Patreon grew by landing creators cheaply (it only earns a percentage of what creators make) and expanding as they grow. In August 2025 it said fans had sent creators more than $10 billion since 2013. Creators launching after 4 August 2025 pay a standard 10% platform fee instead of choosing between tiered plans, while existing creators keep their legacy rates.
Key takeaways
- Patreon's take-rate model is land and expand in its purest form: it earns more only when the creator earns more.
- Fans had sent creators more than $10 billion by August 2025, from a $5,000 start in 2013.
- New creators from 4 August 2025 pay one standard 10% platform fee; existing creators kept their old rates.
- Tiered options help you land early adopters. One clear price is easier to sell at scale.
- Grandfathering existing customers is cheap insurance against a backlash.
It was May 2013, and Jack Conte was exhausted.
He'd spent the best part of fifty days building a replica of the Millennium Falcon for a music video. Eighteen-hour days. Every credit card maxed out.
The video went up on his YouTube channel and his 100,000 subscribers loved it. The ad revenue? About $100.
But underneath that video sat a link to a platform Jack had built with his friend Sam Yam. It let fans pay him directly. Within a couple of weeks, patrons had sent him $5,000.
Same video. Same audience. Fifty times the money.
That's the story I told in Chapter Seven of The Subscription Playbook. Twelve years later, the link under the video has become one of the biggest proof points for land and expand that I know of.
What the book said in 2022
I used Patreon as the opening story for the land and expand chapter, and again in the product/market fit chapter.
The point was the pricing. Patreon charged creators a percentage of what they earned. A new creator with ten patrons paid almost nothing. A creator who blew up paid Patreon a lot more. That's usage-based pricing doing the landing and expanding for you, with no big sales team.
By then Patreon had also layered in tiered plans: creators picked a plan with a different platform percentage for a different set of features.
I also flagged the risk. Successful creators might start to resent handing over a slice of a big income. Patreon's answer at the time was Memberful, a sister product with a monthly subscription and a lower transaction percentage.
What's happened since
Two big things.
The $10 billion milestone. In August 2025 Patreon announced that fans had sent creators more than $10 billion since 2013. From a $5,000 check to $10 billion. The engine never changed: creators bring their own fans, the fans pay monthly, Patreon takes its share.
One fee instead of a menu. Creators who launch after 4 August 2025 pay a standard 10% platform fee. They no longer choose between the old tiered plans. Existing creators kept their legacy rates.
Patreon's pitch has also sharpened. As social platforms' algorithms have become less reliable for creators, the message is simple: own a direct, paid relationship with your fans.
| 2013 | 2022 (book) | 2025–2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Money sent to creators | $5,000 (Jack's first video) | Not stated in the book | More than $10 billion since 2013 (Aug 2025) |
| Pricing for creators | Percentage of earnings | Percentage of earnings, tiered plans, Memberful alternative | Standard 10% fee for new creators after 4 Aug 2025 |
| Existing creators | n/a | n/a | Kept legacy rates |
Why did Patreon simplify its pricing?
Here's how I read it.
Tiered plans are a landing tool. When you're young and need to attract creators with wildly different needs, giving them choices helps. The hobbyist picks the cheap option. The pro picks the full kit.
But once you've proven product/market fit and the network is huge, every choice becomes friction. A new creator has to stop, compare plans and wonder if they picked the wrong one. One clear fee removes that moment.
It's the same thing I see in small businesses all the time. Three confusing packages that made sense when you were working out what customers wanted become one clear offer plus add-ons once you know. (If you've ever stood in front of a forty-item cafe menu at 7am, you know the feeling.)
The clever part is who the change applied to. Patreon didn't touch existing creators. They kept their rates.
That's grandfathering, and it's the cheapest loyalty program there is.
Which pricing model fits your business?
Flat fee, tiers, usage, take rate or hybrid? Answer a few questions in the free Pricing Model Picker.
