OnlyFans takes 20% of every fan payment and the creator keeps the other 80%. The OnlyFans Terms of Service put it in one sentence: “Our Fee is calculated as 20% of the total Fan Payment and will be deducted from each Fan Payment.” The help centre's payout percentages article confirms that the 80% applies to subscriptions, paid messages and tips alike. That 20% is the only cut OnlyFans itself takes, but it is not the only thing that can sit between a fan paying and money reaching your bank.
This guide follows a single payment from the fan's card to your bank account and names every point where the amount can shrink or wait: the platform fee, refunds and chargebacks, the pending hold, the payout minimum, and bank or currency conversion charges. It ends with a blank worked example to fill in from your own Statements page. It doesn't model earnings, which is the job of the OnlyFans earnings calculator, and it doesn't compare payout methods one by one, which the breakdown of OnlyFans payment methods already does.
What the 20% fee is charged on
The fee attaches to a defined term. The Terms of Service define a Fan Payment as any payment related to a Creator Interaction, and a Creator Interaction as a subscription, a payment for pay-per-view content, or any other interaction or payment between a user and a creator's account or content, including direct messages. The rest of the document, from the content licence to termination, is mapped in the OnlyFans Terms of Service explained for creators. Because the definition is that wide, the same percentage applies whichever way a fan pays you:
- Subscriptions, new and renewing: named in both the Terms definition and the payout percentages article. Bundles and discounted offers are still subscriptions, so the fee is taken from the price the fan actually pays.
- Tips on posts, messages and streams: named in the payout percentages article, which lists tips beside subscriptions and paid messages.
- Pay-per-view messages and posts: a payment for pay-per-view content is the second example in the Terms definition.
- Ticketed streams: the OnlyFans Creator Center describes PPV Streams as selling tickets to a live event. No OnlyFans page gives streams a separate rate, and a ticket is a payment between a fan and your account, so it falls inside the Fan Payment definition.
There is no tier, volume discount or loyalty rate in the Terms. The percentage is the same on a creator's first payment and on every later one, and the payout percentages article states it without exceptions: “OnlyFans retains 20% of any Fan Payment made on OnlyFans.”
What the fan pays is not always the Fan Payment
Two things can make the charge on a fan's card statement larger than the price you set, and neither changes your share. First, the Terms say Fan Payments are exclusive of indirect sales tax, which is added at the current rate where it applies. The fan-side help article on why tax is charged on payments says the tax is charged in addition to the subscription or pay-per-view price and shown before the fan confirms. Second, the Terms say all prices appear and are charged in USD and that payment providers may charge currency conversion fees, so a fan paying from a non-USD card can see a different local amount.
The practical point for a creator: when a fan tells you they were charged more than your listed price, the difference is tax or their card's conversion, not a second OnlyFans fee, and it never appears in your earnings. Your 80% is calculated on the price, not on the fan's final card charge.
Deduction map: from fan payment to your bank
Read the rows in order. Each one is a stage a payment passes through, what can happen to the amount there, and the OnlyFans page that says so.
| Stage | What happens to the money | Who takes it or holds it | Where OnlyFans says so |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Fan pays for a subscription, tip, PPV or stream ticket | The price in USD becomes the Fan Payment; any sales tax is added on top for the fan and is not part of it | A third-party payment provider approved by OnlyFans receives and processes it | Terms of Service, purchases and payouts sections |
| 2. Platform fee comes off | 20% of the Fan Payment is deducted; the remaining 80% is your Creator Earnings for that payment | OnlyFans, on every payment, with no separate rate by payment type | Payout percentages article |
| 3. Refund or chargeback, if the fan wins one | An amount equal to your earnings portion of that payment may be deducted, shown as an Adjustment | Returned to the fan through OnlyFans and the card provider | Chargeback help article |
| 4. Pending hold | Nothing is deducted; the earnings wait 7 days for most creators, or 21 days in a small number of countries, before they can be withdrawn | Held in your Pending Balance by OnlyFans | How long it takes to get paid your earnings |
| 5. Payout minimum | Nothing is deducted; a balance under the minimum for your method, $20 for most methods, stays put until it clears the threshold | Held in your Current Balance by OnlyFans | How to get paid your earnings |
| 6. Bank or e-wallet receives the payout | The exact USD figure in your Current Balance is sent; your bank or wallet may then take currency conversion or receiving fees | Your bank or e-wallet provider, at rates OnlyFans says it does not control | Bank fee help article |
Only stages 2, 3 and 6 reduce the amount. Stages 4 and 5 change when you get it. Confusing the two is the usual reason a payout looks short: a week with strong sales and a small transfer is normally money still pending, not a hidden fee.
