Payments could come soon in $177M AT&T settlement: How much will you receive?

(NEXSTAR) – Millions of AT&T customers who had their personal data leaked in a data breach (or two) may soon be receiving their portions of a $177 million settlement .

A pair of lawsuits were previously brought against AT&T following breaches that the company confirmed happened in 2019 and 2022.

In the first breach, the personal information of about 7.6 million then-current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders was found in a dataset on the “dark web.” In the second, the data of nearly all of its customers was found to have been downloaded to a third-party platform.

Two funds — one for $149 million, the other for $28 million — were established as part of the settlement. AT&T previously denied the allegations in a statement to Nexstar but said it had “agreed to this settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation.”

The settlement received final approval from the court last week, administrators said in an update to the settlement website, which means approved class members could soon see payments of up to $7,500 hit their accounts.

That will vary based on which breach impacted you, but regardless, you had to have filed a claim before the Dec. 18, 2025, deadline. More than 4.9 million claims were submitted, according to court documents. Nearly 1.1 million were “rejected as late, duplicate, fraudulent, released, withdrawn, or ineligible business.”

If you were among the more than 3 million claims approved, you could receive up to $7,500, according to court documents. To qualify here, you needed to have “proper proof” of documented losses that were “fairly traceable.”

For all others, there were tiered payout options. If your Social Security number was included in the breach, you could have made a claim for a Tier 1 payment. If any other data was included, but not your Social Security number, you could have filed a claim for a Tier 2 payment. A third tier was available to those also impacted by the second data breach, with payments sent to be disbursed as a pro rata share, or an equal share of whatever remained in the settlement fund after other payments were sent out.

A claimant could file for a Tier 1 or Tier 2 payment, and a Tier 3, if they were impacted by both under the settlement proposal.

Court documents show roughly how much class members in each tier can receive.

For those whose Social Security numbers were impacted by the 2019 breach, and thereby eligible for Tier 1 funds, the payments will range between $39 and $40, according to court documents on the approved settlement. More than 1.6 million Tier 1 claims were approved.

Tier 2 payments will range between $7.50 and $8.10, while payments for those who qualified for Tier 3 will range between $6.50 and $7.10. There were more than 680,000 Tier 2 claims approved and more than 1.5 million in Tier 3.

That depends on whether there are any objections to the court order. The order, filed on Oct. 2, did address several objections already, however.

It also calls for payments to be distributed within 60 days after the effective date.