Patreon Fees for Creators: Plans, Processing, Payouts

The fee stack, in the order money moves

It helps to picture a single member payment travelling from the fan to your bank. The overview explains that your Patreon balance already has the platform, processing and conversion fees removed, and that the payout fee comes off when the balance leaves Patreon. The payout fee is not shown in the fee breakdown on your earnings dashboard, which is why many creators miss it.

1. A member pays for a membership or a one-time purchase, on the web, Android or iOS.
2. If the purchase went through Apple's in-app system, Apple's fee applies and Patreon does not add its own processing fee.
3. Otherwise Patreon's payment processing fee is taken, based on the member's payment method, location and your payout currency.
4. The platform fee is taken on the payment amount, excluding sales tax.
5. Where the law requires it, Patreon adds VAT, GST or sales tax to the fees it charges you.
6. If the member paid in a different currency from your payout currency, the conversion fee applies.
7. What remains sits in your balance until you withdraw, when the payout fee for your method is deducted.

Platform fee by plan

The plan you are on depends mostly on when your page was first published and whether it has stayed published since.

The trap on legacy plans is unpublishing. The overview says that if you unpublish your page, or Patreon unpublishes it for any reason, you move to the standard plan when you republish. Patreon's article on unpublished pages adds that pages are unpublished after 30 days of inactivity, defined as no paid memberships and no new posts or products, and that logging in or editing tiers does not count. A legacy creator taking a long break should use the pause-billing tool rather than unpublishing, and should keep at least some publishing activity going. Our guide to a Patreon page under review or unpublished covers the other routes to an unpublished page.

Payment processing rates

Processing is charged per payment, so the fixed part of the fee weighs more heavily on cheap tiers than on expensive ones. Rates depend on your plan, the member's payment method and location, and the currency you are paid out in.

The overview also lists rates for other payout currencies, including CAD, NZD, SGD, HKD and several European currencies, so check your own row. Two smaller rules are worth knowing. Founders share the processing fee with other founding creators when a member pays several of them in one transaction. And when a creator pays for another creator's membership from their Patreon balance, no processing fee applies unless the balance falls short and a card is charged.

Currency conversion and tax on fees

The standard plan article applies a 2.5% conversion fee to any payment made in a currency different from your payout currency, converted at the average exchange rate of the day before the payment was processed. No conversion fee applies when a member pays in your payout currency. If your audience pays mostly in one currency, picking that as your payout currency, where Patreon supports it, is the cleanest way to reduce this fee.

Tax on fees is separate from tax on your income. According to Patreon's Taxes on creator fees article, Patreon generally adds sales tax to its fees in US states where it applies, while outside the US the answer usually depends on whether you have shown you are a business, typically with a valid VAT or GST number entered on your W-8 form. Patreon says it charges VAT regardless of registration status in some countries, naming South Africa, Switzerland, Indonesia and Malaysia, and warns that VAT or GST it charges may not be recoverable. Its worked example is an Australian creator without a registered tax number: on a $10 sale with a 5% fee of $0.50, GST of $0.05 is added to the fee, leaving $9.45. Patreon's fees FAQ adds that members may separately pay their own bank's foreign transaction fees, which Patreon says it neither charges nor receives.

Payout fees and minimums

PayPal and Payoneer can add their own charges when you move money on to a bank account, and the overview says those vary by region and can change without notice. When each method arrives, what blocks a first payout and how automatic payouts work are covered in our guide to how Patreon creators get paid.

iOS app purchases

Patreon's iOS in-app purchases article says Apple applies a 30% App Store fee to new purchases made inside the iOS app, Patreon adds no processing fee on those sales, and the platform fee still applies. Fans in the US can choose Patreon's mobile web checkout instead, which avoids Apple's fee. By default Patreon raises your in-app prices by roughly 43% so you earn at least what a web sale would pay; you can switch that off and absorb the fee instead. The same article says Apple cuts its fee to 15% once a member completes a year of continuous in-app billing, and Patreon's switching FAQ confirms that memberships which already existed are not affected by Apple's fee. Because Apple only supports subscription billing for these purchases, this is also the reason behind the Patreon subscription billing switch.

One-time purchases

Listing posts, collections and other digital products for sale is free, and the overview says one-time purchases carry the same fees as membership payments. The exception is creators who started selling early, who may be on a 5% one-time purchase fee. Patreon's Creator fees FAQ sets that cut-off at 26 May 2025 and describes later sellers as paying between 5% and 12% depending on plan, while the overview and the standard plan article say 22 May 2025.

Where Patreon's fee pages disagree

Patreon maintains several overlapping fee articles, and on 1 October 2026 they did not all match. Where they differ, the more detailed and more recently consolidated Creator fees overview is the safer reference, and your own Plan details and earnings reports settle it for your account.

• One-time purchase cut-off: 22 May 2025 in two articles, 26 May 2025 in the FAQ.
• Payoneer bank transfers: the overview offers non-US creators paid in USD a bank transfer to a local or USD account, while the standard plan article marks that same option as not supported.
• Founders and currency: the overview defines Founders as creators who have not changed currency, yet elsewhere says Founders who change payout currency keep the 5% fee but move to standard processing rates.
• Processing on the standard plan: the overview says standard rates apply regardless of payment size, while the standard plan article labels its rate table for payments over $3.
• Old plan names: the Patreon Creator Plans article still describes the 2019 Lite, Pro and Premium plans. Treat it as history unless your Plan details name one of those plans.

Which plan am I on? A checklist

• Open Plan details in your creator account settings; the overview points there first.
• Note the date your page was first published: before 7 May 2019, between then and 4 August 2025, or after.
• Ask whether the page has ever been unpublished, by you or by Patreon, including for inactivity. If so, assume the standard plan.
• Check whether you have changed your payout currency, which affects Founders processing rates.
• Check whether merch fulfilment is part of your plan, which marks Pro + Merch.
• Download the Earnings breakdown by month report from the Documents tab and compare the fees charged with the table above.
• If anything is still unclear, submit a request to Patreon's Product Support team and keep the reply.

If you are weighing Patreon against other membership platforms on cost, compare the full stack rather than the headline platform fee; our creator platform alternatives overview is a starting point.

Limits of this breakdown

Fee schedules change, and this page reflects Patreon's help centre on 1 October 2026, including the inconsistencies listed above. It covers Patreon's charges and Apple's in-app fee only. It does not include PayPal or Payoneer onward-transfer costs, your bank's charges, income tax, or sales tax collected from members, all of which depend on where you and your members live.

Treat the rates here as a map, not a quote. Before you set prices or file a tax return, check your own earnings reports and get advice from a registered tax agent or accountant where tax on fees or VAT registration is involved.