The Truth About Medium - Part Six - Here's the One About Money

 

This post covers my earnings at Medium for 2024-25. 

2024 earnings from the time I joined the Medium Partner Program to the end of December.

Sep — $11.55

Oct — $7.47

Nov — $36.52

Dec — $10.19

2025.

Jan — $2.49

Feb — $1.46

Mar — $2.04

Apr — $2.88

May — $0.63

Jun — $2.74

Jul — $1.24

Aug — $0.54

Sep — $0.04 

What stands out is the fall in payments since January of this year. Despite having similar numbers of views and reads in 2025, payments fell by around 85-90%. Based on my experience, they have continued to fall; I would say it is now around 95-98%. 

Other writers have confirmed similar numbers, and many have now left the platform. 

It is clear that Medium ran into financial issues at the end of last year. What is not clear is what exactly caused those issues. Were they overpaying writers before? Did they get taken to the cleaners by scammers and AI writers? Or did they just run out of money, and investors decided to move on? 

As to the truth behind what happened, it is difficult to say. When writers queried what was happening, the replies from Medium suggested that nothing had really changed. That the same pot of money was being paid out to writers. Of course. It might be the same pot, but how much money was actually in it?

The bottom line is, many writers were now finding that they were lucky to make a few pennies per story. In September, I made four cents. Yes, that's right, just four cents.

And at that point, I decided to leave the MPP.

 

Image by Kris from Pixabay