From $1,000 of fan payments, a creator keeps anywhere from $500 on Twitch’s standard subscription split to $950 on Kick, as of October 2026. Most membership, newsletter and digital product platforms land between $760 and $941. The headline platform fee explains only part of that gap, because card processing, payout fees, currency conversion, app store cuts and monthly plans all come out of the same money.
This guide explains each kind of fee, then compares what you keep on each platform using one fixed test. All figures come from our platform reviews, which take them from each platform’s own pricing and help pages.
What kinds of fees do creator platforms charge?
Creator platforms charge up to eight kinds of fees, and a single fan payment often carries three or four of them at once. The platform’s own cut is usually the biggest single fee, but not always.
| Fee type | Who takes it | Typical size, as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | The creator platform | 0% to 10% on most fan-payment platforms, 50% on Twitch’s standard sub split |
| Card processing | Stripe, PayPal or the platform’s own payments arm | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 per US card payment, PayPal Checkout 3.49% + $0.49 |
| Recurring billing | Stripe Billing, on some subscription platforms | 0.7% of recurring payments |
| International and currency fees | The card processor or platform | Stripe adds 1.5% for international cards and 1% when currency is converted |
| Payout fees | The platform or processor | From nothing to a small fixed fee, more for instant payouts |
| App store fees | Apple or Google, when fans pay in an app | Apple 30%, or 15% for small developers and subscriptions after year one. Google Play 15% on US subscriptions |
| Monthly plans | The creator platform | From $0 to $179 a month on the entry tiers we track |
| Marketplace fees | Platforms that find buyers for you | 30% on Gumroad Discover sales |
Platform fee
The platform fee is the share the platform keeps for itself. It ranges from 0% on Ghost, beehiiv and Stan Store, which charge a monthly plan instead, to 10% on Patreon for creators who launched after August 4, 2025, and on Substack. Twitch keeps 50% of net subscription revenue on its standard split, or 30% to 40% for Plus Program members. Some platforms describe a fee in two steps. Discord takes 6% for processing on desktop Server Subscriptions and then 10% of what remains.
Card processing
Card processing is what Stripe or PayPal charges to move the money, and most creator platforms pass it straight to you on top of their own fee. Stripe’s standard US rate is 2.9% + $0.30 per domestic card payment. PayPal Checkout charges 3.49% + $0.49 per US dollar payment.
The fixed part hurts small payments. On a $3 tip, Stripe’s $0.30 alone is 10% of the payment, and the full fee comes to about 12.9%. On a $10 payment it is about 5.9%, and on a $50 payment about 3.5%. If your fans pay small amounts, a flat percentage with no fixed part, such as Kick’s 5%, costs less. Kit’s all-in 3.5% + $0.30 still carries the fixed 30 cents, so on small payments it costs about what Stripe alone would. Otherwise, push fans toward larger and annual payments.
Subscription platforms that bill through Stripe Billing on your own Stripe account, such as Substack, beehiiv and Ghost, also carry Stripe’s 0.7% recurring billing fee. Memberful runs its own subscription billing on your Stripe account and Kit’s fee is all-in, so neither adds it.
Payout fees and thresholds
A payout fee is what you pay to move your balance to your bank, and a threshold is the minimum balance before you can. Many platforms charge nothing for a standard bank payout, but some charge a small fee, and instant payouts cost extra.
| Platform | Minimum payout | Payout fee or timing |
|---|---|---|
| Ko-fi | None | Each payment lands in your own PayPal or Stripe account immediately |
| Patreon | $10 via PayPal, $25 via Payoneer | $0.25 per US bank payout, on demand once every 24 hours or monthly |
| Stan Store | $10 | 0.25% + $0.25 per cash out, minimum $1 |
| Gumroad | $100 | $1 minimum for US instant payouts, with a 3% fee |
| Twitch | $50 for most methods | Monthly on a Net-15 schedule |
| YouTube through AdSense | $100 | Monthly |
| Discord | $100 for the first payout, then $25 | Monthly, within 45 days of month end |
Stripe charges 1.5% for its own Instant Payouts, with a 50 cent minimum, and PayPal charges 1.5% to move money instantly to a bank or debit card.
