A federal judge has granted final approval to AT&T's $177 million settlement resolving lawsuits over two 2024 data breaches that exposed personal information belonging to millions of customers.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater in Dallas approved the settlement Oct. 2, along with $59 million in attorneys' fees for lawyers who negotiated the deal, according to Reuters. The settlement faced dozens of objections, including arguments that the amount was inadequate compared to a $350 million settlement in separate litigation involving T-Mobile.
For AT&T customers who filed valid claims, the amount they receive depends on which data breach affected them, what information was exposed and whether they can document financial losses. Most customers receiving
the tiered cash payments are expected to get far less than the settlement's advertised maximums.
Customers could receive between about $6.50 and $40 through the tiered payment system, according to court documents. Here's what to know.
How much money can AT&T customers get?
The settlement has two funds totaling $177 million: $149 million for customers affected by the first data incident, known as AT&T 1, and $28 million for customers affected by the second incident, known as AT&T 2.
Customers in the AT&T 1 settlement class could receive either a documented-loss payment of up to $5,000 or a tiered cash payment. Customers in the AT&T 2 class could receive a documented-loss payment of up to $2,500 or, for eligible customers, a Tier 3 payment.
The estimated tiered payments are:
- Tier 1: $39 to $40. This is for AT&T 1 customers whose Social Security numbers were exposed.
- Tier 2: $7.50 to $8.10. This is for AT&T 1 customers whose information was exposed but whose Social Security numbers were not.
- Tier 3: $6.50 to $7.10. This is for eligible AT&T 2 customers whose information was exposed in the second data incident.
The amounts are estimates, not guaranteed payments. Tiered payments are calculated on a pro rata basis from the remaining settlement funds after documented-loss payments and other approved expenses are paid.
Customers seeking compensation for documented losses had to provide evidence that the losses were "fairly traceable" to a data incident. The settlement website says qualifying losses could include certain expenses related to fraud or identity theft, while some losses, including medical bills, emotional distress and estimated lost wages, were not eligible.
How many people filed claims?
Nearly 5 million claim forms had been submitted as of Aug. 24, 2026, according to the court's final approval order. The settlement administrator had received 754,263 paper claims and 4,163,810 electronic claims, for a total of 4,918,073 claims.
CT Insider reported that 1,654,046 claims were classified as Tier 1, 687,859 as Tier 2 and 1,582,248 as Tier 3.
What happened in the AT&T data breaches?
The first incident became public in March 2024, when a data set containing information from about 73 million current and former AT&T account holders appeared on the dark web.
AT&T later said the information involved about 7.6 million current customers and 65.4 million former customers. The data included personal information such as Social Security numbers, addresses and passcodes and appeared to date to 2019 or earlier.
The second incident was disclosed in July 2024. AT&T said hackers illegally downloaded customer data from its workspace on a third-party cloud platform operated by Snowflake.
The exposed information included call and text message records from a roughly six-month period in 2022 involving nearly all of AT&T's cellular customers.
AT&T has denied wrongdoing and previously told Reuters that it agreed to settle to avoid the expense and uncertainty of prolonged litigation.
When will AT&T settlement payments be sent?
Payments will be distributed after the appeals period has expired and settlement administrators have completed their review of claims, according to the settlement website.
The settlement administrator will first pay approved documented-loss claims from the applicable net settlement funds. Remaining money will then be distributed to eligible claimants through the tiered payment system.
Customers who already submitted claims do not need to file a new claim because of the judge's final approval.
Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@usatodayco.com, or on X @athompsonUSAT
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: AT&T settlement approved. Here's how much customers get
