Patreon Fee Calculator
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Patreon takes more than its headline percentage. New creators pay a 10% platform fee, and every pledge also carries payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 — so a $5 tier really costs about 18.9% once the fixed $0.30 per pledge is counted. Legacy creators grandfathered on older plans keep 8% (Pro) or 5% (Lite) instead, and pledges made inside Patreon’s iOS app lose a further 30% to Apple. The patreon fee calculator below applies the full stack to your patron count and tier price.
Because processing charges $0.30 on every single pledge, small tiers are hit hardest: on a $3 pledge, processing alone is about $0.39 before Patreon’s percentage cut. Enter your patrons, tier price, plan, iOS share and any shop sales, and this patreon fee calculator shows each fee, what you keep, and your effective rate.
Work out what you keep after fees before you quote.
Patreon Fee Calculator: Key takeaways
- New creators pay a 10% platform fee on Patreon; legacy creators grandfathered on older plans keep 8% (Pro) or 5% (Lite) where eligible.
- Every pledge also carries payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 (USD, cards / Apple Pay) — the fixed $0.30 is what punishes small tiers.
- Currency conversion adds 2.5% where a patron pays in a different currency from your payout currency.
- Pledges inside Patreon’s iOS app lose 30% to Apple (15% after a subscriber’s first year); US fans can avoid it via web checkout.
- Shop (one-time) sales carry a separate platform fee of 5% to 12% depending on plan; payout fees depend on the payout method and are not a single flat figure.
How the Patreon Fee Calculator works
- Enter how many patrons you have and your average tier price — gross pledges are patrons multiplied by tier price.
- Pick your plan: Standard 10% for new creators, or a grandfathered legacy rate of 8% (Pro) or 5% (Lite).
- The calculator applies payment processing of 2.9% of gross pledges plus $0.30 for every single pledge.
- If currency conversion applies, it adds 2.5% of gross pledges; shop sales are charged at the shop rate you enter (5% to 12%).
- The Apple cut is shown separately on the iOS share only, because Apple takes its cut first on iOS pledges — the “estimated keep after Apple cut” line subtracts it from what you keep and is an estimate, not an exact split.
- Payout fees are not modelled: they depend on the payout method, so no single flat payout figure is used.
Patreon Fee Calculator: worked example
Example 1 — 100 patrons at $5, Standard plan, web checkout: Gross pledges are $500. The 10% platform fee is $50. Processing at 2.9% + $0.30 per pledge is $14.50 + $30.00 = $44.50. You keep $405.50 — an 18.9% effective cost — before any currency conversion or payout fees.
Example 2 — a single $3 pledge, Standard plan: The platform fee is $0.30 and processing is about $0.39 ($0.09 + $0.30), so you keep $2.31 (77.1%). This is the standard-rate illustration: Patreon applies different processing to very small payments in some cases, and that separate small-payment rate is not modelled here because it was not confirmed on an official Patreon page.
Example 3 — the same 100 patrons at $5, but every pledge via the iOS app: Apple’s 30% cut on the $500 is $150. Subtracting that from the $405.50 web keep gives an estimated $255.50 kept. That is why creators price iOS tiers about 42.86% higher than web tiers, or steer US fans to web checkout.
Patreon Fee Calculator: frequently asked questions
How much does Patreon take from creators?
New creators pay a 10% platform fee, plus payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per pledge on USD card and Apple Pay payments, plus currency conversion of 2.5% where it applies and payout fees depending on the payout method. Older creators grandfathered on legacy plans keep 8% (Pro) or 5% (Lite) where eligible.
Why do small tiers lose so much more than the headline rate?
Because processing charges a fixed $0.30 on every pledge regardless of size. On a $5 pledge that $0.30 alone is 6%, and with the 10% platform fee and 2.9% processing percentage the total effective cost is about 18.9%. On a $100 pledge the same $0.30 is only 0.3%, so the effective cost falls to about 13.2%.
Does this calculator use Patreon’s small-payment rate for pledges under $3?
No. Third-party sources cite a 5% + $0.10 rate for pledges under $3, but it was not confirmed on an official Patreon page, so this calculator applies the standard 2.9% + $0.30 illustration to every pledge and flags the point here. Treat sub-$3 results as an illustration and check Patreon’s creator fees overview for the current small-payment treatment.
How does the Apple iOS cut work on Patreon?
Pledges made inside Patreon’s iOS app go through Apple’s in-app purchase system, and Apple takes 30% of those payments, dropping to 15% after a subscriber’s first year. iOS earnings also carry a 75-day payout delay. Fans in the US can avoid the Apple fee by pledging through Patreon’s web checkout instead of inside the app.
What about currency conversion and payout fees?
Currency conversion is 2.5% when a patron pays in a different currency from your payout currency — turn it on in the calculator only if that applies to you. Payout fees depend on the payout method, so they are not modelled as a single figure here; the page notes them as an additional cost on top of the calculated keep.
Do legacy Patreon rates still apply?
Eligible older creators grandfathered on legacy plans keep 8% (Pro) or 5% (Lite) instead of the 10% Standard fee for new creators. Confirm your applied rate in Patreon before assuming the Standard fee, because the November 2026 billing switch changed how billing runs, not your platform percentage.
Are shop sales charged the same as memberships?
No. Shop (one-time) sales carry a separate platform fee of 5% to 12% depending on plan, rather than your membership plan rate. Enter your shop sales and your shop rate separately in the calculator; leaving shop sales at 0 removes the shop line entirely.