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

Telegram has submitted an application for the .gram top-level domain as part of ICANN's 2026 expansion round, disclosed by its founder and CEO Pavel Durov on X. If granted approval, Telegram's estimated one billion users could be granted second-level domains in the format of yourname.gram. Additionally, users would be able to create interactive websites hosted by Telegram through a single prompt, enabling them to establish personal web pages without requiring technical expertise.

Telegram's bid for the .gram domain is part of ICANN's New Generic Top-Level Domain Program's 2026 round, which concluded on August 12, 2026, with over 1,600 primary applications, marking the first significant expansion of the internet's domain namespace in more than a decade. The application fee for a string is $227,000, a cost deemed negligible for Telegram's scale.

ICANN is anticipated to publish the complete list of applicants, known as Reveal Day, no later than nine weeks after the closing date, which is projected to be around late October 2026, when it will be determined whether Telegram's application is among the confirmed ones. Telegram-managed subdomains It is important to note that if Telegram is granted the .gram registry, the individual username.gram addresses would function as Telegram-managed subdomains and not as independently owned web properties that users could transfer or sell, as Telegram would retain control over the top-level domain as the registry operator.

Uncertain approval process An application does not guarantee the operationalization of the .gram domain. Telegram must successfully navigate ICANN's evaluation process before the domain can be delegated and opened for registrations, and the timeline for that approval remains uncertain.