Medium Partner Program Pakistan: Join & Get Paid?

Medium Partner Program Pakistan pays writers in Pakistan. That sentence would have been wrong two years ago, and plenty of guides still say it is wrong today — but Medium’s own help pages say otherwise. Medium’s eligibility page lists Pakistan among the countries where a writer with a local bank account and tax residence can enrol, and payouts go to your bank through a Stripe account once you earn USD 10. The old guides are not lying on purpose. They were written before Medium added 77 countries to the programme and never updated. This guide sets out the six entry rules, how the Stripe setup works from Pakistan, the payout calendar, and the two deadlines that can wipe out your balance — all read from Medium’s own help centre, with the stale advice named and corrected.

The verdict matters because the wrong version of this story is still the one most Pakistanis read first. Search for Medium earning in Pakistan and you will find guides that print the old country list, declare Pakistan ineligible, and then sell you a workaround: open a Payoneer account, use its virtual US bank account to receive Stripe, or ask a friend or relative abroad to create a Stripe account for you. None of that is needed any more, and the last one is actively dangerous, because Stripe verifies the legal name on the account and a relative’s account is not yours. The expansion ended the workaround era. What remains is a straightforward programme with a low minimum, a monthly payout, and a forfeiture rule you need to know before your first popular story, not after it.

Pakistan Is on Medium’s Partner Program Country List

Medium opens enrolment to writers with a bank account and tax residence in its supported countries, and Pakistan is on that list with India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the UAE. The list sits on Medium’s page on Partner Program eligibility, and it was edited on 12 October 2026 — it is a current document, not a legacy page. The expansion behind it is public: in 2024 Medium announced it was adding 77 countries to the Partner Program, bringing the total to 119, with Pakistan named in the added list, and a USD 10 minimum payout threshold introduced at the same time. Medium’s own announcement put it plainly: almost all countries supported by Stripe are now supported.

There is no application review. Meet the rules and you are enrolled at once. That is worth stating clearly, because it is the opposite of the platforms this site usually covers: no test, no practice project, no waiting for a reviewer. The gate is the rules themselves, and they are all things you can check off in an afternoon.

The Six Rules to Join

To join, you must meet all six requirements. They come from Medium’s eligibility page, and none of them is negotiable.

#	Rule	What it means in Pakistan
1	Be a Medium member with an active paid membership	The one cost of entry. Medium does not state the price on these pages and it varies by plan, so check it in the app before you sign up. Treat it as an expense against what your stories earn.
2	Have published at least one story	Any published story counts. It does not need to be behind the paywall yet.
3	Have a complete profile	Photo, bio and details filled in — the profile a reader trusts.
4	Hold a bank account in an eligible country	A Pakistani bank account counts. Your tax residence must be in Pakistan too.
5	Be 18 or older	The same age bar as Payoneer and most payout systems.
6	Agree to the Partner Program Terms and the paywall content policy	Read them. The policy decides which stories can earn, and copied or AI-generated filler does not qualify.

The paid membership is the part to think about before you sign up. It is the only upfront cost in the whole programme, and it is also the reason the earnings maths matters: if the membership costs more than your stories earn, you are paying to write, not earning from it. Medium does not publish the price for Pakistan on the help pages, and it varies by plan, so open the app, read the price, and treat it as a business expense. A writer who publishes one story and waits will not cover it. A writer who publishes regularly, about things paying members actually read, has a chance to.

Stripe Pays Medium Earnings Into Your Pakistani Bank Account

Medium pays through Stripe, and it says Stripe setup is available in every country its Partner Program supports, Pakistan included. So a Pakistani writer can open a Stripe payout account for Medium earnings. Payouts go to a bank account only, not a debit card — that is a hard rule, not a preference, so have your bank details ready before you start.

Medium’s page on setting up payouts with Stripe explains the account types. Depending on your country you get a Stripe Standard account, usable with other services, or a Stripe Express account, usable with Medium only. Expect Express from Pakistan, though Medium does not say which country gets which, and this guide does not claim it as confirmed. Either way, the setup asks for the same things: use your legal name as on your CNIC, because a pen name is fine on Medium but Stripe verifies the legal name; set up two-factor sign-in by SMS or an authenticator app; enter your bank details exactly as your bank holds them; and submit your taxpayer information separately through Tipalti, the form provider Medium uses. Medium says identity checks that keep failing are usually caused by mismatched details. Copy your name and IBAN from your bank app rather than typing them from memory.

Do not use anyone else’s account. The stale guides that advise asking a friend or relative abroad to create a Stripe account for you are advising you to break the own-name rule that every payout system in this site’s guides enforces — Payoneer, AdSense, Skrill and Stripe all require the account to belong to the person earning the money. A relative’s Stripe account receiving your Medium earnings is not a workaround. It is a frozen payout waiting to happen, and a tax record in someone else’s name. The expansion made it unnecessary anyway: you can open the payout account yourself, in your own name, from Pakistan.

Medium Pays From USD 10, by the 10th of the Next Month

Your earnings must reach USD 10 before Medium sends a payout. Smaller amounts roll over to the next month. Payouts are usually started by the 10th of each month for the previous month’s earnings, then take another 5 to 7 business days to reach your bank. Medium’s payouts page gives worked examples, and they are worth keeping, because they show how the rollover actually behaves.

