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ICANN

Summary

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a California nonprofit formed in 1998 to coordinate the internet's domain names and IP addresses. It accredits the registrars that sell domain names, signs contracts with the registries behind generic extensions such as .com, and oversees the IANA functions. The US government's contract for those functions expired on October 1, 2016, ending its formal oversight role.

Web Building Encyclopedia · Organizations · Last reviewed October 22, 2026 · 11 min read

What ICANN is

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a nonprofit organization that coordinates the internet‘s unique identifiers: the domain names people type and the numbers that computers use to find each other.1 Its stated mission is to keep the operation of those identifier systems stable and secure.1

ICANN is incorporated under California law as a nonprofit public benefit corporation.2 Its headquarters is in Los Angeles.3 As of October 2026 it says it has about 450 staff, based in more than 33 countries.1

Kurtis Lindqvist, previously chief executive of the London Internet Exchange, became President and CEO on December 5, 2024.3 He was still in that post when ICANN published the applications for its 2026 round of new domain extensions in October 2026.4

Its work falls into four main areas:

  • The root zone. ICANN coordinates the root zone of the Domain Name System (DNS), the top of the naming tree that says who runs each extension, such as .com or .uk.1
  • Contracts. It signs an agreement with the registry that runs each generic top-level domain, and it runs the accreditation system for registrars, the companies that sell domain names to the public.2
  • Numbers. It is the central pool from which ranges of IP addresses are supplied to the regional registries.2
  • The IANA functions. Through an affiliate, it keeps the master registries of names, numbers and protocol codes described below.5

ICANN is just as clear about what falls outside its job. “ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet,” its overview says, adding that it cannot stop spam and does not deal with access to the internet.2 Registrars also set their own retail prices.2

Origins: Jon Postel and the 1998 founding

The job ICANN now coordinates began as one person’s record keeping. From the early 1970s, Jon Postel at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) kept the list of internet identifiers, informally and as an unwritten part of a contract with DARPA, the US Defense Department’s research agency.6 The name Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) first appeared in 1990, in RFC 1060.6

Registering names was a separate job. Under a 1992 cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) took over domain name registration.7 In 1997 the US government made the Department of Commerce the lead agency for moving DNS management into private hands.6

The department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a draft plan, known as the Green Paper, on January 30, 1998, and received more than 650 comments on it.7 Its final policy statement, the White Paper, followed on June 5, 1998.7

The White Paper called for a private, not-for-profit corporation to take over coordination of the DNS. It named four guiding principles: stability, competition, private bottom-up coordination and representation.7 It also said that Postel and IANA’s staff should help form the new body.7

ICANN filed its articles of incorporation in California on September 30, 1998. ICANN describes that filing as the first step in a setting-up process that ran through the autumn of 1998, and it held its first public meeting on November 14, 1998, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.8 In November 1998, NTIA signed a memorandum of understanding with ICANN to work out, jointly, how to move management of the DNS to the private sector.6

Postel did not see the handover. He died on October 16, 1998, in a Santa Monica hospital, of complications following emergency heart surgery.9 In a memorial published as RFC 2468, Vint Cerf wrote that Postel had served the community for nearly 30 years, and recalled his work as RFC editor and as IANA.10

ICANN also agreed in 1998 with ISI to take over certain IANA functions, assets and staff. In February 2000, NTIA awarded ICANN the contract to perform the IANA functions.11 An agreement signed on March 1, 2000 with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), later published as RFC 2860, set the rules for IANA’s work on protocol codes.12

The IANA functions

IANA keeps the official public registries of the internet’s technical identifiers, so that each one means the same thing everywhere.5 It sorts its services into three groups:5

GroupRegistries it keeps
Domain namesThe Root Zone Registry, the .int and .arpa registries and a repository for internationalized domain names
Number resourcesNumber registries, data on what was allocated to each Regional Internet Registry, and abuse contact information
ProtocolsProtocol parameter registries and the time zone database

For the root zone, IANA assigns the manager of each top-level domain, records its technical delegation data in the root zone and publishes the Root Zone Database.13 For protocols, RFC 2860 says IANA assigns values according to the criteria and procedures in the RFCs, takes guidance from the IETF’s steering group in technical disputes and publishes its assignments online free of charge.12 RFC 2860 also treats the assignment of domain names and IP address blocks as policy matters outside its scope.12

For numbers, IANA hands large blocks of addresses to the five Regional Internet Registries, which serve different parts of the world. On February 3, 2011, it allocated its last five blocks of IPv4 addresses, one to each registry, under a global policy for the final blocks. The Number Resource Organization then announced that IANA had no IPv4 addresses left to give the registries.14

Since October 1, 2016, the IANA functions have been performed by Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), an affiliate of ICANN built only for that work.155 IANA describes its services as free and its registries as openly published.5

