By Matteo Martignago, cinematographer and colorist. Updated July 2026.
Writing on Medium means publishing essays and how-to pieces on a shared platform with a built-in audience, where paying members’ reading time, not views or claps, is what actually pays you. It is one of the fastest ways to get read from day one without building a website, and free to write on. What most guides bury: treat Medium as a place to be discovered and to earn a modest side income (by most estimates, the majority of writers make under $100 a month), not as a business you own. The readers and the algorithm belong to Medium, not to you. Here is how writing for Medium really works in 2026, how you get paid now, and whether it is worth your time.
Full disclosure: I do not earn on Medium, I chose to build here instead, so what follows leans on Medium’s own Partner Program and distribution documentation, not on a payout I am trying to sell you.
What is Medium, and is it free?
Medium is a publishing platform where anyone can write, and it puts your work in front of a large, ready-made readership through its own feed and network. There is no website to build, no hosting to pay for, and no approval queue: you can publish a story minutes after signing up.
It is free to write and publish, but it is not entirely free to read. Medium runs a metered paywall. Writers can lock a story as member-only, and only paying members can read locked stories in full. Membership is $5 a month or $50 a year, and there is now a higher Friend of Medium tier at $15 a month or $150 a year, and reads from those members pay writers more. Non-members can still read your locked stories if you hand them a free Friend Link (more on that below).
How to write on Medium (start in ten minutes)
Getting going takes about ten minutes. The platform is deliberately simple:
- Sign up with Google, email, or Apple. No application, no waiting.
- Fill out your profile and bio. A clear photo and a one-line bio that says who you write for do a surprising amount of work.
- Pick your lane. Decide on one or two topics and, more usefully, one specific reader you are writing for. Focused writers get found; generalists get lost.
- Write your first story in the editor and publish it. That is all it takes to be live.
Publishing on Medium: the editor and formatting that gets read
Medium’s editor is clean and stays out of your way, and stories publish instantly with no approval step. The formatting habits that earn reading time are simple:
- Hook fast. Earn the reader in the first two or three sentences. On Medium, people bounce quickly, and your opening decides whether they stay.
- Break it up. A subheading every 300 to 500 words, short paragraphs, and the occasional pull quote keep a piece scannable.
- Aim for the range readers finish. Most well-performing stories land between 1,200 and 2,000 words: long enough to say something, short enough to finish.
- Add 3 to 5 tags. Tags help Medium route your story to the right readers, so choose specific ones over broad ones.
- Use one strong image. A clean lead image helps in the feed; you do not need many.
If you struggle to maintain a steady output, our guide to being more productive covers the cadence habits that make a once-a-week posting rhythm sustainable.
How you get paid on Medium now
This is the part every old guide gets wrong, because Medium has changed its pay system more than once. Forget everything you have read about claps, per-view rates, or a fixed per-minute payout. None of that is how it works in 2026.
You earn through the Medium Partner Program, and pay is based on how long paying members spend reading your locked stories, plus engagement, at Medium’s discretion. Reading starts counting after about 30 seconds. It is not paid per view, and not paid per clap (claps are a minor signal now, not a paycheck). Two extra levers were added recently: reads from your own followers pay a bit more, and stories that bring outside traffic to Medium draw from a small dedicated pool, so funneling readers in from elsewhere finally counts.
Joining is easier than the old guides claim. The 100-follower requirement was removed in 2023. Today you need a complete profile, at least 6 published stories, and about 3 months of activity on the platform. You also have to be 18 or older, with a bank account and taxes set up in an eligible country, and you have to accept Medium’s AI-content policy, which matters more than it sounds (see distribution, below).
How stories get distributed: Boost and the guidelines
Publishing a story does not guarantee anyone sees it. Medium sorts stories into three tiers of reach: Network distribution (your followers, the baseline), General distribution (algorithmically matched to readers by interest), and Boosted distribution, where human curators hand-pick standout stories for far wider reach.
Boost is judged against Medium’s Distribution Guidelines, and the bar is real: original, useful writing, with a 180-day eligibility window, and hard lines against clickbait and undisclosed AI-generated content. That last point is the one to take seriously: since 2024, Medium limits the reach of AI-written work that is not clearly labeled, which quietly caps a lot of low-effort content. One structural change an older guide will miss: the publisher-run Boost Nomination Program has been wound down in favor of an Editor Partner Program that pays qualifying publication editors instead. Rules like this move often, so it is worth checking Medium’s current help pages before you lean on any specific one.