Months	Earnings	When Medium pays
January	USD 12	Early February
January to March	USD 5 + USD 3 + USD 3 = USD 11	Early April
January to June	USD 5, then nothing, then USD 9 = USD 14	Early July

The pattern is forgiving: nothing is lost for earning slowly, and months with no earnings do not reset the balance. What the table also shows is how slow the start is. A writer earning a few dollars a month waits a quarter or more for the first payout, and that is normal. Medium adds that some countries have extra minimums set by Stripe. Whether Stripe sets a higher minimum for Pakistan could not be confirmed, so watch your first payout closely and do not promise yourself the USD 10 figure until the money actually moves.

Two Deadlines Can Wipe Out Your Medium Earnings

This is the section to read before you enrol, not after your first popular story. If your balance reaches USD 10 and your payout setup stays incomplete for 30 days in a row, Medium marks you inactive and removes your stories from the paywall. After 180 inactive days in a row, Medium forfeits your whole balance. The rule also applies if your Stripe account becomes unable to receive payouts for 180 days — for example, after a bank account closes.

Four habits prevent it. Finish the Stripe setup and the tax form on day one, not after your first popular story. Check your Partner Program dashboard once a month. Update Stripe as soon as you change banks. And keep your Medium membership active, since it is an entry rule — letting it lapse while a balance sits there is the easiest way to lose money you already earned. The forfeiture rule is not hidden; it is on Medium’s own pages. It is also the rule most new writers never read, because they are reading about how to earn, not about how to lose.

What You Actually Earn — and What to Write About

One honest note on money. Medium pays from members’ reading time, and members are mostly outside Pakistan. A story that only Pakistani non-members read earns little or nothing, because there is no member subscription money behind those reads. The same question this site asks about every platform applies here: where does the money come from? On Medium, it comes from paying members, most of them abroad. So the earning strategy is not “write about Pakistan for Pakistanis”. It is “write about things paying members, wherever they are, want to read” — and write it well enough that they finish the story, because reading time, not clicks, is what pays.

That has practical consequences. How-to guides, explainers, personal experience with a lesson in it, and honest analysis travel well on Medium. Copied content, AI-generated filler and rewritten news do not, and the paywall content policy excludes them from earning. A story needs to be behind the paywall to earn, and it needs to be read by members to earn anything at all. There is no fixed per-read rate to quote, because Medium does not publish one, and any guide printing a dollar figure per thousand reads is guessing. What is true is that a new writer earns a little, slowly, and that the writers who earn meaningfully are the ones who publish regularly for months, not the ones who publish once and check their dashboard every day.

Compare that with the other writing routes on this site. Amazon KDP pays authors through bank transfer, but the payout route has its own conflicts and the book has to sell. Freepik pays designers per download, but the payout is PayPal-gated in a way Pakistanis must check first. Medium’s advantage is the low bar: one story, a membership, and you are in, with a USD 10 minimum and a monthly payout. Its disadvantage is the same as its advantage: the bar is low, so the competition is everyone, and the money follows the writers readers actually finish.

The Stale-Guide Trap, in Full

It is worth naming the wrong guides precisely, because they are still ranking and still being followed. The readmedium guides on joining from Pakistan print a country list of about forty-two names — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and others — with no Pakistan on it. That list was correct before the expansion and has been wrong since Medium added the 77 countries. One of them then advises making a Payoneer account, using its virtual US bank account to receive Stripe payments, as if Medium still refused Pakistani writers. Another advises asking a friend or relative in an eligible country to create a Stripe account on your behalf. Both pieces of advice are stale, and the second is against the own-name rules. If a guide tells you Pakistan is not eligible for the Medium Partner Program, check its date. If it was written before the expansion, or if it never mentions the expansion at all, it is describing a programme that no longer exists.

The test for any Medium guide is simple: does it name Pakistan as a supported country, does it give the USD 10 minimum, and does it mention the 180-day forfeiture rule? A guide that passes all three has read Medium’s current help pages. A guide that fails the first has not. Use that test before you follow any advice about Medium, including this one — and check Medium’s own eligibility page yourself, because lists change and the help page is the document that governs.

Frequently Asked Questions About Medium Partner Program Pakistan

Does Medium pay writers in Pakistan? Yes. Medium lists Pakistan among the countries where writers with a local bank account and tax residence can join the Partner Program. Payouts go through Stripe to your Pakistani bank account, from USD 10.

Can I use Stripe in Pakistan for Medium? Yes. Medium says its Stripe payout setup is available in every country on its supported list, which includes Pakistan. It pays to a bank account only, not a debit card. Whether you get a Stripe Standard or Express account is not stated by Medium for Pakistan, so expect Express and check what you are offered.

What is the Medium minimum payout? USD 10. Earnings below that roll over to the next month until the total reaches USD 10. Some countries have extra minimums set by Stripe, and whether Pakistan is one of them could not be confirmed, so watch your first payout.

When does Medium pay? Medium usually starts payouts by the 10th of each month for the previous month’s earnings, then the money takes 5 to 7 business days to reach your bank. A January balance of USD 12 is paid in early February; a balance that only reaches USD 11 across January to March is paid in early April.

Do I need a paid Medium membership to earn? Yes. An active paid membership is one of the six entry rules for the Partner Program. The price is not stated on Medium’s help pages and varies by plan, so check it in the app and treat it as an expense against what your stories earn.

Can I lose my Medium earnings? Yes. If your payout setup stays incomplete for 30 days after your balance reaches USD 10, Medium marks you inactive and removes your stories from the paywall. After 180 inactive days in a row, Medium forfeits your whole balance. Finish the Stripe setup and the tax form on the day you enrol.