How Much Does Netflix Pay for a Screenplay? The 2026 Numbers

How Much Does Netflix Pay for a Screenplay? Start With the WGA Floor

If you're trying to work out how much does Netflix pay for a screenplay, the honest answer starts with a document Netflix didn't write. Netflix publishes no rate card for feature scripts. What does exist in public is the Writers Guild of America's schedule of minimums, plus the guild's own analysis of the deals its members actually closed. Together they give you a floor and a realistic middle. That's more useful than any rumor about one headline sale.

Start with the floor. The WGA's 2026 Theatrical and Television Basic Agreement Schedule of Minimums took effect on May 2, 2026. It covers the entire term of the new contract, which runs through May 1, 2030. For a feature whose costs equal or exceed $5,000,000, the minimum for an original screenplay including treatment is $173,215 in the first period, and today falls inside that first period. If you're selling a finished original script outright, a different line applies: original screenplay excluding treatment, or the sale or purchase of an original screenplay. That line is $126,899 in the first period.

Those are floors, not prices. Nobody has to stop there, and the deal data later in this piece shows that most guild deals at the biggest buyers don't. The floor still matters for two reasons. Any lowball offer has to clear it, and several other protections in the contract are pegged to it, including option payments and a guaranteed rewrite step.

One caveat governs everything below: these are guild figures. The schedule's minimums apply to purchases from a "professional writer" as the Minimum Basic Agreement defines that term, and to any writer who has negotiated the right to be treated as one. Whether a particular seller qualifies is a question for their representative and the contract text. A blog post can't settle it.

What the 2026 WGA Schedule of Minimums Actually Says

The schedule is short on prose and long on tables, so here's what matters to a feature writer. WGA members ratified the 2026 agreement on April 24, 2026, with 4,282 votes in favor (90.38%) and 456 against (9.62%). The guild says minimums rise a total of 10.5% over the term, and its contract summary splits that into 1.5% on May 2, 2026, then 3.0% on May 2 of 2027, 2028 and 2029. Still, take real numbers from the published tables, not from percentages.

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Those tables divide every theatrical line into four periods. Each one runs from May 2 to May 1 of the following year, starting in 2026 and ending in 2030. Where the schedule and the Basic Agreement disagree, the Basic Agreement controls. For high budget features, these are the first period lines most writers will actually run into:

• Original screenplay, including treatment: $173,215, then $178,411, $183,763 and $189,275 in the later periods.
• Non original screenplay, including treatment: $150,139, rising to $164,060 in the fourth period.
• Original screenplay excluding treatment, or sale of an original screenplay: $126,899, then $130,706, $135,627 and $138,665.
• Non original screenplay excluding treatment, or sale of a non original screenplay: $103,822, rising to $113,449.
• Story or treatment: $46,152, or $69,228 for an original story or treatment.
• Rewrite: $46,152. Polish: $23,077.

One line is genuinely new. The 2026 contract adds a minimum for a page one rewrite: $57,500 in the first period, climbing to $62,832 in the fourth. It applies only if the writer's contract states that the writer is being employed for a "page-one rewrite." That drafting detail is worth real money. If the paperwork calls a teardown a plain rewrite, the ordinary rewrite minimum applies instead. Read the label on the deal memo before anyone signs.

Budget classification matters even more. Below $5,000,000 in costs the low budget table applies, and the numbers fall hard. An original screenplay with treatment is $92,268, the sale of an original screenplay is $61,990, a rewrite is $30,273, a polish is $15,148, and a page one rewrite is $31,500. For a spec sale, that's $126,899 against $61,990 depending on one budget line. The budget line in a deal is never a technicality.

If you've seen older minimums quoted in search results or on screenwriting blogs, check the effective dates before you use them. Plenty of the figures in circulation come from earlier contract periods and don't match the 2026 schedule. If what you need is the WGA minimum for a screenplay in 2026, use the published 2026 tables.

How Much Does Netflix Pay for a Screenplay Beyond Scale?

Scale is where the conversation starts. What agents actually negotiate is how much Netflix pays for a script when the writer has leverage: credits, a track record, a competitive situation, or material that more than one buyer wants.

This is where the data gets indirect, because Netflix screenplay deal terms are private. What we have is the guild's Screen Compensation Guide, published in July 2026. It analyzed nearly 800 screen deals for high budget features made during the term of the 2023 contract. The guide pools "major studios and streamers" into one group: Disney/Fox, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros., Sony, Netflix, Amazon (including MGM) and Apple. Netflix sits inside that pool and isn't broken out on its own.

