Creator Platform Fees Compared: Patreon, Twitch & More
Every number below is pulled from a platform’s own current help documentation, linked directly, with a per-platform verification date. Where a figure couldn’t be fully verified against an official source, we say so rather than presenting it as settled.
Quick Answer: What Do Creator Platforms Actually Take?
Headline platform fees in 2026 range from Kick’s 5% up to Twitch’s default 50%. Patreon’s standard plan is 10% (legacy pages may keep 5%, 8%, or 11%), Substack is a flat 10%, OnlyFans is a flat 20% inclusive of processing, Twitch defaults to a 50/50 subscription split (improvable to 60/40 or 70/30 via its official Plus Program), YouTube Memberships pay creators 70%, and Kick’s subscription split is 95/5 in the creator’s favor. None of these headline numbers include payment processing except OnlyFans and Kick, which build it into their stated percentage — see each platform’s own section for the exact stack.
How we verify creator platform fees: we prioritize each platform’s official pricing pages and help documentation over third-party summaries. We distinguish platform commission from payment processing, app-store charges, currency conversion, and payout fees, and where a fee depends on account type, region, or payment method, we name the condition rather than quoting a single universal rate.
Each platform section below includes a source link and a verification date. Where our own research turned up a genuine conflict — even inside a platform’s own documentation — we show it rather than picking a number silently.
What Counts as a “Platform Fee”?
Two platforms both charging “10%” can still leave you with very different take-home pay, because “platform fee” almost never covers everything deducted from a payment. The full stack usually includes: the platform commission itself (the headline percentage); payment processing (a separate card-network charge, usually 2.9%+ per transaction); app-store fees (Apple/Google take up to 30% on purchases made inside a native mobile app); currency conversion (typically 1-2.5% when a supporter pays in a different currency than your payout currency); and payout fees (a small charge to actually move money to your bank). Two platforms can both be honest about “10%” while one of them means 10% total and the other means 10% plus all of the above.
Creator Platform Fee Guide: Master Comparison Table
This table separates the platform commission from other fees rather than collapsing them into one estimated “effective range” — the exact stack depends on your account type, region, and payment method, so use each platform’s own section below for the specifics that apply to you.
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| Platform / Plan | Platform Fee | Processing / Other Fees | Key Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | 5% | Included in the 5% (Kick calls it a processing fee) | Full rate only while streaming exclusively on Kick |
| Patreon (Founders) | 5% | 1.6% + $0.30/charge (unless payout currency changed) | Closed to new creators since May 7, 2019 |
| Patreon (Pro) | 8% | 2.9% + $0.30/charge | Legacy plan; must stay continuously published |
| Patreon (Pro + Merch) | 11% | 2.9% + $0.30/charge | Legacy plan; includes merch fulfillment |
| Patreon (Standard) | 10% | 2.9% + $0.30/charge | Applies to any page published after Aug 4, 2025 |
| Substack | 10% | 2.9% + $0.30 + 0.7% recurring billing fee | No monthly fee; pay only when a reader subscribes |
| Twitch (default) | 50% | Deducted before split: taxes, processing, currency conversion | Applies to Affiliates and most Partners |
| Twitch (Plus Program L1/L2) | 40% / 30% | Same as above | Requires 100 or 300 Plus Points for 3 consecutive months |
| YouTube Channel Memberships | 30% | Included — YouTube covers transaction costs | Requires 1,000 subscribers + Partner Program |
| OnlyFans | 20% | Included in the 20% per third-party sources (see note below) | Applies uniformly to subs, tips, and PPV |
Read this before comparing rows: these platforms are not interchangeable. Twitch and YouTube pay from a platform-owned audience with real discovery; Patreon and Substack require creators to bring their own audience from elsewhere. A higher fee percentage on a platform with built-in discovery can produce more net income than a lower fee on a platform with none. Fee percentage is the input everyone can verify — it is not, by itself, the output that matters.
Patreon: 5-11% Legacy Plans, 10% Standard
Sourced from Patreon’s Creator fees overview and Creator fees FAQ, checked September 2026.
