Home › Guides › Substack vs Patreon fees (2026)
Ad disclosure: we earn a commission if you sign up through links marked paid link, at no extra cost to you. Rankings are by cost only. Details
Substack vs Patreon fees (2026): what each keeps from a $5, $8 or $10 membership
Last verified against official pricing pages · published 29 Oct 2026
Prices change often. Each price was checked on the platform's official pricing page on the date shown; plans, promos and taxes vary. Confirm on the official site before you buy. Not financial advice.
Short answer: for a new creator, Substack and Patreon cost almost the same. Both keep 10% of what members pay. Substack adds Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per payment and 0.7% Stripe Billing; Patreon's standard plan adds 2.9% + $0.30 (USD cards) plus a small payout fee. On an $8/month membership you keep $6.61 on Substack and $6.67 on Patreon. Pick by format, not fees: Substack is built around writing and email, Patreon around memberships for any kind of work.
Substack fees from Substack: How much does Substack cost? (checked 2026-10-27) and Stripe pricing. Patreon fees from Patreon: Creator fees overview (checked 2026-10-29). Neither platform pays us for this comparison.
What each takes from one membership payment
US card payment, monthly billing, Patreon's standard plan for pages published after August 4, 2025.
| Member pays | Substack + Stripe | Patreon |
|---|---|---|
| $5/mo | $0.98 (you keep $4.02) | $0.95 (you keep $4.05) |
| $8/mo | $1.39 (you keep $6.61) | $1.33 (you keep $6.67) |
| $10/mo | $1.66 (you keep $8.34) | $1.59 (you keep $8.41) |
Substack: 10% + 2.9% + $0.30 + 0.7% Billing. Patreon: 10% + 2.9% + $0.30; payout fees come on top when you withdraw (below). Sales tax or VAT isn't included in either.
Per month as your list grows
Our standard scenario: 5% of the list pays $8/month.
| Subscribers | Paid revenue | Substack fees | Patreon fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 (50 paying) | $400/mo | $69.40/mo | $66.75/mo |
| 5,000 (250 paying) | $2,000/mo | $347/mo | $332.75/mo |
| 25,000 (1,250 paying) | $10,000/mo | $1,735/mo | $1,662.75/mo |
Patreon column includes one $0.25 US bank payout per month. Patreon's 10% applies to every payment; there's no flat-fee plan on either platform.
Side by side
| Substack | Patreon (standard plan) | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $0 | $0 |
| Platform fee | 10% of paid subscriptions | 10% of memberships and one-time sales |
| Processing | Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 + 0.7% Billing | 2.9% + $0.30 (USD cards); 3.4% + €0.35 for EUR payouts |
| Getting paid | Directly into your own Stripe account | Patreon balance, then a payout fee ($0.25 US bank, PayPal 1% capped at $20) |
| Free members get | Your free posts by email | Free and public posts by email, plus automatic previews of locked posts |
| Formats | Posts, podcasts and video | Posts sent as email, video, audio, digital products |
| Export your list | Email list CSV, any time | Members CSV from Relationship manager |
| iPhone app purchases | Apple in-app payment; you can set a higher in-app price | Apple's 30% fee; Patreon's platform fee still applies |
Fees that are easy to miss
- Patreon legacy plans: pages published on or before August 4, 2025 keep their old plan (Founders 5%, Pro 8%, Pro + Merch 11%) only while the page stays published. Unpublishing, even briefly, moves you to the standard 10% plan; Patreon suggests pausing instead.
- Currency conversion: Patreon adds 2.5% when a member pays in a currency other than your payout currency. On Substack, Stripe's own international-card and currency-conversion fees apply (see Stripe pricing).
- Taxes: Patreon calculates its platform fee without sales tax but its processing fee on the total including tax, and may add VAT/GST to its fees depending on where you are.
- A flat-fee alternative: beehiiv and Ghost charge a monthly fee and take 0% of subscriptions, so they get cheaper than either Substack or Patreon once paid revenue grows (table below).
Substack vs Patreon vs beehiiv or Ghost
If you mainly sell a paid newsletter, compare the percentage model with flat-fee newsletter platforms. For the full break-even see Is Substack worth it? and Substack vs beehiiv vs Ghost cost.
| Subscribers (5% pay $8) | Substack | beehiiv | Ghost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $69.40 (Free + 10% of paid revenue) | $88.40 (Lite) | $64.40 (Publisher) |
| 5,000 | $347 (Free + 10% of paid revenue) | $256 (Lite) | $222 (Publisher) |
| 25,000 | $1,735 (Free + 10% of paid revenue) | $934 (Lite) | $904 (Publisher) |
Per month, monthly billing. Paid totals = plan + platform cut + Stripe card fees (2.9% + $0.30 per payment, estimate) + Stripe's 0.7% Billing fee on recurring payments where confirmed (beehiiv, MailerLite, Ghost, Buttondown, Substack, AWeber and Flodesk); not added for GetResponse (not confirmed); Kit's 3.5% + $0.30 is all-in. How we model fees.