US oversight and the 2016 stewardship transition

For its first 18 years ICANN worked under agreements with the US Department of Commerce. The 1998 memorandum ran for about eight years and was followed in 2006 by a Joint Project Agreement.616 On September 30, 2009, the two signed an Affirmation of Commitments, effective October 1, 2009. It committed ICANN to regular reviews, carried out by community volunteers, of its accountability, security, competition and WHOIS policy.16

The IANA functions ran under a separate NTIA contract, renewed or re-awarded in 2001, 2004 and 2005.11 On March 14, 2014, NTIA announced that it intended to hand its role in these key domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community, and asked ICANN to bring stakeholders together to draft a plan.17

NTIA set four conditions. The plan had to:17

  • strengthen the multistakeholder model of internet governance;
  • keep the DNS secure, stable and resilient;
  • meet the needs of IANA’s customers and partners around the world;
  • keep the internet open.

NTIA also said it would not accept a plan that replaced its role with a government-led or intergovernmental solution. At the time, the contract was due to expire on September 30, 2015.17

The community’s proposals had two parts: a replacement for NTIA’s stewardship role, and changes to make ICANN more accountable, giving the community direct recourse when it disagreed with ICANN or its board. NTIA found that they met its 2014 criteria.18

The contract expired on October 1, 2016. In the same statement, NTIA reported that a federal court in Galveston, Texas, had denied the plaintiffs’ application for declaratory and injunctive relief in a case before it.19 ICANN’s board chair, Stephen D. Crocker, said: “This transition was envisioned 18 years ago.”18 ICANN said everyday internet users should notice no difference.18

ICANN’s articles and bylaws now set out a mechanism called the Empowered Community, which lets community groups enforce their powers under California law. Through it, the three supporting organizations and two advisory committees, At-Large and the Governmental Advisory Committee, can use nine powers. They include rejecting ICANN’s budgets and plans, approving changes to its fundamental bylaws, removing individual directors and recalling the whole board.20

The multistakeholder model

ICANN calls its approach multistakeholder: individuals, businesses, civil society, governments and technical experts all take part in making policy, in a process meant to be bottom-up and consensus-driven.121 Taking part is open and free to everyone.1

Policy is drafted in three supporting organizations, and four advisory committees give advice:21

BodyKindWhat it covers
Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)Supporting organizationPolicy for generic top-level domains
Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)Supporting organizationPolicy for country-code domains; open to their managers
Address Supporting Organization (ASO)Supporting organizationIP address policy; members are the Regional Internet Registries
Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)Advisory committeePublic policy, especially where ICANN’s work meets national laws or treaties
At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)Advisory committeeThe interests of individual internet users
Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)Advisory committeeSecurity of the naming and address systems
Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)Advisory committeeOperation and security of the root servers

Supporting organizations recommend policy, advisory committees advise, and the board has final authority to approve or reject a recommendation.21 According to ICANN’s overview, the board has 16 voting members and four non-voting liaisons. An independent Nominating Committee chooses eight of the voting members, and the President and CEO also sits on the board.2 Vint Cerf, a board member since 1999, chaired the board from 2000 until November 2007, when it named Peter Dengate Thrush as his successor.22

Registrars and accreditation

Under its cooperative agreement with the Department of Commerce, Network Solutions was the sole registrar and registry administrator for .com, .net and .org. An October 1998 amendment to its agreement with Commerce required a Shared Registration System: one shared registry, still run by NSI, with an unlimited number of competing registrars.23

ICANN adopted its Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy on March 4, 1999.24 Applicants had to show they could handle registrations and backups securely. The policy treated US$70,000 in working capital and US$500,000 of liability insurance as sufficient, though it would accept less on a suitable showing.24

From March 11 to April 8, 1999, ICANN took applications for five places in a testbed, which ended on November 30, 1999. It kept accepting applications after that window, and its history of the system, written in the early years of competition, records more than 160 further businesses accredited beyond the five testbed registrars.23

The contract between ICANN and each registrar is the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). A new RAA was adopted on May 17, 2001, amended in 2009 and then replaced by the version the board approved on June 27, 2013.2325

Under the 2013 agreement, a registrar must, among other duties:25

  • publish an abuse contact, and review well-founded reports from law enforcement within 24 hours;
  • investigate reports that a customer’s contact data is wrong, and take reasonable steps to correct it;
  • keep its transaction records for the life of the agreement plus two years;
  • stay responsible for its resellers, which may not claim ICANN accreditation;
  • link on its website to a statement of registrants’ benefits and responsibilities.

