To become a Passes app creator, you apply from a Passes account, connect at least one active social media account, verify your phone number, pass an ID and live-selfie check, add payout details and wait for review, as Passes' creator sign-up guide lays out. You must be 18 or older, and every approved creator starts on Creators+, the plan on which Passes' Creators+ article says it takes 20% of earnings; a cheaper Starter plan is available if you downgrade.
Below are the steps, then the decisions after approval: plan, products, payouts, tax forms and the content rules, all from Passes' own pages as published on 1 October 2026. If you are still choosing a platform, start with our comparisons of Passes and OnlyFans and of Passes, Patreon and Fanfix.
Who Passes approves
The creator eligibility article sets six conditions: you are at least 18, your Passes account is in good standing, you can complete identity verification, you agree to the Creator Terms of Service, you connect at least one active social media account, and your content follows the Community Guidelines. Reviewers then check your verification, whether the connected accounts are active and genuinely yours, your content, and any signs of spam, impersonation or fraud.
There is no published follower minimum. The FAQ says Passes is designed for established creators who want to build a business from their following, and that its criteria change over time and differ by content type, so the only way to find out is to apply. The eligibility article's usual reasons for refusal are unfinished identity checks, private, inactive or mismatched social accounts, content outside the guidelines, and activity Passes cannot safely approve; connecting more than one active account can help.
Your audience will be younger than you. Passes' Terms of Service let 13 to 17 year olds use the service as fans with a parent or guardian's authorisation, while creators must be 18 at registration and prove it on request. That mixed audience shapes the content rules further down.
The application, step by step
| Step | What you do | What to watch | Where Passes says it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Start the application | Pick the creator sign-up option and confirm your email; existing fans sign in and continue from their account | Use an inbox you will control for the long term | Creator sign-up guide |
| 2. Account details | Enter a username, display name and birthday, and accept the Creator Terms | The birthday cannot be changed later, and only support can change a username, display name or country | Sign-up guide; profile set-up article |
| 3. Social accounts | Connect at least one active account tied to you or your brand | Once you are verified, these can appear on your public profile, except Discord | Sign-up guide, step 3 |
| 4. Phone number | Add it and enter the verification code | Passes uses it for security and for alerts about fan messages and earnings | Sign-up guide, step 4 |
| 5. Identity check | Photograph an original, unexpired passport or driver's licence and take a live selfie | Show all four corners and avoid glare or edits; up to four retries each for ID and selfie; review typically within 72 hours | KYC verification article |
| 6. Payout details | Add a bank account or PayPal if the flow asks | Availability depends on your country, tax setup and verification status | Sign-up guide; payout article |
| 7. Review | Submit and wait for confirmation | Do not send a second request while the first is under review | Sign-up guide, step 7 |
The KYC article adds a security rule: submit ID only through the official verification flow, never by chat or email unless Passes Support gives you an approved secure route. After approval, finish the basics the profile article lists: a profile picture, a banner, a bio that says what fans get, and links to your other platforms. Our media kit template is a handy way to draft that bio, because it makes you state your audience and offer plainly.
Creators+ or Starter
Passes' plan article says all creators start on Creators+, that Passes takes a 20% cut of earnings on it, and that you can downgrade to Starter from Settings, then Account. Once you do, you cannot upgrade back to Creators+ for 30 days. The FAQ gives the downgraded split as 90/10 with a $0.30 transaction fee, and that is the plan behind Passes' marketing line of fees “as low as 10% + $0.30”.
| Feature or fee | Creators+ | Starter | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share Passes keeps | 20% of earnings | 10% plus $0.30 per transaction | Plan article; Passes FAQ |
| Where new creators begin | Yes, by default | Only after a downgrade | Plan article |
| Switching plans | Downgrade from Settings, then Account | A 30-day wait before returning to Creators+ | Plan article |
| Screenshot and screen-recording blocking | Included | Not included | Screenshot protection article |
| DMCA takedown requests | Submitted through the Protection page | Upgrade needed first | DMCA article |
| Watermarking, mass-DM variables, several discounts at once | Included | Listed only under Creators+ | Plan article |
| Rewards for referring a creator | The person you refer must be on this plan | A referred creator on Starter does not qualify | Referral programme article |
| Payout minimum and speed fees | $50 minimum; instant +10%, next business day +6.5% | The payout article does not separate the plans | Payout article |
Set the toolset aside and the fees favour Starter. The flat $0.30 only matches or outweighs its ten-point saving on amounts of $3 or less, and Passes' terms make $3 the smallest payment a fan can make. The real question is whether protection and automation are worth ten points of everything you earn. A creator whose work gets copied, or who leans on discounts and personalised mass messages, may decide they are; one selling a few higher-priced items may not. Decide before launch, because of the 30-day lock. The referral article's reward, 50% of Passes' share of a referred creator's qualified revenue for their first three months, also depends on that creator being on Creators+.
What you can sell
Passes' content and monetisation article covers photos, videos up to 10GB, audio, PDFs and text, each of which can be free, members-only or paid. The earning tools are:
- Memberships set up as a subscription or a lifetime tier, with monthly, quarterly or annual billing, optional free messages, a cap on member numbers and a live or hidden setting, according to the memberships article.
- Paid posts and paid messages, including mass DMs sent to audience lists built from purchases, tips and other activity.
- Livestreams that are free, priced at a one-time fee, or charged per minute.
- One-to-one calls, where your account has them.
