AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Prize Money (Distribution)

The AFC Women’s Asian Cup starts on March 1st, but the headline about the Prize Money tells “No Increment”. Players demanded a rightful increase in the prize money for this competition. But the request has been denied by the authority, and the prize pool has been kept the same as the previous 2022 edition. What is the prize money for the women’s Asian Cup? Here, Sportsnile will reveal the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Prize Money distribution for each position.

What is the Prize Money for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup?

The Prize Money for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup remains at 1.8 million Dollars. The sum is equivalent to 2.55 million in Australian currency. This is just 12.1% of the total prize pool of the latest edition of the AFC Men’s Asia Cup. In the 2023 AFC Men’s Asian Cup, the Prize Money was 14.8 million Dollars. Surprisingly, as well as unfortunately, the Women’s Asian Cup is the lowest-paid continental international competition in football.

The lady footballers also asked for a 30% direct payout to the footballers, but that also won’t be activated. Only the 4 top teams take the prize pool share of this competition, while the other 8 participants won’t even get that.

AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Prize Money

See the total prize pool of the Women Asian Cup in different currencies.

Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Prize Money Distribution

The champion side will grab a million-dollar pay cheque for winning the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup. The runners-up side will get half of that, or a 500k US Dollar prize. Each of 2 losing semifinalists will take 150k USD home.

AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 Prize Money List

Here is the Prize Pool distribution and the winner list for the latest women’s Asian Cup.

China won its 9th title in 2022. They are also the most successful side in the competition’s history. Thus, the Chinese ladies bagged a million-dollar prize. While South Korea fought hard but had to suffer a 3-2 defeat, it brought them a half-million-dollar prize. 2 losing semifinalist sides, Japan and the Philippines, each pocketed 150k paycheques.

What is the world’s lowest-paying continental competition?

The AFC Women’s Asian Cup is now the lowest-paid continental football tournament in the world. We’ve already mentioned that the prize sum is just 12.1% of what the men’s AFC Asian Cup prize pool yields. Indeed, the tournament doesn’t even match the other continental women’s football tournaments, let alone the men’s events.

The Women’s Asian Cup stands at the bottom of the chart with a mere 1.8 million USD paycheque overall. The 2025 edition of the Copa America Feminina saw the participating sides sharing a total of 2 million USD, which was also not much, but only 10 teams took part in that competition. The 2024 edition of the Women’s African Cup of Nations offered a prize sum of 3.475m USD, close to twice as much as the W Asian Cup. The 2024 Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup prize money amount was 3.7m USD, more than double what the Women’s Asian Cup offers. At the top of the chart, there is the Women’s European Championship (2025), where teams shared a massive 47.2 million US Dollars. It’s more than 26 times the mentioned Women’s Asian Cup tournament. The sum also fails to match the prize pot of the Women’s Asian Champions League as well.

Ladies demanded an increased prize pool and a direct 30% share, but the authority denied both.