Try your own list size and price in the calculator →
Related: Substack fees explained · Substack vs Medium · Substack alternatives · beehiiv vs Substack · Substack pricing
Sources
- Substack help: How much does Substack cost? (checked 2026-10-27), How do I export my email list? and Can my subscribers pay on the Substack iOS app? (checked 2026-10-29)
- Stripe pricing and Stripe Billing pricing (checked 2026-10-20)
- Patreon help: Creator fees overview, Standard platform fee for new creators, Exporting your audience's emails, Newsletters on Patreon, Preview emails for locked posts, Free memberships (checked 2026-10-29)
- beehiiv pricing and Ghost pricing (checked 2026-10-27)
We earn a commission from some links, at no extra cost to you.
See Substack plans See beehiiv plans paid link See Ghost plans
Links marked “paid link” earn us a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you. They never change our numbers or rankings. Disclosure.
FAQ
Is Substack or Patreon cheaper?
For a new creator they cost almost the same. Both keep 10% of each payment. On Substack, Stripe then takes 2.9% + $0.30 per card payment plus 0.7% for recurring billing; on Patreon's standard plan (pages published after August 4, 2025) processing is 2.9% + $0.30 for USD card payments, and Patreon also charges a payout fee (for example $0.25 per US bank payout). On an $8/month membership that is $1.39 on Substack and $1.33 on Patreon, a difference of about $0.06 per member.
What are Patreon's fees in 2026?
Creators who publish a page after August 4, 2025 are on Patreon's standard plan: a 10% platform fee (calculated without sales tax), payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 for USD cards, Apple Pay and US PayPal (3.9% + $0.30 for PayPal outside the US, 3.4% + €0.35 if you're paid in euros), 2.5% when a member pays in another currency, and a payout fee. Older pages can keep legacy plans: Founders 5%, Pro 8%, Pro + Merch 11%, as long as the page stays published.
Is Substack or Patreon better for writers?
If you mainly write and want readers to get full posts by email and find you through a writing network, Substack is built for that, and you can export your email list at any time. Patreon is built for memberships around any kind of work (posts, video, audio, podcasts, digital products), and its newsletter is a Patreon post sent by email. Both let you download your members' emails as a CSV.
Can I export my subscribers from Patreon?
Yes. In Creator studio → Audience → Relationship manager you can filter paid and free members and download them as a CSV file at any time. On Substack you export the email list from your settings (the CSV has no names).
What about the iOS app fee?
Both platforms use Apple's in-app purchase system for some purchases made in their iPhone apps, and Apple takes its fee from those sales. Patreon states the fee as 30% and doesn't add its own processing fee on iOS payments, but its platform fee still applies. Substack lets you raise your in-app price to cover Apple's fee or keep the same price. In the US, both apps can send readers to web checkout instead, which avoids Apple's fee.
Can I use Substack and Patreon together?
Yes. Some creators keep a free Substack newsletter and sell memberships on Patreon, or the other way round. Just avoid charging the same people twice for the same posts, and remember both platforms take 10%, so splitting doesn't lower the fee.
Related guides: Substack vs beehiiv vs Ghost · Substack fees (2026) · Is Substack worth it for writers in 2026? The 10% cut vs flat-fee platforms, and how to leave · Substack vs Medium for writers (2026) · Substack to beehiiv migration · Substack to Ghost migration · beehiiv to Substack migration · beehiiv price increase 2026 · all guides
Comparisons: beehiiv vs Substack · Substack vs Ghost · beehiiv vs Ghost · Cheapest for 500, 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, 25,000 subscribers
Get alerted when Substack or its alternatives change their fees
We re-check Substack's fee article and every newsletter platform's pricing page each week and email you the before/after numbers when a price, limit or fee changes. Plus one monthly cost report. Free. What you get →
Recently flagged: Kit: 25% off the first year of Pro on annual billing (limited-time offer) (20 Oct 2026) · beehiiv renames plans and raises prices (Scale → Lite, Max → Pro) (1 Oct 2026)