Refunds and chargebacks: the deduction you don't control
The Terms say that if a fan successfully seeks a refund or chargeback from their card provider, OnlyFans may deduct an amount equal to the Creator Earnings portion of the refunded amount. The chargeback help article puts it more bluntly: the amount will be removed from the creator's income, and OnlyFans cannot prevent a fan from issuing a chargeback request. The help centre's payout timing article adds that a refund or successful chargeback appears as an Adjustment on your Statements page.
Two details matter when you reconcile. The deduction is your earnings portion, so a reversed payment takes back what you were credited rather than the full price the fan paid. And an adjustment can land after the original payment has already cleared pending, which is why a later balance can drop without any new fee being charged. The interface text the OnlyFans web app loads also includes a chargeback ratio hint stating that the ratio “should be under 1%”, and a dispute status reading “Your earnings for this Chargeback were not reversed and you will be paid anyway”, so not every dispute ends in a deduction. Record-keeping that helps you respond to disputes is covered in the chargeback prevention and refund records guide.
The pending hold and the payout minimum
Neither of these costs you money, but both decide how much of a given week's sales you can actually withdraw. The Creator Center says all earnings, whether from subscriptions, tips, PPVs or anything else, are first added to your pending balance, and gives the example of a tip received on June 1st being held until at least June 8th. The help centre's timing article sets out the rule behind that example: for most creators pending earnings move to the Current Balance after 7 days, while creators in a small number of countries with a high level of reversed transactions have a 21-day pending period that switches to a 7-day rolling basis four months after their first earned transaction. OnlyFans doesn't publish the list of countries, so check the release dates on your own Statements page.
The minimum is a floor, not a charge. The help article on getting paid says the minimum withdrawal amount depends on your chosen payout method, is $20 for most methods, and is shown on your Statements page; an automatic payout only runs when the Current Balance is above it. One discrepancy is worth knowing about: an older payouts panel still present in the interface text file states a minimum of $50. The help article is the more current of the two, and the figure printed on your own Statements page outranks both. If a payout has been requested and hasn't arrived, that is a different problem with its own steps in the OnlyFans payout problems checklist.
Bank fees and currency conversion
OnlyFans does not list a payout fee of its own in the Terms or the help centre. What it does say, in the bank fee article, is that the amount in your Current Balance is the exact amount in USD that will be sent to your payment method, and that your bank or e-wallet provider may charge currency conversion or other fees to receive it. The Terms repeat the point and add that OnlyFans is not responsible for paying those charges and does not control exchange rates.
For any creator paid outside the United States, this is the least visible deduction because it never appears on OnlyFans. It shows up only as the gap between the USD amount on the payout request and the local-currency amount that lands. No official OnlyFans page puts a number on it, because the rate belongs to your bank or wallet. To find yours, take one payout, note the USD sent, the local amount received and the date, and ask your bank which exchange rate and receiving fee it applied. The method-by-method options are compared on the OnlyFans banking options page.
Referral earnings: does being referred cost you anything?
No. The OnlyFans Referral Program Terms say: “We bear the cost of the referral payment, not the Referred Creator.” If you joined through someone's referral link, your fee is still 20% and your share is still 80%. The referring user is paid by OnlyFans the lesser of 5% of the Fan Payments you generate in the twelve months after your registration date or US$50,000, and the same terms let a referred creator withdraw from the program at any time.
