For more than a decade, this volunteer-organized competition has been capturing the breathtaking essence of the planet’s natural heritage. Photos of all sorts of nature, from iconic national parks to hidden gems in local green spaces, are eligible.

Wiki Loves Earth’s winners each year fall into two categories: a “landscapes” category for wider shots and a “macro/close-up” category (including animals, plants, fungi). This year, Wiki Loves Earth received nearly 80,000 submissions from over 5,200 participants in 57 countries—the latter figure being the most countries to ever compete in the contest.

From the submissions, 618 were selected by local jury teams and forwarded to the international competition. You can learn more about Wiki Loves Earth and its full rules on its website. 

Check out details on all twenty winners below.

Macro/close-ups category

1st place (macro/close-ups): The photo at the top of this post comes from Bolivia’s Carrasco National Park. Wiki Loves Earth’s contest judges heaped acclaim on User:Edunavia1’s photo. One praised the photographer for the color, lighting, and chosen perspective, which all added up to “a chef’s kiss to me.” Another said that the dramatic lighting gave the photo “an almost cinematic intensity.”

One more judge called out the drama inherent in the photo, with the combination of the snake’s pose, curves, scales, and eyes coming together for “an unrivaled capture of the reptile’s beauty in a single frame.” They added that the photo “might be the most striking photo in the entire competition”—and it indeed took home first-place honors.

Photo by Buggingitout, CC BY-SA 4.0

2nd place (macro/close-ups): The aptly named User:Buggingitout was walking beside a river in England’s The Broads National Park when they spotted this common blue damselfly. The entire fly appears in focus because of Buggingitout’s use of the focus stack technique, which combines multiple photos with different focuses to create one clear image.

Photo by Sven Damerow, CC BY-SA 4.0

3rd place (macro/close-ups): Sven Damerow is appearing in the Wiki Loves Earth international winners for a fourth time (including a first-place shot in 2019). This time, his camera found a couple of Eurasian hoopoes perhaps competing over the morsel of food being held by both of their beaks. This was one judge’s favorite photo in the competition, as it demonstrated “the interaction between the birds” and showed “how different these birds are.” They added that “even the light falling through the foliage on one of the birds beautifully emphasized this.” Another photo from Damerow appeared at macro #7.

Photo by Redante Auxilian/Rauxilian, CC BY-SA 4.0

5th place (macro/close-ups): An enormous ball of yellowstripe scad are seen here backlit from the sun above the water. Photographer Redante Auxilian dove beneath the waves in Tawi-Tawi, Sibutu and Tumindao Islands, the Philippines, to get this photo. One judge noted that his photo was strongly aligned with part of the reason for Wiki Loves Earth’s existence, which is to “unravel the many unseen wonders of our planet.”

Photo by A. H. M Ibnul Arabi, CC BY-SA 4.0

6th place (macro/close-ups): The circle of life is shown in this photo of a dead Bengal monitor and an ant trying to carry away a small amount of its flesh. Taken by A. H. M Ibnul Arabi in Bangladesh’s National Botanical Garden, a contest judge called out the image’s “heartbreaking” storytelling, and another liked that it could be used for a “learning purpose.”

Photo by Sven Damerow, CC BY-SA 4.0

7th place (macro/close-ups): In Sven Damerow’s second photo to place among this year’s Wiki Loves Earth macro winners, this Glanville fritillary butterfly is hanging out in Germany’s Wittenberge-Rühstädter Elbniederung Nature Reserve. One contest judge enjoyed that the photo looked like it could have been intentionally “made for an encyclopedia or for a well-illustrated book on the topic.” Damerow’s other photo appeared at macro #3.

Photo by Mark Kineth Kasindac, CC BY-SA 4.0

8th place (macro/close-ups): To an untrained eye, this might look like just another weevil. But according to photographer Mark Kineth Kasindac, this particular weevil’s color scheme is quite unusual: instead of its typical dark to cobalt blue, this one is more turquoise. “Everything about this frame is beautiful,” said one judge. Two of Mark’s photos took a combined sixth place in the macros last year.

Photo by Lukas Kott, CC BY-SA 4.0

9th place (macro/close-ups): Photographer Lukas Kott found the perfect angle in the Czech Republic’s Poodří Protected Landscape Area to document this male Eurasian hoopoe‘s return with food for his mate. Kott, who also took the #4 macros image above, received praise for this photo from the judges for its composition, technical skill, and lighting. Another one of Lukas’ photos placed at #4 in the macros section.

Photo by Nishant Sharma/Nishant Sharma Parajuli, CC BY-SA 4.0

10th place (macro/close-ups): Thankfully, a camera was not on the menu today for this tawny cat snake. Photographer Nishant Sharma staged this with the evening light in Nepal’s Godawari National Botanical Garden. “A good composition creates the effect of presence and a sense of tension,” said one judge.

Landscapes category

Photo by Markus Albert/Markusmachtphotos, CC BY-SA 4.0

1st place (landscapes): This year’s overall winner in the landscapes category features Markus Albert’s portrayal of a European beech tree at the height of a German autumn. Found in Germany’s Rhön Biosphere Reserve, its color presents a stark contrast with what looks to be fog in the background.

The Wiki Loves Earth contest judges gave high accolades to this image for its vivid visuals and technical skill, including one who called out the use of the surrounding trees as effective leading lines. Another called out the “immersive effect” created by Albert’s chosen perspective.

Photo by Thiago Marcel Campi/Thiagomarcelcampi, CC BY-SA 4.0

2nd place (landscapes): Coming in second place is a portrayal of climate change’s effects on the low-lying Ilha do Cardoso State Park in southeastern Brazil. Thiago Marcel Campi, the photographer, noted that rising sea levels are increasingly encroaching on the park’s marshes and mangrove trees.

Photo by Ahmad Faihan Almutairi/Di7ane, CC BY-SA 4.0

3rd place (landscapes): This aerial photo of a stream emerging north of Sulaibikhat, a district of Kuwait City, came to us from Ahmad Faihan Almutairi. One judge thought it was a “stunning” shot that “exemplifies the grandeur of landscape,” and another noted that its “abstract treatment” was “effective without compromising its context as a framed landscape.” Another photo from Almutairi placed at #4 in the landscapes category.

Photo by Ahmad Faihan Almutairi/Di7ane, CC BY-SA 4.0

4th place (landscapes): Found just west of photo #3, Ahmad Faihan Almutairi flew their drone to capture this view of Kuwait’s Jahra Nature Reserve. One judge said that this had a “painterly feel,” while another called out the “vibrant blue river water juxtaposed against arid earth tones” that evoked “a sense of serene isolation.” Another photo from Almutairi placed at #3 in the landscapes category.

Photo by Missoni Francesco/Scosse, CC BY-SA 4.0

5th place (landscapes): Far into northeastern Italy, this stunning photo of Federa Lake and the mountains of Ampezzo Dolomites Natural Park comes to you courtesy of photographer Missoni Francesco. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the contest judges called out the photo’s deep depth. Another one of Francesco’s photos placed 6th in last year’s Wiki Loves Earth landscapes category.

