AT&T Settlement: Payout Tiers, Delays, and Claim Deadline

AT&T has agreed to pay $177 million to settle the class action over its 2024 data breaches, but as of mid-2026 no money has been paid out. The court held the final approval hearing on January 15, 2026, and has not yet ruled. About 4.38 million people filed claims, and once approval and any appeals are resolved, eligible claimants can receive up to $5,000 for documented losses from the first breach, up to $2,500 for the second, and a pro rata share of what remains after fees and costs.¹²

Which Breach Are You Claiming For

The settlement resolves two separate incidents AT&T disclosed in 2024, and the payment tier you fall into depends on which one exposed your data.

The first breach, disclosed on March 30, 2024, involved a data set that surfaced on the dark web. The exposed information dated to 2019 or earlier and included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, account passcodes, and billing account numbers. AT&T said it affected roughly 7.6 million current account holders and about 65.4 million former customers.³

The second breach, disclosed on July 12, 2024, involved call and text records illegally downloaded from a company workspace on a third-party cloud platform. The stolen records covered May 1 through October 31, 2022, plus a smaller subset from January 2, 2023. They included the phone numbers customers communicated with, the frequency and duration of those interactions, and in some cases cell site identification numbers that can indicate approximate location. Social Security numbers and the actual content of calls and texts were not part of this breach.² Its scope was broader than the first: nearly all of AT&T’s cellular customers, mobile virtual network operator customers using AT&T’s network, and landline customers who interacted with affected numbers during the covered period.⁴

Settlement notices went out to more than 99 million people. If you were affected by both breaches, you were allowed to file separate claims and potentially recover from both funds.⁵

How Much You Can Get

The $177 million total is split into two non-reversionary funds: $149 million for the first breach and $28 million for the second.⁶ AT&T denied wrongdoing but agreed to settle.⁵

Documented Loss Payments

If you can document financial losses “fairly traceable” to a breach, you can be reimbursed up to $5,000 for the first breach and up to $2,500 for the second. People affected by both breaches who submit documentation for each can recover up to $7,500 combined.⁷

Tier Payments From What’s Left

Whatever remains in each fund after documented-loss claims, fees, and costs will be distributed pro rata according to tiers:

Tier 1 (first breach, Social Security number exposed): five times the Tier 2 amount.
Tier 2 (first breach, no Social Security number exposed): the base per-person share of the $149 million fund.
Tier 3 (second breach, account owners): a pro rata share of the $28 million fund.²

The actual dollar figure per person depends on how many valid claims are approved and how much is deducted from each fund. Class counsel said they intend to seek up to one-third of each fund in attorney fees, plus reimbursement of litigation costs.⁸ Named class representatives are slated to receive $1,500 service awards from the applicable fund.⁹

With about 4.38 million claims filed against a combined $177 million and roughly a third going to fees, per-person tier payouts are expected to be well below the documented-loss maximums.¹

Why No Payments Have Gone Out

Two things stand between claimants and a check.

First, final court approval. Judge Ada Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted preliminary approval on June 20, 2025.¹⁰¹¹²

Second, appeals. In the same June 2025 order, the court denied a motion to intervene from three individuals — Osa Massen, Audrey Jones, and Susan Savala — who opposed the settlement, without prejudice.¹² On July 21, 2025, they filed a notice of interlocutory appeal to the Fifth Circuit.¹³ Even after final approval issues, distribution cannot begin until the time for all appeals has expired and all claims have been reviewed.²

Kroll Settlement Administration LLC is processing and reviewing the roughly 4.38 million submitted claims in the meantime.²

Claims Deadline and What to Do Now

The claims filing window has closed. The deadline, originally November 18, 2025, was extended one month to December 18, 2025.¹⁴ If you filed a timely claim, there is nothing more to do until Kroll contacts you or the court issues its ruling. Check status and updates at telecomdatasettlement.com or by calling Kroll at (833) 890-4930.²

Other AT&T Settlements People Confuse With This One

Two other AT&T resolutions sometimes turn up when people search for this settlement, and neither will send you a data breach check.

The Federal Trade Commission’s 2019 settlement with AT&T Mobility, over allegations the company throttled “unlimited” data plans, has already paid out. AT&T paid $52 million in bill credits and refund checks in 2020, and the FTC distributed an additional $6.3 million in April 2024 to more than 267,000 former customers with valid claims.¹⁵

A separate older case, In Re: AT&T Mobility Wireless Data Services Sales Tax Litigation, dealt with internet-related taxes AT&T allegedly collected on mobile data between November 2005 and September 2010. That settlement is final and its proceedings are complete.¹⁶

1
Yahoo Finance. AT&T Data Breach Settlement Nearing
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TelecomDataSettlement.com. AT&T Data Incident Settlement
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AT&T. Addressing Data Set Released on Dark Web
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Mozilla Foundation. AT&T Had a Huge Data Breach — Here’s What You Need to Know
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TIME. AT&T Data Breach Settlement: How to File a Claim
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KCRA. AT&T Data Breach Settlement: How to Claim Money
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NBC Connecticut. AT&T Data Breach Settlement Deadline December 18
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U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas. Preliminary Approval Order
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AT&T Data Breach Settlement Agreement. Class Action Settlement Agreement
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Reuters. $177 Million AT&T Data Breach Settlement Wins U.S. Court Approval
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U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas. MDL 3:24-md-03114
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Preliminary Approval Order. AT&T Data Breach Litigation Preliminary Approval Order
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CourtListener. In Re AT&T Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation Docket
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Memphis Commercial Appeal. AT&T Data Breach Settlement New Deadline
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Federal Trade Commission. FTC Sends Refunds to Former AT&T Wireless Customers Who Were Subject to Data Throttling
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ATTMSettlement.com. AT&T Mobility Wireless Data Services Sales Tax Settlement