Become a Friend of Medium
Contribute 4x more to writers and strengthen your support for the Medium community with our new membership level
TL;DR: We’re launching a new membership level called Friend of Medium, designed to directly support the Medium writing community. Become a Friend of Medium, or upgrade your current membership: medium.com/membership.
More than a decade ago, we created Medium as a home for high-quality stories. We focused on creating a simple, beautiful experience for readers and writers, sustained without selling ads or user data. Our member-supported platform directly supports writers; through our Partner Program, we’ve built a sustainable new subscription model for online publishing.
We designed Medium this way because we believe writers should be rewarded for great writing. If you’re reading this, we imagine you do, too.
When we ask people why they became Medium members, many tell us that they want to support writers. Our membership makes that easy: subscribe once, and automatically support every writer whose stories you read here. No need to juggle multiple subscriptions, accounts, payment methods, or patronage platforms.
This week, we’re taking our mission a step further with a new membership level: Friend of Medium. It’s priced at $15/month or $150/year. As a Friend of Medium, more of your membership dollars will directly support the writers you love—plus the editors, curators, and teams who make Medium a vibrant, inclusive home for human stories. You’ll also get access to a new Friend Link feature that lets you share what you read with your friends.
Part of what makes Medium work is that our base price of $5 per month is so affordable. Authors want to be read, and our accessible price makes that possible for nearly a million subscribers. But that base price leaves out a vocal group of readers who can pay more, feel generous to the authors they read, and want a way support the essential value of human stories. If that’s you, we invite you to become a Friend of Medium.
Note: We’ll be rolling out this membership option for all Medium accounts this week—if you don’t see it on your account quite yet, check back soon!
Writers you read earn 4x more
Friends of Medium will directly support the writers they read most — and with more impact than a regular Medium membership. When Friends of Medium spend time reading member-only stories, they’ll generate four times more earnings for those writers compared to regular members. This revenue share is calculated in the same way as our standard Medium membership: it’s based on a combination of read and listen time, claps, highlights, replies, and follows. The difference is that it’s multiplied by a factor of four.
Support a healthy, open future for online publishing
We’re building a publishing model that rewards great writing with real money. Medium is the place where ideas are shared, communities are built, and intellectual wellness is cultivated.
We don’t need to tell you about how writing online has become flawed — full of distracting ads, impersonal AI-generated content, and noisy design. We’re creating an alternative to that world: A platform singularly focused on providing the best reading and writing experience on the internet. When you become a Friend of Medium, you’re investing in this mission to create a better future for online publishing.
Share “Friend Links” to let your friends bypass the paywall
If you’re a writer on Medium, you may already know about the Friend Links feature. Writers in the Partner Program who paywall their stories can create shareable Friend Links and send them to anyone to let them bypass the paywall.
Now, we’re opening this up to Friend members. Friends of Medium will be able to create and share Friend Links for any paywalled story. When non-members follow these links and bypass the paywall, their read time is factored into the writer’s earnings. This means you can drive more earnings and reach for writers you love by sharing Friend Links to their stories.
Show your support for the Medium community
Friends receive a “Friend of Medium” badge on their profile page and avatar. It’s a small thing, but we think Friends deserve special recognition and visibility in the community for going the extra mile to support writers and Medium.
Additionally, the first 500 people to become Friends of Medium will get a limited edition Medium tote bag lovingly made by our design team.
There’s more to come
This is just the beginning for Friend memberships. It’s a foundation for a new community experience that we’re still in the early days of building. So tell us: What do you value most about reading and writing on Medium? What does Medium mean to you? And why are you excited to become a Friend of Medium?
