Get started on Patreon

Starting your Patreon is free and only takes a few minutes. You can begin by customizing your page, sharing your work, and inviting your fans to join your community. As you grow, you have the option to offer paid memberships or sell media products as one-time purchases.

Welcome fans to your community

Patreon is a space for you to connect directly with your fans through free and paid memberships. Members get access to your community through new work, comments on posts they have access to, and community chat spaces. Members get email notifications directly to their inbox, the Patreon app, and on the web, so they never miss an update.

Visitors to your page will see a Join for free button by default. Free members can follow your public posts and receive updates. You can decide whether to keep this option prominently visible on your page when you add a paid membership. If you add paid memberships and your work is 18+, then people who visit your page will only see the option to Become a member, with paid options being prominent on your Patreon.

Share your thoughts and creations

Sharing public content is how you show up on Patreon beyond your existing members. Public posts and Quips are visible to everyone and help potential fans understand what you're about.

• Posts are your main canvas. Use them to share your work, updates, or anything you want your audience to engage with deeply. Members are notified about public posts and can access them directly from Desktop and the Patreon mobile app
• Quips are lightweight and low-effort by design. They show up in the Home feed for fans and potential fans, making them a simple way to stay visible between posts. On Desktop, Quips don't appear in the feed — fans can view them in the Quips tab on your creator page and via direct links. To learn more, visit our guide on Sharing Quips

How to publish a public post

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  1. Click + Create from the left navigation menu and choose Post
  2. Upload your media files, add a title (required), then write a message (optional)
  3. In the Post settings on the right side, set your Audience to Free access. For more details, visit our Setting post access for your Patreon audience guide
  4. (Optional) You can add tags, schedule your post, change comment settings, and add your post to an existing or new collection. This helps members find your posts more easily
  5. Once you're done, click Publish or Schedule
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  1. Tap + Create from the bottom menu and select Post
  2. Add a title (required)
  3. Upload your media, or write your post
  4. As you type, a text editing menu will appear at the bottom of the screen — use it to format your post
  5. Tap the Audience button, then select Free Access to make your post visible to everyone
  6. (Optional) To add tags, schedule your post, change comment settings, and add your post to an existing or new collection, tap the Settings button
  7. Once you're done, tap Publish or Schedule

How to share a Quip

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  1. Click + Create from the left navigation menu and choose Quips
  2. A pop-up will appear, then write your update or add media
  3. Adjust your comment settings
  4. Click Share

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  1. Tap the + Create button from the bottom menu and select Quips
  2. Write your update or add media
  3. Tap the Settings button to adjust comment settings
  4. Tap Share

Ways to earn on Patreon

You can start earning on Patreon in two ways:

• Offer memberships: Let fans pay to access exclusive work or behind-the-scenes updates
• Sell one-time purchases: Let fans pay a one-time payment to unlock your digital work, including member-only posts and collections

Free and paid membership

When you set up your page, people can follow you for free to get public updates. Later, you can choose to offer paid membership tiers and decide how both options appear on your page from your page settings:

• Show free and paid options: Anyone can see a Join for free button, along with your paid membership options. This works well if your work is suitable for all audiences
• Show paid options only: If your work is 18+, or if you'd rather focus only on paid membership, visitors will see a Become a member button instead. This button leads directly to your paid options

Fans can still find the free option in the menu if you've hidden it. If someone cancels their paid membership, they'll stay connected as a free follower by default. 80% of paid members who cancel opt to stay connected as free members.

Want help setting up paid options? Check out these "10 tips for setting up your membership tiers" on Patreon for Creators. Currently, Patreon for Creators is only available in English.

Sell your work as one-time purchases

You can sell digital work like posts, standalone videos, podcast episodes, images, and collections directly to fans from the Shop tab on your Patreon page.

Selling digital media is great if you want to open another revenue stream or make your work available for purchase by more fans, whether they're members or not. To learn more, visit our guide on Selling one-time purchases on Patreon.

Tools for community

Community chats

Community chats on Patreon are available to all creators. If your work is categorized as Adult content, you must complete ID verification before you'll have access to chats.

