← Blog · Sep 14, 2026 · updated Sep 17, 2026 · Updated hourly at the source
State of GitHub bounties: what the data actually shows
BountyOS scans Algora, Opire, IssueHunt, BountyHub and TaskBounty every hour. Here's what that scan is showing right now — not a marketing estimate, the actual output of the scanner, snapshotted for this post.
The headline numbers (this snapshot)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Verified WORK bounties tracked | 144 |
| Combined verified value | $25,410 |
| "Sniper" bounties (<48h old, low competition) | 45 |
| Issues scanned per day | ~9,900 |
| Filtered out as noise (honeypots, dead repos, swarms) | 29% |
Live numbers, not fixed to this exact snapshot — see the current radar for right now.
Where the money actually concentrates
The platform split is the most useful thing in this data, and it's lopsided: Algora accounts for roughly 90% of verified bounty value we track, BountyHub around 9%, and Opire and TaskBounty small fractions despite being legitimate, still-active platforms. This isn't a ranking of platform "quality" — it reflects which platforms currently have the most companies actively funding bounties. If you're only checking one platform, that's the gap you're leaving on the table.
~29% is noise — and that's the real cost of manual search
Roughly three in ten issues the scanner finds get filtered out before ever reaching a WORK recommendation — archived repos, farmed "clean" issues from bot-generated test repos, swarms with 20+ competing pull requests, or bounty tags that turn out to be stale once cross-checked against the platform's own confirmation. If you're searching GitHub manually, that ~29% isn't a rounding error — it's the exact chunk of your time that goes toward chasing bounties that were never real or already gone.
"Sniper" bounties are a meaningful share, not a rarity
45 out of 144 tracked WORK bounties — roughly a third — qualify as "sniper": posted within the last 48 hours with fewer than 3 competing pull requests. The common assumption is that fresh, low-competition bounties are rare and you need luck to catch one. In this snapshot nearly a third of everything worth pursuing qualifies — the actual bottleneck is checking five platforms often enough to catch them before someone else does, not their scarcity.
Methodology, briefly
BountyOS scans all five platforms hourly, cross-verifies bounty tags against each platform's own confirmation (e.g. a BountyHub tag only counts once the bot's comment is actually found on the issue — not just inferred from a keyword match), and scores every result 0–115 on confirmed payout, competing PRs, repo trust/activity, and freshness. "Verified value" only counts bounties that passed that check — it excludes anything still unconfirmed.
See it live
These numbers change every hour as new bounties appear and old ones get claimed or go stale. BountyOS tracks all of it automatically instead of asking you to re-check five sites.
Start free with GitHubSee the current radarFAQ
How much bounty money is available right now? $25,410 combined across 144 verified WORK bounties in this snapshot — changes hourly.
Which platform has the most value? Algora, at roughly 90% of tracked bounty value — not a quality ranking, just where most companies currently fund bounties.
Are fresh, low-competition bounties actually rare? No — about a third of tracked WORK bounties qualify as "sniper" (under 48h old, fewer than 3 competitors) in this snapshot.
See also: Algora vs Opire vs IssueHunt vs BountyHub vs TaskBounty · Get paid to fix GitHub issues · Sniper mode explained
Live data: see what is open right now on the GitHub bounty board, updated hourly.