Google’s AI contribution pilot pays about 100 publishers, and several smaller and midsize sites in the test see payments below 0.1 percent of what they earn from advertising, according to The Information, which reported on September 30. The numbers put a scale on the program we covered in our September 15 report, which had no payout data.
The Next Web, which names the two reporters as Alix Coutures and Catherine Perloff, says the reporting rests on people familiar with the tests. Google sets pay by each source’s share of influence on a generated answer, across AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the Gemini app. A person close to Google told The Information that testing began less than a year ago.
The spread between participants is the story:
- One early entrant is earning over $1 million annually, and per people familiar with the program that income forms a larger portion of its business.
- A publisher that came aboard a few months back has collected roughly $50,000 to $60,000 to date, and described it as a modest part of its business.
- Several months of participation have brought some smaller sites under $1,000 in total.
Two further details come from the follow-up coverage, and each rests on a single outlet’s relay of The Information. 9to5Google and The Next Web both say publishers reported higher earnings on niche topics with devoted audiences, with anime and gaming as examples. The Next Web adds that several larger publishers declined to join, hoping that staying out pushes Google toward a better offer.
Opacity runs through every account. Some participants told The Information they do not know how Google calculates their payouts, and the amounts shift from month to month without explanation. The Next Web notes that earnings appear monthly in Search Console, yet the bar for a substantial contribution to an answer is not clear. One executive at a participating publisher described the pilot as Google testing a deal in which it uses publisher content and sets the value itself.
The reporting leaves several gaps. It does not say how the roughly 100 publishers divide across the earnings bands, so no typical payout can be inferred. It gives the share of ad revenue only for the small and mid-sized group, not for the $1 million earner. And it offers no comparison with traffic lost to AI answers. Neither follow-up reports a Google comment on these figures; the on-record description The Next Web cites is the early-stage framing Google gave Digiday in September.
For a publisher weighing the invitation, the practical reading is that joining costs little but proves little. A recent entrant making $50,000 to $60,000 and an early one making seven figures cannot be separated by timing alone, because topic appears to matter too. A site in a broad informational category should not budget around the upper figures.
Search Console is where the decision gets tested. Google’s help document says the pilot shows earnings history and payment status, and that transferred funds can differ from estimated earnings because of tax withholding or payout limits that vary by location. Log those figures monthly against the pages you know AI Overviews cites, then check whether swings track content changes or only Google’s own adjustments. If the numbers stay unexplained after a quarter, treat the payments as a data point about what Google’s models value, not as replacement revenue.
The Information reported on September 30, 2026, with details from The Next Web, 9to5Google, and Search Engine Roundtable’s same-day coverage.
