.gram
Is .gram a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.gram is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Telegram and Link Freedom Group.
A playful ending for social-media slang and sold-by-the-gram niches; good for clever names, rarely a serious main web address.
hobbyist creators and social-media tool makers riffing on 'the gram', plus by-the-gram sellers (coffee, cannabis where lawful, precious metals) wanting a wordplay domain.
In LFG's published list of 300+ strings submitted before the ICANN window closed on 2026-08-12. Their catalog tagline: “Small details, big impact.”
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced the application on his own X account (2026-08-18): "Telegram has applied for the .gram domain zone. If the application is approved by ICANN, a billion Telegram users could get their own second-level domains, yourname.gram. Users would be able to set up their interactive websites hosted by Telegram, with one prompt." Makes .gram contested against Link Freedom Group.
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a word-fragment whose entire value is completing the label to its left (fast.est / insta.gram), so the registry sells wordplay inventory rather than a category identity.
Same kind of bet — an internet-native slang noun for a unit of content, wagering that platform-born vocabulary carries enough cultural pull to host creator identities, with the same trademark shadow over it.
A short punchy common noun sold on both its literal sense and its hackability (th.ink, dr.ink), the same dual-use pitch to a broad undefined audience rather than to an industry that would claim it as its own name.
What a .gram domain is
.gram is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .gram domain extension real yet?
.gram is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .gram domain?
You can’t yet. A .gram name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens.
Is .gram a real TLD?
Not yet. .gram is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .gram is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Telegram · now confirmedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- Telegram · fact corrected
- Telegram · first recordedPavel Durov (@durov) on X
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T73986 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-102 TF2633T-T82296 · Telegram FZ-LLC · primary · contention set 2026-102”ICANN
“.gram · Lifestyle · “Small details, big impact.””Link Freedom Group
- I place .gram in the 30-49 usable-but-limited band, at the lower-middle of it. The string has two genuine semantic hooks: 'gram' as popular slang for a dominant photo-sharing platform, and the gram as a unit of weight used in coffee, jewelry, nutrition, and cannabis retail. Both hooks generate name-hack and novelty registrations, which is why it clears the 10-29 vanity band: there is a plausible volume-registration story on price and wordplay, similar to how short suffix-hack country codes historically attracted startups wanting clever names (analogy). It does not reach the 50-69 strong-niche band because neither hook converts into primary-identity demand: businesses that weigh things in grams brand around their product category, not the unit, and social-media-adjacent projects that lean on the platform-slang reading are building on a nickname they do not own, which weakens long-term brand commitment (analogy to novelty TLDs whose registrations spiked on a meme and churned). Aftermarket value over the next 5 years is likely thin and concentrated in a handful of dictionary-word left-of-dot pairings. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and lists this one under 'Lifestyle' with the tagline 'Small details, big impact.', consistent with a broad-portfolio play rather than a single-community bet; that says little about this string's specific demand either way. My main market uncertainty: whether the platform-slang reading drives durable creator adoption or instead chills it, since names trading on another company's nickname may face rights pressure or simply feel derivative, and I cannot tell from available evidence which effect dominates.