Sophie Cunningham earned $665,000 in 2026, a one-year salary from the Indiana Fever. The contract ended with the Fever’s first-round playoff loss, so her next deal is the open question. The Fever’s general manager has said the team plans to talk with her.
| Quick answer 2026 salary per year: $665,000, one year, protected2025 salary: $100,000Career WNBA earnings through 2026: $1,337,780 (Spotrac)Net worth: estimated $2M to $3MNote: salary and career figures come from contract trackers. Net worth, endorsement value and Project B pay are estimates or reports, not confirmed numbers. |
Contents
- The 2026 contract
- Fever payroll
- Why her pay jumped
- Salary history and career earnings
- The contract “frustration”
- 2026 stats and basketball career
- MCL comeback
- Endorsements, sponsorships and other income
- Net worth
- Age, real name and college career
- What’s next
- FAQs
The 2026 contract
Cunningham signed a one-year, $665,000 contract with Indiana on April 12, 2026. The full amount was guaranteed and her cap hit matched it. Spread over the 44-game regular season, that’s about $15,100 per scheduled game (rough arithmetic).
One outlet printed $655,000 while covering her Project B commitment. Spotrac and nearly everyone else say $665,000, so that’s the figure used here.
Fever payroll
Here is where her $665,000 ranked on the Fever’s 2026 payroll.
| Player | 2026 base salary |
| Kelsey Mitchell | $1,400,000 |
| Aliyah Boston | $1,000,000 |
| Monique Billings | $800,000 |
| Lexie Hull | $765,000 |
| Sophie Cunningham | $665,000 |
| Caitlin Clark | $528,846 |
Her cap hit was higher than Clark’s by exactly $136,154. Clark was still on a rookie-scale contract, which accounts for part of that gap. Cunningham’s $665,000 was 9.5% of a $7 million cap.
Why her pay jumped
She earned $100,000 in 2025 and $665,000 in 2026, a 6.65x increase. The reset came from the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement signed in March 2026, which moved the league to revenue sharing and lifted average salaries to nearly $600,000. Her raise tracks the whole league’s pay scale. Compared with her first season, about $42,570 (an estimate), she’s earning roughly 15 times as much.
Salary history and career earnings
| Year | Team | Salary |
| 2019 | Phoenix | ~$42,570 (reported) |
| 2020 | Phoenix | ~$57,000 (reported) |
| 2021 | Phoenix | ~$58,710 (reported) |
| 2022 | Phoenix | $75,000 |
| 2023 | Phoenix | $150,000 |
| 2024 | Phoenix | $154,500 |
| 2025 | Indiana | $100,000 |
| 2026 | Indiana | $665,000 |
The 2019–2021 numbers come from a single secondary table. A separate magazine piece puts her four-year rookie deal at $189,522. The two don’t match, so treat the early years as approximate.
The $35,000 gap, explained. The base salaries through 2025 add up to $637,780. Adding 2026 gives $1,302,780, but Spotrac’s career total is $1,337,780. The missing $35,000 lines up exactly with her 2025 Commissioner’s Cup win. Reports from CBS Sports, Sportico and CNN put the prize at up to $30,000 for each player on the winning roster, and Sportico adds that Coinbase gave $5,000 in crypto to each player on both finalist teams. That’s $35,000. The match is exact, though I couldn’t see Spotrac itemize it, so treat it as the likely explanation rather than a confirmed one.
The contract “frustration”
On an April 20 episode of her podcast, her contract situation came up. She called it frustrating, then clarified that she had only hoped for a longer deal. One report says the reason was practical: she wanted to buy a house in Indianapolis and bring her dog and donkey from Missouri. Her complaint was about the contract length, not the money.
2026 stats and basketball career
ESPN has her at 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 22.2 minutes a game, shooting 46.0% overall and 41.9% from three. She played 43 of 44 regular-season games, starting three. Her scoring faded as the year went on: she was averaging 9.5 points about 20 games in (HerSportsNation, July 7), which works out to roughly 6.5 points a game over the rest of the season (my arithmetic from rounded averages). She averaged 3.4 points over the final five regular-season games, shooting 30.0% from the field.
Yahoo described her as a Sixth Player of the Year contender earlier in the season. I couldn’t find the award result as of October 4.
