See what Ko-fi’s cut costs at your volume, when Gold starts paying for itself, and how much more you’d keep on ByteSell. Updated for 2026.
Calculate your Ko-fi fees
What you pay Ko-fi
$1,500
a year, or $125 a month, on $2,500 of sales
Includes the Ko-fi free plan at $0 a month.
On every $50 sale
Shop sales, memberships and commissions
$2.50
Ko-fi takes
5%$2.50
Converted from US dollars at European Central Bank reference rates from August 26, 2026. Ko-fi charges in US dollars, so the rate your bank applies on the day will differ.
You would keep more on ByteSell
ByteSell takes 0% of sales on every plan and the buyer pays you directly. Never 5% a sale.
Ko-fi bills nothing monthly on its free tiers and takes its cut per transaction instead, but which transactions it touches, and how hard, comes down to four things.
A tip and a sale are charged differently
Money given as a one-off tip can escape the cut entirely. Money that buys something never does: shop items, memberships, monthly payments and commissions all carry it on both free tiers.
The default decides your rate
The free rate on tips only holds with Contributor mode switched off, and new creators now start with it on. Until you change that setting, tips are charged like everything else.
Gold exists to buy the cut away
The paid plan trades the percentage for a flat monthly price, which wins once your volume is high enough. Ko-fi’s own Gold page now opens by telling you not to bother.
The money never waits
Supporters pay straight into your own account the moment they give, with no balance held at Ko-fi and no minimum to clear. For a tipping page, that is exactly the right design.
What Ko-fi charges on a sale
Every rate the calculator uses, linked to the Ko-fi page it came from. The Ko-fi alternatives list quotes the same charges in Ko-fi’s own words, with the dates each one was read, and says where its sellers go.
Anything sold through your page, whether a shop item, a membership, a monthly payment or a commission, carries a percentage cut on both free tiers. Only one-off tips can escape it, and only in one account mode. Put your own figures into the calculator above to see what that cut comes to at your volume.
Only while Contributor mode is off. Ko-fi’s help centre says new creators now start as Contributors, and that status applies the service fee to one-off tips as well. If you opened your account recently, the Contributor rate is the one you are actually on until you switch it off.
Gold swaps the cut for a flat monthly price, so it pays for itself once the cut on your volume would cost more than the plan. That crossover is exactly what the calculator above works out. Worth knowing first: Ko-fi’s own Gold page now opens by saying you no longer need it, and annual Gold plans are no longer sold to new subscribers.
Not automatically. Ko-fi says memberships keep paying the service fee that was in force when they started, even after you switch to Gold and turn Contributor status off. The sooner you upgrade, the fewer supporters stay locked to the old rate. The quote is in the breakdown below.
Immediately. Supporters pay into your own account directly, so no balance sits with Ko-fi, no minimum has to build up, and there is no payout schedule at all. Its help centre says the funds transfer immediately and directly, and that line is quoted in the breakdown below.
Nothing on any sale, on any plan, the free one included. There is no separate rate for tips versus products, and no paid tier whose job is to remove a fee, because there is no fee to remove. The free plan’s limits are on capacity instead: 500 MB of storage, a 50 MB ceiling per file, and a custom domain arrives with Pro.
Ko-fi fee calculator