What is the gTLD evaluation fee for the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round?
The gTLD evaluation fee has been set at USD 227,000 per application. The gTLD evaluation fee does not include fees for conditional evaluations that an applicant may decide to pursue and for which the applicant will incur an additional fee. Conditional evaluations are required in certain application scenarios (see FAQs on Application Types). For more information about what is included in the gTLD evaluation fee, please see question #6 below.
The gTLD evaluation fee includes the option to apply for up to four allocatable variants per primary string application. If an applicant decides to apply for more than four allocatable variant strings under one primary string, the applicant must pay the USD 227,000 evaluation fee for each additional allocatable variant beyond the fourth variant.
Applicants that are qualified for support through the Applicant Support Program (ASP) will pay the gTLD evaluation fee with a discount ranging from 75% to 85%. The discount depends on the number of qualified applicants that are ultimately supported.
For further details and conditions, please see the Applicant Guidebook sections 3.3.1.1 (gTLD Evaluation Fee for Applications with Variant Strings) and 3.3.1.2 (gTLD Evaluation Fee for Qualified Applicant Support Program Applicants).
When is the gTLD evaluation fee due?
The fee is due upon receipt of the invoice, and complete payment must be received by ICANN no later than seven days after the close of the application submission period (see Applicant Guidebook section 3.3.1). If the applicant has not paid the gTLD evaluation fee by the end of this seven-day period, the application will generally not be processed any further and will be cancelled.
Payments to ICANN must be made via wire transfer, Automated Clearing House (ACH), International SWIFT payment, or other method approved by ICANN for this service. Checks, cash, and credit card payments are not accepted. All payments must be in US dollars and all wire and transaction fees must be paid by the applicant.
Note: Existing contracted parties cannot send payment to the existing ICANN account in their payment systems. Payment must be sent to ICANN's New gTLD account as included in the invoice.
What if I need additional documentation to proceed with payment of the gTLD evaluation fee?
A gTLD evaluation fee quotation can be found here.
ICANN's tax residency certificate and other tax related documents can be found here.
If you need further documentation to facilitate payment, please reach out to globalsupport@icann.org.
If an applicant has multiple applications, will the applicant be invoiced separately for each individual application or will the applicant receive one invoice for all applications?
Invoices are generated following submission for each individual application (see AGB Section 3.3).
Can a third party pay the invoice on behalf of the applying entity?
Yes, a third party is allowed to make payment to ICANN on behalf of the applying entity. The payor's details and other pertinent information must be provided in response to Question Set 3 in TAMS. There is no specific restriction with respect to the relationship between the third-party payor and the applying entity.
What is included in the gTLD evaluation fee?
In addition to general support to applicants and processing of the application (e.g.,contracting and gTLD launch activities), the following evaluations are included in the gTLD evaluation fee:
Evaluations included in estimated gTLD Evaluation Fee Background Screening Blocked Names Identification DNS Stability Financial and Operational Evaluation Geographic Names Identification Legal Compliance Name Collision Initial Assessment and Temporary Delegation Other (e.g., competition) Reserved Names Identification Reserved Names Review RSP Review Safeguard Assessment String Similarity Evaluation Variant String Evaluation What is not included in the gTLD evaluation fee?
There are a number of conditional or elective evaluations that are string and/or applicant dependent. Fees for these evaluations will be charged separately and have been determined using a cost-recovery approach. Conditional evaluation fees will be invoiced separately and will be due prior to the evaluation being carried out. The invoice for any applicable conditional evaluation is expected to be sent as close as possible to the evaluation taking place.
The conditional evaluations are presented in the table below.
Conditional Evaluations Expected Fee (in US dollars) .Brand TLD Eligibility Evaluation (Specification 13)
Specification 13 TLDs, known as Brand TLDs, are top-level domains exclusively operated by brand proprietors. This designation permits a brand to operate a TLD with certain standardized modifications to the Registry Agreement that are tailored for brand proprietors or similar. For a brand to secure this classification, the applicant must establish that the TLD is aligned with a registered trademark and used in its business. Note: TLDs that are applied for and are granted Specification 13 are exempt from complying with the requirements of Code of Conduct (CoC) Exemption (Specification 9). Brand TLD applicants do not need to apply separately for a CoC exemption.
USD 500 Code of Conduct Exemption Evaluation (Specification 9)
The Code of Conduct (CoC) (Specification 9) of the gTLD Registry Agreement (RA) includes certain operational requirements for a registry operator, such as registering domains itself and working with registrars. All registry operators are subject to the CoC unless an exemption is granted to the registry operator by ICANN. The purpose of the CoC is to protect the registrants of a TLD. The rationale to allow for exemptions is that there is no need for such protection if all of the domain names in a TLD are registered exclusively to the registry operator or its affiliates. Exemption may be granted by ICANN if the applicant can demonstrate to ICANN's reasonable satisfaction that it meets the exemption criteria.
USD 400 Community Priority Evaluation (CPE)
A Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) is a voluntary, conditional evaluation designed to determine whether a community-based application fulfills the CPE criteria and should receive priority in a contention set, thereby eliminating other contention set members.
A prevailing community application receives priority over other standard applications in a contention set if it achieves a passing score on the set of criteria related to community establishment, nexus between the community and applied-for string, registration policies, and community support. CPE is conducted by an independent third-party expert panel.Estimated between USD 50,000 - USD 80,000 (fixed fee representing actual costs incurred from the vendor will be charged. This fixed fee will be communicated as soon as a vendor has been contracted.) Geographic Names Review
The Geographic Names Determination and Evaluation Panel examines whether each applied-for gTLD string represents a Geographic Name as defined in the Applicant Guidebook. Applications for country and territory names will not be approved. Geographic Names include: 1) capital city names, 2) city names with the intention to use the gTLD for purposes associated with that city, 3) sub-national place names, or a 4) UNESCO/Geographic region. Applications for Geographic Names must provide documentation of support or non-objection from relevant governments or public authorities. Applications identified as Geographic Names during initial string review undergo a more substantive evaluation by the evaluation panel during application evaluations.
