How Does Python Actually Make Money?

How Does Python Actually Make Money?

Today, I was sitting in my lab, staring at some Python code.

And a crazy thought hit me.

My 10-year-old neighbor is learning Python right now.
A college kid in his dorm is building a startup on it.
Multi-trillion dollar giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta literally run on it.

It is the engine powering the entire AI revolution.

And every single one of them uses it for exactly $0.

It is 100% free for everyone.

So how the f*** does the company behind Python actually survive?

I dug into their financial data.
And what I found is honestly hilarious and slightly terrifying.

First. Python is not a company.
It is a non-profit called the Python Software Foundation (PSF).

Second. The Trillion-Dollar Irony.
You would think the people running the language that powers a $10 Trillion tech boom would be filthy rich, right?

Wrong.

In 2023, their total revenue was exactly $4.17 million.
That is not a tech giant budget. That is the revenue of a busy local pizza shop.

So how do they actually pay their bills?

1. Big Tech's "Tip Jar"
Companies like Meta and Google sponsor Python at the highest level.

Meta donated $300,000. Google gave around $150,000.

To put that in perspective:
These giants are donating the annual salary of just ONE average software engineer to keep their core AI language alive.

2. Selling Tickets
Python actually survives by throwing a massive event called PyCon.
They sell tickets to developers, and use that cash to fund the global Python infrastructure.

But here is the scary part.

Last year, PyCon actually lost money because catering and venue costs got too expensive.
Because of this, the foundation that runs the most important coding language on Earth literally ran out of money to fund their community halfway through the year.

Read that again.

While AI companies pour billions into giant server farms...
The actual Python foundation is struggling to pay for conference catering.

It is the biggest open-source irony in the world.

The most powerful tool on Earth is completely free, but the people keeping it alive are running on fumes.

✍🏻 Mantra Joshi

Spotted a wrong number or something out of date? Tell me and I'll fix it.