Coco Gauff is the highest-paid female athlete in the world as of November 2026, with total earnings of about $32 million in her most recent full year. Unlike most lists in this series, this one is explicitly about total earnings: prize money, salary and bonuses plus endorsements, for the 2025 calendar year, the latest complete year of figures. Our numbers blend the two main independent earnings estimates and round to the nearest half million.
Tennis owns this list. Seven of the ten play on the WTA Tour. Two of the other three (a skier and a basketball player) earn almost all of their money away from competition. The cutoff for tenth place is about $12.5 million.
| Rank | Name | Sport | Total earnings (USD) | Endorsements (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Naomi Osaka | Tennis | $12.5 million | $10 million |
| 9 | Elena Rybakina | Tennis | $12.5 million | $4 million |
| 8 | Madison Keys | Tennis | about $13.4 million | $9 million |
| 7 | Nelly Korda | Golf | about $13.5 million | $10 million |
| 6 | Caitlin Clark | Basketball | about $14 million | most of it |
| 5 | Zheng Qinwen | Tennis | about $21.5 million | $20 million |
| 4 | Eileen Gu | Freestyle skiing | about $23 million | $23 million |
| 3 | Iga Swiatek | Tennis | about $24 million | $14 million |
| 2 | Aryna Sabalenka | Tennis | about $30 million | $15 million |
| 1 | Coco Gauff | Tennis | about $32 million | $24 million |
Osaka and Rybakina finish level at roughly $12.5 million; Rybakina is ranked ahead because more of her total came from winning matches.
10. Naomi Osaka: $12.5 million
Early this decade Osaka topped the women’s earnings tables for several years running, out-earning every other female athlete by a wide margin. Four Grand Slam titles, two in New York and two in Melbourne, built a sponsor list that still pays more than her tennis does.
Naomi Osaka also runs her own companies, including a skincare brand and a media production venture. In 2025 she made a deep run at the US Open, reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal since 2021.
Roughly $2.5 million of her total came from prize money; the other $10 million is off-court.
9. Elena Rybakina: $12.5 million
Rybakina is the mirror image of Osaka. The 2022 Wimbledon champion has a relatively small endorsement portfolio, about $4 million, and makes most of her income the old-fashioned way: by winning tennis matches.
Her biggest single payday came at the end of 2025, when she won the season-ending WTA Finals unbeaten and collected more than $5 million for a single week, reported as the biggest payday in the history of women’s tennis. That week alone put her on this list.
Prize money of about $8.5 million makes up the bulk of the figure, which both earnings estimates put within $100,000 of each other.
8. Madison Keys: $13.4 million
For years Keys was the American who had every shot and no major trophy. That changed in Melbourne in January 2025, when she beat Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final, at 29, a decade after her first Grand Slam semifinal.
The title roughly doubled her value to sponsors. About $4.4 million of her earnings came from the court and around $9 million from brand deals, a ratio typical for an American star with a Slam to her name.
Both estimates land on the same $13.4 million, the only perfect match on this list.
7. Nelly Korda: $13.5 million
The only golfer on the list, Korda won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo and then put together one of the great seasons in modern women’s golf in 2024, winning seven LPGA events including the Chevron Championship.
Women’s golf purses still trail tennis by a wide gap, so roughly three-quarters of Korda’s money comes from sponsors. She is the face most brands reach for when they want women’s golf, and her family is an athletic one: both parents played professional tennis and her brother Sebastian plays on the ATP Tour.
We averaged the two estimates, $13 million and $13.8 million, to reach about $13.5 million.
6. Caitlin Clark: $14 million
Here is the strangest pay slip in women’s sport. Caitlin Clark’s WNBA rookie contract with the Indiana Fever pays well under $100,000 a year, yet on our numbers she earns more than all but five women on the planet.
The difference is endorsements. Caitlin Clark signed a Nike deal reported at $28 million over eight years before she played a professional game, and her sponsor list runs from Gatorade to State Farm. Her college career at Iowa made her the top scorer in NCAA Division I history, men or women, and the audience followed her into the pros.
Her pair of earnings estimates disagree more than anyone else’s, at $16.1 million and $12.1 million, so we use the midpoint and treat it as a softer figure than the tennis numbers around it.
5. Zheng Qinwen: $21.5 million
Zheng won the Olympic singles gold medal in Paris in 2024, the first Asian player to do it, and her endorsement value exploded overnight. Her prize money in 2025 was only about $1.6 million, yet she out-earned every tennis player not named Gauff, Sabalenka or Swiatek.
