Exercism Insiders

Enjoying Exercism? We rely on donations from people like you to survive & grow!

Insiders is our way of saying thank you for supporting us.
Get behind-the-scenes access, Dark Mode, exclusive badges, ChatGPT integration, extra mentoring slots, private Discord channel, and more when you donate to Exercism 🎉

Road to Sustainability

We need $25,000 in donations each month to become sustainable. Please help us get there.

Sustainable at $25,000

Insider Benefits

Here are some of the ways we say thank you for supporting us.

Behind-the-scenes content

Keep up to date with what we're planning and building with private Insiders livestreams (rewatchable on demand) and technical deep-dives into Exercism's stack. See below for more!

Dark Mode

Our most requested feature is available exclusive for Insiders. Our slick dark theme elevates the Exercism experience and gives your eyes an easier time while coding into the night.

Private Discord channel

Hang out with our staff and other Insiders in our private Discord channel. Get the inside scoop on what we're working on and bounce ideas in realtime with us.

ChatGPT Help Integration

Our ChatGPT integration will help you get unstuck directly in our online editor. It's often brilliant (especially v4!), sometimes totally wrong, but always fun to experiment with!

Name tag flair

Show off your Insiders status with our Insiders logo next to your name around the site, on Discord and our forums. Let everyone know you're supporting us!

Extra Mentoring Slots

Unlock more simultaneous mentoring slots per track without needing to earn reputation, and improve the speed at which you can work through a track with our mentors' support.

Exclusive Badges

Immediately recieve the rare Insiders badge for your profile. Then unlock extra exclusive badges as you use Exercism - only available to Insiders.

Exclusive Perks

Receive exclusive discounts and offers from our partners as part of Exercism Perks. Get cheaper products, services, books and more, all through Insiders.

Keep Exercism alive

Last but not least, you help keep Exercism alive! Without your support, we can't pay for our servers or our staff. Thank you for giving back and supporting free education 💙

Exclusive Insider Content

Join Insiders to get behind-the-scenes content as we grow and evolve Exercism.

The Nitty Gritty & FAQs

Is the only way to access Insiders through donating?

The most common way to access insiders is through a regular donation. Regular contributors get Insiders access for free, and it's also possible to get Lifetime Insiders membership for significant donations or contributions. You can check the exact algorithm in our codebase but it's also reproduced here.

To gain lifetime access you need one of the following:

  • To be a founder or staff member
  • To be a supermentor (100+ solutions mentored on a track with a 95% positive rating)
  • To have a reputation equal or greater than 1,000
  • To have donated $499 (in one chunk or many parts)

For those without lifetime access, to gain access you need one of the following:

  • To have a recurring monthly donation of $10 or more.
  • To be a maintainer
  • To have earned 30 reputation in the last 30 days, or 200 reputation in the last 365 days (not including reputation for publishing solutions)
  • To have had a recurring donation at the point that Insiders launched (May 30th 2023), and it still to be active.
  • For donations before we launched Insiders, you get one month of Insiders for every $9.99 donated, from the date that Insiders launched, plus one extra bonus month. So if you donated $35 before Insiders launched, you'd get Insiders access through June, July, August and September 2023.
  • One off donations of $10 or more give 1 months access.

If you think you meet these criteria but don't have access, please open a forum issue and someone will help you out! If you've donated via Paypal or GitHub Sponsors but don't have access, please see the next question.

I've donated via Paypal or GitHub Sponsors but don't have access. Sometimes the tech breaks down and we don't get webhook notifications from GitHub or Paypal. If you have issues, please open a forum issue and someone will help you out!
What does Insiders cost? Insiders isn't a product that you can buy - it's our way of saying thank you for those who contribute, mentor or donate. The easiest way to get Insiders access is by setting up a regular monthly donation of $10 or more.
Is Insiders the same as Premium? Exercism Premium was discontinued in August 2023. All Premium members were migrated to have Exercism Insider status and their monthly payments converted to recurring donations.
How do I earn reputation? Reputation is earned by mentoring or contributing to Exercism. You can also earn reputation by publishing your solutions, but that does not count towards Insiders access. You can check what actions result in what reputation by consulting our docs. Check your journey page to see where you're earning reputation.