Rishabh Pant is the highest paid player in IPL 2026 at ₹27 crore, ahead of Shreyas Iyer on ₹26.75 crore and Heinrich Klaasen on ₹23 crore. But the biggest number to come out of the December 2025 auction belongs to none of them: Kolkata Knight Riders bid ₹25.20 crore for Cameron Green, and he will be paid ₹18 crore. The difference does not go to him.
That gap is the single most misreported thing about this auction, and it is why the table below carries two money columns rather than one. Every other list you will find ranks players by what was bid. This one also shows what they actually collect.
Highest Paid IPL Players 2026: The Full List
| # | Player | Team | Headline price | Actually paid in 2026 | How they got there |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rishabh Pant | LSG | ₹27.00 cr | ₹27.00 cr | Retained. Still the highest price ever paid for an IPL player, set at the 2025 mega auction |
| 2 | Shreyas Iyer | PBKS | ₹26.75 cr | ₹26.75 cr | Retained |
| 3 | Cameron Green | KKR | ₹25.20 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Most expensive overseas buy in IPL history. ₹7.2 crore of the bid goes to the BCCI, not to Green |
| 4 | Heinrich Klaasen | SRH | ₹23.00 cr | ₹23.00 cr | Retained, so the overseas mini-auction cap does not touch him |
| 5= | Virat Kohli | RCB | ₹21.00 cr | ₹21.00 cr | Retained |
| 5= | Nicholas Pooran | LSG | ₹21.00 cr | ₹21.00 cr | Retained |
| 7= | Jasprit Bumrah | MI | ₹18.00 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Retained at the top retention slab |
| 7= | Matheesha Pathirana | KKR | ₹18.00 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Second-priciest buy of the auction. Released by CSK at ₹13 crore weeks earlier |
| 7= | Sanju Samson | CSK | ₹18.00 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Traded from RR at his existing salary, ending an 11-year association |
| 7= | Arshdeep Singh | PBKS | ₹18.00 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Retained |
| 7= | Yuzvendra Chahal | PBKS | ₹18.00 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Retained |
| 7= | Yashasvi Jaiswal | RR | ₹18.00 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Retained |
| 7= | Rashid Khan | GT | ₹18.00 cr | ₹18.00 cr | Retained |
| 14= | Suryakumar Yadav | MI | ₹16.35 cr | ₹16.35 cr | Retained |
| 14= | Hardik Pandya | MI | ₹16.35 cr | ₹16.35 cr | Retained |
| 16 | Rohit Sharma | MI | ₹16.30 cr | ₹16.30 cr | Retained |
| 17= | Prashant Veer | CSK | ₹14.20 cr | ₹14.20 cr | Record for an uncapped Indian player, aged 20 |
| 17= | Kartik Sharma | CSK | ₹14.20 cr | ₹14.20 cr | Same record, same day, aged 19 |
| 19 | Ravindra Jadeja | RR | ₹14.00 cr | ₹14.00 cr | Traded from CSK, a ₹4 crore pay cut |
| 20 | Liam Livingstone | SRH | ₹13.00 cr | ₹13.00 cr | Released by RCB at ₹8.75 crore, then bought for half as much again |
Figures are auction and retention prices for the 2026 season. Sources are listed at the foot of this page.
The ₹18 Crore Rule: Why Cameron Green’s Record Is Not His Money
Green’s ₹25.20 crore makes him the most expensive overseas player in IPL history, ahead of Mitchell Starc’s ₹24.75 crore and Pat Cummins’ ₹20.50 crore, and the third most expensive player of any nationality behind Pant and Iyer. It is also, for him personally, a ₹18 crore contract.
The IPL now caps what an overseas player can be paid at a mini-auction. The ceiling is the lower of two numbers: the highest retention price, which is ₹18 crore, or the highest price recorded at the previous mega auction. Anything bid above that ceiling is collected by the BCCI and directed into its player development programme. In Green’s case that is ₹7.2 crore — a sum that appears in every headline about his salary and in none of his bank statements.
