Three non-profit organizations have passed initial review for ICANN's Applicant Support Program.

Recently, ICANN announced that the first three applicants have passed the initial review for its Applicant Support Program and received "conditionally qualified" status. This means they are expected to enter the new round of generic top-level domain (gTLD) applications at a significantly reduced application fee.

The three approved organizations are all non-profit organizations or non-governmental organizations, two from the Asia-Pacific region and one from Europe. According to ICANN's procedures, after paying the gTLD evaluation fee deposit, their status will be upgraded from "conditionally qualified" to "fully qualified," officially becoming applicants supported by the ASP.

The ASP was established to lower the barrier to entry for the new gTLD program, particularly for non-profit entities in developing regions and with limited resources.

The current base application fee is US$227,000, and applicants who pass the ASP review can enjoy a 75% to 85% reduction. This means that qualified applicants may pay an application fee of only US$34,000 to US$56,000, significantly lower than typical market costs. Furthermore, the ASP will provide a range of coaching and support resources to help applicants more smoothly complete domain name applications and conduct subsequent operations.

Overall, as of August 14, 2025, ICANN has received 45 active applications. Of these, 7 were submitted from Africa, 14 from the Asia-Pacific region, 5 from Europe, 2 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 12 from North America. Five applications are still in the process of confirming their regions. This distribution demonstrates the geographic diversity of the new round of gTLD applications, with particularly strong participation from the Asia-Pacific and African regions, demonstrating the substantial impact of the ASP.

ICANN stated that the ASP application submission window will remain open until November 19, 2025. Until then, more promising nonprofits or emerging organizations can submit applications to gain access to the affordable application process.