Google is paying roughly 100 digital publishers through its AI contribution pilot, and for several small and midsize sites the payments amount to less than 0.1% of their advertising revenue. That figure comes from The Information's report on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the tests — not from Google itself, which has not confirmed the participant count or any payout figures.

The reported payments vary enormously. Some smaller sites have earned less than $1,000 over several months. One early participant is earning more than $1 million a year. A publisher that joined a few months ago has made about $50,000 to $60,000 so far, and told the outlet that amount doesn't represent much of its business.

The payout scale is new information. When Digiday covered the pilot on September 14, it could confirm only that at least dozens of publishers had been approached, without a total. The Information's count of roughly 100 refers to publishers actually being paid. Google started testing the program less than a year ago, a person close to the company told the outlet.

How Google calculates payments remains undisclosed

Some participants told The Information they still don't know how their payments are calculated. Some say payments change from month to month without explanation.

The help text Digiday published on September 14 says content earns when it "contributes significantly" to AI-generated responses in the Gemini app, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Confirming a fact or being linked after a response is generated doesn't qualify. Participants see a monthly earnings figure with some history in Search Console, but no detail on how the number was arrived at.

Nobody in the published record has defined what "significantly" means. A September 18 comparison of the pilot with Cloudflare's and Microsoft's payment models found the same gap — the qualifying threshold for a payout is undefined.

There is one signal about what earns more, though it is anecdotal. Some publishers in the pilot say content on topics that draw strong user interest but are less widely covered appears to earn more, with anime and gaming cited as examples.

Larger publishers are staying out

The size of the payments has kept some larger publishers out of the pilot, according to The Information's sources. Some are holding out in hopes of getting Google and other companies to pay more for content used by AI.

That split tracks with earlier reporting. Digiday reported on September 14 that the program appealed more to small and mid-sized publishers than to large ones. One executive told Digiday the numbers offered to their company and several peers were too low to opt in, and that talks with Google were ongoing.

For smaller sites, the economics are stark. A payout worth less than 0.1% of ad revenue is effectively a rounding error next to existing display or affiliate income. The $1 million-a-year outlier shows the ceiling exists, but nothing in the reporting establishes a typical payout — the figures come from different publishers over different stretches of time.

What is confirmed and what is not

Google has confirmed only that the pilot exists and is at an early stage, telling Digiday in September it had no expansion timeline to share. The participant count, the payout figures, and the calculation complaints all come from unnamed sources and participants speaking to The Information and Digiday. Google has not published the methodology, and no publisher has gone on record with a specific payment.

What to watch

Two developments would change that. If Google publishes what counts as a significant contribution — or adds that detail to the Search Console earnings panel — invited sites would finally know what to expect before opting in. And a participant count from Google, or publishers going on record with their payments, would let the industry verify these numbers against a named source rather than anonymous ones.