The rule exists to stop overseas players sitting out mega auctions in order to enter a thinner mini-auction market at an inflated price. Green had in fact skipped the 2025 mega auction, though for a stated reason — he was recovering from back surgery. Note that the cap bites only on mini-auction purchases: Klaasen’s ₹23 crore is a retention and is paid in full, which is why an overseas player sits fourth on this list, above the man who broke the overseas record.
This is the same distinction that runs through most sports-money reporting: a headline figure and a take-home figure are different things, and the gap between them is rarely explained. We apply it across the board — the same separation shows up in what Rishabh Pant has actually earned from cricket as against his contract value.
How the ₹151 Crore Salary Cap Works
Each franchise operates under a total salary cap of ₹151 crore for 2026. That figure is not one pot of auction money — it breaks into three parts: an auction and retention purse of ₹125 crore, incremental performance pay, and match fees. Only the first of those is what commentators mean when they talk about a team’s “purse”.
Because 173 players were retained or traded before the auction, only 77 slots were open, 31 of them for overseas players, and the ten franchises went in with wildly unequal spending power. Kolkata Knight Riders had the largest purse at ₹64.3 crore and used it on Green and Pathirana. Chennai Super Kings were next at ₹43.4 crore. At the other end, Mumbai Indians arrived with ₹2.75 crore after retaining twenty players, and had to drop out of the bidding for Green almost immediately. Lucknow Super Giants held ₹20.95 crore, Delhi Capitals ₹17.8 crore and Rajasthan Royals ₹16.05 crore.
Across all ten teams the combined purse was ₹237.55 crore and roughly ₹215 crore of it was spent. That is a mini-auction: fewer slots, sharper spikes, and a handful of players absorbing most of the money.
The Uncapped Indian Record Broke Twice in One Afternoon
The most striking spending of the day was not on an overseas star. Chennai Super Kings paid ₹14.2 crore each for two uncapped Indians — Prashant Veer, a 20-year-old left-arm spin allrounder, and Kartik Sharma, a 19-year-old wicketkeeper. Both figures beat Avesh Khan’s 2022 record of ₹10 crore for an uncapped Indian player, and both beat what Ravindra Jadeja will earn this season. Delhi Capitals paid ₹8.4 crore for the Jammu and Kashmir quick Auqib Nabi.
That is the structural story of this auction: with capped talent locked up in retentions and overseas pay capped at ₹18 crore, the open money flowed to uncapped Indians. For what that pathway can turn into, see Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s earnings as the league’s youngest signing and Abhishek Sharma’s rise from uncapped squad player to India opener.
Released, Re-bought, Repriced: What Changed From 2025
Three of the sharpest price movements involved players their own franchises had let go weeks earlier. CSK released Matheesha Pathirana at ₹13 crore after two injury-hit seasons, expecting to buy him back cheaply; KKR took him at ₹18 crore and CSK never entered the bidding. RCB released Liam Livingstone at ₹8.75 crore to free up funds, and SRH bought him for ₹13 crore. LSG released Ravi Bishnoi, whose IPL earnings have plateaued, and tried and failed to trade him first.
The pre-auction trade window mattered more than usual. The Samson–Jadeja–Curran swap moved Sanju Samson, the first Indian to score back-to-back T20I hundreds, to Chennai at his existing ₹18 crore, while Ravindra Jadeja went the other way at ₹14 crore, a ₹4 crore cut, and Sam Curran moved at his unchanged ₹2.4 crore. David Miller, released by LSG, went to Delhi Capitals at his ₹2 crore base price — a reminder that a long international career does not guarantee an IPL premium.
Venkatesh Iyer, bought by KKR for ₹23.75 crore at the 2025 mega auction, was sold to RCB for ₹7 crore. That is the steepest single-season repricing of the cycle, and a useful corrective to treating any one auction result as a player’s market value.