Photo by Nathan Atkinson/Miura-photo, CC BY-SA 4.0

6th place (landscapes): Once upon a time, a glacier carved its way through northern England and left this canyon behind. Known as High Cup Gill or High Cup Nick, it can be viewed from the Pennine Way national trail. Nathan Atkinson’s photo captures its full length and demonstrates its distinctive symmetry.

Photo by Vladimir Tadic/Svjetlopis, CC BY-SA 4.0

7th place (landscapes): For some people, this is the photo of their dreams—a lonely cabin, perhaps waiting to be filled with joy and memories. This photo near Zlatibor, Serbia’s Cigota mountain peak comes from Vladimir Tadic. One judge said that it “proves that impressive landscape [photos] are not only defined by bold and explosive colors.”

Photo by Glenn Wilks, CC BY-SA 4.0

8th place (landscapes): Winter camping is one of many hobbies a person could pick up. Last year, photographer Glenn Wilks climbed into the hills of England’s Lake District to get this shivery photo of his tent and a distant peak backlit by a rising sun.

Photo by José Nuno Rosado, CC BY-SA 4.0

9th place (landscapes): Deep in southwestern Portugal, José Nuno Rosado’s visually arresting portrait of a lighthouse in Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park brought acclaim from the judges. One noted that the framing and color treatment was spot-on, and that the photo as a whole was the sort of thing they looked for when “furthering the goals and purposes of Wiki Loves Earth.”

Photo by David Egan/Davidwegan, CC BY-SA 4.0

10th place (landscapes): Canada’s Garibaldi Lake is known for its unusual turquoise color, but on this New Year’s Day you can only see ice and the snow on top of it. This photo from David Egan was called out by the contest judges for its excellent layering and the feeling of “serenity” it invoked.

Volunteer-led and organized, Wiki Loves Earth asks people to venture out into nearby natural areas. The contest’s definition of a natural area is intentionally broad, which helps ensure that anyone, anywhere, is able to participate. The photographers’ submitted work is uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a media library that holds many of the photos used on Wikipedia. All of the content within that library is freely licensed; it can be used by anyone, for any purpose, with only a few restrictions.*

If you would like to submit your own photos for Wiki Loves Earth later this year, keep an eye on wikilovesearth.org for organizing information and dates.

Post by Ed Erhart, Communications Specialist, Wikimedia Foundation.

*Please be sure to follow each image’s copyright tag. All of the images above, for instance, are available under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0license—you are free to share them for any reason so long as you give credit to the photographer and release any derivative images under the same copyright license.

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Presented by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, the Open the Knowledge Awards recognize African journalists whose reporting helps close knowledge gaps about Africa on Wikipedia.

The Awards celebrate African journalists published in reliable outlets  who uncover untold stories about the continent’s diverse experiences, with a specific focus on the areas of: women and youth, and arts, culture, heritage and sports. Learn more about the awards’ criteria here.

The Awards recognize the essential role journalists play in creating well-researched articles that volunteer editors use daily as source materials to develop content on Wikipedia. The platform relies on evidence-based reporting to inform and expand its content, making journalists essential partners in building a more complete global knowledge base.

“Strengthening the relationship between quality journalism and open knowledge platforms is more critical than ever,” said ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi. “African journalists are producing the credible, in-depth reporting that enriches Wikipedia’s content and ensures that the continent’s stories are accurately represented.” This initiative further strengthens ICFJ’s partnership with Code for Africa through ICFJ+, advancing shared goals of expanding access to reliable and relevant information across the continent.

“Uncovering well-reported, untold stories about Africa makes it easier for Wikipedia editors to create articles about these topics on one of the world’s most visited sites. Quality journalism is essential to building a more complete and representative encyclopedia that reflects perspectives from across the African continent,” said Anusha Alikhan, Chief Communications Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation. “Through these awards, we honor the vital role journalists play in strengthening Wikipedia and ensuring that Africa’s cultural and historical contributions are documented with the accuracy, depth, and visibility they deserve.”

In January 2026 Wikipedia marked its 25th anniversary. Today, it is among the top-ten most-visited global websites, and it is the only one to be run by a nonprofit, the Wikimedia Foundation. Its 65 million articles in over 300 languages, created by nearly 250,000 volunteer editors from around the world, are viewed nearly 15 billion times every month. Yet, many topics about Africa remain missing or incomplete on the site. This issue reflects knowledge gaps in the wider media ecosystem; new information can only be added to Wikipedia by volunteer editors if it is supported by a citation from a published, reliable source. 

The first-place winner will receive USD 2,000 and have the opportunity to join Wikimedia volunteers at one of their Community Conferences, in 2026. The second-place winner will receive a USD 1,000 cash prize and a certificate of recognition. All awardees will be announced publicly.

The awards are open to all African journalists based in Africa. Each applicant may submit one English or French language article, published in 2025 in a reliable outlet. The article must address the award focus areas and meet standards of journalistic integrity. Applications are due by March 22, 2026.

About the Wikimedia Foundation 

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. We support the people, technology, and policies that enable reliable information to be shared with the world. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA. Visit our website to learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia. 

About the International Center for Journalists

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) enables a global network of tens of thousands of journalists to provide the trustworthy news essential to free and strong societies. Through our new entity, ICFJ+, we are partnering with tech powerhouse Code for Africa and systems builder PROTO to cultivate civic intelligence – information that helps people make sense of their world and act constructively to shape it. We collaborate with journalists, technologists, civil society, researchers and others to forge stronger, more effective news and information ecosystems. Learn more about our work at ICFJ.org.

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“Wikipedia is a digital wonder of the world, unlike anything else. It has overcome countless challenges and changes in its time, thanks to the people behind it and their unwavering commitment to sharing free, reliable knowledge with the world,” said Maryana Iskander, Chief Executive Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation. “With billions of monthly visits and an ever-growing number of organizations relying on Wikipedia’s free, verified knowledge, this platform has become integral to the architecture of the entire internet.”  

New Wikipedia birthday campaign: docuseries, time capsule, and more 

Today, the Wikimedia Foundation released for the first time a video “docuseries,” sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the lives and stories of Wikipedia volunteer editors around the world. All of the knowledge on Wikipedia is created and maintained by a global community of nearly 250,000 volunteer editors who write, edit, and fact check information according to rigorous standards on neutrality and reliability. 

The series stars eight of these volunteers and spotlights their unique purpose and passions for contributing to the online encyclopedia. They include a Californian who has spent two decades documenting hurricanes and storms, an Indian medical doctor who shared critical COVID-19 information during the global pandemic, an elderly librarian in Tokyo making knowledge available in Japanese, and more. Their stories underscore that, even and especially in the age of AI, knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans. 

The Foundation also launched today a “25 Years of Wikipedia” time capsule, allowing Wikipedia fans worldwide to delve into the past, present, and future of this treasured global resource. Users can listen to Founder Jimmy Wales share in his own words memories from Wikipedia’s origin story, including when he himself installed the site’s very first servers. The capsule also explores Wikipedia’s role during major global events, such as when Wikipedia’s servers almost collapsed in 2009 from site visits following Michael Jackson’s death. It showcases some of the most weird and wonderful parts of Wikipedia, like an article on a prescient octopus named Paul.

