The $17 Million Bounty: Google Smashes Records and Launches AI Frontier for 15th VRP Anniversary

Google reported record payouts for its 2025 Vulnerability Reward Program, awarding $17.1M across 747 researchers (a 40% increase year-over-year) and marking the launch of a dedicated AI VRP alongside several event-driven programs (Cloud, ESCAL8, bugSWAT). The report highlights major payouts, program structural changes, and investments in open-source tooling (OSV-SCALIBR) to improve vulnerability discovery and remediation.