How Much Does OnlyFans Take? Platform Fees Explained

OnlyFans takes 20% of everything you earn on the platform, and you keep 80%. That’s the whole fee, and it’s the same for everyone.

The 20% applies to every kind of income: subscriptions, tips, pay-per-view messages, paid posts and any other payment on the platform. There are no tiers or volume discounts, and you can’t negotiate a lower rate.

How the 20% fee works in practice

OnlyFans takes its cut before the money reaches you. When a fan pays for a monthly subscription, you get 80% of it. When someone tips you, you get 80% of the tip. When someone buys a pay-per-view message, you get 80% of the price.

The fee is worked out on the price you set. OnlyFans doesn’t take a separate processing fee on top, because the 20% covers payment processing, hosting and support as well as the platform itself.

For example, if you charge ten dollars a month and have 100 subscribers, that’s a thousand dollars coming in. After the 20% fee, you receive eight hundred dollars. The maths is the same at every earnings level. OnlyFans prices are in US dollars, so what lands in a UK bank account also depends on the exchange rate.

What the fee covers

So what do you get for that 20%?

• Payment processing. OnlyFans handles every payment from fans, including international payments, currency conversion and refunds.
• Platform hosting. Your content is stored and delivered on OnlyFans’ own systems. Video hosting on its own costs a lot at scale.
• DMCA protection. The platform gives you tools to report stolen content and deals with takedown requests.
• Subscriber management. The whole subscription system, the messaging and the content delivery are run for you.
• Compliance and legal. Age verification, identity checks, content moderation and meeting the rules in lots of different countries.

Whether 20% is fair depends on how you look at it. Some creators think it’s high. Others point out that building all of this themselves would cost far more.

How it compares to other platforms

OnlyFans’ 20% is fairly standard among creator platforms. For comparison:

• Fansly takes 20%, the same as OnlyFans
• Patreon charges creators who joined after 4 August 2025 a flat 10%, plus payment processing fees
• YouTube keeps 45% of ad revenue on long-form videos
• Twitch keeps 50% of subscription revenue for most streamers

If you’re comparing with Patreon, add the processing fees in. Patreon’s headline rate is lower, but once processing is added the gap narrows, especially on small payments.

In traditional entertainment, managers and agents each take their own percentage, so a 20% platform fee isn’t unusual by comparison.

How fees affect your pricing strategy

Build the 20% into your prices. When you set your subscription, tip menu or PPV prices, think about what you’ll actually receive after the fee.

Our pricing calculator shows what you’ll take home at different price points. The earnings calculator lets you try different subscriber numbers against your prices, so you can set income targets you can hit.

A common mistake is setting prices without allowing for the fee. If you want to receive a set amount per subscriber each month, set your price about 25% higher than that figure.

Revenue streams and how fees apply to each

• Subscriptions: your monthly price, minus 20%. It keeps coming in for as long as subscribers renew.
• Tips: when a fan tips you, on a post or in messages, you get 80% of the tip.
• Pay-per-view (PPV): messages or posts with locked content that cost extra. You get 80% of the price you set.
• Paid messages: you can charge fans to message you, and the 20% applies here too.
• Livestream tips: tips during a live stream are split 80/20 in the same way.

OnlyFans’ own cut is the 20%. Your bank may charge you to receive an international payment or convert the currency, though, and payout timings can change. Check the payout page in your dashboard before you plan around a date.

Tax on top of the platform fee

This is where some creators get caught out. The 20% OnlyFans takes isn’t your only deduction. You also owe tax on what you earn.

In the UK, OnlyFans income counts as self-employment income. Unless your income is small enough to be covered by HMRC’s trading allowance, you’ll need to register as self-employed, file a Self Assessment tax return, and pay Income Tax and National Insurance on your profits.

Tax is worked out on your profits. The 20% OnlyFans keeps never reaches you, so you aren’t taxed on it. In effect, it works like a business expense.

Use our tax calculator to estimate what you’ll owe. If you’re new to being self-employed, our guide to OnlyFans and tax explains how to register.

Can the fee change?

OnlyFans can change its fees. It has kept the 20% rate for years, and any change would probably come with notice. Even so, it’s sensible not to rely on one platform for all your income. An audience you can reach outside OnlyFans protects you if things change.

Making the most of your 80%

The fee is fixed, so your effort is better spent on what comes in. The more you earn, the more your 80% is worth.

Things that change your take-home pay:

• Price your subscription for your audience size and niche
• Build more than one income stream: subscriptions, tips and PPV
• Keep subscribers renewing, so the monthly income holds up
• Plan your mass messages and PPV to raise what each subscriber spends

For more on the percentage split and how to earn more from it, see our companion post on what percentage OnlyFans takes.

If you’d like a team to handle your revenue plan, see how we work with creators on pricing, PPV and the rest of their income.