Accepted Contributor Information

  • The initial phase of GSoC involves community bonding where you familiarize yourself with your organization and project details.

  • You must collaborate with your mentor to finalize project timelines, including deadlines, milestones, and any potential time off.

  • Google will provide instructions for receiving your stipend through Payoneer; do not create an account independently.

  • Important dates include the Community Bonding period (May 1-26), Coding period start (May 27), and Payoneer registration deadline (July 1).

  • Consider joining the GSoC Contributor Mailing List to connect with other participants and seek guidance.

Read this document carefully. It contains important information regarding your participation in Google Summer of Code.

What do I do first?

To start your GSoC off smoothly, follow these guidelines.

Community bonding

The first few weeks of GSoC is the Community Bonding period and it is an essential part of the program to get everyone off to a great start for the summer! You should already be interacting with your organization, but now is the time to go deeper. This phase is intended to help you get ready to contribute to your mentoring organization full time in late May. Talk to your Mentor now to understand what they expect from you over the next few weeks during Community Bonding, and throughout the program.

Community Bonding activities may involve:

  • Becoming familiar with the community practices and processes. (This should involves a mix of observation and participation.)
  • Participating on Mailing Lists, IRC, Slack, Discord, or other communication channels. (Not just lurking.)
  • Setting up your development environment.
  • Small (or large) patches or bug fixes. (These don't need to be directly related to your GSoC project.)
  • Participating in code reviews for others. (Even someone who isn't familiar with the project can contribute by pointing out potential inefficiencies, bad error handling, etc.)
  • Discuss with your Mentor and other org members refinement of your project plan. This might include finalizing deadlines and milestones, adding more detail, or figuring out potential issues.
  • Work with your Mentor on how you will divide your time over the coding period, including any breaks, holidays, travel, vacations or other pre-existing obligations. Contributors and Mentors must agree on their plan, preferably in writing (i.e. email) before coding begins.
  • If you are already familiar with the organization, you could be helping others get involved in the community.
  • Reading (and updating!) documentation you need to understand to successfully complete your project.
  • Reporting or replicating bugs.

Be sure to read the roles and responsibilities page so you know what is expected of you but also what to expect from your Mentor this summer.

Extend your Project Length

Default standard project lengths:

  • Small (90 hour): 8 weeks
  • Medium (175) & Large (350): 12 weeks

Medium and Large projects can be adjusted to as short as 10 weeks or as long as 22 weeks. Small (90-hour) projects can only be extended to a maximum of 12 weeks.

Speak with your mentor as soon as possible if you anticipate needing extra time. Honesty is key to managing expectations. Both your Mentor and Org Admin must approve any changes to the project length. The Org Admin must manually update the project dates in the GSoC webapp for the extension to become official.

Update your Project Summary and Title

If your project has evolved since initial proposal, you are encouraged to update your project summary and title. This is what the world will see on the GSoC site and archive, make it look good. The summary only needs to be a few sentences containing a brief overview of your project.

Update your Display Name

The display name you chose is public now and again in the archive when completed projects are published. If you want to reference your work later you may prefer to use your real name (not a nickname). You can update your display name on your profile.

Unable to change your name? The display name may already be taken. Try adding a number or letter, and ensure you aren't using any special characters.

Stipend

You will receive an email within 24 hours of the accepted GSoC Contributor public announcement with information regarding your stipend amount. The stipend will be based on the country you are living in during GSoC.

As you agreed in the Program Rules, you must be eligible to work in the country in which you will reside during GSoC in order to receive any stipends.

For more information on your stipend, visit the Contributor Stipends page.

Payments

To ensure you receive your stipend, you must follow the registration process exactly as outlined. Failure to use the official link will result in payment failure.

  • Don't go to the Payoneer website to create an account on your own.
  • You will receive a registration email from the GSoC Program Admins within 24 hours of the public accepted GSoC contributor announcement.
  • You MUST use the specific, unique URL provided in that email. This link is hard-coded to your GSoC enrollment.
  • Even if you already have a Payoneer account, you must still use the link in the email to link your account to the GSoC 2026 program.

For more details on Payoneer and the payment process read Payoneer / Contributor Payment Information.

Tax Forms

Read about required tax forms on the tax form page.

CPT Letters

Google can't provide you with any kind of CPT or OPT authorization.

GSoC Contributor Video

If you haven't seen these short videos, check them out for some helpful tips for the summer!

Important Dates

When What
April 30-May 24 Community Bonding Period
May 25 Coding period begins
June 20 Deadline to register with Payoneer

GSoC Contributor Mailing List

The Contributor Mailing List is an invitation-only group of current and former GSoC participants. It is an excellent resource for peer-to-peer guidance and networking.

How to Join 1. Update your GSoC profile to "Opt in" to the Contributor list. 2. You can leave the group at any time using the link found in the footer of any group email.

Community Guidelines Privacy: Never share personal information (phone number, address, or government ID) with the mailing list.

This list reaches thousands of people. Avoid sending messages regarding personal or private matters.

For specific, individual issues, contact the Google Program Administrators directly at gsoc-support@google.com rather than posting to the group with over 11K members.