Do ‘The Amazing Race’ Contestants Get Paid? All About the Show’s Prize

A new team has taken home The Amazing Race’s coveted prize money.

The season 38 finale of the intense CBS competition came to a conclusion on Dec. 10, less than a year after best friends and gamers Carson McCalley and Jack Dodge won season 37 and took home a large monetary prize.

The most recent season followed former Big Brother players — including winners Jag Bains, Taylor Hale and Chelsie Baham — and their loved ones on a relay race around the world. The finalists included Jag and his brother Jas Bains, Joseph Abdin and his brother Adam Abdin and Hale and her boyfriend (and fellow Big Brother alum) Kyland Young.

So, what do the winners of The Amazing Race get? Here’s everything to know about how much The Amazing Race contestants get paid.

What does the winner of The Amazing Race get?

Ever since The Amazing Race began airing in 2001, the winning pair have received a jackpot of $1 million. However, the winners don’t receive the full amount, since the money is taxed.

“They most certainly will not keep the whole million dollars,” Roby Sawyers, undergraduate director of North Carolina State University’s Department of Accounting, told The News & Observer in March 2022.

Sawyers explained that the prize earnings are subject to both state and federal taxes, since the $1 million is considered income.

“If you look at the $1 million earnings like it’s the only income they have, my calculation has $300,000 taken out in federal taxes — 30%,” Sawyers said. “But this number looks different with other income and children in your home.”

Depending on the state where each winner is located, Sawyers estimated that roughly $400,000 of the $1 million payout goes to state and federal taxes.

Do the winners of The Amazing Race get anything besides money?

While the winners of the $1 million aren’t determined until the finale, all the contestants have chances to win vacations, cars and other prizes throughout the season.

Throughout the series’ 38 seasons, contestants have won a myriad of paid trips from sponsors Travelocity and Expedia, and other prizes, like cars from Ford.

However, season 21 contestant Mark “Abba” Abbattista previously claimed in a 2013 interview with the A.V. Club that the vacations weren’t completely “free.”

“So if the trip is worth $10,000, guess what? You owe Uncle Sam $3,500,” he told the outlet at the time. “And they’re not all-inclusive. Your air is paid for and your hotel and they include some other things, like massages or a snorkel trip, but all the food is not included. So you’re spending money and going to places that you’re not necessarily interested in.”

He continued, claiming, “I don’t know if a lot of people ever use the trip or not, because it is an expense and not everyone has the resources to do that. It sounds good in theory, but I think a fair amount of them don’t get used.”

Do all The Amazing Race contestants get paid?

It’s unclear what kind of compensation other contestants receive on The Amazing Race, but Abbattista said that everyone gets “some kind of money for the order that you come in.”