When a creator has your email address from another platform, they may be able to add you to their Patreon community as a free member. This article explains how this works and how to manage your preferences.
How it works
Depending on your settings, one of the following will happen when a creator has your email address and imports it to Patreon:
- You're added automatically — you'll be added as a free member without any action needed on your part
- You receive an invitation — you'll get an email inviting you to join for free, and you can choose whether to accept
- Nothing happens — creators with your email won't be able to add you and you won't be invited
How to manage your preferences
- Click Personal settings from the left side menu (or Settings if you haven't combined your profiles yet)
- Select Privacy from the menu bar
- Find Email import preferences and click Edit
- A pop-up will open. Choose your preferred option:
- Let creators automatically add me as a free member — you'll be added as a free member if a creator imports your email
- Send me an invite to join a creator's Patreon — you'll receive an invitation email and can decide whether to join
-
Don't add me as a free member or invite me to join — you won't be added as a free member or invited
- Click Save
Default settings
Your default setting depends on your region, which is typically determined by where you were located when you created your account:
- Outside EU/UK/Brazil — set to "Let creators automatically add me as a free member" by default
- EU/UK/Brazil — set to "Send me an invite to join a creator's Patreon" by default
You can change this at any time in your Privacy settings.