Browse documentation

What is Gitpay?

Get paid for contributing to projects, delivering work, or fund the work you need

alexanmtz Written by
Contribute with this documentation

Table of contents

Gitpay is a platform that helps people get paid for contributing to projects and delivering work.

A contribution can start in different ways. A project can fund an issue and invite contributors to work on it. A contributor can help a project and get paid for an accepted contribution. A professional can deliver work to a customer and request payment afterwards.

Gitpay connects these workflows around one idea: work should have a clear path to payment.

Who is Gitpay for?

Gitpay supports the different people involved in getting work done and paid for.

Contributors

Contributors can get paid for contributing to projects.

A contribution may be a bug fix, feature, documentation improvement, refactor, design, or another piece of work that provides value to a project.

You can work on a funded issue, but the relationship does not always need to start with a bounty. A contribution may begin through the normal collaboration process of a project and later become work that can be paid through Gitpay.

For software projects, Gitpay can connect the task, contributor, GitHub issue, Pull Request, delivery, and payment.

Maintainers and project owners

Maintainers can use Gitpay to fund work that their projects need and create opportunities for contributors.

They can define a task, attach funding to an issue, work with a contributor, review the delivered contribution, and connect acceptance of the work with payment.

This gives projects a way to financially support useful contributions while keeping the development workflow centered around the project itself.

Service providers and freelancers

Gitpay can also be used when the work happens directly between a professional and a customer.

After delivering a project, milestone, consultation, design, development task, or another service, the provider can create a Payment Request and send it to the customer.

The customer receives a payment link and can pay for the delivered work.

Customers and clients

Customers can use Gitpay to pay people who have delivered work for them.

They do not need to participate in a GitHub contribution workflow. When a service provider sends a Payment Request, the customer can review the request and complete the payment through the provided link.

Teams and organizations

Teams and organizations can use Gitpay to work with external contributors and independent professionals.

This can include funding project issues, paying for accepted contributions, or paying providers for work delivered outside a repository.

Ways to get paid with Gitpay

There are two main paths for receiving payment on Gitpay.

Get paid for contributing to a project

Gitpay can connect contributions to payment.

A typical funded contribution starts with a project identifying work that needs to be done:

  1. A maintainer creates or selects an issue.
  2. Funding is added to the task.
  3. A contributor applies or is selected to work on it.
  4. The contributor implements the work.
  5. The contribution is submitted, typically through a Pull Request.
  6. The project reviews the contribution.
  7. The work is accepted.
  8. The contributor receives payment.

But contribution does not always have to begin with a bounty.

A contributor may already be helping a project or may deliver a valuable contribution through its existing collaboration process. Gitpay’s broader goal is to provide a path for contributors to be paid for accepted work, connecting contribution and payment without requiring every relationship to begin as a traditional freelance contract.

The principle is:

Contribute → Deliver → Get accepted → Get paid

Get paid for work delivered to a customer

If you work directly with a customer, you can use a Payment Request.

For example, you might request payment for:

  • Software development
  • A bug fix or feature
  • Design work
  • Technical consulting
  • Documentation
  • Content or digital assets
  • Maintenance
  • A project milestone
  • Other professional services

A typical workflow is:

  1. Agree on the work and price.
  2. Complete or deliver the work.
  3. Create a Payment Request on Gitpay.
  4. Send the payment link to the customer.
  5. The customer completes the payment.
  6. Gitpay tracks the payment.
  7. The funds become available for payout.

The principle is:

Deliver → Request payment → Get paid

Fund work on a project

Gitpay also supports the other side of contribution: projects that want to pay people to help.

A maintainer or project owner can fund an issue with a defined amount. Contributors can then discover the opportunity and work toward delivering the requested result.

For software projects, this workflow integrates naturally with GitHub:

Issue → Funding → Contributor → Pull Request → Review → Acceptance → Payment

This makes the relationship between the requested work, the delivered contribution, and its payment easier to follow.

Payment Requests and funded contributions

Payment Requests and funded contributions solve related problems from different starting points.

A funded contribution usually starts with a project:

Project needs work → Funding → Contribution → Acceptance → Payment

A Payment Request usually starts with someone delivering work:

Work → Delivery → Payment Request → Payment

These workflows are not competing concepts. They represent two directions of the same relationship.

A project can say:

We need this work and are willing to fund it.

A contributor or service provider can say:

I delivered this work and need to be paid for it.

Gitpay provides the payment workflow between them.

Connect your GitHub account

GitHub is an important part of Gitpay’s project contribution workflows.

Connecting your GitHub account allows Gitpay to associate your account with repositories, issues, and Pull Requests involved in the work.

If you are using Gitpay only to request payment for services outside GitHub, your workflow may not require a GitHub repository.

Set up payouts

If you receive money through Gitpay, you need to configure your payout account.

Your payout account is configured through Whop. Check Whop’s supported payout countries for eligibility. Depending on your country and account, Whop may offer a bank account, PayPal, or a crypto wallet as a payout destination.

You must complete any identity or business verification Whop requires before receiving payouts.

Once your payout setup is complete, eligible funds received through Gitpay can be transferred using your configured payout method.

Understand payment status

A customer completing a payment and the funds becoming available for payout are separate stages.

Payments may need to be processed and settled before the corresponding funds are available to withdraw. Gitpay tracks the relevant payment and payout states so you can follow the transaction through the process.

Example: getting paid for a contribution

A project has an issue that needs to be fixed and decides to fund the work with $300.

A contributor applies, is assigned, implements the fix, and opens a Pull Request.

The maintainer reviews the contribution and accepts it.

The contributor can then receive the payment associated with the work.

The flow is:

Issue → Funding → Contribution → Pull Request → Acceptance → Payment

Example: requesting payment after delivery

A developer agrees to implement an authentication feature for a customer for $800.

The developer completes the feature and the customer approves the work.

The developer creates a Gitpay Payment Request for $800 and sends the payment link to the customer.

The customer completes the payment. Gitpay tracks the transaction, and once the funds are available for payout they can be sent through the developer’s configured payout method.

The flow is:

Agreement → Work → Delivery → Payment Request → Payment → Payout

Start using Gitpay

Choose the path that matches what you want to do.

I want to contribute and get paid

Start with Get Started to configure your account, then read Work on an Issue to understand the contribution workflow.

I want to fund contributions to my project

Read Fund an Issue to learn how to fund work and collaborate with contributors.

I want to charge a customer for delivered work

Read Charge Customers to create Payment Requests, receive payments, and configure payouts.

Next steps