Amendments that took effect on April 5, 2024 added a duty to take prompt and appropriate action against domain names when a registrar has actionable evidence of DNS abuse.26 ICANN Contractual Compliance can enforce the rule against registrars that fail to act.26

Registrars pay ICANN for accreditation. The 2013 RAA caps the yearly accreditation fee at US$4,000.25 For ICANN’s 2027 fiscal year, registrars also pay US$0.20 per transaction per year and share a US$3.8 million yearly fee among them.27

Since January 28, 2025, the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) has been the definitive source of registration data for generic domains, replacing the older WHOIS service.28

New top-level domains

ICANN can add new top-level domains to the root.2 On November 16, 2000, its board selected seven proposals for further negotiation: .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name and .pro.29 ICANN’s own pages date the early expansions differently. Its overview says it added seven new top-level domains in 2000 and six in 2004,2 while the New gTLD Program’s history refers to trial rounds in 2000 and 2003.30

The 2012 round

The modern program grew out of a GNSO policy process begun in 2005. ICANN’s board approved the program’s rulebook, the Applicant Guidebook, in June 2011. The application window opened on January 12, 2012, closed in April 2012 and drew 1,930 applications.30 The first new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) entered the root zone in October 2013.30

As of August 31, 2026, ICANN counts 1,241 of those applications as delegated, meaning added to the root, along with 653 withdrawn, 32 that will not proceed, were not approved or were terminated, and 4 still active.31 It also reports 151 internationalized domain name (IDN) top-level domains, which can use characters outside the plain a to z alphabet, delegated in 37 languages and 23 scripts.1

The 2026 round

The final Applicant Guidebook for the next round was published in December 2025.32 Applications were taken from April 30 to August 12, 2026.4 On October 7, 2026, which ICANN called Reveal Day, it published 1,615 applications. They included 333 brand applications and 21 for IDNs, with 864 from North America and 506 from Europe.4

Applicants that had named an eligible replacement string when they applied could switch to it from October 8 to October 21, 2026. String Confirmation Day, when ICANN publishes the final list of applied-for strings, is set for November 17, 2026. It opens a period for community input and objections that runs to March 16, 2027.4 WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, is the only provider for objections claiming that a string infringes a trademark or is confusingly similar to another.33

ICANN expects to hold a prioritization draw in the first half of 2027, followed by a string evaluation stage of about 180 days. Its October 7 announcement gave no date for the first extensions from this round to go live, saying later milestones would be announced as their timelines were confirmed.4

Timeline

  1. ICANN publishes 1,615 applications in the 2026 new gTLD round4
  2. RDAP replaces WHOIS as the definitive source of gTLD registration data28
  3. Contract amendments requiring registrars to act on DNS abuse take effect26
  4. The IANA stewardship transition is completed and PTI begins performing the IANA functions15
  5. NTIA announces its intent to hand its IANA role to the global community17
  6. The first new gTLDs from the 2012 round enter the root zone30
  7. ICANN board approves the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement25
  8. IANA allocates its last five blocks of IPv4 addresses14
  9. ICANN and the Department of Commerce sign the Affirmation of Commitments16
  10. Peter Dengate Thrush succeeds Vint Cerf as chair of the ICANN board22
  11. ICANN board selects seven new top-level domains, including .biz and .info29
  12. NTIA awards ICANN the IANA functions contract11
  13. ICANN adopts the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy39
  14. ICANN adopts its Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy24
  15. ICANN files its articles of incorporation in California8
  16. NTIA publishes the White Paper calling for a private nonprofit to manage the DNS7

What it means for your website

ICANN does not sell domain names, and most owners never deal with it directly. Its rules reach you through your registrar: fees, transfers and renewals are governed by your agreement with the registrar.34 ICANN’s policies cover generic extensions such as .com, not country-code ones such as .us or .eu.35

  • Know who your registrar is. Many hosts and website builders sell names as resellers. Resellers are not accredited by ICANN, and the registrar behind them stays accountable.34 Our glossary explains the domain registrar role.
  • Read renewal notices. Registrars must remind you about one month and one week before expiry, and once more if the name is still not renewed five days after it expires. An expired name can stop working, taking your site and email offline. In most generic extensions a deleted name then has a 30-day redemption grace period, during which you can still restore it.36
  • Keep your details current. Answer your registrar’s inquiries within 15 days, and if you use auto-renew, keep your payment details up to date.37
  • Transfers. Your registrar must give you the transfer authorization code within five calendar days unless it offers self-service. A transfer can be refused within 60 days of registration or of a previous transfer.38 Our guide on how to transfer a domain walks through the steps.
  • Disputes. A trademark owner can bring a UDRP complaint. It must prove the name is identical or confusingly similar to its mark, that you have no rights or legitimate interests in it, and that the name was registered and is being used in bad faith. The only remedies are cancellation or transfer. After a decision against you, the registrar waits ten business days before acting, and holds off if you file a lawsuit in that time.39 WIPO, one of the dispute providers, reported more than 6,200 domain name cases in 2025, its highest caseload on record.40
  • Where to complain. ICANN Contractual Compliance takes complaints about registrar transfers, renewals, registration data and DNS abuse. It cannot return a lost domain to you.35

Our guide to the best domain registrars compares renewal prices and transfer rules.

