Editorial reference guide to OnlyFans history, account features, rules, payments, verification, and availability. Verify current details in official platform documentation.
What Is OnlyFans?
OnlyFans is a subscription platform where creators sell access to their own photos, videos, livestreams and messages, and fans pay through monthly subscriptions, pay-per-view posts, paid messages and tips. It is run from London by Fenix International Limited, a private company registered in England and Wales, and only adults can open an account. This reference sets out the company, its ownership as filed at Companies House, how the platform works, its main rules, where it is available, a dated timeline and a glossary, with the official source for each fact.
OnlyFans at a Glance
The facts below come from OnlyFans’ own legal pages and from the public register at Companies House. Where a detail can change, the source column shows where to check the current version.
| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Fenix International Limited, company number 10354575 | OnlyFans Terms of Use |
| Registered office | 9th Floor, 107 Cheapside, London EC2V 6DN | Companies House overview |
| Incorporated | 1 September 2016, private limited company | Companies House overview |
| Financial year end | 30 November; the latest filed accounts cover the year to 30 November 2025 | Filing history |
| US subsidiary named in the terms | Fenix Internet LLC, Wilmington, Delaware | Choice of law section |
| Latest filed results | Year to 30 November 2025: revenue of $1.55 billion and profit before tax of $714.9 million on $7.84 billion of fan payments | FY2025 group accounts |
| Size | 5.06 million creator accounts and 437.1 million fan accounts in the filed totals; the company says 2.5 million and 132 million of them were active in FY2025 | FY2025 accounts, Variety |
| Platform fee | OnlyFans keeps 20% of each fan payment; creators receive 80% | Payout percentages |
| Minimum age | Fans and creators must be at least 18 | Registering with OnlyFans |
| Mobile app | None; the help centre suggests adding the website to your home screen | App help article |
| Regulators OnlyFans names | Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK, and the eSafety Commissioner in Australia | Complaints Policy |
| Governing law for consumers | England, with mandatory local consumer law still available to you | Choice of law section |
Who Owns OnlyFans?
Ownership is a matter of public record because Fenix International Limited is a UK company. Its register of persons with significant control is the primary source, and the filing history records each change. As of October 2026 the filings show the following sequence.
- The platform’s long-time majority owner bought the business in 2018 from its two UK-based founders, according to a statement OnlyFans gave the BBC; the founding history covers the 2016 launch.
- On 23 March 2026 OnlyFans confirmed that owner, Leonid Radvinsky, had died (BBC report). Companies House filings record that he ceased to be a director and a person with significant control on 20 March 2026 (filing history).
- A notification filed on 7 May 2026 names Yekaterina Chudnovsky as a person with significant control from 20 March 2026 (PSC register).
- On 8 May 2026 three new directors were appointed (filing history). The same day, Fenix announced the sale of a 16% minority stake to Architect Capital for $535 million, a deal Variety reported as valuing the company at $3.15 billion (Variety).
Valuations and stake sizes in press reports come from the parties to a deal. Audited figures, such as revenue and profit, are only in the annual accounts; the OnlyFans statistics page tabulates them.
How OnlyFans Works
Every account starts as a fan account. To sell content, a user then completes creator onboarding: the Terms of Use require a valid ID, two photos of the applicant, a bank account or payment method, a chosen payout option and a monthly subscription price, which can be zero. The FY2025 accounts add that age and identity are verified by a third party (FY2025 strategic report). Common reasons for rejection, according to the help centre, are poor-quality selfies or ID photos, expired documents, a country OnlyFans cannot pay out to, and social media accounts set to private.
Ways creators are paid
- Subscriptions that renew automatically until the fan switches off auto-renew or the price rises.
- Pay-per-view posts and paid messages that unlock individual items.
- Tips on posts, messages and livestreams.
- Referrals: a creator who refers another creator earns a payment funded by OnlyFans, not by the referred creator.
OnlyFans takes its fee from each payment, and the Contract between Fan and Creator calls it the FIL Fee. Earnings sit in a pending balance before they can be withdrawn, and the price limits for each product are published in the help centre; the statistics page lists them in one table and the pricing guide explains how creators use them.