What Patreon actually takes
Every Patreon page published after August 4, 2025 is on the standard plan: a flat 10% platform fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing per charge. Creators whose pages were published on or before that date can keep a legacy rate as long as the page stays continuously published: Founders (5%, closed to new creators since May 7, 2019), Pro (8%), or Pro + Merch (11%, includes merchandise fulfillment). Patreon’s own documentation lists exactly these three legacy names and rates — there is no plan called “Lite” or “Premium,” and no legacy rate at 12%, despite both appearing in older third-party articles.
Processing rates also differ by plan: Founders creators keep a lower 1.6% + $0.30 processing rate, unless they’ve changed their payout currency, in which case they move to the standard 2.9% + $0.30 rate while keeping their 5% platform fee. Legacy Pro and Pro + Merch pledges of $3 or less use a micropayment rate (5% + $0.10, or 6% + $0.10 for non-US PayPal/Venmo) instead of the standard per-charge rate; this micropayment discount does not apply on the standard plan, where the same processing rate applies regardless of pledge size.
Unpublishing a page — for any reason, including a Patreon-initiated unpublish — moves it permanently to the standard 10% plan on republishing. Separately, Patreon has announced that legacy billing (as opposed to legacy pricing) ends November 1, 2026, after which all creators still on the older billing system must switch to subscription billing; this is a billing-mechanics change and does not by itself change a Founders/Pro/Pro+Merch creator’s platform fee percentage, but it’s a near-term deadline worth knowing about if you’re on an older setup.
On iOS, Apple’s 30% in-app purchase fee replaces Patreon’s standard processing fee for that transaction rather than stacking on top of it — Patreon’s platform fee still applies separately. Apple reduces its cut to 15% after a subscription bills continuously for one year, and US patrons have a mobile-web checkout alternative that avoids the Apple fee entirely. As of a March 2026 Apple policy change, purchases in China now run at 25% in year one and 12% after, which Patreon began applying to new China memberships in April 2026.
For the full breakdown with an interactive calculator, see our Patreon Fee Calculator.
Substack: 10% Platform Fee Plus Stripe Fees
Sourced from Substack’s How much does Substack cost help article, checked September 2026 — see the disagreement note below.
What Substack actually takes
Substack charges a flat 10% platform fee on paid subscription revenue — this rate has not changed since 2017. On top of that, Stripe (Substack’s payment processor) charges a standard card fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, plus a recurring billing fee that was raised to 0.7% for subscriptions in July 2024. A transition window let creators who had connected Stripe before July 10, 2024 keep the prior 0.5% rate, but that window closed on June 30, 2025 — every creator is now on the 0.7% rate.
Combined, most creators land around 13-16% total effective cost on monthly billing; annual plans reduce the relative weight of the fixed $0.30 charge and land slightly better. Substack does not charge any separate monthly platform fee — creators pay nothing until a reader subscribes.
Twitch: 50/50 Default, Official Plus Program to 70/30
Sourced from Twitch’s own Plus Program help article, checked September 2026.
What Twitch actually takes
Twitch’s default subscription split for Affiliates and most Partners is 50/50 of net subscription revenue. Twitch’s official Plus Program lets qualifying streamers earn a better split based on a points system: Level 1 (60/40) requires at least 100 Plus Points sustained for 3 consecutive months, and Level 2 (70/30) requires at least 300 Plus Points sustained for 3 consecutive months. Points are weighted by subscription tier — a Tier 1 sub is worth 1 point, Tier 2 is worth 2 points, and Tier 3 is worth 6 points — and gifted or Prime subs do not contribute toward the points total.
“Net subscription revenue” is the operative phrase: Twitch states that taxes, payment processing, bank fees, and currency conversion can be deducted before the 50/50 (or 60/40, or 70/30) split is applied, so a $4.99 Tier 1 sub does not always net a streamer exactly $2.50 — that figure is a simplified illustration, and actual per-sub earnings vary by subscriber location and payment method. Bits pay a flat and consistent $0.01 per bit to the streamer regardless of bundle size. Mobile app subscriptions purchased through iOS or Android add roughly a 30% app-store surcharge on top of the base price, paid by the subscriber rather than deducted from the streamer.
