The AT&T data breach settlement is a $177 million class action deal resolving claims from two separate 2024 incidents: the March 2024 exposure of personal data belonging to roughly 73 million people, and the July 2024 compromise of call and text records for nearly all AT&T wireless customers. A federal judge in the Northern District of Texas granted preliminary approval on June 20, 2025, held a final approval hearing on January 15, 2026, and as of mid-2026 has not yet issued a final ruling. The deadline to file a claim was December 18, 2025, and it has passed.
What the Settlement Covers
The deal folds two distinct incidents into one settlement, and eligibility turns on which one affected you.
The first, disclosed on March 30, 2024, involved a data set that surfaced on the dark web containing information on about 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former ones. The exposed records dated from 2019 or earlier and included Social Security numbers, passcodes, names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and billing account numbers. AT&T said it had no evidence at that time of unauthorized access to its own systems and was investigating whether the data came from AT&T or a vendor.
The second, disclosed on July 12, 2024, was broader in reach but narrower in content. Hackers accessed call and text metadata for an estimated 109 to 110 million customers, covering records from May through October 2022 and a smaller subset from January 2, 2023. The stolen information included phone numbers customers had interacted with, counts of calls and texts, aggregate call durations, and, for some records, cell site identification numbers that could approximate a user’s location. It did not include Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth, or the content of any communications. AT&T acknowledged, however, that publicly available tools could link phone numbers in the data to specific individuals.
AT&T discovered the July breach on April 19, 2024, but delayed public disclosure at the direction of the U.S. Department of Justice, which cited national security grounds. AT&T denied wrongdoing in the settlement and characterized both incidents as criminal acts.
Who Qualifies and How Much You Could Get
The $177 million is split into two non-reversionary funds, meaning any unclaimed money does not go back to AT&T.
The AT&T 1 Fund holds $149 million for people affected by the March 2024 breach. Any living person in the United States whose data was part of that incident is a class member. Within the class, Tier 1 covers those whose Social Security numbers were exposed; Tier 2 covers everyone else. Claimants can seek up to $5,000 for documented losses that occurred in 2019 or later and are “fairly traceable” to the incident. If a Tier 1 claimant opts for a flat pro rata payment instead of a documented-loss claim, that payment is set at five times the Tier 2 amount.
The AT&T 2 Fund holds $28 million for people affected by the July 2024 breach. Class members include account owners and line or end users whose data was involved, including customers of mobile virtual network operators that use AT&T’s network. Claimants can seek up to $2,500 for documented losses occurring on or after April 14, 2024. Account owners can submit claims on behalf of their line users and can choose a Tier 3 pro rata cash payment instead of a documented-loss claim.
People caught in both breaches are “overlap settlement class members” and could file separate claims against each fund, for a combined maximum of $7,500. Overlap claimants had to submit separate, unique documentation for each incident and could not reuse the same evidence across both claims.
The $5,000 and $2,500 figures are caps, not guaranteed payouts. Actual per-person amounts depend on the total number of valid claims, administrative costs, attorneys’ fees of up to one-third of each fund, service awards of $1,500 per class representative, and other court-approved deductions.
Excluded from both classes: AT&T itself, its officers and directors, the presiding judge and judicial staff, anyone who previously released related claims, and anyone who opted out by the November 17, 2025 deadline.
The Claims Deadline Has Passed
Kroll Settlement Administration LLC managed the claims process through telecomdatasettlement.com, where class members could check eligibility using a class member ID, email address, AT&T account number, or full name. Claims could also be filed by mail. The filing deadline was December 18, 2025.
If you did not file a claim and did not opt out, you remain bound by the settlement’s release of claims, meaning you have given up the right to sue AT&T over these breaches, and you will not receive a payment. Documented-loss claims required supporting records such as receipts or bills that were not self-prepared.
Where the Settlement Stands Now
Judge Ada Brown held the final approval hearing on January 15, 2026. An official transcript was filed on February 18, 2026. As of mid-2026, the court has not yet ruled on final approval. Additional objections were filed after the hearing, and the settlement administrator continues to review and process claims.
Even if the court grants final approval, payments will not go out right away. Distribution can begin only after the approval order becomes final and all appeal deadlines have expired. Because no ruling has been issued and appeals remain possible, there is no firm date for when class members might receive money.
The Separate FCC Settlement Is Not Part of This
In September 2024, the Federal Communications Commission reached its own $13 million consent decree with AT&T over a different incident: a breach involving billing information of roughly 9 million customers held by a vendor, covering data from 2015 through 2017. That agreement required AT&T to tighten vendor oversight, adopt new data retention and disposal rules, and undergo annual vendor compliance audits for three years. It is a regulatory settlement paid to the government, not compensation to consumers, and it is separate from the $177 million class action. The FCC noted at the time that it was still investigating the larger April 2024 breach affecting call and text records.