In looking to Wikipedia’s future, a new interactive quiz — also released today — invites people worldwide to discover which Wikipedia future best represents them. The futures were imagined by a group of Wikipedia editors, young children, professional futurists, and artists, representing a range of visions for the Wikipedia of tomorrow.

Wikipedia in the age of AI 

Wikipedia has become the backbone of knowledge on the internet. For 25 years, Wikipedia and its global volunteer community have navigated technology disruptions, regulatory changes, and growing mistrust across the information landscape, among other shifts. Through it all, they have — and will continue to — adapt and evolve to ensure everyone, everywhere can continue to access and share knowledge.

In the AI era, Wikipedia and its human-created and curated knowledge has never been more valuable. Today, Wikipedia is among the top-ten most-visited global websites, and it is the only one to be run by a nonprofit. Its 65 million articles in over 300 languages are viewed nearly 15 billion times every month, and its knowledge power generative AI chatbots, search engines, voice assistants and more. Wikipedia is one of the highest-quality datasets used in training Large Language Models. 

Wikipedia’s progress over the last 25 years highlights its increasing relevance to the online world today. These are a few of the ways it has grown and evolved over the years: 

• New partnerships with tech companies support Wikipedia’s sustainability: Tech companies that rely on Wikipedia content must use it responsibly and help sustain Wikipedia for the future. One key way to do this is through the Wikimedia Enterprise platform. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Enterprise is a commercial product for large-scale reusers and distributors of content from Wikimedia projects. Over the past year, several companies — including Ecosia, Microsoft, Mistral AI, Perplexity, Pleias, and ProRata — became new Wikimedia Enterprise partners, joining existing partners such as Amazon, Google, and Meta. They can access content from Wikimedia projects at a volume and speed designed specifically for their needs, while directly supporting our nonprofit mission.
• Implementing an AI strategy that puts humans first: The Foundation’s recent AI strategy directs future investments and developments in AI to support the human contributors at the core of Wikipedia, so that they can spend their valuable time on what they want to accomplish and not on how to technically achieve it.
• Strengthening our tech infrastructure: Continuous improvements have been made to Wikipedia’s tech infrastructure since 2001 to make it one of the most accessible and multilingual sites in the world. Updates to Wikipedia’s desktop interface and dark mode have greatly improved user accessibility; we’ve opened new data centers to quicken load times; and Wikipedia apps for iOS and Android allow Wikipedia fans to access content right from their mobile devices. 
• Closing knowledge gaps: Knowledge on Wikipedia today has grown to be more representative and reflective of the world through dedicated efforts in language translation and community-led initiatives to increase the spectrum of volunteer editors and content on the site. Further, Abstract Wikipedia aims to make the reliable information on Wikipedia available in all languages; the project was one of five finalists of MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change grant competition last year. 
• Engaging the next generation of readers and contributors: Through new experiments such as online games and short content for social media, we are discovering innovative ways that Wikipedia can reach new users, respond to global trends, and meet the evolving needs of users in a changing internet landscape. 

More ways to celebrate Wikipedia

There are many ways that people around the world can get involved in the yearlong Wikipedia 25 celebrations. Other highlights include: 

• People worldwide are invited to use a new feature on social media to “sign” Wikipedia’s digital birthday card — helping to make it the longest birthday card ever. 
• A global, virtual birthday event on 15 January at 4:00 pm UTC, featuring surprise guests, games, entertainment, and more. The event will be livestreamed on Wikipedia’s YouTube, TikTok and Instagram channels. Other in-person events are planned worldwide. 
• Baby Globe, a new birthday mascot inspired by a Wikipedia volunteer’s sketches, can be found in a series of playful, visual surprises on several language versions of Wikipedia when readers turn on ‘Birthday mode’ next month.
• A fresh, festive limited-edition collection of Wikipedia merchandise, starting with a Baby Globe plushie developed in collaboration with Makeship. 

“In 2001, Wikipedia started as a dream to share knowledge with everyone, everywhere. No one, including me, knew if it would succeed,” said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder and Wikimedia Foundation Trustee. “Against all odds, Wikipedia has grown to become the backbone of knowledge on the internet today. Wikipedia demonstrates 25 years of humanity at its best, proving that when people come together in the spirit of building trust and collaboration, they can make the impossible possible.” 

The Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s global volunteer community, and Wikimedia affiliates around the world will continue activities to celebrate 25 years of Wikipedia throughout 2026. Visit this webpage and follow Wikipedia on social media to learn more about ways to get involved. 

Additional quotes about Wikipedia at 25

• “Wikipedia shows that knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans. Especially now, in the age of AI, we need the human-powered knowledge of Wikipedia more than ever. With continued help from readers, volunteer editors, donors, partners, and fans across the globe, Wikipedia will remain the crucial hub for human-powered knowledge and collaboration online for the next 25 years and beyond.” — Selena Deckelmann, Chief Product and Technology Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation
• “Access to high‑quality, trustworthy information is at the heart of how we think about the future of AI at Microsoft. Our partnership with Wikimedia helps ensure that people, and the agents working on their behalf, can draw on knowledge they understand and trust. Together, we’re helping create a sustainable content ecosystem for the AI internet, where contributors are valued, communities are respected, and responsible AI expands opportunity for everyone.” — Corporate Vice President Tim Frank at Microsoft
• “The ProRataAI team happily celebrates the silver anniversary of the innovative, culture-changing community that is Wikipedia. In building a company focused on AI solutions grounded in respect for content creators it means so much that Wikipedia’s leadership and values have championed content quality, validity and transparency during a time of great technological change. We’re excited to continue to support Wikipedia over the next 25 years, as AI becomes a much greater force in search and discovery, and Wikipedia further advances control for publishers and credit for use of content.” — Bill Gross, Founder & CEO of ProRata AI
• “Every day, Wikipedians write history together — debating, discussing, and refining information based on trustworthy sources. In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, Wikipedia is where facts go to live.” — Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and Wikimedia Foundation donor
• “Wikipedia’s unique value is in its ability to provide free, relevant knowledge to people around the world. As we look to the next billion people who will come online, Africa will have a critical role to play in ensuring that Wikipedia’s knowledge, and by extension the wider internet, reflects the richness of the continent and its people.” — Bobby Shabangu, Wikimedia Foundation Board Trustee based in Johannesburg, South Africa
• “Knowledge should belong to everyone. This is why I started editing Wikipedia over 20 years ago and why I continue today. My hope for Wikipedia is simple: that it continues to exist. For that to be possible, Wikipedia needs people. I would encourage everyone who finds value in the site to think about what they can contribute to free knowledge. If we do this, Wikipedia will continue to hold a critical place in our lives for the next 25 years.” — Robert Sim, volunteer Wikipedia editor and the 2025 Wikimedian of the Year from Singapore
• “Wikipedia has been a wonderful and powerful gateway for me to discover an entire world of facts that never before would have been reachable. As an artist, author, and parent I would be lost without the resources Wikipedia provides, and it’s all just a click away!” — Jim Sonefeld, Hootie & the Blowfish drummer, singer/songwriter, speaker, and author

Wikipedia facts and figures 

• Wikipedia is viewed nearly 15 billion times every month.
• Wikipedia contains over 65 million articles across more than 300 languages.
• Wikipedia is edited by nearly 250,000 editors every month around the world. Editors are defined by one edit or more every month; only editors with a username are counted.
• Wikipedia is accessed by over 1.5 billion unique devices every month.
• Wikipedia is edited 324 times per minute.
• Wikipedia is the only website in the top-ten most-visited global websites to be run by a nonprofit. 