YouTube Channel Memberships: 70/30 Split
Sourced from the YouTube Help Center’s Channel Memberships overview.
What YouTube actually takes
YouTube Channel Memberships pay creators 70% of membership revenue after applicable taxes and fees, with YouTube retaining 30% — consistent with the platform’s broader monetization revenue share model. YouTube states this share already covers transaction costs, including credit-card processing, so there is no separate processing fee for creators to add on top. Creators need 1,000 subscribers and Partner Program enrollment to enable memberships, and can offer up to five price tiers ranging from $1.99 to $49.99 per month. This is a single flat rate with no legacy tiers or plan variations — the 70/30 split applies uniformly regardless of channel size.
Kick: 95/5 Split
Sourced from Kick’s own Understanding KICK’s revenue split article.
What Kick actually takes
Kick’s own revenue-split documentation states subscriptions are “a flat $5 per month” and describes the 95/5 split explicitly as: “you keep 95% of all revenue you receive, the other 5% is taken as a processing fee” — Kick’s own wording frames this as covering processing rather than as a separate platform commission on top. Note that Kick’s checkout UI and subscription instructions elsewhere commonly display $4.99 rather than $5; the two aren’t perfectly reconciled across Kick’s own materials, so check the price shown at your own checkout.
At either price, the math is the same 95/5 split: a $4.99 sub nets a streamer roughly $4.74, and a $5.00 example nets $4.75. Multiple 2026 creator guides note that Kick’s full 95/5 rate applies only while a streamer is broadcasting exclusively on Kick — multistreaming to another platform (Twitch, YouTube) simultaneously is commonly reported to reduce the split to roughly 50% for that stream’s subscription revenue, though we’d flag this as a detail worth confirming directly with Kick for your specific account rather than treating as universal. Kick separately runs the Kick Creator Incentive Program (KCIP), which pays qualifying streamers hourly rates commonly cited between $16 and $32 based on engagement metrics rather than subscription revenue — we could not independently verify this specific dollar range against an official Kick source, so treat it as a widely-repeated but unverified figure.
OnlyFans: Flat 20%
What OnlyFans actually takes
OnlyFans is reported extremely consistently — across dozens of independent sources — as charging a flat 20% commission across every revenue type on the platform: subscriptions, tips, pay-per-view messages, and custom content sales, with creators keeping 80%. Unlike Patreon, Substack, Twitch, and Kick, we were not able to locate a single, cleanly linkable official OnlyFans help-center or terms page stating this figure as plainly as the other platforms in this guide publish theirs. Given how uniformly every source agrees on the number, we’re comfortable including it, but we’re flagging the sourcing gap explicitly rather than implying it carries the same documentation trail as the rest of this page. OnlyFans’ terms reportedly reserve the right to change this fee with notice; it has held at 20% for years.
Where Sources Disagree (And Why)
Most creator-economy content online is written by aggregating other articles rather than checking primary sources, so small errors compound. Here’s exactly where we found real, verifiable disagreement — including, in one case, inside a platform’s own documentation.
⚠️ Patreon’s legacy plan names and rates: Founders/Pro/Pro+Merch, not Lite/Pro/Premium
Patreon’s own Creator fees overview names exactly three legacy plans — Founders (5%), Pro (8%), and Pro + Merch (11%) — with no plan at 12%. Multiple widely circulated 2026 articles still use “Lite” and “Premium” as plan names and cite 12% for the top legacy tier. These appear to be outdated labels and figures from an earlier version of Patreon’s plan structure, copied forward without being re-checked against current documentation.
⚠️ Substack’s own help documentation disagrees with itself on the billing fee
Substack’s main “How much does Substack cost” article correctly notes that the legacy 0.5% billing fee expired June 30, 2025. A separate, still-live Substack help article on reader payment methods states the recurring billing fee as “0.5%” without that expiration context. Both pages are Substack’s own documentation; independent researchers checking Substack’s help center in August 2026 flagged this exact inconsistency. The correct current rate, confirmed by the dated article, is 0.7% for every creator as of 2026.