OnlyFans' own pages describe the calculation in slightly different words. The Referral Program Terms base the 5% on Fan Payments, while the help centre's referral program article describes it as 5% of the referred creator's earnings, and a legacy sign-up blurb in the interface text file still calls the commission “lifetime”. The Terms are the binding document, so treat the twelve-month window and the per-creator cap as the rule. If you are the one referring, the help article says referral income below your payout method's minimum rolls over to the next month, and the Creator Center notes that referral earnings appear on the Statements tab beside your own.
Blank worked example to fill from your Statements page
The web app interface text shows the Statements earnings table using the column headings Amount, Fee and Net, with gross and net totals. Pick one complete calendar month that ended at least three weeks ago, so every payment in it has cleared pending, and fill in each line. The only arithmetic supplied here is the fee itself: on a $10.00 Fan Payment, 20% is $2.00 and the creator's portion is $8.00.
| Line | Where to read it or how to work it out | Your figure |
|---|---|---|
| A. Fan Payments for the month | Gross total on Statements, Earnings, for the month you picked | USD ______ gross |
| B. OnlyFans fee | Line A multiplied by 0.20; it should equal the sum of the Fee column | USD ______ fee |
| C. Creator Earnings before adjustments | Line A minus line B; it should equal the net total | USD ______ net |
| D. Refund and chargeback adjustments | Add every Adjustment entry dated in or after the month that relates to its payments | USD ______ reversed |
| E. Withdrawable from this month | Line C minus line D | USD ______ withdrawable |
| F. Payouts that carried this money | Payout Requests entries that drew on it, in USD, with dates | USD ______ sent on ______ |
| G. Received in your bank or wallet | Your bank statement, in your local currency, for the matching deposits | Local ______ received |
| H. Conversion and receiving cost | Ask your bank for the rate and fee applied to line F, then compare with line G | Local ______ lost in transit |
- If line B doesn't match the Fee column, check whether the gross total you copied includes referral earnings, which are not Fan Payments made to you.
- If line E is larger than the payouts in line F, look for a balance left under the payout minimum or a payout scheduled after the month closed.
- Divide line D by line C to see what share of your net earnings reversals took that month, and watch whether it moves.
- Repeat for a second month before drawing conclusions; one month with a single large chargeback is not a pattern.
- Keep the filled sheet with your tax records. A running log is easier with the payout forecast worksheet beside it.
What the platform fee does not cover: agency fees and tax
Everything above is what OnlyFans and your bank take. Two further costs are outside the platform entirely. If you work with a manager or agency, their percentage is set by your contract, not by OnlyFans, and the figure that matters most is the base it is charged on: the Amount column or the Net column. The same percentage produces different invoices on each. The guide to agency fees on gross versus net walks through that comparison. OnlyFans' help centre states that it does not work with or endorse any agencies, managers or third parties and suggests independent professional advice before signing a contract with one.
Tax is the other. The help centre's tax article says you are responsible for paying any tax you owe on your OnlyFans earnings and that OnlyFans cannot give tax advice. The Terms define Creator Earnings as the portion of a Fan Payment payable after deducting all fees and applying all relevant tax laws, and separately require creators registered for UK VAT to follow the UK VAT Policy, so your country and registration status can change what you are paid and what you owe afterwards. For Australian creators, the page on how much tax OnlyFans creators pay in Australia picks up where line E of the worksheet stops. Elsewhere, take the filled worksheet to a registered tax agent or accountant.
Limitations of this fee breakdown
Every figure here was read from OnlyFans' Terms of Service, Referral Program Terms, help centre, Creator Center and interface text on 13 October 2026; the Terms pages carry a last-updated date of August 2024. Those are the limits of what this page can tell you. OnlyFans says it can change its Terms, the pending periods and payout minimums differ by country and payout method, and OnlyFans publishes no figures for bank charges or exchange rates. Where two OnlyFans pages disagreed, this guide says so and follows the Terms. Your own Statements page and your bank statement are the final authority on what you were paid. This is general information, not financial, legal or tax advice.
SirenCY, which publishes this guide, is an OnlyFans management agency based in Melbourne. How agency management works is explained on the OnlyFans management agency page.