Patreon Fee Calculator for Creators
Compare Patreon, Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, Substack, and Folloverse. Model recurring memberships, per-creation billing, and paid posts to see what each platform lets you keep.
Individual posts sold at a one-time price. No subscription needed — anyone can unlock them.
At this revenue mix, Folloverse earns you $20 more per month than Patreon — $240/year.
Platform fees and fixed platform subscriptions only. Payment processing, taxes, payout fees, currency conversion, and app store fees are not included. All figures are estimates.
How the calculator works
For recurring memberships, gross revenue equals paying members multiplied by monthly price. For per-creation billing, gross revenue equals paid posts per month multiplied by price per post and paying subscribers.
Each platform result subtracts the listed platform percentage and any fixed monthly platform subscription. If a platform does not support a revenue stream, that revenue is shown as uncapturable instead of being counted as earnings.
Current fee assumptions
- Patreon: standard 10% platform fee for new creators and one-time purchases.
- Ko-fi Gold: 0% service fee with a $12/month subscription.
- Buy Me a Coffee: 5% platform fee.
- Substack: 10% platform fee for paid subscriptions.
- Folloverse: 6% after the 3-month 0% beta period.
Important notes
Patreon supports one-time digital product and post sales, so paid post revenue is counted for Patreon in this calculator. Patreon is still marked as unsupported for per-creation subscriber billing because that legacy billing model is being removed.
Processing fees are not identical in every case. Substack, Patreon, Stripe, PayPal, Apple in-app purchases, currencies, and payout methods can all change the final amount. Use this as a platform-fee comparison, then check the official fee pages before migrating.
Fee breakdown by platform
What each platform charges, what's included, and where the fine print lives.
| Platform | Platform fee | Extra costs | Paid posts | Per-creation billing | Communities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Folloverse 0% for first 3 months | 6% | None | |||
Ko-fi Free tier: 5% · Gold: 0% + $12/mo | 0–5% | $6/mo (Gold) | |||
Buy Me a Coffee Tips, memberships & Extras | 5% | None | |||
Patreon Flat 10% · one-time sales supported | 10% | None | |||
Substack Newsletters & podcasts only | 10% | None |
0% for first 3 months
Free: 5% · Gold: 0% + $12/mo
Tips, memberships & Extras
Flat 10% · one-time sales supported
Newsletters & podcasts only
Payment processing, taxes, payout fees, currency conversion, and app store fees are not included. Per-creation billing: Patreon is removing this legacy feature in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
About platform fees, the calculator, and how the platforms compare.
No — the calculator shows platform fees and fixed platform subscriptions only. Payment processing, currency conversion, taxes, payout fees, and app store fees vary by country, currency, payment method, and platform settings, so they are listed as assumptions instead of mixed into the headline comparison.
Per-creation billing charges subscribers each time you publish a paid post — not a flat monthly fee. Fans only pay when you create something. If you post 4 times a month at $2/post with 50 subscribers, your gross membership revenue is $400 that month. Patreon is ending legacy per-creation billing in 2026, which makes this model harder to run on mainstream platforms.
A paid post is a piece of content sold at a one-time price — no subscription required. A fan pays $8 to unlock that specific video or article. Folloverse, Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, and Patreon support some form of one-time digital content sale. The bigger difference is whether the platform also supports subscriber billing per creation.
Ko-fi Gold costs $12/month for a 0% platform fee. Ko-fi's free tier charges 5% on memberships, shop sales, commissions, and some other monetized features. Gold only saves money once the 5% service fee would exceed $12/month, which happens around $240/month in eligible revenue. The calculator uses Ko-fi Gold as the most favorable high-revenue scenario for Ko-fi.
New creators on Folloverse keep 100% of their earnings for the first 3 months. No code, no activation — it's automatic. After 3 months the standard 6% applies. The calculator shows the 6% rate (post-beta) so you can compare apples to apples.
Keep more of what you earn
Flat 6% after beta. Recurring or per-creation billing. Paid posts. All in one place.
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