Why it worked: the frameworks behind it
Land and expand. The book's first factor is an attractive initial offer. Patreon's offer is about as attractive as it gets: no upfront cost, and you only pay when you earn. The "expand" happens automatically as creators grow.
Transaction processing. Of the five pricing models in Chapter Three, Patreon sits squarely in transaction processing. Its revenue rises with the money flowing through it, like Stripe.
Network effects as a funnel. Every creator who joins brings an audience, and every one of those fans sees Patreon working. Factor #5 of land and expand is a funnel with network effects built in, and Patreon is the textbook case. Read more on the six network effects.
Audience (the A in MOATS). Patreon sells creators an audience they own. That's the same moat I want every business owner to build for themselves.
When is this the wrong move?
A take rate isn't right for everyone.
If your customers' revenue is lumpy or you can't measure the value you create, a percentage fee will feel arbitrary and they'll push back. And simplifying to one fee only works once you know what most customers need. Do it too early and you'll lose the segments your tiers were quietly serving.
My take
I love this story because the core idea never changed. Patreon spent twelve years doing one thing well: getting creators paid by their fans. The pricing got simpler as the business got bigger, which is the opposite of what most companies do.
What you can steal
- Grandfather your early customers. When you change pricing, let existing customers keep their rate, for a set period or for good. It costs little and buys a lot of goodwill. Model the trade-off first with the price increase simulator.
- Simplify as you grow. Look at your packages. If most people pick the same one, make that your headline offer and turn the rest into add-ons. Our guide to tiered pricing shows when tiers help and when they hurt.
- Sell "own the relationship." If your customers depend on someone else's platform (Google, Facebook, a marketplace), your pitch is control. That applies to an accountant selling a client portal as much as to a creator platform.
- Charge when they win. If you can tie your fee to your customer's results, landing gets much easier.
What's the "$100 versus $5,000" gap in your industry? Where are your customers being underpaid by a middleman you could replace?
Pricing Model PickerFlat, tiered, seat, usage, credits, outcome or hybrid? Find out.Open the free tool →
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The Subscription Playbook as a free ebook and audiobook. Australian business owners can claim a free hardcover, shipped free.
Claim the free hardcover Get the ebookFrequently asked questions
How does Patreon make money?
Patreon takes a percentage of what creators earn from their members. That's a transaction-processing model, one of the five pricing models in The Subscription Playbook. Creators who launched after 4 August 2025 pay a standard 10% platform fee. Creators who were already on Patreon before then kept the rate on their existing plan.
Did Patreon raise its fees for existing creators?
No. According to Patreon's help center, the standard 10% platform fee applies to new creators launching after 4 August 2025. Existing creators kept their legacy rates. That choice matters: changing the terms for creators who built their income on the platform would have been far riskier than simplifying for newcomers.
Why would a platform drop tiered plans?
Tiers are useful early, when you need to attract customers with very different needs and budgets. At scale they add friction: every new sign-up has to compare options before starting. A single clear fee is easier to explain, easier to market and easier to support. You can still sell extras on top.
Is a percentage-of-revenue fee a good model for a small business?
It can be, if your service directly drives your customer's revenue and you can measure it. Agencies, booking platforms and marketplaces often use it. The risk is the one the book flagged: your biggest customers start resenting the cut. Plan a cap, a lower rate for high earners, or a flat-fee alternative before that happens.
What was Patreon's product/market fit signal?
Co-founder Samuel Yam said it was the flood of messages from patrons and creators right after the launch with Jack Conte's music video. That came only weeks after every creator they'd asked to launch with had turned them down. The market told them what the early rejections couldn't.
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Robert Coorey, MBA
Robert is the author of The Subscription Playbook and Feed a Starving Crowd and a Director at BPAG Accountants in Sydney. More about Robert.
Sources
- Axios, Patreon crosses $10 billion creator payout milestone (5 Aug 2025)
- Patreon, Fans have sent $10 billion to creators (Aug 2025)
- Patreon Help Center, A standard platform fee for new creators effective after August 4, 2025
Facts and prices checked 27 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.