Patreon turned fan patronage into a software business. Instead of earning fractions of a cent per ad view, a creator sets monthly or annual tiers, and fans pay directly for exclusive posts, episodes, videos and community access. More than 300,000 creators earn money on Patreon in 2026, and fans have paid them over $10 billion since 2013. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Patreon was founded in May 2013 in San Francisco, California, by YouTube musician Jack Conte and Stanford technologist Sam Yam to create a sustainable membership platform empowering creators to earn predictable monthly patronage directly from their fans.
Patreon makes money by keeping a share of every payment fans make to creators. Creators who published a page after August 4, 2025 pay a flat 10% platform fee; older pages stay on legacy 5% (Lite), 8% (Pro) or 11% (Premium) plans. Payment processing fees (around 2.9% plus $0.30 per US card payment on standard transactions) and currency conversion charges are passed through to creators. The same fee structure applies to paid memberships and one-off digital product sales in the Patreon shop. Free memberships cost creators nothing and act as a funnel to paid tiers. On iOS, Apple requires in-app purchase for most digital purchases outside the US, adding its 30% App Store fee (15% after a year of continuous billing), which Patreon passes to creators who opt to raise prices for iOS buyers.