Veriwire
← Back to the wire

Bug hunters can now earn up to $172,000 from OpenAI as company ramps up security

AnnouncementPolicyNov 3, 2026

OpenAI quadrupled its bug bounty payouts, with critical vulnerabilities in ChatGPT or Codex now earning outside researchers up to $30,000, exceptional findings up to $100,000, and totals of roughly $172,000 with bonuses. The program adds a five-tier loyalty program and time-limited campaigns. Reports from the last 30 days receive retroactive differences. Security firm Cathedral will join OpenAI engineers in an upcoming security sprint.

Why it matters

OpenAI has sharply increased what it pays outside security researchers who find vulnerabilities in its products, raising maximum rewards for critical flaws in ChatGPT and Codex and adding bonuses that can push total earnings far higher. The move brings its payouts closer to what Google offers through its general vulnerability rewards program, though still short of the top rewards Apple and Microsoft provide for operating-system exploits. The company is also introducing a loyalty structure with multiple tiers and short-term campaigns that raise payouts around new feature launches, and it will retroactively pay researchers who reported flaws in the past month at the new rates. In parallel, OpenAI plans a security sprint in which the firm Cathedral will work alongside its engineers to probe its systems; during a previous sprint, a substantial share of its product engineers focused on finding vulnerabilities. The story matters because it shows a leading AI developer treating external and internal security testing as a priority as its products reach wider use.

Receipt № 27071 source · awaiting confirmation ◐

Evidence

1source· awaiting independent confirmation

No score is assigned. Sources and their independence are shown in the citation chain below.

Citation chain · 1 source

01high
the-decoder.comOfficialhttps://the-decoder.com/bug-hunters-can-now-earn-up-to-172000-from-openai-as-company-ramps-up-security/THE DECODER reports the payout increase details, the comparison to Google, Apple, and Microsoft programs, and the Cathedral security sprint, framing OpenAI's rewards as competitive but not top-tier.
PRIMARY
OpenAICompanyChatGPTModelGoogleCompanyMicrosoftCompanyCodexModelAppleCompanyTHE DECODERCompanyCathedralCompany

Related

Nov 3Anthropic cracks down on game cloning in Claude Code after wave of AI-built knockoffsNov 3Nvidia pushes cloud customers to cut back on China businessNov 2The U.S. Census Bureau and “Super Intelligence”
Canonical: https://the-decoder.com/bug-hunters-can-now-earn-up-to-172000-from-openai-as-company-ramps-up-security/