Prize money on UNI is won through competitions. Each competition sets its own prizes, and winners claim them through an award closure form. There is no wallet or balance on your profile that prizes land in.
How competition prizes work
Every competition lists its prizes on its own page, under Grants and Awards & Fees. Amounts are set per competition and are almost always in USD, though a competition can use another currency.
The award types used across UNI competitions are:
- Winner and Runner Up, usually the cash placements
- Honorable Mention and Special Mention
- Custom awards a competition defines itself, such as People's Choice, Best in Region or a sponsor-named award
- Finalists and Shortlisted Entries, which are placements rather than payouts
An award can carry cash, a membership, both, or neither. A shortlist placement with nothing attached is recognition and a certificate, not a payout. Check the prize details for your specific award rather than assuming cash.
How you receive a cash prize
- Wait for results to be announced and an award to be assigned to your entry.
- Open the award closure form. You are emailed a link to it once the award is assigned, and a reminder follows if it stays unfilled.
- Fill in your name, email, phone and country. The phone number is confirmed with a code.
- If your entry was registered under the student or institutional fee category, upload student verification at the step the form adds for it.
- Choose a payout method: bank transfer, PayPal or UPI, and give the details for it.
- For bank transfers only, add a government ID proof and a billing address. PayPal and UPI do not ask for these.
- Optionally leave a testimonial, then submit.
The team then checks what you sent and releases the prize to the method you gave.
Checking where your claim stands
Go to Payout Details in your account settings. The Award Closures section lists each claim with its state:
- Not Submitted: nothing has reached the team yet, so the form is still with you.
- Submitted: the team has your details and is checking them.
- Verified: your details cleared and the prize is queued for release.
- Disbursed: the prize has been sent, with the date shown.
- Rejected: something did not check out. The reason is shown, and you can correct the form and send it again.
What prizes are not
- Views, likes and followers are engagement counts. Nothing is paid per view or per like automatically, and there is no advertising revenue share.
- There is a separate, opt-in Creator Revenue Sharing programme that pays approved creators a share of membership revenue based on views from members. It is unrelated to competition prizes. See Creator Revenue Sharing and payouts for views.
If a prize has not arrived
Check the status on the Payout Details page first, since a claim sitting at Not Submitted is waiting on the form rather than on the team. If it shows Disbursed and nothing reached you, write to contact@uni.xyz with the competition name and your entry so the payment can be traced.
To find competitions with prizes, browse competitions.