That's frustrating if you want a clean Netflix number, but it's still the most defensible answer available. If your real question is how much do streamers pay for a screenplay, the pooled figure for the eight companies in that group is the closest honest proxy, and it sits well above scale. Anyone quoting a precise, current median for Netflix alone is quoting something the guild's latest data doesn't contain.

What about how much does Netflix pay for a spec script in particular? The contract answer is the sale line: $126,899 on a high budget feature, $61,990 on a low budget one. The market answer depends on competition. A spec with several interested buyers gets priced by the room, not by the schedule. Trade reports of individual sales do exist, but buyers rarely confirm them. Read those reports as anecdotes about heat. They aren't a price list.

In practice you need to hold two numbers at once. The schedule gives you the line a buyer can't legally go under. The guide gives you the range that working writers with comparable credits have actually been getting. If your offer sits near the first number but your credits look like the second, push on it.

What the Guild's Deal Data Shows for Streamers and Studios

The guide separates one step deals from multistep deals. In a one step deal the writer is hired for a first draft and nothing more is guaranteed. In a multistep deal, further steps such as a rewrite or polish are built in. The guide reports on both first draft deals and rewrite deals, and it splits each by credit tier.

Here's the breakdown. For a one step first draft, the median across all companies is $450,000, up $200,000 since the guide's 2021 edition, and the highest reported deal is $2,250,000. At the major studios and streamers the median is $500,000, up $206,250. For a multistep first draft, the median across all companies is $375,000, up $140,000, with a maximum of $3,850,000. At the major studios and streamers it's $550,000, up $287,500.

Credits move the number more than anything else:

• One step first draft, no screen credits: $300,000 median, $700,000 maximum.
• One step first draft, one screen credit: $400,000 median, $1,000,000 maximum.
• One step first draft, two or more credits: $600,000 median, $2,250,000 maximum.
• Multistep first draft, no screen credits: $250,000 median, $2,000,000 maximum.
• Multistep first draft, one screen credit: $375,000 median, $1,500,000 maximum.
• Multistep first draft, two or more credits: $550,000 median, $3,850,000 maximum.
• Multistep first draft, new members (2020 to present): $200,000 median, $700,000 maximum.

Rewrites follow the same pattern at a lower level. The median one step rewrite across all companies is $200,000, up $50,000 since 2021, with a maximum of $1,000,000. At the major studios and streamers the median is $250,000. Broken out by credits, the one step rewrite median is $100,000 with no screen credits ($500,000 maximum), $200,000 with one credit ($750,000 maximum), and $350,000 with two or more ($1,000,000 maximum).

Two takeaways from this data are worth holding onto. First, even the lowest tier in the table, new members on a multistep deal, has a median above the high budget original screenplay minimum. Second, the spread is huge. A median is the middle of nearly 800 deals. It can't tell you what your deal will be, and the maximums in the millions are the tail of the distribution.

Before you anchor to any of these numbers, see how your own pages read to someone who owes you nothing: score your logline or opening page for free right here.

The Guaranteed Second Step and the 225% Rule

The most underrated protection in the schedule is the guaranteed second step. The 2026 schedule states it on both its high budget and low budget pages: it kicks in when a company employs a writer for a first draft screenplay (with or without treatment), or purchases a screenplay from a professional writer, at 225% or less of the applicable minimum for the four screenplay categories. Some older guild summary pages still show 200% for purchases; the 2026 schedule text says 225% for both. In that case the company must also employ the writer for a rewrite at no less than the rewrite minimum.

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The Screen Compensation Guide states the resulting caps as of May 2, 2026:

• Original screenplay with treatment: $389,734
• Non original screenplay with treatment: $337,813
• Original screenplay without treatment, or a sale: $285,523
• Non original screenplay without treatment, or a sale: $233,600

Those numbers check out for the original screenplay line. Multiply the schedule's first period minimum of $173,215 by 225% and you get the guide's $389,734 cap exactly, so the schedule and the guide agree. The guild's own summary of the 2026 contract confirms the threshold rose from 200% to 225%. The sale line checks out the same way: 225% of $126,899 is the $285,523 cap.

This creates a pricing quirk that's easy to miss. Once you count the rewrite step that disappears, a price just over the cap can be worth less than a price just under it. If your price is near the line, weigh the whole package and not just the purchase price. The second step is also a second chance to stay attached to the project.

The rule also shapes how buyers behave. A company that wants to bring in a different writer right away has two options: pay above the cap, or accept the rewrite obligation. There's nothing sinister in that. Once you know where the cap sits, you know what the buyer is weighing.

