applicant Auction will not
operate for the 2026 round

Our view of the model has not changed — the 2012 round proved it works. But the committed participation needed to justify standing up the auction has not materialized, and we have made this call early, well before the application window closes on August 12. Applicants seeking to avoid contention this round should use the Early Warning Report service.

Read the full statement
$1B+managed through escrow
Zeroerrors in fund transfers
contention sets resolved2012 gTLD round — more than all other private facilitators combined
Proven Methodology

We’ve Done This Before

In the 2012 New gTLD round, Applicant Auction resolved far more contention sets than ICANN and all other private facilitators combined.

0+
Contention Sets Resolved
10x what ICANN ran in the first round — more than all other private facilitators combined
$1B+
Managed in Escrow
Funds held securely throughout the process
100%
Settlement Accuracy
Zero errors across all fund transfers
2nd Price
Ascending Clock Format
The same format as ICANN — transparent, incentive-compatible auction design

Avoiding Contention in This Round

While we will not be running auctions for the 2026 round, our work with Early Warning Report on contention avoidance and application verification continues unchanged, with Applicant Auction acting as the neutral party. If you want to avoid contention, we highly recommend the Early Warning Report service — as of July 2026, 44 potential contention sets have been identified via the String Interest Reports.

Visit EarlyWarning.report

Should a significant number of committed participants emerge, we remain open to revisiting our decision. If that describes you, we would welcome the conversation.