- GitHub will launch two-tier bug bounty programs (public and private) starting July 27, 2026
- The change comes in response to the increase in the number of lower quality reports generated by AI
- VIP researchers will earn approximately 3-4 times more compared to
GitHub has confirmed plans to evolve its bug bounty program to a two-tiered system, which will take effect for reports submitted on or after July 27, 2026.
Under the new program, the Microsoft-owned coding platform will add a lower-paying public program available to the entire research community, as part of a higher-paying, invite-only program.
Product safety engineer Catherine Cassell explained that this change comes in response to a growing backlog of low-effort, low-quality, AI-generated reports.
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For the new public program, GitHub will replace the payment ranges with a single payment for each severity, ranging from $250, $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 for low, medium, high, and critical. Cassell said this would help researchers know in advance what a valid finding might be worth, and it would also give insiders less headache having to decide where a report falls in a range.
Notably, payouts are much lower than before, with previous ranges paying $500 to $1,000, $2,000 to $5,000, $5,000 to $20,000, and $10,000 to $30,000.
VIP researchers invited under the second plan will earn approximately 3-4 times more than researchers under the other program, depending on the severity of the bugs.
GitHub is also adding a HackerOne signal requirement for new researchers, giving them four opportunities to “build history” – likely another response to the increase in AI-generated reports, which are generally of lower value.
“We want to build a program that attracts the research we value, creates an experience that reflects the seriousness with which we take this work, and maintains the trust that researchers place in us every time they submit a report,” Cassell concluded.
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