Growing your followers and reach
Reach on Medium compounds with consistency and with publications, the topic-based outlets that have their own followings. Getting your work into a relevant publication puts it in front of an audience you have not built yet, so it is worth pitching the ones that fit your niche and reading their submission guidelines first.
Beyond that, the fundamentals are unglamorous: publish steadily (once to a few times a week), engage with other writers in your space, and title your pieces so a scanning reader knows exactly what they will get. The same cross-platform thinking that grows a following anywhere applies here; our guides to Pinterest marketing and going viral on Pinterest cover funneling outside readers in, which, as noted, now helps your Medium earnings too.
The earnings reality
Here is what the hype pieces skip. The large majority of Medium writers earn very little, and a small top tier earns most of the money. If someone is showing you screenshots of thousands a month, they are the exception being sold to you as the rule. A realistic picture:
| Where most writers land | Rough monthly earnings |
|---|---|
| New or occasional writers | A few cents to about $10 |
| Consistent, non-viral writers | About $50 to $200 |
| A small, dedicated top tier | $500 and up |
| Even strong, consistent writers | Rarely past about $2,000 from the Program alone |
None of that makes Medium worthless. It makes it a modest side income and a discovery engine, not a salary. Set your expectations there and it can pay for itself; expect a full-time wage and you will be disappointed. If earning from your craft is the real goal, our guide to making money as a photographer covers income streams you fully own.
Is Medium worth it in 2026? Medium vs Substack vs your own site
The verdict: Medium is excellent for getting discovered and terrible as a foundation you own. The readers, the feed, and the payout rules all belong to Medium and can change overnight, as they have, repeatedly. That is the core trade against the alternatives:
| Medium | Substack | Your own site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the audience | Medium | You (email list) | You |
| Built-in discovery | Strong | Growing | You build it |
| How you get paid | Member read time | Reader subscriptions | Anything you choose |
| Upfront effort | Lowest | Low | Highest |
| Best for | Being found fast | Owning subscribers | Full control |
You are reading this on a site I own and control, which is the whole point. The writers who preach “own your audience” from inside Medium are arguing against their own address bar. The move that works is to use Medium as the top of the funnel, get found there, then send readers to a site and an email list that belong to you. And because outside-traffic stories now earn on Medium too, that funnel finally pays in both directions. I am not selling you a Medium membership or a writing tool, so, plainly: write on Medium to be discovered, build your home somewhere you own.
Writing for Medium FAQ
Is Medium free?
It is free to sign up, write, and publish. Reading is not fully free: many stories are locked behind a metered paywall that only paying members ($5 a month or $50 a year) can read in full, though writers can share free Friend Links to their own locked stories.
How do you get paid on Medium?
Through the Partner Program, based on how long paying members read your locked stories, plus engagement. It is not paid per view or per clap. Reads from your followers pay a little more, and stories that bring outside traffic to Medium draw from an extra pool.
Do you need a certain number of followers to earn on Medium?
No. The old 100-follower requirement was removed in 2023. Now you mainly need a complete profile, at least 6 published stories, about three months of activity, and a bank account in an eligible country, and you have to be 18 or older.
How long should a Medium post be?
Most well-performing stories run 1,200 to 2,000 words, with a subheading every few hundred words. Long enough to deliver something useful, short enough that a reader finishes it.
Can you edit or delete a story after publishing?
Yes to both. You can edit a published story at any time and the changes go live immediately, and you can delete a story entirely. You keep the copyright to what you write and can republish it elsewhere.
Do claps still make money on Medium?
No. Claps are now a minor engagement signal, not a payment mechanism. Any guide telling you to chase claps for income is out of date; reading time from paying members is what pays.
The bottom line
Writing for Medium in 2026 is a good way to get read fast and earn a little on the side, as long as you go in clear-eyed: you are paid for real reading time, most writers make under $100 a month, and the platform, not you, holds the audience. Write well, format for scanning, lean on publications and Boost for reach, and treat Medium as the front door to a home you own. Do that and it earns its place in your week.