How Payment Is Split: Installments, Options and Timing

A screenplay fee rarely arrives as one check. The schedule sets out installments for minimum deals. For an original screenplay including treatment in the first period, the $173,215 minimum is paid in three parts: $69,228 on delivery of the original treatment, $69,228 on delivery of the first draft screenplay, and $34,759 on delivery of the second draft. For employment on an original screenplay excluding treatment, the $126,899 splits into $92,305 on the first draft and $34,594 on the second.

Options work differently. A company may option literary material from a professional writer for up to 18 months for not less than 10% of minimum. Each renewal period of up to 18 months requires at least another 10%. An option isn't a sale. It's the right to buy later, which is why the renewal payment matters as much as the first one.

For flat deals at twice the applicable minimum or less, the schedule protects the writer's cash flow while the work is underway. The company must pay at least 50% of the agreed compensation for a step when work begins. If the writer hasn't delivered within 9 weeks, another 25% is payable on invoice. The final 25% is due on delivery.

The timing rules are firmer than many writers realize:

• The company must use best efforts to pay within 48 hours of delivery, and in no event later than 7 days.
• Late payment accrues interest at 1.5% a month (18% a year).
• Payment can't be contingent on the company accepting or approving the material, or on any other condition such as obtaining financing.
• A contract or deal memo is generally due within 10 to 12 days after the major deal points are agreed, per the schedule's own wording.

Then come the deductions and the extras. Initial compensation for writing services, and for an option or purchase of literary material, is generally subject to a 10% agent commission. On the company side, all MBA employment carries employer contributions of 11.25% to the Pension Plan, 16.25% to the Health Fund (rising to 16.75% on May 2, 2027), and 0.25% to the Paid Parental Benefit Fund. Credited writers also receive $12,500 in the aggregate as a script publication fee for the right to publish a theatrical script. Producers budgeting a writer deal should carry those contributions as a real cost.

Why Netflix's Own Numbers Stay Private

Netflix doesn't publish what it pays for screenplays, and there's no Netflix primary source that states a rate. Individual deals are negotiated privately with the writer's representatives, and the terms stay between the parties.

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The guild's July 2026 guide doesn't fill that gap either, because it pools Netflix with seven other companies on purpose. Older guild material once broke streamers out on their own, but it covered deals that are now several years old and has been superseded. Figures from it still circulate on screenwriting blogs. Passing them off as Netflix's current rate is the most common mistake on this whole topic, and one blog quoting another isn't independent confirmation.

The same caution applies to three other kinds of number you'll run into. Minimums from earlier contract periods still turn up in search snippets and look authoritative until you check the dates. Reported sale prices for specific Netflix projects usually come from trade coverage that neither party confirms. Residuals for streaming features are a separate subject. The schedule does contain provisions for high budget streaming residuals, but read that contract language carefully with your representative; don't rely on a paraphrase.

None of this makes the public data useless. It just means the useful answer is a range with a firm floor, not a single number. A writer who knows the current schedule line, the pooled median for their credit tier and where the 225% cap sits is in a far better position than one holding a rumored figure from a headline.

What Writers and Producers Should Do With These Numbers

First, find the right line. A spec sale is priced against the sale or purchase line, not the employment line with treatment. The budget threshold then decides whether that line comes from the high budget or the low budget table. Settle those two points before anything else, because every other protection keys off them.

Then place yourself on the guide. Your credit tier is the most honest predictor you have. A writer with no screen credits should compare an offer against the $300,000 one step median and the $250,000 multistep median for that tier. The $500,000 pooled figure for the major studios and streamers covers every credit level, so it's the wrong comparison.

Next, check the language in the paperwork. If the job is a page one rewrite, make sure the contract says so, because that label moves the floor to the $57,500 page one line. If a sale sits near the 225% cap, factor the guaranteed rewrite into the comparison. If a buyer offers an option, confirm the renewal terms, because an option period passes quickly.

Producers have their own checklist. Budget for the guaranteed rewrite when a purchase sits at or below the cap. Carry the pension, health and parental contributions as line items. Plan around the payment window, because the outer time limit and the interest on late payments are contract terms, not courtesies.

Finally, bring a finished draft that holds up to a cold read. None of these numbers matter until someone wants the pages. The fastest way to see what a buyer sees is to read work that's already market ready.

The studio and streamer pipeline isn't the only way a finished script changes hands. Contests, fellowships and direct queries to independent producers move scripts too, and before any of them, ScriptLix's free AI coverage gives a draft a 1 to 100 score in about a minute. They work alongside the guild system, not in place of it.

So here's the most accurate short answer to how much Netflix pays for a script. On any covered deal it pays at least the guild minimum. For first drafts, the pooled median at the major studios and streamers is $500,000 to $550,000. Beyond that, the number is private, and only the deal itself reveals it. Know the floor, know your tier, and read the contract before you read the headlines.