Currency conversion
Currency fees apply when a fan pays in a different currency from yours or uses a card issued abroad. Stripe adds 1.5% for international cards and 1% when it converts currency. PayPal’s currency conversion spread is 3% on most transactions. Patreon adds 2.5% when a fan pays in another currency, and Kick absorbs Stripe’s 1.5% conversion fee itself.
App store fees
When a fan pays inside an iOS or Android app, the app store can take a share. Apple’s standard commission is 30%, cut to 15% for developers in its Small Business Program and for auto-renewing subscriptions after their first year. In the US, Google Play now charges 10% plus a 5% billing fee on auto-renewing subscriptions, effective June 30, 2026.
Creator platforms handle this differently. Substack and Discord raise the in-app price so the creator’s share stays close to the web price, which means fans pay more. YouTube pays creators 70% of Super Chat revenue after local sales tax and iOS App Store fees are taken out. In the US, apps can link fans to cheaper web checkout, and the court fight over what Apple may charge on those link-outs was still unresolved as of October 2026. The simplest way to keep more is to send fans to the web.
Monthly plans
A monthly plan is a fixed cost, so it weighs most when you are small and shrinks as a share of revenue as you grow, though plan prices on newsletter platforms rise with subscriber count. Entry plans that can take payments range from $9 a month on Skool’s Hobby plan to $179 a month on Kajabi’s Basic plan, billed monthly.
A plan beats a percentage fee once the percentage would cost more than the plan. Substack’s 10% costs more than Ghost’s Publisher plan at $29 a month billed yearly once paid revenue passes $290 a month. The same logic applies to Patreon’s 10% against Memberful’s $49 a month plus 4.9%, which our Patreon vs Memberful comparison works through.
Chargebacks and refunds
A chargeback is when a fan’s bank reverses a payment. Stripe charges $15 for each dispute and another $15 if you contest it, refunded if you win. On a $10 membership, one lost dispute costs more than the payment itself, which is one reason some small sellers prefer merchant of record platforms that handle disputes for them.
How much do creators keep on each platform?
Here is one fixed test applied to every platform. A US creator collects $1,000 from fans as 100 card payments of $10 through the platform’s main fan-payment product, and pays the platform fee, processing, any per-transaction fees, one standard US bank payout fee where the platform charges one, and one month of the cheapest plan that can accept those payments. Kick is the one exception to the payment count, explained below the table. The results are arithmetic on each platform’s published fees, worked out in our reviews.
| Platform | Product tested | Platform fee | Processing | Monthly plan in test | You keep from $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | Subscriptions | 5% | Included | $0 | $950 |
| Ko-fi | One-off tips, Free mode | 0% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 | $0 | $941 |
| Kit | Paid newsletter | 3.5% + $0.30 | Included | $0 | $935 |
| Stan Store | Digital products | 0% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus a cash-out fee | $29 | $909 |
| Spotify for Creators | Podcast memberships | 10% | Included | $0 | $900 |
| Ghost | Paid memberships | 0% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% billing | $35 | $899 |
| Payhip | Digital products, Free plan | 5% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 | $0 | $891 |
| Fourthwall | Memberships | 5% | 2.9% + $0.30 | $0 | $891 |
| Buy Me a Coffee | One-time support | 5% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.5% payout processing | $0 | $886 |
| beehiiv | Paid subscriptions | 0% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% billing | $59 | $875 |
| Skool | Community memberships, Hobby plan | 10% + $0.30 | Included | $9 | $861 |
| Discord | Server Subscriptions on desktop | 6% processing, then 10% | Included in the 6% | $0 | $846 |
| Memberful | Memberships | 4.9% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 | $49 | $843 |
| Podia | Courses and products, Mover plan | 5% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 | $49 | $842 |
| Patreon | Memberships | 10% | 2.9% + $0.30, plus a $0.25 bank payout | $0 | $841 |
| Substack | Paid subscriptions | 10% | Stripe 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% billing | $0 | $834 |
| Teachable | Courses, Starter plan | 7.5% | 2.9% + $0.30 | $39 | $827 |
| Gumroad | Direct product sales | 10% + $0.50 | 2.9% + $0.30 | $0 | $791 |
| Kajabi | Courses, Basic plan | 0% | 2.9% + $0.30 | $179 | $762 |
| YouTube | Channel memberships, joined on the web | 30% of net revenue | No separate fee listed | $0 | $700 |
| Subscriptions, first year in the iOS app | 0% to Meta, 30% to Apple | Inside the app store fee | $0 | $700 | |
| Twitch | Subscriptions, standard split | 50% of net | Deducted before the split, not published | $0 | $500 at most |
A few rows need context. Kick’s test uses 200 payments of $5 rather than 100 of $10, since Kick sets one flat $5 sub price. Instagram’s $700 assumes every fan subscribes in the iOS app in their first year, and US fans paying through Google Play, at 15%, would leave $850. Twitch’s $500 is a ceiling, because Twitch deducts taxes and processing it does not publish before the 50% split. Gumroad’s figure is for direct sales, and the same sales through its Discover marketplace at 30% would leave $700.
