How to gift memberships to other fans

When you gift a creator’s paid membership to someone else, you’re sharing great creative work while helping to grow a creator’s community.

This article covers how to gift a creator’s membership to another fan and redeem a gift from another fan on Patreon. To see how to redeem a gift from a creator, see this article.

Key things to know

Gifting a membership

• You’ll need a Patreon account to gift a membership. If you don’t have an account yet, you can create one to start gifting
• You can gift between 1–12 months of membership to any of a creator’s tiers as long as the tier is not limited. If a creator offers annual memberships, gifts of one year of membership will be at the discounted annual membership price
• Only creators who use subscription billing can have their memberships gifted
• Fans need to be 18+ to purchase gifts from 18+ creators 

Redeeming a Gift Membership

• People with an active paid membership can now redeem gifted memberships without disrupting their current subscription
• People must have or create a Patreon account to redeem a gift
• Gifts must be redeemed within 90 days. Unclaimed gifts will expire and are not eligible for refunds or exchanges, even for anything else of equal value
• Gifts can be redeemed on desktop and mobile web
• Once the recipient redeems the gift, they will have access to the selected membership tier until the gift period ends. They will receive notifications to remind them three days before the gift expires
• Recipients need to be 18+ to redeem gifts from 18+ creators

Purchasing a Gift Membership

Where to begin

You can start gifting from a few different places:

• Through banners on creator pages

  

• Through the overflow menu on posts

  

• A Gift membership button on select posts

  

• By typing patreon.com/creatorURL/gift directly into your browser

  

Each option leads you to the same gift creation flow, but the entry point determines where you first see it. Please note that when gifting a post, you will have the option to choose any tier that unlocks access to it, and your recipient will receive access to the selected membership tier for the number of months you choose.

What you need to get started

In the gift creation form, all you need to do is:

• Select the tier
• Define the membership duration as either 1 year, 1 month or a custom number of months (up to 11 months)
• Choose the quantity of gifts you want to purchase
• Add a custom message, if you’d like to
• Proceed with the payment with an existing valid method saved, or add a new one

Completing your gift step by step

To gift a paid membership to a creator of your choice, follow the instructions below while logged in to your member profile on a desktop:

1. Add “/gift” to the end of the creator’s Patreon URL (patreon.com/[creatorURL]/gift) or select the Gift banner visible in various locations on the creator’s page
2. A new page will open for you to Create a gift
3. Select the tier, duration and quantity you wish to purchase
   • You can also add a custom message, which is available right below the gift preview on the middle-left side (optional)
4. Once you’ve made your selection, go ahead and select Go to payment
5. Check out with a valid payment method saved to your account, or add a new payment method and choose Buy now
   • If you purchased a gift for friends and family, copy the gift link and send it to your recipient
   • The gift will be available to redeem for 90 days before it expires
6. You’ll receive an email confirmation of your purchase, with the gift link for reference if you’ve purchased a friends and family gift

Please note: If you purchased a gift for the creator’s community – currently in Beta testing with a small group of creators – the creator will receive an email confirmation and can share your gift with their community.

Redeeming a friends and family gift

To redeem a gift, please create or log in to your Patreon account on desktop or mobile web and follow the instructions below. Mobile app redemption is not currently supported.  

1. Click the link shared by your gift-giver
2. Click Claim now
3. When you’re ready, click Continue to start your gifted membership. Once activated, the membership will be valid until the date shown
4. Choose whether to stay on as a free member for updates at the end of your gift period
5. Start accessing all paid benefits to your gifted tier!

Converting a gift to a paid membership

At the end of the gift period, the recipient will lose access to the membership unless they choose to stay on as a paid member of the creator.

To facilitate this, we send a reminder notification three days before the gift expires, including an option to add payment details to turn their gift into a paid membership. They won’t be charged until after the gift period concludes.

FAQs

• Anyone logged in to a Patreon account can purchase a gift for another fan. Guest checkout is not available at this time.

  Note that only fans who have indicated they are 18 or older can purchase a gift from 18+ creators.

