FA Cup Prize Money: £2,250 to £2,000,000
On this page5
Win a first qualifying round tie in the FA Cup and you receive £2,250. Win the final and you receive £2,000,000.
That is a ratio of about 889 to 1, inside a single competition, in the same season. No other tournament in football spans anything like it.
The full ladder
| Round | Payment for winning |
|---|---|
| First qualifying | £2,250 (losers £750) |
| Second qualifying | £3,375 |
| Third qualifying | £5,625 |
| Fourth qualifying | £9,375 |
| First round proper | ~£47,750 |
| Third round | £115,000 |
| Fourth round | £120,000 |
| Fifth round | £225,000 |
| Quarter-final | £450,000 |
| Semi-final | £1,000,000 |
| Final | £2,000,000 |
About £18.3 million is allocated in total from the first round through to the final.
A club entering at the third round — where Premier League sides come in — and winning the trophy accumulates £115,000 + £120,000 + £225,000 + £450,000 + £1,000,000 + £2,000,000 = £3,910,000.
Why the headline figure keeps changing
Search “FA Cup prize money” and you will find £2 million, £3.6 million and £3.91 million attached to the same outcome.
They are counting different things:
- £2 million — the payment for winning the final itself
- £3.91 million — the cumulative total for a third-round entrant who wins every round
- £3.6 million — a rounded or differently-scoped version of the same run
None is wrong; only one answers the question you asked. If you want to know what a club actually banked from the competition, the cumulative figure is the one. It is the same distinction that makes darts and snooker payout tables so often misquoted, covered in our guides to darts prize money and snooker prize money.
The money that actually matters
The £2,250 is the more interesting number, because of who receives it.
A first qualifying round win pays £2,250, and a loss still pays £750. The ladder then rises by roughly half to two-thirds each round — £3,375, £5,625, £9,375 — before the professional clubs arrive.
For a Premier League club, £115,000 at the third round is not a meaningful sum; it is less than a week’s wages for one player. For a National League or step-four club, a run of four qualifying wins plus a first round proper tie is a material share of the annual budget — a new stand roof, a season’s travel, a youth section.
The FA Cup is the only competition in world football that pays a village club and a Premier League club out of the same pot. That redistribution, not the £2 million at the top, is what the prize structure is for.
Against the rest of football
Here is the uncomfortable comparison for the world’s oldest cup competition.
| Win the entire FA Cup (3rd-round entrant) | £3.91m |
| Reach the Champions League league phase | €18.62m |
| Promotion to the Premier League (revenue uplift) | ~£205m |
A club that reaches the Champions League league phase receives €18.62 million regardless of results — several times what winning the FA Cup outright pays. And promotion from the Championship carries a revenue uplift put at £205 million, as our guide to Premier League promotion value sets out.
This is why the competition’s status is argued about every January. The FA Cup’s prestige and its prize money stopped tracking each other decades ago, and clubs choosing their priorities are responding to arithmetic, not sentiment.
For scale in the other direction, £3.91 million is close to what the Grand National and the World Darts Championship pay out between them.
How we checked these numbers
The qualifying round payments — £2,250 for a first qualifying round win with £750 to the losing club, then £3,375, £5,625 and £9,375 — are from The Non-League Football Paper’s 2026-27 coverage. The third round to final ladder of £115,000, £120,000, £225,000, £450,000, £1 million and £2 million, the £3.91 million cumulative total for a third-round entrant and the £18.3 million overall allocation from the first round to the final are from SalaryLeaks’ 2026 breakdown and NationalWorld’s per-round figures, with GiveMeSport and Fans Focus used for corroboration.
The ~£47,750 first round proper figure is the least certain on this page. It appears in coverage that may describe an earlier season, and we have not found it confirmed against the 2026-27 schedule — it is marked approximate for that reason. The £3,910,000 cumulative total is our own arithmetic from the published round payments.
Review class: annual. Recheck when The FA publishes the next season’s prize fund, usually before the qualifying rounds begin.
Frequently asked questions
How much is FA Cup prize money?+
About £18.3 million is allocated across the competition from the first round to the final. The winner of the final receives £2 million, and a club entering at the third round and winning the trophy collects £3.91 million in total across its run.
How much do FA Cup winners get?+
£2 million for winning the final itself. Adding the payments earned in each earlier round, a Premier League club entering at the third round accumulates £3.91 million across the whole competition.
How much do non-league clubs earn in the FA Cup?+
£2,250 for winning a first qualifying round tie, with £750 even for the losing club. Second qualifying round wins pay £3,375, third qualifying £5,625 and fourth qualifying £9,375. Small sums in absolute terms, and substantial ones relative to a non-league club's budget.
What is the FA Cup prize money by round?+
From the third round proper the payments run £115,000, £120,000, £225,000, £450,000 for the quarter-final, £1 million for the semi-final and £2 million for winning the final. The qualifying rounds beneath that run from £2,250 upward.
Why do reported FA Cup winnings differ?+
Because some figures quote the payment for winning the final alone and others quote the cumulative total across a club's whole run. £2 million and £3.91 million describe the same successful campaign counted two different ways.
Is FA Cup prize money small compared to other competitions?+
Very. Winning the entire FA Cup is worth £3.91 million to a third-round entrant, against €18.62 million paid to every club that reaches the Champions League league phase regardless of results, and a revenue uplift put at £205 million for promotion to the Premier League.
Do losing clubs get FA Cup prize money?+
In the qualifying rounds, yes — a club losing in the first qualifying round still receives £750. That guaranteed payment to losers is unusual and is aimed at the clubs for whom the money matters most.
Sources
- GiveMeSport: FA Cup prize money, how much teams earn for winning in every round
- The Non-League Football Paper: which non-league teams take part in the FA Cup first qualifying round
- SalaryLeaks: FA Cup 2026 prize money
- NationalWorld: FA Cup prize money, each club's earnings per round
- Fans Focus: FA Cup prize money
Related prize money guides
View all →
Solheim Cup Prize Money: $0, and the Ryder Cup's $500,000
Nobody is paid to play the Solheim Cup. Nor is Europe's Ryder Cup team. Only the US side receives anything — $500,000 each since 2025.
Champions League Prize Money: Every Payment Explained
UEFA will distribute €2.467 billion in 2026/27. The participation fee, per-win bonus and progression payments, and what a perfect run is actually worth.
Darts Prize Money: £5m, and £15,000 for Losing
The 2026 World Darts Championship paid £5 million. The winner took £1 million — and every one of the 128 entrants was guaranteed £15,000.
Snooker Prize Money: £2.4m for 17 Days
The World Snooker Championship pays £500,000 to the winner from a £2,395,000 fund. Darts pays double, for one night's work.
Six Nations Prize Money: There Isn't Any
Winning the Six Nations pays nothing. The money moved a different way — a private equity deal worth up to £365m whose instalments have just finished.
Paralympic Prize Money: Equal in the US, Half in Italy
The USA has paid Paralympians the same as Olympians since 2021 — $37,500 for gold. Italy pays more in cash but barely half its Olympic rate.