About the Wikimedia Foundation 

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. We support the people, technology, and policies that enable reliable information to be shared with the world. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA. Visit our website to learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia. 

For media inquiries, please contact press@wikimedia.org.

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“We are excited to welcome two longtime and respected Wikipedians who have earned the trust of their peers over many years of service. Both Michał and Bobby bring years of movement leadership experience and insight in their past roles representing their communities. This election also marks a new milestone for the Board, with the first Trustee from the African continent,” said Lorenzo Losa, chair of the Board of Trustees. 

Michał Buczyński has been a Wikimedian since 2004 and brings extensive leadership experience from within the Wikimedia movement. Based in Warsaw, Poland, Michał served nearly 14 years on the board of Wikimedia Poland, currently as vice-chair and secretary. He played a significant role in the formation and early development of the Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Hub and has represented Wikimedia Poland in both the CEE regional network and Wikimedia Europe. Beyond his affiliate leadership, Michał has contributed globally as a member of the Grants Advisory Committee and previously as part of the Funds Dissemination Committee. As an economist and banking professional, he brings experience in finance, risk management, compliance, and technical product development.

“I have been a part of the Wikimedia movement since its early years and I am proud to start a new chapter in what has become one of the longest relationships of my life. It is an honor to be elected as a trustee on behalf of Wikimedia communities worldwide,” Michał said.

Bobby Shabangu is the first-ever trustee from the African continent. Bobby is an editor, organizer, and multilingual contributor based in Johannesburg, South Africa. A Wikimedian since 2013, he contributes to English Wikipedia and several southern African-language Wikipedias and previously served as an administrator for the Siswati- and IsiNdebele-language Wikipedias. His work spans Wikimedia Commons, Meta-Wiki, Wikidata, and the Incubator. Bobby has served on the board of Wikimedia South Africa, including as president, and currently chairs the WikiIndaba Steering Committee, which coordinates the annual conference for African communities. He is also a co-founder of Afrika Baraza, a platform designed to strengthen regional collaboration, capacity building, and knowledge exchange among Wikimedians across Africa.

“Most of the world’s young people live in the Global South and as Wikipedia looks to grow the next generation of editors and administrators, it is essential we understand their needs. As a longtime community member from the African continent, I will ensure their voices will be heard as the Wikimedia movement prepares for the next 25 years,” Bobby said.

Michał and Bobby have terms that will run until December 31, 2028. 

The Board thanks its three departing members, board chair Nataliia Tymkiv, Shani Evenstein Sigalov, and Mike Peel for their service and contributions. The next Wikimedia Foundation Board selection process will take place in 2027.

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“Bernadette has been committed to public service and community engagement throughout her career,” said Lorenzo Losa, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Her approach to leadership is about collaboration and diplomacy to achieve lasting impact. She will be the right leader to support our global movement and center Wikimedia’s role as a trusted source of knowledge from humans around the world.” 

Meehan most recently served as U.S. Ambassador to Chile from 2022 to 2025, where she was recognized for her expansive public engagement, open communication style, and numerous diplomatic achievements. These included passage of a bilateral tax treaty and advancement of major technology and scientific infrastructure initiatives, such as the first subsea cable connecting South America and Asia, and astronomical research projects. Prior to her ambassadorship, she served as Executive Vice President for Global Programs at the Obama Foundation, where she designed and led leadership development programs spanning Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and South Asia.

Her commitment to public service was shaped over more than a decade as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. Her diplomatic assignments included Special Assistant to the President and Spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State, and postings in Colombia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. In 2007, the Department of State recognized her as one of its most promising future leaders.

Meehan began her career in the private sector, as a Vice President at J.P. Morgan Chase and later Lehman Brothers, building a foundation in global markets, financial strategy, and technology.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the Wikimedia Foundation as Wikipedia celebrates its 25th anniversary, showcasing what is possible when people collaborate across borders in service of shared knowledge,” said Meehan. “I join Wikimedia staff and global volunteers in their passion for advancing more resilient, stronger societies through information access and transparent discussion. Together, we will continue building a future where knowledge remains open and human-centered.” 

Meehan will lead the Wikimedia Foundation’s global staff and work closely with thousands of volunteer editors, affiliates, donors, and partners worldwide. Her priorities will include advancing the Foundation’s product and technology initiatives, navigating emerging issues around AI and content regulation, strengthening relationships with global Wikimedia communities, and sustaining Wikimedia’s financial model to support long-term growth and resilience.

Meehan holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Boston College, speaks Spanish and Arabic, and has served on advisory boards for Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and Hostage US.

Meehan succeeds Maryana Iskander as the sixth CEO of Wikimedia Foundation.

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Wikipedia will mark its 25th anniversary on January 15, 2026. No one could have predicted 25 years ago that Wikipedia would grow into the backbone of knowledge on the internet it is today—powering search engines, voice assistants, and generative AI tools.

Today, nearly 250,000 volunteers generously give their time and energy to update Wikipedia, add citations, build consensus, and more. They keep knowledge human. In 2025, people spent an estimated 2.8 billion hours reading English Wikipedia articles, according to data from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. The top 25 most-read English Wikipedia articles of 2025 outlined below focus on politics, popular culture, and loss.

You can also check out our dedicated Year in Review webpage to dig deeper into data about Wikipedia.

• #1: Deaths in 2025, 49,617,383
• #2: Charlie Kirk, 46,493,112
• #3: Ed Gein, 33,000,749
• #4: Donald Trump, 27,489,965
• #5: Pope Leo XIV, 22,884,665

The most-read article on English Wikipedia this year is “Deaths in 2025,” an article that has never been lower than third on our annual list of most-read articles. This annual article is updated by English Wikipedia’s volunteer editors when they find published obituaries that come out after the deaths of notable individuals. With eight billion people in the world, there are a large number of notable deaths to update the page with each day.¹

Coming in just behind is Charlie Kirk, a US political activist, entrepreneur, and media personality who was assassinated in September at a university campus debate he organized. In the day afterwards, people viewed the article about Kirk nearly 15 million times, or an average of over 170 times per second. Across the first eleven months of the year, about 43% of the views on Kirk’s article came from outside the US. 

One of those deaths in 2025 was Pope Francis. The first Latin American to become pope, Francis served for 12 years before passing away in April. The Catholic Church selected his successor, Pope Leo XIV, a few weeks later. As people rushed online to learn about Leo, traffic to all Wikimedia projects peaked at around 800,000 hits per second—more than 6x over normal traffic levels, and a new all-time record for us. Plenty of people came to learn more about Francis’ life too; his English Wikipedia article was the 11th most-read of the year.

