What makes this useful: A sourced EarnThread field guide written for creators turning attention into an owned business.
If you publish a new Patreon page today, you pay a 10% platform fee on what members pay you, plus payment processing (2.9% + $0.30 per card payment for USD payouts), a 2.5% currency conversion fee when a member pays in a different currency, and a small fee each time you withdraw. Creators who published before 4 August 2025 and have stayed published keep their older rates. On a hypothetical $10 membership paid by card, that leaves you about $8.41 before payout fees.
Here's every fee line, where it comes from, and what it means for a $5 and a $10 tier. All rates below are from Patreon's own help centre, checked in November 2026.
Key takeaways
- Creators who publish a Patreon page after 4 August 2025 pay a 10% platform fee; older, continuously published pages keep legacy rates of 5%, 8% or 11%.
- On top of the platform fee, card payments for USD payouts cost 2.9% + $0.30 each, and a 2.5% fee applies when a member pays in a different currency.
- Unpublishing a legacy Patreon page, even briefly, moves it to the standard 10% plan when it's republished.
- In a hypothetical card-paid example, a $10 membership leaves about $8.41 and a $5 membership about $4.06 before payout fees.
- If your members already follow you elsewhere, an owned membership on your own Stripe account can keep more per member, but you take on the work Patreon bundles.
What are Patreon's fees in 2026, at a glance?
Patreon's pricing page (opens in a new tab) puts it in one line: 10% of the income you earn on Patreon, "plus payment processing, currency conversion, and payout fees, and applicable taxes". Here's what each of those is for a creator on the standard plan with a USD payout currency:
| Fee | Standard plan rate | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 10% | Every successful membership and one-time payment |
| Payment processing (card / Apple Pay) | 2.9% + $0.30 | Every payment |
| Payment processing (PayPal / Venmo, non-US) | 3.9% + $0.30 | When a non-US member pays by PayPal or Venmo |
| Currency conversion | 2.5% | When a member pays in a different currency from your payout currency |
| Payout fee | From $0.25 per payout (US direct deposit) | Each time you withdraw |
| App Store fee | 30% (Apple's, replaces processing) | Purchases made through Apple's in-app system on iOS |
Sources: Patreon's Creator fees overview (opens in a new tab) and Creator fees FAQ (opens in a new tab).
The platform fee: new versus existing creators
The date you published your page decides your platform fee. Patreon says that if you published your creator page after August 4, 2025, you are on the standard 10% pricing plan (opens in a new tab), and creators who published on or before that date "will not see any increase".
Older pages may be on a legacy plan:
| Plan | Platform fee | Open to new creators? |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 10% | Yes |
| Pro | 8% | No (closed after 4 August 2025) |
| Pro + Merch | 11% | No (closed after 4 August 2025) |
| Founders | 5% | No (closed 7 May 2019) |
Source: Patreon, legacy platform fee breakdowns (opens in a new tab).
One rule matters a lot if you're on a legacy plan: if you unpublish your page, or Patreon unpublishes it for any reason, your plan will switch to the standard 10% pricing upon republishing (opens in a new tab). Patreon's advice is to use the pause tool instead of unpublishing.
Separately, Patreon says the November 1, 2026 deadline to switch to subscription billing has passed (opens in a new tab), and any account still on legacy billing will be switched automatically. That's a change to how members are billed, not to your platform fee, but it's worth checking your tier prices after the switch.
Payment processing fees
Processing is charged per payment and depends on the member's payment method, the member's location and your payout currency. For USD payouts on the standard plan, Patreon lists 2.9% + $0.30 for credit card and Apple Pay (opens in a new tab), the same for US PayPal and Venmo, and 3.9% + $0.30 for non-US PayPal and Venmo. For EUR payouts it's 3.4% + €0.35, and for GBP 3.4% + £0.35.
On the standard plan, Patreon says the same processing rates apply to all payments, regardless of amount (opens in a new tab). Legacy plans differ: tiers of $3 or less pay a micropayment rate of 5% + $0.10.
Two details catch people out. Processing is calculated on the total payment amount, including any applicable tax (opens in a new tab), and Patreon collects VAT, GST or sales tax on its platform fees where the law requires it, shown as a separate line.
Currency conversion and payout fees
A 2.5% currency conversion fee applies (opens in a new tab) to any payment made in a currency different from your payout currency, calculated on the full payment including tax. If a member pays in your payout currency, there's no conversion fee.
The payout fee comes off when you move your balance out of Patreon, and Patreon notes it isn't shown in your earnings dashboard breakdown. For US creators paid in USD, the Creator fees overview (opens in a new tab) lists:
- Direct deposit (processed by Stripe): $0.25 per payout.
- PayPal: 1% (minimum $0.25, capped at $20), with a $10 minimum payout.
Creators paid in local currency see flat fees instead, for example €0.50 or £0.50 per bank transfer and €1.00 or £1.00 per PayPal payout.
iOS purchases
When a member pays through Apple's in-app purchase system in the Patreon iOS app, Apple takes a 30% service fee (opens in a new tab), which replaces Patreon's processing fee for that payment. The platform fee still applies. Patreon says US fans may have the option (opens in a new tab) to pay through mobile web checkout instead, which isn't subject to Apple's fee.
What do you keep from a $5 and a $10 membership?
