The cost of a dotBrand is not a single fee: it is made up of several components, some charged by ICANN and others related to preparing, launching and operating your own top-level domain.
ICANN fees: ICANN charges a base evaluation fee for each application in every application round. For dotBrand, ICANN also lists an additional conditional fee for the .Brand TLD Eligibility Evaluation (Specification 13). Once the dotBrand is delegated, ICANN also charges annual fees.
First-year budget: in addition to ICANN’s evaluation fees, organizations should budget for application preparation, policy/compliance work, and provisioning/setup of the registry and its back‑end platform, plus ongoing annual operating components (including ICANN’s annual fee and registry backend operations).
While many dotBrand applications proceed without additional charges, ICANN does note that conditional evaluations may apply in specific circumstances, which can increase costs (for example, certain name collision or string‑specific reviews). These are situational rather than expected and depend on the characteristics of the applied‑for string.
It’s also worth noting that ICANN’s base evaluation fee includes the ability to apply for up to four allocatable variant strings alongside the primary dotBrand application, where variants are applicable.
ICANN sets its fees for each application round, so please check the official ICANN New gTLD Program website for the current amounts.
Marcaria can help you through the entire application process and partners with a registry back‑end platform to sustain your dotBrand going forward.
To receive a quote for your dotBrand project, please contact support@marcaria.com.