Status of Medium Partner Program for Indian writers as of July, 2020
Yesterday, I thought of publishing an article which was under progress from a long time and moving forward I wanted to invest more time in Medium platform because I love it. Naturally, it seemed like a good idea to make some money while I was at it, therefore I started looking into the Medium Partner Program. While going through many articles and conversations with customer support from both Medium & Stripe it turns out India is currently not supported by Medium for their Partner Program. At present Stripe is the only payment partner for Medium and Stripe will not be able to support their Payouts service for Indian accounts as it is still in “Beta Preview” phase.
In short: As of July 2020, Indian authors cannot benefit from the Medium Partner Program if they have a Stripe account based in India.
What is Medium Partner Program?
All the details regarding it can be best found here.
Can Indian Medium Writers join Medium Partner Program?
No! Medium Partner Program has a requirement of Stripe account through which people will receive payments. India is currently not listed in medium’s Stripe setup page.
If you have a bank account in any of the countries listed above then you can receive Medium Partner Program money through Stripe’s payout service.
I have a separate Stripe account with Indian bank, can I receive payment from Medium for my articles through their Partner Program?
No! unless you have a bank account in countries that support Stripe completely you will not be able to receive payment through Medium Partner Program as currently Stripe do not support transfer of money from non-Indian platforms to India Stripe accounts. Even if you have a Stripe account with Indian bank created separately via Stripe’s sign up page, you will not be able to receive payment unless India is listed in medium’s Stripe setup page. Currently India is not listed there as shown in the screenshot above.
When will Indian Medium writers be able to receive payment from Medium Partner Program?
Right now there is no clear or tentative date shared officially and it depends mostly on Stripe because it is the only payment partner with Medium. Stripe is still in beta preview mode in India which can be confirmed on their official site.
Until they launch officially and come out of their Preview mode in India, they will not be able to support their Payouts service for Indians which is used to receive money from Medium. When I inquired regarding the official launch date of Stripe in India, this was the response from Customer support at Stripe - “Stripe IN is relatively new and I’m afraid to say that there’s no definite timeline yet as to when Stripe IN will advance to the next level, but hopefully it’s going to happen sooner than expected. That being said, we currently do not support transfer of money from non-Indian platforms to India Stripe accounts. Hence, Medium would not work with Stripe India for now.”
Is there any other way to receive payment other than Stripe?
No! Although there are old mentions of people receiving payment through Paypal here but as of now as per the official communication from Medium, “There are no workarounds that Medium endorses, or can effectively or legally support outside of the process at medium.com/creators. This includes non-Stripe payout services, using the banking information of friends or family, or the employment of VPNs to create Stripe accounts in supported countries. If you do any workarounds, you run the risk of never being able to receive your earned money and potential tax problems.”.
Ending Note:
Please let me know if there are any corrections required or confusions in this article. I am closely following this issue and will be frequently getting in touch with Support executives from both Medium and Stripe. I will share important updates in a follow up article.
