By Matt G. Southern
Publication Date: 2026-10-01 07:00:00
Google is paying roughly 100 digital publishers through its AI contribution pilot, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the tests. The reported payments vary widely. Some smaller sites have earned less than $1,000 over several months, while one early participant is earning more than $1 million a year.
For several small and midsize sites in the pilot, the payments amount to less than 0.1% of their advertising revenue, according to people familiar with the payouts.
When I covered the pilot on Sept. 14, Digiday could say only that at least dozens of publishers had been approached, and it couldn’t confirm a total. The new figure counts publishers being paid. Some of them told The Information they still don’t know how their payments are calculated.
What Participants Are Reportedly Earning
The Information’s payout figures come from different publishers over different stretches of time. A publisher that joined a few months ago has made about $50,000 to…
