Patreon vs Ko-fi in 2026: The Same $1,000 Month Costs $189 or $101

Key Takeaways:

Patreon charges creators who published after August 4, 2025 a 10% platform fee plus 2.9% and $0.30 per card payment, according to its own creator fees overview
Ko-fi now runs three plans. Its new default, Standard, charges 5% on everything, including one-off tips. Ko-fi Free keeps tips at 0% but drops supporter-only posts. Gold costs $12 a month for 0%, per Ko-fi's pricing page
Take 200 members paying $5 a month. That month costs $189.25 on Patreon, $139 on Ko-fi Standard and $101 on Ko-fi Gold, with the same card processing on all three
Patreon creators still on legacy billing must switch to subscription billing by November 1, 2026, or Patreon will pause their billing and migrate them automatically
Two settings cost money quietly. Unpublishing a Patreon page ends legacy pricing. On Ko-fi, subscribing to Gold with Standard still switched on keeps the 5%

Most Patreon vs Ko-fi comparisons were written when the answer was easy: Patreon took somewhere between 5% and 12% depending on your plan, and Ko-fi took nothing on tips. Neither half of that is true for a creator signing up today. Patreon moved every new page to a single 10% plan in August 2025. Ko-fi quietly changed its default. A new creator now starts on "Standard," which takes 5% of one-off tips too, and the old fee-free tip jar only survives if you switch Standard off. On top of both, Patreon has a billing deadline on November 1, 2026 that affects creators who joined years ago. We reviewed each platform separately in our Patreon review and our Ko-fi review. This piece puts the live numbers side by side, checked on September 30, 2026, and works out the monthly bill for the same membership on both.

Patreon vs Ko-fi: 4 Plans Side by Side

Every figure below comes from the two companies' own pricing and help pages. Processing is shown for a US creator paid in dollars by card.

Plan	Monthly cost	Fee on memberships	Fee on one-off tips	Supporter-only posts
Patreon (pages published after Aug 4, 2025)	$0	10%	10%	Yes
Ko-fi Free	$0	5%	0%	No
Ko-fi Standard (default for new creators)	$0	5%	5%	Yes
Ko-fi Gold	$12	0%	0%	Yes

Patreon's processing is 2.9% plus $0.30 per card payment on its standard plan, and 3.9% plus $0.30 for PayPal and Venmo payments from outside the US. Ko-fi does not process payments at all. Money goes straight into your own Stripe or PayPal account, and those companies charge their normal rates. Stripe's published US rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents for domestic cards. Ko-fi's help center describes the typical figure as "around 3% + $0.30." Patreon's scale is also on its own about page: more than 300,000 creators and more than 10 million fans paying for memberships each month.

What Does Ko-fi Charge in 2026?

Ko-fi charges no monthly fee on its Free and Standard plans and $12 a month on Gold. Ko-fi Free takes 0% of one-off tips and 5% of memberships, monthly tips, shop sales and commissions. Standard, the default for new creators, takes 5% of all of those, one-off tips included. Gold takes 0% of everything. Stripe or PayPal processing applies on every plan. The detail most creators miss is what Standard buys. Ko-fi's own fee article lists supporter-only content, scheduled posts, a shorter page name and extra shop storage as Standard perks, and marks supporter-only content as unavailable on Free.

So if you want Ko-fi to work like Patreon, with members paying monthly to unlock posts, Free is not an option. You are choosing between 5% on everything and $12 a month for nothing. The switch lives under Settings, then Payment, labelled "Get all of Ko-fi." Gold pays for itself once your paid volume on Ko-fi passes $240 a month, because 5% of $240 is $12. Below that, Standard is cheaper.

What Does Patreon Charge in 2026?

Patreon charges creators who published their page after August 4, 2025 a 10% platform fee on memberships and one-time purchases, plus payment processing of 2.9% and $0.30 per US card payment, a 2.5% currency conversion fee when a fan pays in another currency, and a payout fee of $0.25 per direct deposit. Creators who published on or before August 4, 2025 keep their legacy plan: 5% for the original Founders plan, 8% for Pro and 11% for Pro plus Merch. They keep it only while the page stays continuously published. Patreon's fee article says that if you unpublish, even briefly, or Patreon unpublishes you for any reason, you move to the 10% plan when you come back. It recommends the pause tool instead. The iOS app adds a third layer. For eligible purchases made inside Patreon's iOS app, Apple's in-app purchase system takes a 30% App Store fee, and Patreon's platform fee still applies. US fans may be offered Patreon's mobile web checkout instead, which avoids Apple's fee. Patreon's iOS guide also says in-app funds sit in a 75-day pending period before you can withdraw them.

Which Is Cheaper at $1,000 and $10,000 a Month?

Ko-fi is cheaper at every volume. With 200 members paying $5 a month, Patreon's standard plan costs $189.25, Ko-fi Standard costs $139 and Ko-fi Gold costs $101. With 1,000 members paying $10, the same three cost $1,590.25, $1,090 and $602. Card processing is identical, so the platform fee is the whole difference. Here is the arithmetic, assuming US card payments at 2.9% plus $0.30 on every plan and one direct-deposit payout on Patreon.

