This article is an overview of the flow of payments, from a member or customer entering their payment information to when you withdraw your balance to your personal account. Throughout this article, we’ll link out to other helpful resources that we think you may be interested in. If you have any questions after reading this overview, feel free to email support for one-on-one help.
Processing online payments
Members and customers submit their payment information to make purchases and start memberships. Members and customers can use a credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, or Venmo.
Learn more about the payment methods we accept here: Payment options.
Depending on how you’ve configured your creator page and whether you are offering paid subscriptions and/or one-time purchases, members may be charged immediately, on the first of the month, or per creation.
The image below demonstrates the chain of events that are kicked off when a member enters their payment information to join or when we process their membership payment. This is how we confirm that their payment method is valid and accepts payments. This processing flow is on a per-payment basis.
It’s important to note that a block or error at any stage of the process above may result in a declined payment. We retry declined membership payments; however, there are instances when a member may need to work directly with their payment provider to fix any issues preventing a successful transaction.
If a member reaches out for help with a declined payment, feel free to send them this troubleshooting guide, Troubleshooting a failed payment.
Where can I see how much Patreon has processed for my account?
You can see the total amount we’ve attempted to process in a given month in your Earnings dashboard.
Membership fees
Once we process payment, we deduct the platform fee, payment processing fees, and currency conversion fees required to convert a member’s payments into your currency. There is also a fee applied when your balance is withdrawn, and we go into greater detail about this fee in the payouts section below.
The Monthly earnings details table of your Earnings insights shows fees deducted from your earnings.
The most current information about our fees is in our creator fees article, and we’ll briefly explain each possible fee below:
Platform fee
The platform fee covers the use of Patreon’s platform and may include a flat fee and/or is calculated as a percentage of successfully processed membership payments, excluding sales tax. The platform fee depends on the level and type of Patreon service you select, including whether you choose to use Patreon’s paid membership service, free membership service, and/or service for facilitating one-time purchases.
You can check your current platform plan or change your plan from your Settings.
Currency conversion fees
We apply a 2.5% currency conversion fee on all payments made in a currency other than your payout currency. All fees will be reflected in your payout currency.
Payment processing fees
Payment processing fees relate to the cost of using our payment infrastructure. This infrastructure includes recurring billing, recovering declined payments, and fighting fraud.
Payment processing fees depend on the level and type of Patreon service you select. Your payment processing fees are applied on a per-transaction basis and depend on the following factors:
- Your tier price(s): determines whether the standard or micropayment rate is applied
- Sales tax/VAT: Patreon is required by law to add sales tax/VAT to some member payments
- Currency conversion fees (if applicable): we apply a currency conversion fee of 2.5% on the total amount processed (including sales tax) on all member payments made in a currency other than your payout currency
- Your currency: determines what your standard and micropayment rate is. Refer to our Processing rates by Currency guide for your standard and micropayment rates
Commerce fees
It is free to list digital products on Patreon. Once we process purchases, we deduct the platform fee, payment processing fees, and currency conversion fees required to convert a member’s payment into your currency.
You can review the fees and taxes deducted from your sales by visiting your Earnings dashboard and selecting Shop from the dropdown menu.
Platform fee
The platform fee covers the use of Commerce and is a flat fee of 5% of the processed transaction amount. The platform fee is the same regardless of your membership platform plan.
Payment processing fees
Payment processing fees cover the cost of using our payment infrastructure. This infrastructure includes billing and fighting fraud.
If you receive payments in USD, there is a flat processing rate of 2.9% + $0.30 per commerce transaction. You can visit our commerce fees article for a full list of payment processing rates.
Currency conversion fee
We apply a 2.5% currency conversion fee on all transactions made in a currency other than your payout currency. All fees will be reflected in your payout currency.
Taxes on fees
As an intermediary-oriented marketplace, Patreon may have sales tax and VAT obligations related to the services fees it charges to its creators. This obligation usually depends on the local tax laws applicable to a creator’s jurisdiction.
Visit our Taxes on fees article to learn more about how taxes on service fees may apply to you.
Creator balance
Once we process membership payments and applicable fees, your share will be available in your creator balance. Funds from product sales made with Commerce will appear pending for up to 7 days before they can be withdrawn from your balance.
Once funds are available to withdraw, you can pay out your balance whenever you’d like, wait for the automatic-5th-of-the-month payout (if enabled), or keep funds in your balance for a later date.
There is no cost to creators for keeping funds in their creator balance.
Paying for Merch
If you use Patreon for Merch fulfillment, the cost of the merchandise (based on the quantity and SKUs of the associated items) and shipping will usually be deducted from your balance on the 4th of each month. This may impact your balance if you are enrolled in automatic 5th-of-the-month payouts.
Paying out
You can see a breakdown of your balance withdrawals on a monthly basis by visiting the Withdraw tab.
Payouts timeline
Funds from product sales made with Commerce will appear pending for up to 7 days before they can be withdrawn from your balance. Funds from membership payments may appear as pending until they are successfully processed. Once funds are no longer pending and appear as available to withdraw, you can pay out your balance.
Once a payout is initiated, it typically takes 1-5 days for the funds to appear in your personal account. If, for any reason, we are unable to send funds to your account successfully, funds are typically returned to your creator balance.
Automatic payouts
If you’d prefer to have one less item on your task list, you can also opt-in to automatic payouts. When enabled, automatic payouts are initiated on the 5th of each month as long as you have a positive balance. You can enable or disable automatic payouts from your Payouts page.
Payout fees
When funds are withdrawn from your account, a payout fee will be applied to the payout amount. Visit our Payout Fees resource to learn more about which rates apply to you based on your currency and payout method of choice.
I need help with a payout
If you need any assistance with locating a payout or fixing an issue with a payout, feel free to email our Support team for one-on-one assistance. Be sure to select ‘Payouts and earnings’ from the dropdown so we can help you as quickly as possible.
