Telegram Applies For .Gram Domain In ICANN's 2026 Expansion Round: What This Means

Telegram has applied for the .gram top-level domain as part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' 2026 round of new generic top-level domains, founder and CEO Pavel Durov announced on X.

Durov outlines plan for user domains

Durov said that if ICANN approves the application, Telegram's more than one billion users could receive their own second-level domains in the format yourname.gram. He said users would also be able to set up interactive websites hosted by Telegram with a single prompt, allowing people to launch personal web pages without technical skills.

Under the proposal, a Telegram username such as @durov could become durov.gram, giving users a dedicated web address tied to their existing identity on the platform.

Part of a large ICANN application round

Telegram's bid comes as part of ICANN's New Generic Top-Level Domain Program's 2026 round, which closed on August 12 with more than 1,600 primary applications, marking the first major expansion of the internet's domain namespace in over a decade. The application fee runs $227,000 per string, a cost described as incidental for a platform of Telegram's scale. ICANN is expected to publish the full list of applicants, known as "Reveal Day," no later than nine weeks after the window closed, placing it around late October 2026, when it will become clear whether Telegram's application is confirmed among them.

Domains would remain Telegram-managed subdomains

Industry observers have noted that if Telegram is awarded the .gram registry, individual username.gram addresses would function as Telegram-managed subdomains rather than independently owned web properties that users could transfer or sell, since Telegram itself would control the top-level domain as registry operator.

No guarantee of approval

An application does not guarantee that .gram will become operational. Telegram will need to clear ICANN's evaluation process before the domain could be delegated and opened for registrations, and the timeline for that approval remains unclear.

Published on: Wednesday, August 19, 2026, 10:01 AM IST