This is a hypothetical example using only Patreon's published rates: a member in the US pays by card, your payout currency is USD, no sales tax is added, and there's no currency conversion.
| $5 tier, standard (10%) | $10 tier, standard (10%) | $5 tier, legacy Pro (8%) | $10 tier, legacy Pro (8%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member pays | $5.00 | $10.00 | $5.00 | $10.00 |
| Platform fee | −$0.50 | −$1.00 | −$0.40 | −$0.80 |
| Processing (2.9% + $0.30) | −$0.45 | −$0.59 | −$0.45 | −$0.59 |
| You keep (before payout fee) | $4.06 | $8.41 | $4.16 | $8.61 |
| Share lost to fees | about 19% | about 16% | about 17% | about 14% |
Figures rounded to the nearest cent. The fixed $0.30 hurts the cheaper tier most: on $5 it's 6% of the price on its own.
Change the assumptions and the numbers move:
- A non-US member paying by PayPal (3.9% + $0.30) leaves you about $4.01 from $5, or $8.31 from $10, on the standard plan.
- A member paying in another currency adds 2.5%: roughly $0.13 more on $5 and $0.25 more on $10.
- At 100 members on the $10 tier, the standard plan leaves $841 a month in your balance. Withdrawing by US direct deposit costs $0.25; withdrawing by PayPal costs 1%, about $8.41.
When does an owned membership make more sense?
Patreon's fee buys a hosted page, memberships, video hosting, community tools and audience insights, which Patreon lists as included in the 10% platform fee (opens in a new tab). If most of your members find you through Patreon itself, that may be worth paying for.
If your members already follow you on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube and arrive from your links, you're paying for reach you brought yourself. An owned membership runs subscriptions through your own Stripe account, so the fee lines change.
The same €10 membership, compared
Another hypothetical: an Irish creator with a EUR payout currency, a member paying €10 a month with a standard EEA card, no VAT included.
| Patreon standard plan | Own Stripe account + EarnThread Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 10%: −€1.00 | 1%: −€0.10 |
| Payment processing | 3.4% + €0.35: −€0.69 | 1.5% + €0.25: −€0.40 |
| Subscription billing fee | Included | Up to 0.7%: −€0.07 |
| You keep per member | €8.31 | €9.43 |
| Monthly plan cost | None | $19 a month |
Sources: Patreon processing rates (opens in a new tab); Stripe pricing for Ireland (opens in a new tab), which lists 1.5% + €0.25 for standard EEA cards; Stripe Billing pricing (opens in a new tab), which lists a pay-as-you-go fee of 0.7% of Billing volume. Whether that Billing fee applies depends on how a platform runs subscriptions, so it's included here as a worst case. Stripe's card rates vary by country and card type: check the fee line on a real payment in your Stripe Dashboard.
The gap in this example is about €1.12 per member per month. At 100 members, that's roughly €112 a month against a $19 subscription. Below about 20 members, the subscription cancels most of that saving; on the free Launch plan (5%, no monthly cost) the same member would leave about €9.03.
EarnThread's plans
On EarnThread, payments go straight into your own Stripe account, and the plans are:
- Launch: $0 a month, with a 5% platform fee on each sale. No card needed to start.
- Growth: $19 a month with a 1% platform fee. 14 days free, then $19 a month; cancel anytime.
- Scale: $49 a month with a 0% platform fee. 14 days free, then $49 a month; cancel anytime.
Growth is cheaper than Launch once you sell over $475 a month, and Scale is cheaper than Growth once you sell over $3,000 a month. Stripe's processing fee applies on every plan.
What you take on when you own it
Lower fees aren't the only difference. With an owned membership you're responsible for the things Patreon bundles: making the membership worth staying in, handling failed renewals, and checking how sales tax or VAT is collected for your members (ask your platform and, if needed, an accountant). Our guide to what keeps paid members paying covers the retention side.
How to check what you're actually paying
- 01Find your plan
Patreon lists your pricing plan at the top of your account settings, under "monetization".
- 02Download the monthly CSV
Patreon's FAQ (opens in a new tab) points to the "Earnings breakdown by month" report in your Payouts documents tab for per-transaction fees.
- 03Add the payout fee yourself
It isn't in the dashboard breakdown.
- 04Compare at your real numbers
Use your actual tier prices, member count and member locations, not the headline percentage.
The short version
On Patreon's standard plan, a $10 membership leaves about $8.41 before payout fees, and a $5 one about $4.06, because the 10% fee and the fixed $0.30 stack. That's a fair price if Patreon brings you members. If your audience already follows you elsewhere, compare it with an owned membership at your real member count. Start free, connect your own Stripe account, and publish a first offer or lead magnet to see the fee lines on a real sale.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage does Patreon take in 2026?
Creators who published their page after 4 August 2025 pay a 10% platform fee, plus payment processing, currency conversion, payout fees and applicable taxes. Creators on legacy plans pay 5%, 8% or 11% as long as their page has stayed published.
What are Patreon's payment processing fees?
On the standard plan with a USD payout currency, card and Apple Pay payments cost 2.9% + $0.30, and non-US PayPal or Venmo payments cost 3.9% + $0.30. EUR and GBP payouts are charged 3.4% + €0.35 or 3.4% + £0.35.
Does Patreon charge to withdraw money?
Yes. US creators pay $0.25 per direct deposit payout, or 1% (minimum $0.25, capped at $20) via PayPal. The payout fee isn't shown in the earnings dashboard breakdown.
Will my Patreon fee go up if I'm an existing creator?
Not if you published on or before 4 August 2025 and your page has stayed published. If you or Patreon unpublish it, it moves to the standard 10% plan when republished, so Patreon suggests pausing instead.