• Yes. You must be logged in to purchase a gift. If you don’t have an account, you can create one during checkout.
• You can gift 1–12 months of membership for any non-limited tier that the creator offers. If the creator offers annual memberships, 12-month gifts automatically receive the annual discount.
• To see whether a creator can be gifted, look for a Gift icon on their home page, or when you open a post. If you do not see a Gift icon, that creator cannot currently be gifted.
• Yes. You can select how many gifts you want to buy at checkout. To do so, simply select the tier you want to gift, and edit the “Quantity” number up to 100 gifts. Once you’ve completed checkout, the link can be shared and redeemed up to the number of gifts you’ve purchased (max. 100 gifts). If you’ve purchased multiple community gifts, the creator will be able to share that many gifts (up to 100) with their community.
• No, any existing sales and discount codes will not apply to the gift price. However, if a creator offers annual memberships and you gift a 12-month membership, the annual discount will be reflected automatically at purchase.

• New, free, existing or cancelled members can redeem gifted memberships without cancelling their current subscription. Please note that if a member redeems a gift to a lower tier, they might lose access to some posts. When the gift is for the same or a different tier from the current one, the billing cycle will continue uninterrupted and gifted access will apply automatically once redeemed. This makes gifting more seamless for both fans and creators.

  Note that only fans who have indicated they are 18 or older can redeem gifts for 18+ creators.

• Yes. You must log in or create an account to redeem a gift membership.
• You will be unable to claim a gift if:
  • The gift was purchased over 90 days ago and has expired
  • You’re attempting to claim a gift on the Patreon mobile app, which is not yet supported. You’ll need to switch to desktop or mobile web
  • You’re attempting to claim a gift for an Adult/18+ creator, even though you indicated that you are not 18 or older
• Yes. Gifts must be redeemed within 90 days. Unclaimed gifts expire and cannot be refunded or exchanged.

• Patreon provides a platform for members and customers to pay creators directly. For this reason, in most cases, Patreon will not provide refunds or exchanges on behalf of creators. Creators can issue refunds at their discretion within 90 days of purchase. Any refund requests should be made directly with the creator. Learn more about requesting a refund.

  Unclaimed gifts that have expired after 90 days of purchase will not be automatically refunded.

• Your billing is paused, not cancelled.

  When you redeem a gift:

  1. Your current paid membership is paused immediately.
  2. Your gifted membership begins straight away at the gifted tier.
  3. When the gift ends, your previous paid membership resumes, including any remaining access time you had already paid for.

  Example:

  If you were 10 days into your billing cycle when you redeem a one-month gift, you pause that cycle with 20 days remaining. After the gift ends, those 20 days resume.

• Yes. You can redeem a gift for:

  • A higher tier
  • A lower tier
  • The same tier

  Regardless of the tier difference, your paid plan is paused and resumes after the gift ends.

• You cannot redeem a gift that you bought yourself.
• No. Even when purchasing multiple gifts:
  • Each gift is tied to its own redemption token, even if delivered through a single link
  • A single Patreon account can redeem each unique token only once
  • A link cannot be reused to activate multiple gifts for the same account
• No. The subscription is paused, not cancelled. After the gift:
  • The member resumes their original tier
  • Their billing schedule picks up where it left off
• Creators can share community gifts in whatever way works for them: social media, posts or through direct messaging.
• If you’ve purchased the community gift anonymously, recipients will not see who gifted the membership. The creator will always see who has shared the gift. If you opted to purchase the community gift with your name visible, recipients will see that you gifted the membership on the redemption page.

Terms & Conditions

You may purchase a non-renewing, fixed-term membership subscription to a creator’s available tier as a gift for a specific recipient of your choosing or for distribution to members of a creator’s community (“Gift Membership”).

Upon completion of payment, we will either: (a) generate a redemption link for you to share with your selected recipient – through which they can redeem the Gift Membership – that sets out the tier, creator, fixed term of the gift and, if you elect, your name and message to the recipient; or (b) provide one or more redemption links to the creator for distribution to their community or otherwise cause the redemption links to be distributed to that creator’s community on Patreon. Creators that are providing redemption links may choose to distribute Gift Memberships at their discretion and are under no obligation to do so. We reserve the right to modify the distribution method in the future without notice.

To redeem a Gift Membership, the recipient must have or create a Patreon account. Redemption must occur within 90 days of purchase (the “Redemption Period”). If not redeemed within the Redemption Period, the Gift Membership will expire and access will not be granted.

If redeemed, the recipient will enjoy access to the gifted tier for the fixed term, provided they maintain a Patreon account. Access will automatically end when the term expires.

All Gift Membership purchases are final. No refunds or exchanges (including for unredeemed gifts) are permitted. Nothing in these terms entitles any gift recipient to enforce rights against Patreon.