You might be wondering how much the 2026 MAFS contestants are being paid to keep us entertained four nights a week.
Last year, while we were still getting over the drama from the 2025 season, a whole new cast of brides and grooms walked away from their normal daily lives and careers, for up to three months, to film season 13.
With the show’s huge time commitment and low success rate at actually setting up the contestants for lasting love, many fans have questioned whether the show is worth the risk.
Especially, when they discover how little the contestants are allegedly paid.
Scroll on to find out exactly how much the MAFS contestants get paid to appear on the show.
How much do the MAFS contestants get paid?
Many contestants have spoken out over the years about their struggles paying rent with the budget provided to them.
In early 2024, an anonymous source from season 11 of MAFS spoke to The Daily Telegraph, saying they were “broke” after the show wrapped up.
The publication reported the contestants were paid just $150 a day and given $125 for food.
“I am broke after having appeared on the show. I couldn’t even make my rent payments with what we were being paid,” the anonymous cast member shared with the publication.
“We would film late, so I would be ordering takeaway most nights. I spent a bomb on outfits, hair, and make-up, and to top it off, they didn’t even let us wear what we wanted.”
“If someone was wearing the same colour as someone else, they would make you change,” they continued. “And anyone who runs a business on Instagram is struggling because they can’t post anything.”
MAFS 2023 groom Jesse Burford took to Instagram in May 2023, claiming participants were paid “$1,175 each week”. Curiously, this figure is slightly higher than claims made by other contestants in the past.
Former contestant Nasser Sultan previously told our sister publication Now to Love that the stars are paid “$150 for the day.”
“But on top of that, you have to pay expenses – your living expenses with the woman that you marry,” Nasser shared at the time.
“It’s not $150 clear. You still have to pay rent if you’re renting, you’ve gotta pay your rego, and it’s 12-hour filming days.”
Nasser continued, revealing that many contestants were paid different amounts.
“Sarah [Roza] and a few others, like Davina [Rankin], got more money,” he also shared at the time.
“They got $50 more a day. Basically, the more you did for the show, the more you got.”
In 2023, season 9 bride, Olivia Frazer, also spoke out, claiming they were paid “$1,100 per week”, while Domenica Claraco went on TikTok live and claimed she was paid “$150 a day”.
“I still had bills, had to pay my rent, and I had to pay, you know, whatever,” Domenica said.
Season 7 groom Mikey Pembroke previously spoke on the I’ve Got News For You podcast, shocking fans by claiming the participants didn’t earn any profit from their wages.
“You don’t get paid at all – this is a thing that needs to change,” he said.
He shared that while they were provided money to “live off” during filming, the amount barely covered their day-to-day spending, adding that he came out the other end of the experiment with “about 1,000 bucks” profit.
Married At First Sight Australia airs from Monday to Thursday at 7:30pm, and Sundays at 7pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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