The Fever finished 28–16 as the sixth seed and lost their first-round series to the Las Vegas Aces. Cunningham struggled in the series. In Game 1, a 102–85 loss, she was a minus-20 in 28 minutes and picked up a flagrant foul. The Fever forced a Game 3, which they lost 94–83, and she scored 5 points on 2-of-4 shooting.
MCL comeback
She tore her MCL in August 2025, which ended her first season in Indiana after 30 games. She was cleared at the end of March 2026 and started all three preseason games, scoring 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the first. She then played 43 of 44 regular-season games.
Endorsements, sponsorships and other income
Her endorsement income took off after a June 17, 2025 game in which she answered a hard foul on Caitlin Clark. Ring signed her after that incident. Other reported sponsorship dates: Adidas from December 2022, Arby’s from July 2025, Quest Nutrition with a March 4, 2026 product launch, and European Wax Center from May 2026. Skims, Spindrift, Mad Hippie, Commerce Bank and Sun Cruiser are also reported.
None of those deal values are public. One report quotes industry experts saying her endorsements easily top $1 million, an unnamed-source estimate. If it’s right, they pay her more than basketball does.
She co-hosts the Show Me Something podcast with West Wilson through Colin Cowherd’s The Volume, and she was announced as a USA Network WNBA analyst for 2026. I haven’t confirmed her broadcast schedule.
Project B. The new league reportedly gives players salaries starting at $2 million, plus a signing bonus and equity. That’s a league-level report, and her own terms haven’t been published.
Net worth
Celebrity Net Worth puts her at about $3 million. Social Life Magazine puts it at about $2 million. Neither shows its work. Sites like these usually start from known contract earnings, then add a guess for endorsements and subtract a guess for taxes and fees, so two sites can land a million dollars apart without either being careless.
What’s solid is her documented WNBA pay: about $1.34 million in career earnings before taxes and agent fees. Everything above that comes from income that isn’t public. The $2M to $3M range is plausible, not verified.
Age, real name and college career
Her full name is Sophie Elizabeth Cunningham, and she’s 30, born August 16, 1996 in Columbia, Missouri. At the University of Missouri she was a three-time first-team All-SEC pick and a third-team All-American. Phoenix drafted her 13th overall in the second round of 2019. She spent six seasons with the Mercury before a four-team trade sent her to the Fever on January 31, 2025, which started the Indiana chapter of her professional career.
What’s next
Her contract has ended, so she’s an unrestricted free agent. Kelsey Mitchell is the Fever’s most prominent free agent and Cunningham is second, according to Yahoo. Fever general manager Amber Cox told reporters the team plans to talk with her about coming back, and Yahoo reports she wants to stay. No deal has been reported as of October 4.
Money will shape this. One report says the Fever have about $3.6 million in cap space with seven players under contract for 2027. Spotrac’s table in April showed about $2.35 million, and CBS notes the exact 2027 cap is still to be set under revenue sharing. A Mitchell supermax and a possible raise for Clark would take much of that room, so Cunningham’s price will matter.
FAQs
How much did Sophie Cunningham make in 2026?
$665,000 from the Fever.
Is she still under contract?
No. The one-year deal ended after the playoff loss, and she is an unrestricted free agent.
Will she re-sign with the Fever?
The general manager says the team plans to talk with her. Nothing is signed as of October 4.
Did she make more than Caitlin Clark?
On base salary, yes: $665,000 to $528,846.
What was her 2025 salary?
$100,000.
What are her career WNBA earnings?
$1,337,780 through 2026, per Spotrac.
What does she earn from sponsorships?
Brand deals include Adidas, Arby’s, Ring and others. The values aren’t public.
How did she play in 2026?
7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 43 games.
What is her net worth?
About $2M to $3M, estimated.
How old is she?
30
Bottom line
Her 2026 deal reflected the league’s new pay scale more than any one negotiation. The salary, stats and season results here are solid. Net worth, endorsement values and Project B pay stay estimates until someone publishes the terms, and her next contract is unsettled.
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Shahzad is the founder and lead writer at WorthRada. He writes about celebrity net worth, biographies, careers, income, and success stories, with a focus on providing clear, well-researched, and reliable information.