How fans find creators
OnlyFans has no public directory or app store listing. Its help article on finding creators says a search icon appears on a fan’s home page once they have subscribed to an account and interacted with a creator, and that searching requires the creator’s username. The terms also say OnlyFans may use recommender systems to show accounts followed by users with similar preferences. In practice most discovery starts off the platform, which is why the promotion rules matter: link aggregators are allowed, but Google Ads and similar search advertising are not.
OFTV
OFTV is the group’s safe-for-work streaming service. The FY2025 accounts describe it as hosting creator-made fitness, comedy and music programming and note that some of its content has been licensed to Netflix UK (FY2025 strategic report).
Rules and Compliance
OnlyFans’ rules sit in several linked documents that together form the Terms of Service: the Terms of Use, the Acceptable Use Policy (last updated September 2025), the Contract between Fan and Creator, the Complaints Policy, the Appeals Policy and the Community Guidelines in the help centre. The points creators most often need are these.
| Topic | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Who can appear | Anyone in explicit content must be a verified creator or have a completed release form; under-18s are banned outright | Acceptable Use Policy |
| Co-created content | Each person featured must be a tagged creator or an adult whose ID and written consent you hold, and can withdraw consent later | Co-authored content terms |
| AI content | Allowed only when it clearly features the verified creator and is labelled, for example with #ai; wholly AI-generated accounts are not allowed | AI content help |
| Public profile | No nudity in the bio or avatar; explicit content is limited to posts and messages within the policy | Content moderation guide |
| Payments | All payments must go through OnlyFans; steering fans to outside payment systems risks deactivation | Off-platform payment help |
| Meeting fans | Arranging in-person meetings, including through raffles or competitions, is not allowed | Content moderation guide |
| Advertising content | Paid promotions must be captioned with a tag such as #ad and name the brand and who paid | Transparency requirements |
| Copyright | OnlyFans may send takedown notices on a creator’s behalf and publishes a DMCA process | DMCA Takedown Policy |
Enforcement runs through the same documents. OnlyFans can suspend an account, withhold earnings while it reviews serious breaches and, if it confirms them, treat earnings as forfeited (Terms of Use). Content and account decisions are appealed through the Deactivation Appeal Form within six months (Appeals Policy), while other complaints go through the contact form, the report button or support email, with a stated aim of review within 24 to 48 hours (Complaints Policy). For the verification steps in detail, see OnlyFans age verification and identity verification.
Country Availability and Legal Limits
OnlyFans is not available everywhere. The help centre says the list of countries where a creator account can be opened appears in the Add Bank section of a fan account and is updated regularly, so the only reliable check is to look there. Availability is not the same as legality, and the terms leave tax entirely with the creator.
- In India, section 67A of the Information Technology Act makes publishing or transmitting sexually explicit material in electronic form a criminal offence (India Code, IT Act 2000).
- In the UAE, Article 34 of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 penalises creating, running or distributing obscene material online (UAE legislation portal).
- In the UK, services that allow pornography have had to use highly effective age checks since 25 July 2025 (Ofcom), and Australia, the EU and many US states run their own age-assurance regimes; the OnlyFans news explainer tracks them.
If adult content is illegal or tightly restricted where you live, do not rely on a platform’s availability as permission. Take advice from a qualified local lawyer, and consider non-explicit creator work instead; the creator legal and safety guides and the influencer business hub cover lawful options.
Timeline: OnlyFans From 2016 to 2026
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 September 2016 | Fenix International Limited is incorporated in England and Wales | Companies House |
| 2018 | The two UK-based founders sell the company to a new majority owner | BBC, citing OnlyFans |
| August 2021 | OnlyFans announces a ban on sexually explicit content from 1 October, then suspends the change days later after assurances from banking partners | BBC |
| 1 May 2024 | Ofcom opens an investigation into whether Fenix gave it accurate information about age checks | Ofcom |
| August 2024 | Terms of Use, Contract between Fan and Creator and Appeals Policy last updated | Terms of Use |
| 27 March 2025 | Ofcom fines Fenix £1.05 million for inaccurate responses about its age-assurance measures | Ofcom |
| April 2025 | An independent monitorship of OnlyFans’ compliance programme concludes, to be replaced by an annual external safety audit | FY2025 accounts |
| 25 July 2025 | UK age-check duties for services that allow pornography come into force | Ofcom |
| September 2025 | OnlyFans revises its Acceptable Use Policy and Complaints Policy | Acceptable Use Policy |
| 20 March 2026 | Change of person with significant control recorded after the owner’s death | Companies House |
| 8 May 2026 | New directors appointed; 16% minority stake sold to Architect Capital | Variety |
| 20 September 2026 | Group accounts for the year to 30 November 2025 filed | Companies House |
OnlyFans Glossary
OnlyFans’ legal documents use capitalised terms with specific meanings. These plain-English definitions follow the official wording; the source column links the document that defines each one.