Player Earnings Profiles
The top of the list. Shreyas Iyer’s ₹26.75 crore Punjab Kings deal and endorsement income; Nicholas Pooran’s ₹21 crore contract with Lucknow; Rishabh Pant’s batting record, the performance case behind the biggest salary in the league; and Virat Kohli’s Orange Cap and 8,000-run IPL milestone.
The ₹18 crore tier. Jasprit Bumrah’s salary and endorsement earnings; Arshdeep Singh’s ₹18 crore Punjab Kings deal; Yuzvendra Chahal’s IPL earnings across four franchises; Yashasvi Jaiswal’s IPL salary and BCCI central contract grade; and Rashid Khan’s ₹18 crore Gujarat Titans contract.
India’s core. Shubman Gill’s IPL salary and endorsement portfolio; Hardik Pandya’s ₹16.35 crore Mumbai deal after the T20 World Cup; Suryakumar Yadav’s rise at Mumbai Indians; Axar Patel’s combined IPL and BCCI pay; and Jaiswal’s full Test, ODI, T20I and IPL record.
Captains and overseas names. Riyan Parag’s earnings as Rajasthan Royals captain; Rajat Patidar’s RCB salary and assets; Jos Buttler’s IPL pay set against his ECB contract; Ben Duckett’s first IPL deal; what a front-line fast bowler like Josh Hazlewood earns; and Mohammad Nabi’s career earnings across the global T20 circuit.
Squad players and comeback stories. Karun Nair’s comeback earnings; Sarfaraz Khan’s IPL income and assets; Ashutosh Sharma’s IPL salary and endorsements; and David Warner’s 2016, still the benchmark season for an overseas batter.
Beyond the playing XI. Suresh Raina built a ₹200 crore position after cricket, and Gautam Gambhir moved from IPL title-winning captain to India head coach — two illustrations that IPL salary is the start of an earnings curve, not the whole of it. For the full set of profiles, see the cricket archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the highest paid player in IPL 2026?
Rishabh Pant, at ₹27 crore with Lucknow Super Giants. It remains the highest price ever paid for an IPL player, set at the 2025 mega auction and carried into 2026 as a retention.
Who was the most expensive buy at the IPL 2026 auction?
Cameron Green, bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for ₹25.20 crore — the most expensive overseas player in IPL history. He is paid ₹18 crore of it; the remaining ₹7.2 crore goes to the BCCI.
What is the IPL 2026 salary cap?
₹151 crore per franchise in total, made up of a ₹125 crore auction and retention purse plus incremental performance pay and match fees.
Why is there a ₹18 crore limit on overseas players?
To stop overseas players skipping mega auctions in order to command inflated prices in the thinner mini-auction market. The cap applies only to mini-auction purchases, not to retentions — which is why Heinrich Klaasen is paid ₹23 crore and Cameron Green is not.
Who was the most expensive uncapped Indian player?
Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma, both bought by Chennai Super Kings for ₹14.2 crore each, breaking Avesh Khan’s ₹10 crore record from 2022.
Sources and last update
Published 11 September 2026. Auction results, the Cameron Green ₹25.20 crore bid and ₹18 crore payout, the ₹7.2 crore BCCI share, the Pathirana and Venkatesh Iyer prices and every franchise purse figure are per ESPNcricinfo’s report of the 16 December 2025 auction in Abu Dhabi. The overseas salary cap mechanism is per published IPL 2026 auction rules. Retention and trade salaries, including the Samson–Jadeja–Curran swap and the Livingstone and Bishnoi releases, are per Business Standard’s full retention list of 15 November 2025. The ₹151 crore total cap and ₹125 crore purse split, and the Mumbai Indians retention figures, are corroborated across two independent salary compilations. Where a headline bid and an actual payout differ, both are shown. No figure on this page is an estimate.