US President Donald Trump entered the office for the second time on January 20, 2025. He is appearing on English Wikipedia’s annual most-read articles list for the eighth time. Since 2015, the English Wikipedia article about Trump has not appeared in that list only in 2022 and 2023.

“The most-read articles on Wikipedia in 2025 show just how much people rely on it to understand the events that shape our lives. Built by a global community of volunteers, each article is a reminder that facts, context, and careful sourcing by humans matter deeply to everyone seeking a trusted place for knowledge,” said Anusha Alikhan, Wikimedia Foundation Chief Communications Officer.

Scroll down to learn more about the other top articles, and you can find the full list featured at the bottom.

¹ While Wikipedia’s strict privacy policy means that we do not have a number for repeat visitors to the “Deaths in 2025” page, our assumption is that a good portion of these views are regular and returning readers that come to read those updates. In addition, Wikipedia’s volunteers split the article into smaller month-by-month lists to keep its overall length at a reasonable size. As of publishing time, the page covers December 2025—but if you’re reading it in January 2026, the page will be redirected to Wikipedia’s “Lists of deaths by year.”

• #3: Ed Gein
• #8: Sinners (2025 film)
• #10: Superman (2025 film)
• #14: Severance (TV series)
• #16: Rob Reiner
• #17: Dhurandhar
• #18: Thunderbolts*
• #19: Weapons (2025 film)
• #23: Adolescence (TV series)
• #24: KPop Demon Hunters

For about a decade, we have published a list of the most-read English Wikipedia articles. In almost all of those years, the film and television you consumed, binged, and enjoyed have held prominent positions. 2025 is no different. Part of the reason is the second screen effect, meaning as you watch the latest movie or TV show, you open Wikipedia to learn more about the production, actors, or more; others read Wikipedia’s plot summaries to get all the spoilers.

This year, ten articles highlighted this pop culture phenomenon:

• Ed Gein, the US serial killer, appears as a result of Netflix’s latest season of Monster. Only about half of the views to Gein’s article came from inside the US, demonstrating the show’s global reach despite being focused on US crimes. The subjects of Monster‘s previous seasons (Jeffrey Dahmer and Lyle/Erik Menendez) were also highly popular on the English Wikipedia in 2024 and 2022, respectively.
• Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Zach Cregger’s Weapons were two of the most successful films this year at the US box office. Their powerful stories, visuals, and (in Sinners‘ case) music led to them being the first-ever horror entries in all our years of doing these lists.
• The first season of Severance, a US Apple TV show, came out three years ago to rave reviews, but its cultural impact was nothing like this year’s second season. That change can be illustrated through the lens of the English Wikipedia: our page view data shows that it only received about five million hits in 2022, but nearly tripled that in 2025.
• Adolescence, a British Netflix show, has garnered wide attention not just for its acting and storyline, but for its episodes that were shot as one continuous take with no hidden cuts. Pageviews to this article peaked ten days after the show’s release, perhaps as more people discovered it.
• KPop Demon Hunters, the animated musical, has taken the world by storm since its release last June. According to Netflix, the film is their “most watched original animated film of all time.”
• Superhero mainstays from DC and Marvel include the latest Superman reboot and Marvel’s attempt to craft a “new Avengers” through Thunderbolts*.

These articles are joined by the filmmaker Rob Reiner, whose murder in December led people to read about his life and work on English Wikipedia over 12.6 million times.

• #2: Charlie Kirk
• #4: Donald Trump
• #6: Zohran Mamdani
• #7: Elon Musk
• #12: Jeffrey Epstein
• #20: JD Vance
• #25: Karoline Leavitt

Politics was another major subtheme in the English Wikipedia’s most-read articles of 2025. Seven of the top twenty-five articles fall into this category. In addition to Charlie Kirk and US President Donald Trump, discussed above, three other articles are related to people who hold or have held prominent roles in the US administration: Vice President JD Vance, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt,  and former senior advisor Elon Musk.

• #9: Ozzy Osbourne
• #15: 2026 FIFA World Cup
• #21: Cristiano Ronaldo
• #22: MrBeast

Four articles on the list came from popular culture outside the bounds of film: Ozzy Osbourne, Cristiano Ronaldo, the upcoming 2026 World Cup, and MrBeast.

Ozzy Osbourne, the rock singer/reality show star that was also known as the “Prince of Darkness,” passed away in July. Football/soccer icon Ronaldo appeared on this annual list for the sixth time, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup joined him after a December 5 ceremony where the tournament’s seeding was announced.

Finally, MrBeast—the internet personality with the most-popular YouTube channel on the planet—entered this annual list for the first time. Although millions of people have watched his YouTube videos for years, views to his Wikipedia biography spiked in January after he expressed an interest in buying TikTok.

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The top 25

For a more in-depth look across a planet’s worth of Wikipedia activity over 2025, please see our dedicated webpage.

1. Deaths in 2025, 49,617,383
2. Charlie Kirk, 46,493,112
3. Ed Gein, 33,000,749
4. Donald Trump, 27,489,965
5. Pope Leo XIV, 22,884,665
6. Zohran Mamdani, 21,805,460
7. Elon Musk, 21,462,884
8. Sinners (2025 film), 19,072,450
9. Ozzy Osbourne, 18,490,296
10. Superman (2025 film), 17,703,390
11. Pope Francis, 15,610,627
12. Jeffrey Epstein, 15,214,143
13. United States, 14,851,017
14. Severance (TV series), 14,457,583
15. 2026 FIFA World Cup, 14,037,618
16. Rob Reiner, 13,955,892
17. Dhurandhar, 13,525,394
18. Thunderbolts*, 13,203,209
19. Weapons (2025 film), 12,684,066
20. JD Vance, 12,339,381
21. Cristiano Ronaldo, 12,290,689
22. MrBeast, 12,012,142
23. Adolescence (TV series), 11,884,240
24. KPop Demon Hunters, 11,856,384
25. Karoline Leavitt, 11,813,280

Twenty-five years ago, Wikipedia was just a dream. Today, it is the backbone of knowledge on the internet.

The free online encyclopedia’s 25th birthday is coming on 15 January. It will be a time to celebrate the accomplishments of the nearly 250,000 volunteers who help maintain the site every day by keeping its content neutral, its facts cited to reliable sources, and more. Their work represents humanity at its best—the humans of today, organizing themselves to benefit the humans of tomorrow.

You can learn more about Wikipedia’s importance in the video below and witness our coverage of Wikipedia 25 on our website.

