One hundred million dollars. That's what GitHub has paid to people who keep open source running - the labor that half the internet stands on. Until now that labor mostly went unpaid. Slowly that's changing.
Fact
The facts: On 20 July 2026 GitHub announced that over $100 million has been paid out through the Sponsors program to open source maintainers and projects since it started in 2019. Per GitHub's data the money has reached over 70,000 maintainers and organizations, from over 280,000 sponsors - from individual developers to Fortune 500 companies - in 103 regions. The pace is accelerating: the first $10 million took nearly two years, the most recent $10 million took just five months. Source: GitHub (github.blog), 20.07.2026.
What's underneath? A dependency few people think about. I've run events where everything depended on two techs backstage that nobody in the room noticed - and the bill, if something broke, landed right on them. Open source works the same way. A huge share of the planet's software stands on free parts maintained by a handful of people in their spare time. Break one of those parts, or have the author walk away, and everything on top wobbles. Sponsors is an attempt to turn that labor from a hobby into something people get paid for.
Free for you doesn't mean free for someone.
The interesting part is who's paying now. Early on the money came from individual developers. Now more and more comes from companies - and the average corporate sponsor gives many times more. Business is starting to admit that the free foundation under its product has a cost. This isn't charity. It's upkeep for the floor you're standing on.
Official primary sources
GitHub - $100 million for open source (github.blog), 20.07.2026The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.