A Submitted gTLD Application Still Has a Seven-Day Fee Clock

Summary

• The evaluation fee is due upon invoice receipt and no later than seven days after the application period closes.
• The standard fee is USD 227,000 per application, with stated exceptions for qualified support applicants and certain variant applications.
• Without timely payment, an application generally is not processed further and is canceled.

Submission and cleared payment are two evidence events. A submission receipt does not prove that ICANN received the fee. The outer deadline runs seven days beyond the close of the application submission period.

Analysis

Maintain a two-event ledger: submission receipt and cleared-fee receipt, each with its own timestamp and owner. This is BTW governance guidance, not an ICANN-required format. In the unlikely case of an Applicant Support Program applicant still awaiting its result, the applicant may need to submit without payment and the application is held until the fee is determined and received; this is not a general extension.

Sources

• ICANN, 2026 Round Applicant Guidebook, Module 3, sections 3.1.1 and 3.3.1: https://newgtldprogram-2026-agb.icann.org/en/7-module-3-application-submission.html