On 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC, ICANN holds Reveal Day for the 2026 new gTLD round. The Application Publication and Statistics site will show applicants, applied-for strings, any variant or replacement strings, initial contention sets, and the public parts of each application. You cannot buy company.newstring that evening. Registration waits until evaluation and any contention are finished, and until the string is actually delegated.
On 22 September 2026 ICANN said 1,616 paid applications are proceeding, out of 1,663 submitted. EuroVDC does not fill this article with guessed strings. A made-up list pushes people to “defend” a brand in an extension that does not exist yet.
What that day is for
Reveal Day is a disclosure day, not a sales day. A brand owner checks three things: did someone apply for their string, did more than one applicant ask for the same string, and who applied. The winner of a contention set is not decided that afternoon.
- An application is not a registration. A string on the list is not on sale the next morning.
- Contention is not first-come. If several applicants want the same string, the winner is decided later.
- The
.com,.euor country-code name you use today stays. Reveal Day does not drop it.
The dates that are already fixed
ICANN’s 29 September 2026 announcement sets String Confirmation Day on 17 November 2026. That is when the final strings, after the replacement window, and the updated contention sets are published. An applicant who withdraws by 23:59 UTC on 27 November 2026 can request a 65 percent refund of the evaluation fee. Those dates are not the day a registrar adds the extension to the cart.
What a company should do
- Read the official list on the evening of 7 October. Do not buy defensive names from a blog that claims it saw the strings early.
- If your brand string is in contention, leave the outcome alone and check renewal and the lock on the name you already use.
- The name customers type today is a separate decision. Settle it with domain search. The new gTLD round does not change that search.
- If someone offers a pre-order in an extension that is not delegated, put their claim next to the ICANN list.
Where the list will sit in this article
Before 18:00 UTC on 7 October 2026 there is no official string list. This section will be updated in the same post after publication. The update is not a second article.
Frequently asked questions
Can I register a new extension at EuroVDC on Reveal Day?
No. That day publishes the application list. Sale comes after evaluation and delegation.
What does 1,616 count?
Paid application files proceeding in the round. It is not 1,616 extensions already on sale. Some files contend for the same string.
If my brand is absent from the list, am I safe?
It means no application for that string is visible in this round. A later objection, a different spelling, or a future round can still appear. Renewal of your current name is a separate job.
Should I register a contended string now?
You cannot. The extension does not exist yet. Ignore anyone who says the winner is already decided.
