ICANN releases draft of the 2026 Basic Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Registration Agreement; new gTLD application window will open in April.

ICANN recently released a new draft and revision of the 2026 Base RA (Base Registry Agreement), a key step in the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round. This agreement clarifies the rights and obligations of the new gTLD registries and, once approved by the ICANN Board of Governors, will serve as the formal contract between applicants and ICANN, and will be officially released before the application window opens in April 2026.

The 2026 Base RA is based on the existing Base gTLD RA approved on January 21, 2024. It incorporates the outcomes of the final report from the new gTLD follow-up policy development process, includes policy recommendations approved by the Board, and has been updated based on ICANN's operational experience since launching the new gTLD program in 2012.

This draft release includes several versions for industry review:

Clean Draft: Draft 2026 Base RA – February 2026 (Clean)

Cumulative Redline: Draft 2026 Base RA – February 2026 (Cumulative Redline)

Incremental Redline: Draft 2026 Base RA – February 2026 (Incremental Redline against December 2025)

In addition, ICANN has completed two rounds of public comment on the 2026 Base RA and released a summary and analysis report of the comments. In response to unresolved comments from the Registrar of Registries (RySG) Stakeholder Group, ICANN has removed the controversial content from Section 1.2 of Specification 6 to ensure rule transparency. Furthermore, ICANN has initiated separate reviews of Specification 14 (Variant Top-Level Domains) and the Trademark Information Exchange Center (TMCH) requirements, and has released a new draft revision of the TMCH requirements.

ICANN will submit a draft 2026 Base RA to its Board of Directors for consideration prior to the ICANN85 meeting (March 2026). If approved, this agreement will officially take effect before the new gTLD application window opens in April 2026, providing a complete regulatory framework for the next round of generic top-level domain (gTLD) applications.