About $20 million came from sponsors, many of them Chinese and international brands chasing the biggest tennis audience on earth. She reached the Australian Open final in 2024, which is where the commercial interest started.
The two estimates differ by about $2 million, almost all of it in the endorsement column, so we took the midpoint.
4. Eileen Gu: $23 million
Eileen Gu earns roughly $100,000 a year from skiing and about $23 million from everything else. That ratio is the most extreme on the list. She won two golds and a silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as a teenager, and has since stacked up deals across fashion, beauty and consumer brands.
Eileen Gu is also a model and a Stanford student, which helps explain why brands treat her as a cultural figure more than a ski racer. The build-up to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy kept her in front of a global audience again this year.
The two estimates put her at $23 million and $23.1 million, close enough to call it settled.
3. Iga Swiatek: $24 million
Swiatek won Wimbledon in 2025 without dropping a single game in the final, a 6-0, 6-0 result that had not happened in a Wimbledon women’s final since 1911. Add four French Open titles and the 2022 US Open, and she owns six Grand Slam singles titles.
Her split is balanced: about $10 million on the court and $13 million to $15 million in endorsements from brands including Rolex and On, the Swiss shoe company she signed with in 2023.
Our $24 million sits between the two estimates of $23.1 million and $25.1 million.
2. Aryna Sabalenka: $30 million
The world No. 1 earned half her money hitting the ball and half selling things, which is rare at this level. Aryna Sabalenka collected about $15 million in prize money in 2025, more than anyone else in women’s sport, helped by winning the US Open for a second straight year.
Sponsors added another $15 million or so. She is one of only four women ever estimated to reach $30 million in a single year of earnings, a club that had been reserved for the biggest names in tennis history.
Both estimates agree on $30 million, so this is one of our more solid figures.
1. Coco Gauff: $32 million
Gauff has been the highest-paid female athlete for three years running. She won the French Open in 2025, beating Sabalenka in the final, two years after winning the US Open as a 19-year-old.
Less than $8 million of Coco Gauff‘s total came from prize money. The rest, around $24 million, came from a sponsor list that includes New Balance (which gave her a signature shoe), Rolex, Barilla and Bose. She signed her New Balance deal at 14, well before she won a professional title, and the bet has paid off for both sides.
The two estimates put her at $31 million and $33 million; we use the midpoint.
Just outside the top 10
- Jessica Pegula, tennis: about $10.5 million to $12.3 million depending on the estimate, close enough to the cut that she appears on one of the two lists.
- Simone Biles, gymnastics: about $11 million, almost all from sponsors, with no prize money to speak of in her sport.
- Amanda Anisimova, tennis: about $10.8 million after reaching the Wimbledon and US Open finals in 2025.
- Jeeno Thitikul, golf: about $10.1 million, one of the leading prize-money earners on the LPGA Tour.
What the highest-paid female athletes have in common
- Tennis pays its women like its men. The four Grand Slams pay women and men the same prize money, which is why seven of the ten names here hold a tennis racquet.
- Endorsements outweigh prize money for most of them. Only Sabalenka and Rybakina earned at least as much on the court as off it.
- The cut is still low. No woman made the 2026 list of the 50 highest-paid athletes overall, where the cutoff was about $54.6 million. Gauff’s total would not have come close.
- Youth sells. Eight of the ten are 28 or younger. Brands sign them early and ride the whole career.
FAQ
Who is the highest-paid female athlete in the world?
Coco Gauff, with total earnings of about $32 million in her most recent full year, most of it from endorsements.
How much does the 10th highest-paid female athlete earn?
Naomi Osaka, in tenth place, earned around $12.5 million, level with Elena Rybakina.
Which sport pays women the most?
Tennis, by a wide margin. Equal prize money at the Grand Slams and a global sponsor market put seven tennis players in the top ten.
Is any woman among the 50 highest-paid athletes overall?
No. The 2026 list of the 50 highest-paid athletes had no women, and the cutoff was about $54.6 million.
How much does Caitlin Clark make?
About $14 million a year in total by our estimate, almost all from endorsements such as her Nike deal. Her WNBA salary is under $100,000.
Who earns the most prize money in women’s sport?
Aryna Sabalenka, with about $15 million in prize money in 2025, more than any other female athlete.
How we ranked pay
Our rankings are based on public contract reporting, team and school disclosures, and salary databases, all compiled in an internal pay model. Unless we say otherwise, we rank by the average annual value of each current contract and leave endorsements out of the number. Figures are approximate and can change quickly as new deals are signed.
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Last updated: November 2026.