| Term | Meaning | Defined in |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | A user who has set up their account to post content for fans | Terms of Use |
| Fan | A registered user who can access a creator’s content through a creator interaction | Terms of Use |
| Creator Interaction | Any interaction that grants access to a creator’s content, such as a subscription, a pay-per-view purchase or a direct message | Terms of Use |
| Fan Payment | Any payment connected with a creator interaction | Contract between Fan and Creator |
| FIL Fee | OnlyFans’ share of each fan payment, charged to the creator | Contract between Fan and Creator |
| Creator Earnings | The part of a fan payment owed to the creator after fees and applicable tax rules | Terms of Use |
| Subscription | Time-limited access to all of a creator’s non-individually-priced content, renewed automatically | Terms of Use |
| Wallet Credits | Prepaid funds a fan can spend on the platform; unused credits are not refundable | Terms of Use |
| Payout Option | The method the creator chooses for receiving earnings | Terms of Use |
| Co-Authored Content | Content featuring anyone other than the account holder | Co-authored content terms |
| Creator Interaction Licence | The limited, non-transferable permission a fan gets to view content; it never transfers ownership | Contract between Fan and Creator |
| Deactivation Appeal Form | The only route for appealing a content or account decision | Appeals Policy |
| Gross site volume | The accounts’ name for the total value of fan transactions, excluding sales taxes | FY2025 accounts |
Sources and Limits of This Reference
- OnlyFans Terms of Use (last updated August 2024), Acceptable Use Policy, Contract between Fan and Creator, Complaints Policy and Appeals Policy
- OnlyFans Help Center articles on onboarding, content rules, AI, promotion, payments and finding creators
- Companies House record for Fenix International Limited, including the PSC register, filing history and FY2025 group accounts
- Ofcom enforcement announcement and Ofcom age-check update
- BBC on the 2021 policy reversal, BBC on the 2026 ownership change, Variety on the 2026 stake sale and Variety on the FY2025 results
- India Code: Information Technology Act 2000 and UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021
Limitations: this is an editorial reference, not a substitute for the documents it summarises. OnlyFans can change its terms and help pages without notice, ownership filings can be updated at any time, and nothing here is legal or tax advice; check the linked official pages and take local professional advice before acting. SirenCY is a creator management agency in Melbourne and is not affiliated with OnlyFans.
Reviewed 2 October 2026.
Related Resources
Continue with these related editorial guides and verify time-sensitive details against current primary sources:
Verify or Apply
Verify time-sensitive information against current primary sources. To compare SirenCY, request its current service scope and written terms.
Apply to SirenCY →Frequently Asked Questions
What does OnlyFans Wiki 2026 cover?▾
OnlyFans is a subscription platform where creators sell access to their own photos, videos, livestreams and messages, and fans pay through monthly subscriptions, pay-per-view posts, paid messages and tips. It is run from London by Fenix International Limited, a private company registered in England and Wales, and only adults can open an account. This reference sets out the company, its ownership as filed at Companies House, how the platform works, its main rules, where it is available, a dated timeline and a glossary, with the official source for each fact.
Where can I verify this information?▾
Check current platform documentation, provider terms, and other primary sources before making a decision. Time-sensitive details can change.
How current is this page?▾
Use the visible publication context as a starting point and verify current platform, policy, and provider details directly.
How should I use this guide?▾
Treat it as editorial guidance. Follow the linked primary sources and compare any provider claim with its current written terms.
How does SirenCY differ from other OnlyFans agencies?▾
SirenCY is a creator management agency. Its terms are set out in each creator's written proposal or agreement; /onlyfans-management-agency explains how it works.