Telegram seeks .gram domain for user web identities

Telegram has applied to operate the. gram top-level internet domain, setting up a potentially significant expansion of the messaging platform into personal web identities and AI-generated websites for its billion-plus user base.

The application, if approved through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ 2026 programme for new generic top-level domains, could allow Telegram usernames to function as internet addresses. A user with the handle @durov, for example, could potentially use durov. gram, while another account could receive a matching address based on its Telegram username.

Telegram’s plans go beyond simply redirecting domain names to profiles. The platform envisages allowing users to create interactive websites hosted within its ecosystem, including pages generated from text prompts. Such a system could turn Telegram accounts into web identities combining messaging, publishing, payments, bots and other services.

Approval is far from automatic. The application window for ICANN’s 2026 New Generic Top-Level Domains programme closed on August 12 after opening on April 30. More than 1,600 applications were submitted during the round, the first opportunity in more than a decade for organisations to seek control of new domain extensions.

ICANN has not yet publicly released the full list of strings and applicants that passed its initial administrative checks. That disclosure is expected on “Reveal Day”, which is scheduled to occur no later than nine weeks after the application window closed. Telegram’s. gram proposal therefore remains subject to the formal evaluation process, and its eventual delegation cannot yet be treated as certain.

Applicants face technical, financial and operational scrutiny. The standard evaluation fee is $227,000 for each proposed generic top-level domain, before any additional costs that may arise during evaluation, objections, contention resolution or registry operation.

Once applications are formally revealed, ICANN will examine potential conflicts between competing strings and existing internet names. Governments, rights holders and other parties may also have avenues to raise objections. Multiple applicants seeking the same or confusingly similar extensions can enter contention procedures before a registry operator is selected.

Operating. gram would give Telegram far greater control than merely registering a conventional domain name. A top-level domain operator controls the registry beneath the extension and can determine policies governing second-level addresses such as user. gram, subject to its contract with ICANN and broader domain-name rules.

That model could enable Telegram to reserve second-level names directly for its account holders rather than selling them through the traditional domain-registration market. With Telegram having crossed one billion monthly active users, the potential namespace would immediately rank among the largest identity ecosystems connected to a single online platform.

The initiative fits Telegram’s wider effort to expand beyond messaging. Its services increasingly encompass Mini Apps, bots, payments, cryptocurrency functions and tools enabling artificial intelligence services to operate inside chats. During 2026, Telegram has also expanded AI features allowing bots to generate and manipulate content and interact more deeply with users.

A. gram namespace could tie many of those functions to addresses that work through the global Domain Name System rather than only inside Telegram applications. A business, creator or individual could potentially present a website under the same identity already used for messaging, channels or automated services.

The plan also arrives as Telegram strengthens the Gram branding around its blockchain-related ecosystem. The Gram name originally belonged to the cryptocurrency envisaged for Telegram’s Telegram Open Network project. Telegram abandoned that launch after a legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, while community developers continued the technology as The Open Network.

The Gram name returned to prominence this year as the network’s native currency moved back towards the original branding and Telegram deepened its integration of blockchain services. The proposed. gram domain would, however, be part of the conventional global internet naming system administered through ICANN rather than a blockchain-only domain system.

Telegram’s dependence on internet domain infrastructure received unusual attention in July when its widely used t. me short-link domain temporarily stopped resolving after being placed under a registry-level server hold. The service returned after the restriction was lifted, but the disruption demonstrated how heavily Telegram’s public links depend on infrastructure operated outside its direct control.