Estimated between USD 18,000 - USD 25,000 (fixed fee representing actual costs incurred from the vendor will be charged. This fixed fee will be communicated as soon as a vendor has been contracted.) Name Collision High-Risk Mitigation Plan Evaluation
An applicant for a string on the Collision String List may amend its application to add a High-Risk String Mitigation Plan.
The Mitigation Plan will be evaluated by a panel of technical experts, who may advise the applicant on possible improvements to it. The evaluation will determine whether or not the plan (a) correctly identifies the root cause of the collisions and (b) has a high probability of being effective.Estimated between USD 100,000 - USD 150,000 (fixed fee representing actual costs incurred from the vendor will be charged. This fixed fee will be communicated as soon as a vendor has been contracted.) Registry Commitments Evaluation (Specification 11 for Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs) and/or Specification 12 for Community Registration Policies)
Registry Commitments Evaluation (RCE) is used for reviewing both Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs) and Community Registration Policies (Specification 12).
RVCs were previously referred to as voluntary public interest commitments in the 2012 Round of the New gTLD Program. RVCs are specific commitments from a new gTLD applicant that are embedded in Specification 11 of the Registry Agreement. Applicants may propose RVCs with their initial application or through an Application Change Request (ACR), which may be in response to feedback from the public in the form of an objection, or from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) via a GAC Member Early Warning, GAC Consensus Advice, or an objection.
Separately, an entity that has designated its application as a Community Application is required to provide registration policies as part of its application and execute a Registry Agreement with Specification 12 that conforms with its application. This must include specifying naming conventions and requirements for registration.
Both RVCs and Community Registration Policies are contractual obligations, meaning that the registry operator must adhere to all commitments captured in the executed Registry Agreement. ICANN enforces these commitments, which are subject to designated dispute resolution processes.
USD15,000 (note, for Community TLD applications that proceed to CPE, the fee paid for RCE will be deducted from the CPE fee, if CPE occurs) Re-evaluations as a result of change requests
Certain change requests may result in a need to carry out a re-evaluation in whole or in part. In such cases, additional fees may be applicable and will be communicated as part of the change request process. Note: this would only be applicable in circumstances where the evaluation was carried out before the change request was made. ICANN will only charge the actual costs of carrying out the re-evaluation by a third party.
Dependent on area(s) requiring re-evaluation. Will I receive a refund if I decide to withdraw my application?
An applicant may withdraw its application at any time during the application and evaluation process. As part of the withdrawal request, an applicant can indicate whether or not they would like to receive a refund. The refund amount is dependent on where an application is in the process when the applicant decides to withdraw. There are three refund windows (see section 2.3.3.1):
- The first window spans from the receipt of the applicant's gTLD evaluation fee to ten days after String Confirmation Day, during which 65% of the gTLD evaluation fee paid is eligible for refund.
- The second window covers the period from 11 days after String Confirmation Day until the start of the Application and Applicant Evaluation, with 35% of the gTLD evaluation fee paid eligible as a refund. Applicants will be notified when the Application and Applicant Evaluation is expected to begin. This will happen after the conclusion of the String Evaluation phase or after contention set resolution, if applicable.
- The third window extends from the initiation of an Application and Applicant Evaluation up to the point at which the applicant enters into a Registry Agreement with ICANN, allowing for a 20% refund of the gTLD evaluation fee paid.
Fees for conditional evaluations that have been paid but for which the evaluation has not started may also be refunded if the application status is categorized as "Withdrawn" (meaning that the application has been voluntarily terminated by the applicant, which is an irreversible process); "Pending Termination"; or "Terminated" (meaning that the applicant has exhausted all available application paths, including but not limited to the challenge of an evaluation or appeal to an expert determination, and the application will not continue to proceed in the New gTLD Program).
- Are there other circumstances in which I may receive a refund?
- Volume refund (see section 2.3.3.2): A volume refund may be applicable if ICANN receives more than 1,000 gTLD applications and the program's implementation costs have been recovered. The amount of the refund will be determined after the application submission period closes. A volume refund will not be factored into the refunds covered under question #8 above.
- Refund as a result of material changes (see section 2.3.3.1.3): Applications that are withdrawn as a result of material changes to the AGB or program processes will be eligible for a refund. The amount of the refund will be determined by the ICANN Board.
- High risk of name collision (see section 2.3.3.1.4): Applications that are withdrawn because a high risk of name collision has been determined and the applicant decides not submit a high risk mitigation plan are eligible to receive a 100% refund. Note, any applications for strings that have been determined to be at a high risk of name collision in a previous round and/or were not approved as a result of such determination will not be eligible for this refund (.HOME, .CORP, .MAIL).
Are there any other fees I may need to pay?
Other fees may be required, including for applicable processes run by third parties, such as objections and appeals, and auctions (see section 3.3.4 of the AGB).
Note: There are other fees that a successful applicant will need to pay after execution of the registry Agreement, including annual registry fees and fees for the Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) . As an illustration, the current annual registry fees can be found at section 6.1 of the 2024 version of the Registry Base Agreement, available here: https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/registry-agreements/base-registry-agreement-21-01-2024-en.html#article6.1.