Monthly scenario	Patreon (10%)	Ko-fi Standard (5%)	Ko-fi Gold ($12)
200 members at $5 ($1,000)	$189.25	$139.00	$101.00
You keep	$810.75	$861.00	$899.00
1,000 members at $10 ($10,000)	$1,590.25	$1,090.00	$602.00
You keep	$8,409.75	$8,910.00	$9,398.00

At $1,000 a month, the move from Patreon to Ko-fi Gold is worth $88.25 a month, about $1,059 a year. At $10,000 a month it is about $988 a month. Two caveats keep this honest. Stripe can add its own charges depending on how your account is set up, so check your Stripe dashboard rather than trusting our flat 2.9%. And the Patreon column assumes nobody joined in the iOS app. If all 200 of those $5 members had joined through Apple's in-app purchase at an unchanged price, Apple's 30% alone would be $300. Patreon's fee article does not say whether its 10% is taken before or after Apple's cut.

Every column in that table is a fee on the same thing.

A member pays you to unlock posts. Whether the platform takes 10% or 5%, the product is still a feed of content that has to be refilled every week.

See What We’d Build You →

Is Patreon Worth the Extra 5%?

Patreon is worth the higher fee to creators who use what the 10% pays for: failed-payment retries, fraud monitoring, sales tax handling, native video hosting of up to 100 hours a month, community chat, annual memberships and an iOS app. Ko-fi is better for creators who want the money in their own Stripe or PayPal account immediately. Patreon's fee article lists the extras its processing fee covers, including smart retries for declined cards and 24/7 fraud monitoring. Recovering failed renewals matters more than it looks. We compared how long each platform keeps retrying in our guide to failed subscription payments. Ko-fi's pitch is the opposite. Its pricing page says "we never hold your money," and payments land in the creator's own processor account with no Ko-fi payout fee. The trade is that the processor relationship, refunds and disputes are yours to manage.

What Changes on Patreon on November 1, 2026?

Patreon creators still on legacy billing, meaning per-creation or first-of-the-month charging, must switch to subscription billing by November 1, 2026. Creators who do nothing will have their billing paused and be migrated with a recommended price multiplier, and billing stays paused until they log in to consent or set prices themselves.

Per-creation creators who want one-to-one help must contact Patreon Support before October 15, 2026. If you have been meaning to leave Patreon anyway, this is the natural moment, because your members are about to see a billing change either way. Our membership migration guide covers what to test before moving paying members, and our Substack vs Patreon comparison covers the other common destination.

2 Settings That Quietly Raise Your Fee

The first is Patreon's unpublish button. A legacy creator on 8% who unpublishes for a month to rebrand comes back on 10%. Patreon's iOS guide adds that unpublishing cancels memberships bought through Apple's in-app purchase, with no automatic refunds. The second is Ko-fi Gold with Standard left on. Ko-fi's fee article warns that a creator who has "Get all of Ko-fi" switched on when subscribing to Gold must opt out separately to remove the service fee. The same article says memberships taken through Stripe before switching to Gold keep paying 5%. Switch before your first members join, not after.

Who Should Pick Which

If you mostly take tips and never post anything behind a paywall, use Ko-fi Free and turn Standard off. You will pay nothing to Ko-fi on one-off tips. If you run a members-only feed under $240 a month, Ko-fi Standard is the cheapest option with supporter-only posts. Above $240, Ko-fi Gold is cheaper than both Standard and Patreon at every volume. If your members are mostly on iPhones and you rely on video hosting, community chat and failed-payment recovery, Patreon's extra fee is buying something real. That is especially true if you are a legacy creator paying 5% or 8%, because you give that rate up the moment you leave. If your audience pays for a result rather than a feed, neither platform is the end point. A workout plan, a practice log or a meal planner is software, and both platforms sell access to posts. BUILT BY FOUNDRY builds that other version: a subscription business under your name in about three weeks, $0 upfront, on a revenue share. The creator owns the business and the revenue, and we keep running it after launch.

Your members already pay you monthly. Give them something they use daily.

Fees decide how much of the membership you keep. What you sell decides how long members stay.

See What We’d Build You →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ko-fi cheaper than Patreon in 2026?

Yes. For a creator joining today, Patreon takes 10% of memberships and Ko-fi takes 5% on its Free and Standard plans or 0% on Gold at $12 a month. Card processing of about 2.9% plus $0.30 applies on both.

Does Ko-fi still take 0% on tips?

Only on Ko-fi Free. Standard, which Ko-fi now switches on for new creators, takes 5% of one-off tips. You can turn it off under Settings, then Payment, but Free has no supporter-only content.

Can I keep Patreon's 8% legacy rate?

Yes, if your page was published on or before August 4, 2025 and stays continuously published. If you or Patreon unpublish it, it moves to the 10% plan on republishing. Patreon recommends pausing instead.

Does Apple take a cut of Patreon memberships?

For eligible purchases made inside Patreon's iOS app, yes: a 30% App Store fee, with Patreon's platform fee still applied and a 75-day pending period on the funds. US fans may be offered Patreon's mobile web checkout, which avoids Apple's fee.

When is Ko-fi Gold worth $12 a month?

When your paid volume on Ko-fi passes $240 a month, since 5% of $240 is $12. Subscribe before your first Stripe members join, because memberships taken before the switch keep paying 5%.