Written by Ed Erhart, Communications Specialist at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Appendix

• ¹ While Wikipedia’s strict privacy policy means that we do not have a number for repeat visitors to the “Deaths in 2025” page, our assumption is that a good portion of these views are regular and returning readers that come to read those updates. In addition, Wikipedia’s volunteers split the article into smaller month-by-month lists to keep its overall length at a reasonable size. As of publishing time, the page covered December 2025—but in 2026, the page was redirected to Wikipedia’s “Lists of deaths by year.”
• This list was originally published using English Wikipedia data pulled by the Wikimedia Foundation covering 1 January to 10 November 2025. In January 2026, the list was updated to encompass the entire previous year and expanded to 25 entries. Several articles entered the list at that time: Jeffrey Epstein, 2026 FIFA World Cup, Rob Reiner, Dhurandhar, KPop Demon Hunters, and Karoline Leavitt. One fell off it: The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Please see our 2025 Year in Review page for other kinds of yearly data.
• Data notes:
  • All of the pageviews include direct and indirect navigations to the pages in question.
  • This list has been screened for false positives with methods including:
    • Cross-referencing the pageviews against the percentage of views they received from desktop devices, as extreme values of less than 2% or more than 80% correlates strongly with spam, botnets, or other concerns. This affected articles like Cleopatra, a long-time false positive; XXXTentacion; and .xxx.
    • Looking at the number of pageviews that did not have a referrer and removing articles with extremely high values. This impacted a number of articles about large websites, such as Facebook, and browsers like Google Chrome. We suspect that a significant number of the pageviews without referrers are mistakes that occur when viewers are trying to access those.
• We are proud to have published lists of most-read English Wikipedia articles since 2015. You can read that archived content for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.

Image credits

• Header image: Candle by Rolf Schweizer Fotografie, CC BY 2.0; Ronaldo by Ludovic Péron, CC BY-SA 3.0; KPop Demon Hunters poster by Netflix/Sony Pictures Animation, fair use; Ozzy Osbourne by John Mathew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0; Pope Leo by Edgar Beltrán, CC BY-SA 4.0; Charlie Kirk by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0; Superman poster from Warner Bros., fair use; MrBeast by Steven Khan, CC BY 4.0; Ed Gein, public domain; Pope Francis by Quirinale.it; Zohran Mamdani by Bingjiefu He, CC BY-SA 4.0; Thunderbolts* poster from Marvel Studios/Walt Disney, fair use; Weapons poster from Warner Bros., fair use; Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore, CC BY 2.5; Sinners poster from Warner Bros./Proximity Media, fair use; flag by Noah Wulf, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Top five: Candle by Rolf Schweizer Fotografie, CC BY 2.0; Charlie Kirk by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0; Ed Gein, public domain; Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore, CC BY 2.5; Pope Leo by Edgar Beltrán, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Politics: Charlie Kirk by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0; Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore, CC BY 2.5; Zohran Mamdani by Bingjiefu He, CC BY-SA 4.0; Elon Musk by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0; Jeffrey Epstein, public domain.
• Pop culture: Ozzy Osbourne by John Mathew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0; 2018 World Cup qualification – Wales by Steindy, CC BY-SA 3.0; Ronaldo by Ludovic Péron, CC BY-SA 3.0; MrBeast by Steven Khan, CC BY 4.0.
• Entertainment: Ed Gein, public domain; Sinners poster from Warner Bros./Proximity Media, fair use; Superman on a bus stop by Newell Reinvention, CC BY-SA 2.0; Adam Scott by Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0; Rob Reiner 1971 by unknown author, public domain.

The post Announcing Wikipedia’s top 25 most-read articles of 2025 appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

In addition to this human-led content governance model, another special thing about Wikipedia is that it does not rely on advertising, subscription fees, or selling users’ personal data for funding. Instead, the vast majority of our funding comes from reader donations that average $11.

Fulfilling Wikipedia’s unique and important mission of bringing knowledge to everyone on the planet requires significant and ongoing investment. Below, we explain how your donations are used and how they sustain Wikipedia. We strive for transparency, so you can also explore more details in our publicly available financial reports.

Technology

Nearly half (45%) of our budget goes toward supporting the technology that powers Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. We are constantly working to enhance the user experience for both contributors and readers, improving site security, and ensuring reliable access to our websites globally. This work helps to sustain a top global website, all at a fraction of the cost of popular for-profit websites, amid an internet environment that is rapidly changing.

When you open an article on Wikipedia, it is served to you by one of our seven data centers across the world. We added our newest data center in Brazil in 2024, which immediately lowered the average time it takes a reader in Brazil to load Wikipedia by one-third of a second. That’s important because it helps people get critical knowledge in a speedy amount of time. These data centers also keep Wikipedia online in times of unprecedented traffic, like the 800,000 requests per second we saw when a new pope was elected in mid-2025.

Additionally, Wikipedia is one of the highest-quality datasets used in training LLMs. As technology companies are increasingly scraping our human-made content, ongoing investments in our infrastructure are crucial to being able to maintain fast, reliable, and secure connections for every person, amid growing demands to serve Wikipedia’s knowledge across multiple formats and devices. 

The Foundation has also increased investment in tools to help volunteer editors expand knowledge on the site so that it remains relevant, accurate, and useful. For example, our content translation tool has been used to translate more than 2.4 million of Wikipedia’s 65 million articles to date. Investments like these help Wikipedia maintain its position as one of the most multilingual sites in the world, with content available in more than 300 languages. In the last two years, we have also added a dark mode to Wikimedia sites to increase their accessibility, made it easier to show data on Wikipedia, and more.

We’re also investing in reaching new and younger audiences, developing experiments to understand how we can engage them with our mission. This includes reaching people on short form video platforms, through gaming, and more. 

Maintaining infrastructure like this and continuously ensuring Wikipedia is online, available, secure, and accessible for its hundreds of millions of readers and editors around the world takes significant financial and staff resourcing. 

Volunteers

About a third (32%) of our budget is devoted to supporting volunteers, whose hard work is behind all of the information you see on Wikipedia.  

We give volunteers the tools they need to succeed, whether that’s building features that make editing Wikipedia an easier process or supporting systems that help volunteers more quickly and easily catch vandalism. We also support the growth of volunteer editor communities around the world to help improve the content on Wikipedia, close knowledge gaps, and make it more representative of our world.

Wikipedia is built on the premise that it becomes better when more people of different backgrounds and beliefs contribute well-sourced and neutral information to the project; our grantmaking supports this goal. In fiscal year 24–25, we dispersed $18,232,260 across 417 grants, an increase of $1.8 million over the previous year. All of these grants are transparently documented. Our grants do not determine content on Wikipedia. They support volunteers and groups who keep Wikipedia accurate, neutral, and representative of the world’s knowledge and full range of perspectives. For example, we gave $180,000 to the Wiki Project Med Foundation to help them continue their work in making quality health and medical information available on Wikimedia projects.

Additionally, we undertake legal and advocacy efforts to protect people’s right to access and contribute to free knowledge. This can include protecting free expression rights; opposing government-imposed censorship; and educating governments, regulators, and lawmakers to defend people’s right to access and share knowledge globally. As threats to our model continue to rise around the world, this work becomes even more vital to ensure access to free, reliable information is protected.

General expenses

Like all other nonprofit organizations, we have standard operational support requirements—for us, they make up 12% of our budget. A variety of shared services functions are needed to ensure that we are compliant with legal and similar obligations, as well as generally accepted accounting standards. These include human resources, finance, legal, communications, information technology, and more. Together, these allow us to run an efficient and effective organization, as well as support our volunteer communities, staff, and readers around the world.

