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Medium facts, with sources

Checked 2026-10-13. Official = Medium's own help center, policy or blog pages. Secondary = news, third-party guides or one person's test; treat as a hint and verify before relying on it. Medium's help center blocks some automated readers, so open the links in a browser.

Rules and spam

Fact Source Type
Medium can restrict or suspend content and accounts that break its rules, and has the final say Medium Rules · Help: Medium Rules Official
The most common reason for suspension is spam and site misuse; examples include posting content primarily to drive traffic to, or raise the search ranking of, an external site, product or service Help: Reasons for suspensions or restrictions Official
Manipulating SEO or domain authority, including redirecting canonical URLs away from the author's own URL or medium.com, isn't allowed in publications Help: Publications best practices and guidelines Official
You may only import content you have the right to import Help: Importing a post to Medium Official

AI content

Fact Source Type
AI-generated writing (disclosed or not) can't be paywalled in the Partner Program; "AI-generated" means mostly written by AI with little or no editing. AI outlining and grammar or fact checkers don't count Help: AI content policy Official
Undisclosed AI writing gets Network-only distribution; disclosed AI writing can get General distribution but not Boost Help: AI content policy · Plagiarism Today Official + secondary summary
AI images should be captioned as AI Plagiarism Today Secondary (quotes the policy)

Distribution and Boost

Fact Source Type
Three levels: Network (followers of you or the publication), General (matched to readers by interest), Boost (top tier, chosen by people against the Boost guidelines). Stories that break no rules get at least Network Help: Distribution (updated 2024-08-14) Official
Not distributed: sponsored content, content marketing, stories whose only purpose is signups or traffic, link farms Help: Distribution Official
Boost is picked by a human curation team, about half from publication editors in the Boost Nomination Program, half found by Medium's own curators Help: Boost Nomination Program · Help: what makes a story great for Boosting Official
Stories older than 6 months can't be nominated Help: How do I nominate a story Official
A republished (syndicated) story can be Boosted only when posted by the same writer or publisher who first published it Help: Boost eligibility Official
Up to 5 topics per story; topics help discovery inside Medium Help: Tags / topics Official
Fact Source Type
The import tool backdates the story to the original date and adds a canonical link to the original Help: Importing a post Official
You can set it by hand: story → ⋯ → More settings → Advanced settings → "This story was originally published elsewhere". Only the author can set it. Check with View source → search "canonical" Help: Set a canonical link Official
Fact Source Type
Outbound links in Medium stories, including the bio link, are marked rel="nofollow ugc": they send readers, not search ranking DEV Community test Secondary (one person's test; re-check with View source)

Partner Program (getting paid)

Fact Source Type
You need a bank account and tax residence in a supported country; the list includes Vietnam, the US, UK, most of Europe, India, Japan and many more. Payouts go through Stripe Help: Partner Program eligibility · Help: Set up payouts with Stripe Official
Two versions of the eligibility page disagree on whether a paid membership and how many stories are required; check the live page before applying Help: Application and enrollment · eligibility Official (conflicting)
Unpaid earnings are forfeited if the account can't receive payouts for 180 days in a row Help: Set up payouts with Stripe Official
Earnings come from paying members on paywalled stories: reading + listening time (a read counts after 30 s), engagement points (claps, highlights, replies), a Boost bonus and the member read ratio Help: Earnings calculation · Partner Program overview Official
Reads from outside Medium earn more: a bonus for external sources (social, direct links), an extra allocation for search-engine reads, and email reads earn more than feed reads Help: Earnings calculation Official
A Friend Link lets non-members read one paywalled story (after a free sign-up); you still earn from members who use it Help: Friend Links Official

Publications

Fact Source Type
Towards Data Science left Medium and became an independent site on 2025-02-03; the old publication is an archive at medium.com/data-science TDS announcement · medium.com/data-science Publisher's own page
Big publications move, close or change rules. Check a publication's latest posts and submission page before pitching — Practice

Not verified (don't rely on)

  • "Medium pays $X per 1,000 views". Third-party figures disagree and Medium doesn't publish a rate.
  • Any fixed bio length, number of free stories per month for non-members, or best posting time: check the current product, they change.
  • Claims that a dofollow link from Medium helps your Google ranking (see the nofollow row above).