- Tips, kept separate from memberships unless an offer says otherwise.
- A Shop for merchandise, digital products, custom requests, event tickets and personal items, set out in the Shop article.
- Fundraiser posts with a goal and up to four suggested amounts; reaching the goal does not stop contributions.
Vault holds the library behind all of this, takes up to 40 files per upload and schedules posts ahead. Two parts of the Shop need care. Personal items and custom requests sit close to the guidelines' ban on selling panties, lingerie or inherently sexual items, so describe every listing plainly. And fulfilment is yours: declining or cancelling a standard order refunds the fan in full automatically, while merch orders can only be cancelled through support, with no guarantee.
Content rules new creators miss
Passes' Community Guidelines, effective 19 February 2025, go further than many creators expect. The points that most often matter for a new page:
- No explicit adult content, nudity or pornography, and no sale of panties, lingerie or other inherently sexual items.
- No raffles, lotteries or monetary giveaways; Passes may decide a reward counts as one and suggests asking first.
- No funneling: posts, house chats and DMs must not send fans to OnlyFans, Fansly or other adult platforms, and a link aggregator in your bio is the only permitted route. Our Passes vs OnlyFans comparison covers the detail.
- No third-party contests, sweepstakes, product placements or job ads without Passes' prior consent.
- Cannabis content only if it is legal where you live.
- Only material you created or have permission to post. The terms also take a perpetual, sublicensable licence over your uploads and a publicity licence to feature your name and likeness in Passes' marketing.
Creator AI Chat: a deliberate choice
Passes' AI tools article describes Creator AI Chat, which lets eligible Passes Premium fans talk to an AI version of you in conversations kept apart from your regular DMs. The AI can offer existing photos or videos from your Vault when a fan asks or shows interest, and it can send a locked offer without you approving each one. Prices are set automatically and cannot be negotiated in the chat, and the feature only retrieves existing media. Switching it off under Settings, Messaging, AI Chat stops new AI conversations but leaves the Ask About the Fan and Passes AI Assistant tools running.
That is a sales channel you do not supervise message by message, so decide which Vault items it may offer before turning it on, and be open with fans that they are chatting with an AI. Our checklist of Fanvue AI creator rules shows how another platform handles that kind of disclosure.
Payouts, disputes and tax forms
Payout settings sit under Settings, Payment, Payout method. The payout article accepts bank accounts in supported countries and PayPal wallets, warns that PayPal payouts cannot be reversed, and requires $50 in eligible earnings before any payout. You can request one-off payouts, schedule them every one to four weeks, or use instant payouts if your account has them: Standard ACH takes around three days, Same Day ACH around 12 hours, and instant has no delay. The fee list prices instant at an extra 10%, one business day at 6.5% and two to five business days at nothing. Payouts are offered in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and many European countries. Passes' older blog guide to payouts also mentions a $50,000 daily maximum and one payout every 24 hours.
Disputes come out of your balance. The chargeback article says a successful fan dispute can be deducted from your balance or future earnings, and that refunds Passes Support approves for problems with your content, order or fulfilment are deducted separately and listed under Settings, Payment, Refunds. Its own prevention advice is clear benefit descriptions, prompt replies and keeping conversations on Passes; our chargeback prevention guide sets out a record-keeping routine that works on any platform.
For tax, the tax forms article says US creators who earn $600 or more in a calendar year must submit a W-9 to receive a 1099, which Passes says may be a 1099-NEC, and that creators outside the US complete a W-8BEN, without which higher withholding may apply. Passes says it cannot give tax advice. Our explainer on 1099 forms and deductions covers the US paperwork in more depth; outside the US, speak to a registered tax agent or accountant.
Launch checklist
- Confirm you are 18 or older and that everything you plan to sell, merchandise included, fits the Community Guidelines.
- Make the social accounts you will connect public, active and clearly yours.
- Choose a username and display name you are happy to keep, since only support can change them, and enter your birthday exactly as it appears on your ID, because it cannot be edited later.
- Have an original, unexpired passport or driver's licence and good light ready, and contact support after repeated failures rather than using up every retry.
- Write a bio that says what fans get, and add a banner, profile picture and social links.
- Choose between Creators+ and Starter before launch, allowing for the 30-day lock.
- Build membership tiers with honest descriptions, and decide on member caps and quarterly or annual billing.
- Add a payout method, check that your country is supported, and file the W-9 or W-8BEN.
- Decide whether to enable Creator AI Chat and which Vault items it may sell.
- Set up an evidence routine for copied content; our takedown evidence pack works on any platform, and Creators+ DMCA requests go through the Protection page.
- Save dated copies of the help pages and terms you relied on.
Limitations and conflicting pages
This guide reflects Passes' help centre, FAQ, guidelines and terms as published on 1 October 2026, and they do not all agree. The Creator Terms inside the terms page, effective 18 April 2024, still describe a 20% fee on credit and debit sales and a default payout every two weeks within 30 days, while the help centre describes two plans and weekly payout batches. The platform terms also say in one place that the services can be reached worldwide and in another that only people located in the United States are currently permitted to use the platform, even though the payout article lists other countries. If you are outside the US, get written confirmation from Passes Support before investing in a launch.
Approval is at Passes' discretion, so nothing here predicts whether an application will succeed or what a page will earn. Treat the steps as general information, read the current terms yourself, and take advice from a lawyer or registered tax agent on contracts and tax.