⚠️ Twitch’s Plus Program thresholds are now clearly documented — treat older “sources disagree” claims as stale
An earlier version of this guide described the Plus Program’s qualification thresholds as genuinely unclear across sources. Twitch’s own Plus Program help article now states this plainly: 100 Plus Points for 3 consecutive months unlocks the 60/40 split, and 300 Plus Points for 3 consecutive months unlocks 70/30, with Tier 1/2/3 subs weighted at 1/2/6 points respectively. The confusion in older articles likely traces to the program’s January 2024 restructure, when the 70/30 threshold dropped from 350 to 300 points and the 60/40 tier was newly introduced — pre-2024 sources describing a 350-point threshold are simply describing the program before that change.
Worked Example: Same Audience, Six Platforms
To make the comparison concrete: 200 supporters paying $7/month each on platforms that support arbitrary pricing (gross $1,400/month). Kick doesn’t offer a $7 tier, so it gets its own example at Kick’s actual $5 subscription price rather than being force-fit into the $7 scenario.
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| Platform / Plan | Calculation | Net Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Patreon Founders (5%, original processing) | $1,400 − 5% − 1.6% − ($0.30 × 200) | ~$1,247.60 |
| Substack (10%) | $1,400 − 10% − 2.9% − 0.7% − ($0.30 × 200) | ~$1,149.60 |
| Patreon Standard (10%) | $1,400 − 10% − 2.9% − ($0.30 × 200) | ~$1,159.40 |
| OnlyFans (flat 20%) | $1,400 − 20% | $1,120.00 |
| YouTube Memberships (70%) | $1,400 × 70% | $980.00* |
| Twitch (default 50/50) | $1,400 × 50% (simplified — see note above) | ~$700.00** |
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| Platform / Plan | Calculation | Net Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Kick (95/5) | $1,000 − 5% (processing fee) | $950.00 |
*The YouTube figure assumes the full $1,400 is eligible revenue after applicable taxes and other deductions already reflected in YouTube’s stated 70% share. **Twitch’s actual net can be lower once taxes, processing, and currency conversion are deducted from gross before the 50/50 split, per Twitch’s own documentation — treat this row as the simplest possible illustration, not a guaranteed payout.
Why Twitch and YouTube still make sense despite the lower net: these platforms bring their own audience through discovery and recommendation systems. A Patreon or Substack creator has to build the entire 200-person audience elsewhere first, then convince them to leave that platform and pay. Twitch and YouTube’s higher cut partly pays for not having to do that.
How to Actually Choose
- Does the platform bring its own audience, or do you have to import one? Twitch, YouTube, and Kick offer built-in discovery. Patreon, Substack, and OnlyFans require you to already have an audience elsewhere.
- Is your content format native to the platform? A newsletter belongs on Substack. A membership tier for a multi-format creator belongs on Patreon. Forcing the wrong content format onto a platform costs more in friction than any fee difference.
- How stable is the fee structure? Substack’s 10% has held since 2017. Patreon has changed its fee and billing structure multiple times in recent years, including the August 2025 standard-plan shift and the November 2026 legacy-billing sunset. A platform’s fee history is a reasonable signal for its future fee behavior.
- Are you already earning enough that a percentage-of-revenue model costs more than a flat-fee alternative would? This crossover point exists on every percentage-based platform and is worth recalculating as your revenue grows.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which creator platform takes the smallest cut in 2026?
Why do different articles report different fees for the same platform?
Does platform fee percentage alone tell you which platform is best?
Is Patreon’s legacy Pro + Merch plan 11% or 12%?
How This Guide Was Built
Every headline fee percentage in this guide was checked directly against the platform’s own help center or official documentation, linked in each section, as of September 2026. Where official documentation was internally inconsistent (Substack) or where we could not locate an equally strong official source (OnlyFans, the Kick Creator Incentive Program’s specific hourly range), we said so explicitly rather than presenting an unverified or self-contradictory figure as settled fact.
This guide has no affiliate relationship with any platform discussed. No platform is recommended as universally “best,” because no such platform exists — the right choice depends on content format, existing audience, and growth stage.
Built and verified by R.K., Creator & Business Economics Analyst