Host Jesse Palmer revealed in an August 2025 episode that the last couple standing in season 10 would go home with a new relationship — and a cash prize.
“Paradise is, and always has been, about finding love and creating relationships people can take outside of paradise,” he told the cast during Week 6 in Costa Rica. “And this year, we’re raising the stakes.”
The stakes in question included no new arrivals, relationship-testing exercises and “the possibility of leaving paradise with up to half a million dollars.”
So, how much do the Bachelor in Paradise winners make? Here’s everything to know about the show’s first-ever cash prize and what the contestants had to say about it.
Palmer told the contestants that “the most deserving couples” would have the chance to win up to $500,000. The host didn’t reveal any other details following the announcement and only teased that they would learn more about the cash prize soon.
In the series finale — which aired on Sept. 2 — the remaining couples were voted off the beach, leaving just one with the $500,000 prize.
Although the Bachelor in Paradise producers haven’t addressed the cash prize, Palmer told the cast it was designed to raise the stakes.
“Moving forward, there will be no more new arrivals here in paradise,” the host said. “All of your exercises are going to be relationship tests designed to do exactly that — test your relationship. Sometimes there will be winners who need to make a pivotal decision, and sometimes there will be losers that won’t have any roses to hand out.”
Palmer added, “But in the end, the strongest and the most deserving couples are going to be faced with a life-changing opportunity.”
Reactions to the news of the cash prize were mixed, with some people excited about the possibility and others worried about how it would affect the connections they’ve made.
“I’m here for love, but it’s now a game, and when money is involved, people do stupid things,” former Golden Bachelorette contestant Gary Levingston said. “People do things just for the money.”
While Allyshia Gupta noted that the prize could “corrupt” some relationships, she was “excited to see the phony ones start ripping apart at the seams.”
Two weeks after the prize announcement was made, contestant Sean McLaughlin found himself in hot water after other couples felt he was strategizing too much to win the cash prize.
“I think if you’re only focused on the money, then you’ve lost the plot,” fellow contestant Bailey Taylor Brown said. “You’ll stop caring about your relationship and why you want to get to know your partner. Is it because you actually really like your partner, or is it because you want the money?”
Palmer told Bachelor in Paradise contestants that the cash prize echoed that earlier format but would take the competition “to a whole new level.”