A community chat is a space for group conversation among your Patreon community, helping you foster deeper connections among your members beyond the comment section.

Get started with chat

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  1. Click your name in the bottom-left corner and select Your Patreon
  2. Click Chats from the left navigation menu
  3. Click the Your Patreon tab
  4. Click Group chats, then click Create to start a new chat space
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  1. Tap the Chats tab in the bottom menu
  2. Tap Your Patreon
  3. To create a new chat, tap the Edit icon in the top right corner, then select New group chat or New direct message

Integrate Patreon with other community tools

In addition to community chats on Patreon, you can integrate other community tools like Discord and Discourse with your Patreon. Learn more about community tools you can integrate with on Patreon.

Comment settings

Comment settings help you manage your community engagement across your posts on Patreon. Here are the different ways you can adjust your comment settings:

• Comment access: You can Allow comments or Turn off comments for all of your posts from your Page settings
• Comment filtering: Patreon automatically hides comments made by free members that don't meet our Community Guidelines or are potentially harmful to your community. Patreon enables filtering by default, and you can adjust the level of filtering or disable it entirely from your page settings
• Adjusting comment settings for posts: You can change the comment settings for individual posts from the post creation or editing flow
• Reporting a guidelines violation: If a member's comment violates our Community Guidelines, click the button and select Report this content. Include as much evidence as possible (e.g., screenshots, URLs)

Measure and grow

Patreon gives you several tools to understand how your page is growing and what's working for your community. Insights is your central dashboard for tracking performance across members, earnings, posts, and traffic, all in one place.

Here's what you can track:

• Membership Insights: See the number of active members, new members, and canceled memberships. Review overall growth and drill into the data for free and paid members using the different dashboards and filters available
• Shop Insights: Track the performance of your digital products, including total earnings, total sales, and top-selling products
• Earnings Insights: Get an overview of your total earnings on Patreon, including a breakdown by membership tiers and one-time purchases
• Post Insights: See how your posts are performing in terms of reach and engagement. The dashboard includes all posts with impressions during a specific time, not just those published within the selected period. When viewing a post on your page, click the Impressions button in the bottom menu to open the insights panel — you'll see overall impressions, members who liked the post, and members who commented
• Traffic Insights: Understand where your visits are coming from and how often they occur. The dashboard presents data in a visual graph format, and you can filter by the past 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or a custom time frame. The dashboard shows all data in GMT/UTC
• Surveys Insights: Review responses from welcome surveys your members answered to better understand your audience

For more details, visit our guide on Insights Dashboards.

You can also view who joined your community and check member details, including join date, membership tier, and total amount paid, in the Relationship Manager.

FAQ

• That's okay! You can start with free posts and build your community over time. You'll have access to tools for adding paid membership options or selling one-time purchases whenever you're ready. There's no obligation to offer paid membership when you start your journey on Patreon.

• It's up to you. Paid membership might make sense if:

  • You regularly create work (like episodes, illustrations, or writing)
  • You want to share exclusive updates with dedicated fans
  • You're creating episodic work (like a podcast series or book)

  Whenever you're ready, you can start with one tier and grow from there. Here's a helpful guide on structuring membership.

• We consider your Patreon to fall into one of two categories: "Safe for All Audiences" or "Adult/18+" because the payment processors we rely on to get creators paid require this distinction.

  The "Adult/18+" category applies if one or more of your works (audio, text, or visual, including depictions of human beings and animations) contain sexually explicit content or nudity. Visit our Should my Patreon be marked Safe for All Audiences or Adult/18+? article to learn which categorization is best for you.

• Here are a few ways creators share their Patreon with fans: 

  • Add your Patreon link to your social bios, email signature, or Linktree
  • Mention it at the end of videos, podcasts, or livestreams
  • Thank members publicly or give shoutouts (if it fits your style)

  Need more ideas? Join Patreon for Creators for tips on getting started, growing your community, and more.

Ready to launch? The Launch Checklist walks you through everything you need to know before you hit publish.