- Google paid 40% extra in 2025 than 2024 to safety researchers
- New AI vulnerabilities are being thought of as threats emerge
- Main occasions accounted for round 20% of payouts
Google paid out $17.1 million in bug bounties in 2025, probably the most it has ever paid out in any single 12 months, marking a 40% improve over the $11.8 million sum it coughed up in 2024.
Nevertheless, regardless of such a pointy rise in money worth, the corporate solely paid 13% extra researchers (a complete of 747 in 2025), suggesting vulnerability-spotting is turning into way more profitable.
The corporate additionally boasted that it is paid out $81.6 million in VRP payouts because the scheme was launched in 2010.
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Google’s VRP is turning into extra profitable
A number of the most important product areas included Android and Google Units ($2.9 million), Chrome ($3.7 million) and Google Cloud ($3.57 million).
Google additionally launched its devoted AI VRP final 12 months to give attention to dangers like immediate injection, information exfiltration and rogue conduct – that one has paid out $350,000, bringing the full AI-related payouts to $890,000. To acknowledge the potential dangers round AI, the corporate additionally added new reward classes for AI-related vulnerabilities in Chrome.
The AI VRP solely launched in October 2025, with Google “recognizing that securing Generative AI Merchandise requires specialised analysis distinct from conventional vulnerabilities.” A single AI bugSWAT occasion rose 70 legitimate stories, totalling $400,000 in payouts.
Different occasions held in Sunnyvale, Las Vegas and Mexico Metropolis generated almost $3 million in payouts, accounting for round 20% of the full bounties paid in 2025, making these occasions must-go-to locations for safety researchers.
“Our purpose stays to remain forward of rising threats, adapt to evolving applied sciences, and proceed to strengthen the safety posture of Google’s services,” the corporate wrote in a weblog publish, thanking those that have helped safe its merchandise thus far.
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