Another 11% of our budget is devoted to donor support, which is crucial to sustaining Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Our team can respond to donors in 25 languages, and we are committed to efficient and effective fundraising throughout the year, ensuring that every contribution helps advance our mission. Every donation we receive is invested back into serving Wikipedia, other Wikimedia projects, and our free knowledge mission.

Our overall efficiency is one reason why we earned the highest rating from Charity Navigator as well as the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid (formerly GuideStar).

Looking ahead

Wikipedia exists because millions of people around the world believe that knowledge should belong to everyone. Over the last 25 years, these small acts of generosity have come together to keep one of the world’s last open spaces truly independent and free. We hope you’ll join us in continuing to support Wikipedia for the next 25 years and beyond. 

If you would like to learn more about our funding, please see this blog post or our frequently asked questions.

The post How does the Wikimedia Foundation use donations to Wikipedia? appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia is filled with knowledge by nearly 250,000 volunteers from all kinds of backgrounds. They edit articles, check facts, fix code, and document information from a neutral point of view. Together, they make the internet’s knowledge better. Millions of readers visit Wikipedia each day and benefit from their work—all without seeing an advertisement, encountering a paywall, or being tracked. But have you ever wondered who pays to keep it online? 

Wikipedia operates on a unique revenue model, relying primarily on donations from everyday people who believe that knowledge should belong to everyone. In fact, out of all the world’s most-visited websites, Wikipedia is the only one that is run by a nonprofit organization—the Wikimedia Foundation. This grassroots, reader-funder model protects the independence of Wikipedia. It is run at a fraction of the cost of other top websites, and we invest every donation received back into serving Wikipedia and the dream of making reliable knowledge available to all. 

Let’s dive in to learn more. 

Who operates Wikipedia? 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in the United States. Within that legal designation, we operate as a public charity with an educational mission of making knowledge available to everyone. We accomplish that by supporting Wikipedia as well as a number of other free and open source sister projects, including Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikisource, and more. 

Our mission is to make knowledge freely available to everyone—independent and without commercial influence. We host technology infrastructure that makes billions of visits to Wikipedia on a monthly basis possible. Because of our steady investments in that technology, Wikipedia can easily handle record-breaking spikes, preventing disruption to the reading or editing experience. 

Since our founding in 2003, we have supported hundreds of thousands of volunteer editors who edit, expand, and curate content on the Wikimedia projects. We equip these volunteers with the most up-to-date tools; ensure connections to Wikipedia are fast, safe and private; provide individuals and organizations around the world with funding to increase knowledge on Wikipedia; and undertake legal and advocacy efforts to protect people’s right to free knowledge.  

How is Wikipedia funded? 

Support from grassroots donors

Wikipedia is funded primarily through single or monthly donations from millions of individuals around the world. The vast majority of our funding comes from regular readers of Wikipedia in over 200 countries who give $11 or less. Many of them tell us that they support our mission because they find value in what Wikipedia provides and what it stands for.

Our revenue model is ideal because it reflects our values: built by people, for people. It also helps protect our independence by limiting the influence of any single organization or individual on Wikipedia’s content.

What else funds Wikipedia? 

While the vast majority of our funding comes from the public, the remainder is received from three sources: major gifts, an endowment, and Wikimedia Enterprise. 

Support from major gifts

Each year, around 2,000 individuals and institutions make donations of above $1,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation. The vast majority of these gifts are unrestricted donations to the Foundation’s general operating fund, meaning the Foundation can choose how best to use them. A small number of purpose-restricted donations are made each year, which help donors make a specific impact on our mission. Some recent restricted donations include support from the Rockefeller Foundation and Google.org for the development of Abstract Wikipedia, a project to let more people share more knowledge in more languages, as well as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation‘s support of our AI strategy. 

Wikimedia Endowment

The Wikimedia Endowment was established in 2016 as a permanent safekeeping fund to generate income to support the operations and activities of the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity. It is a 501(c)(3) charity, separate from the Wikimedia Foundation, headquartered in the United States. Endowments enable proactive financial planning for organizations that have missions spanning across generations. Gifts to the Wikimedia Endowment support a solid financial foundation for the future and support long-term security for Wikipedia and its mission. By contrast, the Wikimedia Foundation raises funds that support daily operations.

During times of prosperity, the Wikimedia Endowment serves as a springboard for growth and innovation. During tough economic times, the endowment helps fund the most critical operations that keep the Wikimedia projects functioning. Currently, grants from the endowment are funding technical innovation so the Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, stay relevant in a time of rapid technological change.

Wikimedia Enterprise

Dozens of generative artificial intelligence models use content from Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects to serve up results. Technology companies are increasingly scraping that human-made content and distributing it through new search experiences and other technologies.  Sixty-five percent of our most expensive traffic now comes from these sorts of high-volume reusers. All of that consumes bandwidth and resources that we need to support the Wikimedia projects, contributors, and readers.

In 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation established Wikimedia Enterprise as a commercial product for large-scale reusers and distributors of Wikimedia content. It is an opt-in product that allows companies to use Wikipedia content at scale and sustainably without severely taxing Wikipedia’s servers, while also enabling them to support our nonprofit mission. When used at a high volume or speed, this is a paid-for service. Our content is (and always will be) free for humans to reuse, but this was never intended to extend to corporations who are making large profits from the work of our volunteering community. 

Put simply: Wikipedia’s content is free, but its infrastructure is not.

How can I verify all this info? 

The Wikimedia Foundation’s mission to empower people worldwide to collect, develop, and share knowledge can only be achieved through a combination of trust and transparency. That is why we regularly share our annual plans, annual reports, and financial reports (including annual audits from an independent firm, in line with nonprofit best practices). These documents outline how funds are raised and used, and all are available for public review and analysis. Our efforts towards transparency have earned us the highest rating from Charity Navigator as well as the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid (formerly GuideStar). 

Wikipedia relies on all of us 

Nearly 25 years after its founding, Wikipedia continues to exist because millions of people around the world believe that knowledge should belong to everyone—and they choose to keep it free.

If you would like to donate to Wikipedia now, please see donate.wikimedia.org. If you would like to learn more about how the Wikimedia Foundation uses donated funds, please see this blog post.

The post How is Wikipedia funded? appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

Lessons from Wikipedia: Keeping information reliable in the digital age

Read a new series to explore how Wikipedia can inspire new standards of knowledge integrity for our times.

On Wikipedia, disagreement is never a sign of failure. It’s evidence that people care deeply about getting the facts right. 

Volunteers have debated topics from the seemingly light and mundane—whether there should be a Wikipedia article about Kate Middleton’s wedding dress or if the Bee Gees are a British or Australian group—to more heavy and serious topics like documenting COVID-19. They decide what content to include on Wikipedia based on notability criteria and by following Wikipedia policies. These practices ensure editor independence, invites diverse views, and prevents undue influence from any one person or organization. Even the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, has no say in content disputes on Wikipedia. 

