Creator Fees Comparison: What 9 Platforms Take From Every Dollar

Creator fees comparison, in one line: platform take rates run from 0% (Ko-fi donations) through roughly 3% (Stripe, PayPal), about 13% (a typical Gumroad direct sale), 10-13% (a typical Etsy sale), up to about 50% (Twitch subs) and a 45% share on YouTube ads. The full table below shows what $100 of gross actually leaves in your pocket on each platform, as published.

Creator platform fees compared: the big table

All rates are from each platform's published fee schedule at the time of writing. Figures change, and your exact rate depends on plan, country, and payment method, so treat the take-home column as an estimate for a typical US transaction.

You can run these numbers against your own sales sizes with the platform fees calculator - flat per-transaction cents matter a lot more at $5 than at $500.

Per-platform notes: what the headline rate hides

YouTube: the 45% ad revenue share is applied before you ever see a number; AdSense reports and pays net, which is why YouTube feels "fee-free" while carrying the largest take rate on this list. Full math in how much does YouTube pay.

Twitch: the standard 50/50 sub split is the widely reported baseline; Bits and ads have their own economics. Payouts are net of the split, and the threshold is now $50 (down from $100).

Patreon: the 8% Pro rate looks mid-pack, but processing is charged per pledge, and $0.35 on a $3 pledge is nearly 12% by itself. Creators with many small pledges see noticeably lower effective take-home than the table's single-transaction estimate. Details in Patreon fees explained.

Etsy: no single big fee, just a stack: listing, transaction, processing, and optional Offsite Ads at 12-15% when one of those ads drives the sale (mandatory for larger shops). A typical sale nets an effective 10-13%; an Offsite Ads sale can push past 25%. Breakdown in Etsy fees explained.

Gumroad: 10% plus $0.50 per direct sale, with processing on top, so the real cost is about 12.9% + $0.80. Sales Gumroad's own Discover marketplace sends you cost 30% all-in. See Gumroad fees explained.

Substack: 10% platform plus Stripe processing means paid newsletters give up around 13% of each subscription.

Ko-fi: the 0% platform fee on donations is real; you still pay PayPal or Stripe processing, which is why the take-home is ~$96, not $100.

Amazon: referral fees vary widely by category (~8-15%), and FBA fulfillment fees are a separate, often larger, stack on top for physical sellers.

Stripe and PayPal: these are processors, not creator platforms - they are often the fee under another platform's fee. When a platform says "plus processing," this is usually who is getting it. PayPal's flat $0.49 makes it the pricier of the two on small payments; see PayPal fees explained.

Payout timing: threshold and pay date per platform

The fee is only half the comparison - the other half is when the money actually lands. As published:

Thresholds are the silent cash-flow killer for small channels: $80 of YouTube earnings pays you nothing this month, it just waits. Timing details for the two schedule-heavy platforms are in Twitch payout schedule and Stripe payout schedule, and a payout calendar puts all of these dates on one timeline.

How to read YOUR effective rate

The published rate and your effective rate are rarely the same number. Three adjustments to make for your own situation:

1. Transaction size: flat components ($0.30, $0.35, $0.49, $0.20) barely register on a $200 sale and devour a $3 one. Compute fees on your median transaction, not the headline percentage.
2. Optional fees you actually pay: Etsy Offsite Ads, Gumroad's processing flows, Amazon FBA, currency conversion. Include what applies to you, ignore what does not.
3. Divide, do not read: the only trustworthy number is (total fees / total gross) over a real month of your own payouts. Platforms rarely show this; most report net deposits and let the fees disappear.

Making that division automatic is what Earnly does: the income tracker board shows gross, fees, and take-home per platform side by side, so your actual effective rate on each source is a number you see monthly, not a spreadsheet project. Creators are often surprised twice - once by which platform quietly takes the most, and once by how reasonable a "high fee" platform looks when it sends larger, more frequent payouts.

The point of comparing fees is not to crown a winner. Twitch's 50% split can still out-earn a 0% tip jar nobody visits. The point is knowing exactly what each dollar of gross becomes on each platform, so pricing, effort, and platform choices are decisions instead of guesses.

Informational only. All rates and payout timings are estimates from platform fee schedules as published at the time of writing and change regularly - always confirm against each platform's current fee page and your own statements.