What’s a Clap Worth On Medium?

You won’t believe it.

Apparently, there are a lot of personal blogs and mainstream media that postulate that Medium writers get paid for claps.

Unfortunately, that’s a relic and a thing of the past.

Why?

In the past, writers were paid based on the number of claps. That's why you often see at the bottom of the story a call to action (CTA) saying:

Please give me 50 claps to show your appreciation.

Since many writers met in Facebook groups and clapped for one another to drive their earnings mutually — of course without even reading the content— Medium had to re-think how they calculate payments.

That’s why we get paid for member reading time. This is the actual amount people spend reading your piece.

But what about claps?

They still matter. Medium’s algorithm boosts your story the more people clap for it. It’s not the number of claps.

It’s the number of readers.