What do social platforms keep from fan payments?
Social platforms keep more of fan payments than membership and newsletter tools, and several do not publish their rates at all. Most of their creator income comes from ad shares and bonus programs, so the $1,000 test only fits their fan-payment features.
| Platform | Fan payment feature | What the platform or app store keeps, as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks | 30% of net revenue, after taxes and iOS App Store fees |
| Subscriptions | 0% to Meta, but Apple keeps 30% of a first-year iOS subscription and Google Play 15% of a US subscription | |
| Subscriptions | Up to 30% under Meta’s terms, with app store fees taken from Meta’s share, and Meta does not publish the rate it applies | |
| TikTok | Subscriptions | 30% after app store fees, cut to 10% for creators who earn TikTok’s monthly bonus |
| TikTok | LIVE gifts | Not published, TikTok sets the gift to cash rate at its discretion |
| X | Subscriptions | Not published, payouts arrive net of processor fees |
| Snapchat | Creator Subscriptions, invite-only | Not published, fans pay through their device’s app store |
| Twitch | Channel subscriptions | 50% of net revenue on the standard split |
| Kick | Subscriptions and tips | 5% |
Ad revenue works differently. YouTube keeps 45% of watch page ad revenue, and TikTok, Facebook and X do not publish per-view rates for their reward programs. For those, see our guides to how much YouTubers make and the TikTok Creator Rewards Program.
Is the lowest headline fee always the best deal?
No. The cheapest-looking platform can cost the most once you add the rest. Kajabi takes 0% of sales but costs $179 a month on its Basic plan, so at $1,000 a month it leaves the least of any course or product platform here. At $10,000 a month the same plan costs under 2% of revenue.
The reverse also holds. Ko-fi and Kit charge no monthly fee, which makes them the cheapest options at low volume, but a creator selling high-priced courses at volume may keep more on a flat-plan platform with 0% fees. Run the test at your own revenue level. Our reviews show each line item so you can redo the arithmetic.
Fees are not the only cost either. A platform that finds you buyers, such as Gumroad Discover at 30% or Twitch’s built-in audience, can earn its higher cut if it brings sales you would not otherwise make. See how to choose a creator platform for the trade-off between discovery and take-home pay.
How can you cut what you pay in fees?
Most creators can keep a few more percent without changing platforms. Five habits make the biggest difference:
- Raise the price or push annual plans, because fixed per-payment fees shrink as a share of larger payments
- Send fans to web checkout rather than in-app purchases, which avoids the 15% to 30% app store cut
- Price in US dollars if most of your fans are in the US, since Stripe adds 1% whenever it converts currency
- Move to a flat-fee plan once your percentage fee would cost more than the plan
- Skip instant payouts unless you need the cash that day
For the tax side of fees, platform and processing fees are generally deductible business expenses for US creators. Our guide to creator taxes explains how to report gross income when a Form 1099-K shows payments before fees.