See also

References

  1. Welcome to ICANN. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  2. What Does ICANN Do?. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  3. ICANN Selects Next President and CEO. ICANN. 2024-06-10. accessed October 22, 2026.
  4. ICANN Reveals 2026 Round Applications for New Generic Top-Level Domains. ICANN. 2026-10-07. accessed October 22, 2026.
  5. About us. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). accessed October 22, 2026.
  6. Brief history of the IANA functions. Number Resource Organization. accessed October 22, 2026.
  7. Statement of Policy on the Management of Internet Names and Addresses. National Telecommunications and Information Administration, US Department of Commerce. 1998-06-05. accessed October 22, 2026.
  8. ICANN's 15th Anniversary. ICANN. 2013-09-30. accessed October 22, 2026.
  9. ISI Pioneer’s Internet Legacy Celebrated in Computerworld. USC Information Sciences Institute. 2007-07-10. accessed October 22, 2026.
  10. RFC 2468: I Remember IANA. Vinton G. Cerf, RFC Editor. 1998-10. accessed October 22, 2026.
  11. Request for Comments on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions. National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Federal Register Vol. 76, No. 38. 2011-02-25. accessed October 22, 2026.
  12. RFC 2860: Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Technical Work of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. B. Carpenter, F. Baker and M. Roberts, RFC Editor. 2000-06. accessed October 22, 2026.
  13. Root Zone Management. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). accessed October 22, 2026.
  14. IPv6 adoption at critical phase as IANA’s free pool of IPv4 addresses is depleted. Number Resource Organization. 2011-02-03. accessed October 22, 2026.
  15. IANA Stewardship Transition completed. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). 2016-10-01. accessed October 22, 2026.
  16. ICANN CEO Talks About the New Affirmation of Commitments. ICANN. 2009-09-30. accessed October 22, 2026.
  17. NTIA Announces Intent to Transition Key Internet Domain Name Functions. National Telecommunications and Information Administration, US Department of Commerce. 2014-03-14. accessed October 22, 2026.
  18. Stewardship of IANA Functions Transitions to Global Internet Community as Contract with U.S. Government Ends. ICANN. 2016-10-01. accessed October 22, 2026.
  19. Statement of Assistant Secretary Strickling on IANA Functions Contract. National Telecommunications and Information Administration, US Department of Commerce. 2016-10-01. accessed October 22, 2026.
  20. Empowered Community. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  21. ICANN Community: Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  22. ICANN appoints successor to Vint Cerf. Nancy Gohring, InfoWorld. 2007-11-02. accessed October 22, 2026.
  23. Registrar Accreditation: History of the Shared Registry System. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  24. Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy. ICANN. 1999-03-04. accessed October 22, 2026.
  25. 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement. ICANN. 2013-06-27. accessed October 22, 2026.
  26. 2024 Global Amendments to the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) and Base gTLD Registry Agreement (Base RA). ICANN. 2024-04-05. accessed October 22, 2026.
  27. Letter to ICANN-accredited registrars on approved fiscal year 2027 registrar fees. ICANN. 2026-07-30. accessed October 22, 2026.
  28. ICANN Update: Launching RDAP; Sunsetting WHOIS. ICANN. 2025-01-27. accessed October 22, 2026.
  29. ICANN Announces Selections for New Top-Level Domains. ICANN. 2000-11-16. accessed October 22, 2026.
  30. About the Program. ICANN New gTLD Program. accessed October 22, 2026.
  31. New gTLD Program Statistics. ICANN New gTLD Program. 2026-08-31. accessed October 22, 2026.
  32. New gTLD Program: 2026 Round. ICANN New gTLD Program: 2026 Round. accessed October 22, 2026.
  33. ICANN New gTLD Program Advances to Reveal Day and Upcoming Objection Phase. WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. 2026-10-08. accessed October 22, 2026.
  34. The Domain Name Registration Process. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  35. Submit a Complaint to ICANN Contractual Compliance. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  36. Expired Registration Recovery Policy (updated 21 February 2024). ICANN. 2024-02-21. accessed October 22, 2026.
  37. Registrants’ Benefits and Responsibilities. ICANN. accessed October 22, 2026.
  38. Transfer Policy (updated 21 February 2024). ICANN. 2024-02-21. accessed October 22, 2026.
  39. Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. ICANN. 1999-10-24. accessed October 22, 2026.
  40. 2025 Marks Record-Breaking Year for WIPO Domain Name Disputes. WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. 2026-01-14. accessed October 22, 2026.

Web Building Encyclopedia. First published October 22, 2026. Last reviewed October 22, 2026. Every fact on this page is linked to a source we opened. Spotted an error? Write to [email protected].