Instead, editors from around the world debate in the open how an article should describe a contentious topic, which sources best represent the evidence available at the time, or whether a claim meets Wikipedia’s high standard of neutrality. Because of how editors carefully consider these questions, Wikipedia continues to evolve as one of the most reliable sources of information in the world.

So how does that actually happen?

No one decides alone

A single editor on Wikipedia cannot unilaterally settle a content dispute, particularly on a contentious topic. Every contribution is transparent to the public and available to review, and every edit is open for more comment and input. Authority on Wikipedia comes from reliable sources and open dialogue—in this way, everyone contributes equally.

When Wikipedia contributors disagree, they explain their arguments on article “talk” pages, where anyone can see and join the discussion. These talk pages are the heart of dispute resolution on Wikipedia; they are public spaces where arguments are examined, evidence is weighed, prior discussions can be reviewed, and consensus can gradually emerge.

This approach prioritizes debate, disagreement, and collaboration. Disputes don’t end when someone “wins”, rather many volunteer editors reach a shared understanding of what the best available sources offer on a specific article or topic at the time.

Relying on reliable sources 

Wikipedia’s guidelines encourage editors to focus on verifiability, neutrality, and sourcing—never on personal opinion. Instead of asking “who’s right?”, editors ask “what do the reliable sources say?” Over time, this collective referencing process shapes what reflects the current state of available information.

When a debate on Wikipedia stalls or needs more input beyond talk page discussions—like when consensus could not be reached on if the “Monty Hall problem” is a puzzle of probability or game theory—editors can use a structured process called a “Request for Comment (RfC)”. This helps flag the debate for more members of the Wikipedia community to weigh in on the outcome. RfCs are intended to gather diverse viewpoints, helping to break deadlocks by ensuring more input. RfCs also provide a record for past decisions, so that future decisions can build on the discussions and evaluation that came before it. Most RfCs are structured around a specific question, such as whether a detail belongs in an article or how to interpret a policy, and they are resolved when a clear consensus emerges.​

Radically transparent decision-making 

In a time when digital spaces often amplify polarization, Wikipedia shows that transparency and structure can turn disagreement into progress by collecting diverse feedback from many different voices. Research has shown that the more people who take part in building a Wikipedia article, the higher-quality the knowledge becomes and those who participate leave the process less extreme in their views and more open-minded. 

Trust in the information ecosystem is built on the willingness of people to carefully debate how to weigh different sources, admit mistakes, and pursue a shared objective of getting to accuracy together. The Wikipedia model works not by avoiding conflict, but by ensuring every conflict is handled openly, civilly, and based on reliable sources.

The post The art of disagreement: How Wikipedia navigates disputes appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

However, many people do not recognize that there is something distinctly familiar behind all that AI-generated content: knowledge curated, debated, and documented by humans.

That’s why Wikipedia’s role as the backbone of all knowledge on the internet has never been more important.

Let us explain.

Human-created knowledge isn’t replaceable

Science communicator Hank Green recently wondered about the future of AI and whether it would end up eating itself. That’s because generative AI cannot exist without continually updated human-created knowledge—without it, AI systems will fall into model collapse.

Wikipedia’s strength is its volunteer editor communities, hundreds of thousands strong, who constantly improve the site’s information. The Wikimedia Foundation—the nonprofit that supports Wikipedia—provides technology and legal support but does not write or control the content on Wikipedia; volunteer editors do.

Humans bring elements to knowledge creation that AI cannot replace. Current generative AI tools may be able to synthesize or summarize existing knowledge, but they cannot engage in the process of discussion, debate, and consensus that Wikipedia’s volunteer editors undertake every day. They are not able to discover items buried in an archive, nor can they take a photo of an event or underdocumented place to help improve that knowledge. Moreover, the Wikimedia projects are available in over 300 languages, often written by native speakers, providing a multilingual corpus that supports the development of inclusive, culturally aware AI models. This human-centered approach to knowledge creation provides high-quality and reliable information that, through regular editorial collaboration and disagreements, leads to more neutral and comprehensive articles. The more humans take part in Wikipedia, the better the internet’s knowledge becomes.

Wikipedia also excels at transparency. Everyone sees the exact same information on Wikipedia; there are no algorithms tracking your behavior or serving you content to deliver profits. When you read that information, accompanying citations point to reliable sources where you can verify who originally reported it. If you want to learn more about why that information is in the article in the first place, Wikipedia’s processes and the actions taken by its volunteers can be inspected by anybody, as they are publicly logged on the website. You can also add information to Wikipedia, in line with the site’s policies and guidelines, ensuring this living knowledge resource is continually updated. Openness is why Wikipedia remains one of the world’s most trusted platforms. Conversely, generative AI systems can ‘hallucinate‘ information in response to questions, a phenomenon where they present plausible-sounding false information as factual. 

Is Wikipedia using AI? 

We recognise AI’s potential to help us achieve our mission to make reliable information more accessible to more people. However, this needs to be done the Wikipedia way—meaning supporting humans in creating and sharing knowledge, and not replacing them.

For example, we know that a large amount of Wikipedia volunteer time is spent on mundane tasks like flagging vandalism. This can divert attention from more intricate tasks like content creation and reviewing edits. That’s why much of our AI strategy for editors, released earlier this year, focuses on ways where we can give those editors more time to do that sort of crucial encyclopedic work.

In all cases, volunteers create and enforce guidelines for responsible use of AI tools across Wikipedia, ensuring that they are being used to best support human contributors.

AI relies on Wikipedia

AI cannot exist without the human effort that goes into building open and nonprofit information sources like Wikipedia. That’s why Wikipedia is one of the highest-quality datasets in the world for training AI, and when AI developers try to omit it, the resulting answers are significantly less accurate, less diverse, and less verifiable. 

That’s also why we are calling on AI developers and other content reusers who access our content to use it responsibly and sustain Wikipedia. They can accomplish this through two straightforward actions: attribution and financial support. 

Attribution means that generative AI gives credit to the human contributions that it uses to create its outputs. This maintains a virtuous cycle that continues those human contributions that create the training data that these new technologies rely on. For people to trust information shared on the internet, platforms should make it clear where the information is sourced from and elevate opportunities to visit and participate in those sources. With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work. 

Financial support means that most AI developers should properly access Wikipedia’s content  through the Wikimedia Enterprise platform. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, this paid-for opt-in product allows companies to use Wikipedia content at scale and sustainably without severely taxing Wikipedia’s servers, while also enabling them to support our nonprofit mission. 

Through proper attribution of information sources and better financial support for AI’s technological impacts on Wikipedia, AI developers can secure both their own long-term futures and Wikipedia’s.

The bottom line

Wikipedia is “the last best place on the internet“.  It is the only site of its scale with standards of verifiability, neutrality, and transparency powering information all over the internet, and it continues to be essential to people’s daily information needs in unseen ways. In a world increasingly awash with AI, Wikipedia’s human knowledge is more valuable to the world than ever before.  

On 15 January 2026, Wikipedia will celebrate its 25th birthday. As we reflect on this milestone, we are optimistic that Wikipedia will still be here for another 25 years, ensuring the internet provides free, accurate, human knowledge, for generations to come.

The post In the AI era, Wikipedia has never been more valuable appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.