- ICANN's 2026 application round saw over 1,600 new submissions
- The last round was in 2012, when the internet was a very different place
- 2026's submissions will likely include a lot of AI-related terms, including .slop
ICANN, the nonprofit responsible for coordinating the internet's domain name system, is now combing through more than 1,600 applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), following the closure of its latest round.
The application round, which closed on August 12 2026, could eventually end up adding hundreds of new internet domains into the mix, spanning everything from novelty terms to AI-related keywords.
Naturally, not all 1,600 will be approved, but the ICANN is yet to reveal what they are. According to the organization, the 'Reveal Day' will come no later than nine weeks after the August 12 closing date, subject to administrative checks.
ICANN is now reviewing 1,600+ TLD applications
That hasn't stopped some applicants from disclosing their submissions early. Link Freedom Group, one of the applications involved in the round, says it applied for 316 different TLDs including .slop, .token, .agentic and .agi. Other terms coined by various applicants include .hype, .therapy, .tea and .itiswhatitis.
These latest TLD applications mark a major shift from the internet's early days, when simple .com, .org and .net domains dominated the web. 2012 marked a major shift, though, with around 1,200 TLDs being approved from the pool of 1,900, including corporate domains (.microsoft), geographic domains (.africa), sector domains (.bank) and more.
Importantly, these rounds don't come around every day. In fact, 2012 was the last time applicants were invited to submit requests, so this year's round is a big deal against a backdrop of major AI investments. But they don't come cheaply, with ICANN charging an evaluation fee of $227,000 per application (or more for risky or complicated ones).
ICANN also noted that, despite offering a 15-week application round, most submissions were actually sent in the final days.
Besides adding new TLDs for the open internet, ICANN also announced in early 2024 that it wanted to introduce a new .internal domain to replace 192.168.x.x domains for enterprises and device vendors. That domain is now available for use away from the public internet.
As for what comes next following this round, we'll have to wait around two more months to find out what's been submitted, and many more months before they eventually become available.
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