Prerequisites
- Something you sell, publish, or stream
Every platform comparison you'll find quotes headline fees. Almost none add the payment processing that comes out on top — and once you do, the ranking changes.
This is the all-in arithmetic across sixteen routes, computed on a standard $100 transaction, with every underlying rate taken from the platform's own published documentation.
The Table
| Route | All-in fee | You keep | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Udemy — your own coupon link | $3.00 | $97.00 | 3.0% |
| Stripe — your own checkout | $3.20 | $96.80 | 3.2% |
| PayPal — goods & services | $3.98 | $96.02 | 4.0% |
| Upwork — contract at 10% | $10.00 | $90.00 | 10.0% |
| Gumroad — your own link | $10.50 | $89.50 | 10.5% |
| eBay — standard category | $13.10 | $86.90 | 13.1% |
| Substack — platform + Stripe | $13.90 | $86.10 | 13.9% |
| App stores — small business rate | $15.00 | $85.00 | 15.0% |
| Gumroad — via Discover | $30.00 | $70.00 | 30.0% |
| App stores — standard rate | $30.00 | $70.00 | 30.0% |
| Udemy — marketplace sale | $63.00 | $37.00 | 63.0% |
Five more routes work as a revenue share rather than a deduction, because the platform collects the money and pays you a portion:
| Route | You keep |
|---|---|
| YouTube memberships, Super Thanks, Super Chat | 70% |
| Twitch Plus Program, Level 2 | 70% |
| AdSense — advertiser buying through Google Ads | about 68% |
| YouTube watch-page ads | 55% |
| YouTube Shorts, pooled model | 45% |
The Error Almost Every Comparison Makes
Search "creator platform fees" and you'll be told Substack returns roughly 90% to creators. That figure is the platform's own cut subtracted from 100, and it is wrong as a description of what you receive.
Substack takes 10%. Stripe then takes 2.9% + $0.30 plus a 0.7% recurring billing fee. On $100:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Substack, 10% | −$10.00 |
| Stripe card fee | −$3.20 |
| Stripe billing fee, 0.7% | −$0.70 |
| You keep | $86.10 |
86.1%, not 90% — the common figure overstates by nearly four percentage points.
⚠️ Warning
It gets worse at small amounts, because the $0.30 is fixed. On a $10 monthly subscription — far more typical for a newsletter than a $100 payment — the same charges total $1.66 and you keep $8.34, or 83.4%.
So the "90%" claim overstates by about 6.6 points at realistic subscription prices. Any comparison that gives one effective rate without naming the transaction size is not telling you enough to act on.
Fixed Fees Mean Your Rate Depends on Price
This is the structural point the percentage-only tables miss entirely. Where a fee has a fixed component, your effective rate changes with the amount.
Gumroad's $0.50, Stripe's $0.30, eBay's $0.40, PayPal's $0.49 — each is trivial on a large sale and punishing on a small one.
| Gumroad direct sale | Fee | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| $5 product | $1.00 | 20.0% |
| $10 product | $1.50 | 15.0% |
| $20 product | $2.50 | 12.5% |
| $50 product | $5.50 | 11.0% |
Same platform, same "10% + 50¢", and an effective rate that nearly doubles between a $50 and a $5 product. Bundling cheap items into one higher-priced product is a fee decision as much as a marketing one.
The Pattern Underneath All of It
Sort the table and something becomes obvious. The cheapest routes and the most expensive routes are frequently the same platform.
| Platform | You bring the buyer | The platform brings the buyer |
|---|---|---|
| Udemy | 3% | 63% |
| Gumroad | 10% + $0.50 | 30% |
| Upwork | Direct Contracts, reduced | Marketplace, up to 15% |
Udemy charges twenty-one times more when its marketplace supplies the student than when you do.
ℹ️ Good to Know
That is the single most important fact in this entire comparison, and it isn't really about fees. Every platform here has priced the same thing: access to its audience. The fee is what you pay for not having your own.
Which reframes the choice. "Which platform takes the least?" is the wrong question. "Do I have an audience I can send?" decides which column you're in — and that gap is far larger than any difference between platforms.
Revenue Shares Are Not Comparable to Fees
A distinction worth being careful about, because the numbers look alike and aren't.
When Gumroad takes 10%, you set the price and know the gross. When YouTube pays you 55% of ad revenue, you don't control the gross at all — it depends on what advertisers bid for your audience, which varies by topic, country and season.
So a 70% revenue share is not automatically better than a 30% fee. 70% of an unknown, unpredictable amount is a different kind of business from 70% of a price you set yourself.
💡 Pro Tip
A useful way to classify any earning route: do you set the price, or does an auction? Selling products, courses and freelance work means you set it. Ads, Shorts and pooled models mean you don't. Routes where you set the price reward better work with predictably better income; auction routes reward audience size and advertiser demand, which are far less within your control.
What Isn't in Any of These Numbers
The table above is the platform's cut only. Three further costs apply almost everywhere:
International and conversion charges. Stripe adds 1.5% for international cards and 1% for currency conversion. PayPal adds 1.5% cross-border and a conversion spread of up to 4%. A cross-border sale converted into another currency can cost roughly double the domestic headline.
Subscriptions and fixed costs. Shopify starts at $25/month. Printful's Growth plan is $24.99/month. eBay Store tiers carry monthly fees. These don't appear in a per-transaction rate but do appear in your bank account.
Tax. In the US, self-employment tax alone is 15.3% of net earnings before income tax. Nothing in this table is money you keep — it is money that reaches your business.
How to Find Your Own Real Rate
- Start with the platform's published fee, not a comparison table.
- Add payment processing if the platform doesn't include it — Substack, your own store, and most direct-sale routes do not.
- Add fixed fees at your actual price, not at $100.
- Add international and conversion charges if your buyers are abroad.
- Then compare. The ranking often changes once you do.
✅ Action Step
Take your own typical transaction amount and work through those five steps for the platform you currently use. If you sell below about $20, the fixed fees are probably costing you more than the percentage — and raising your price or bundling will do more for your margin than switching platform.
Where These Figures Come From
Every rate was read from the platform's own published documentation, linked below, and every effective rate in this article was computed from those rates rather than quoted from elsewhere. Fee schedules change and vary by country, so confirm the current figures for your own situation — including against this article, which is a snapshot of what those pages said on the review date above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which platform takes the smallest cut?
Of the routes compared here on a $100 transaction, Udemy's own-coupon rate is cheapest at 3%, followed by Stripe on your own checkout at 3.2% and PayPal at about 4%. The most expensive is a Udemy marketplace sale, where the instructor keeps 37%.
Does Substack really let creators keep 90%?
No. Substack's own cut is 10%, but Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 and its 0.7% recurring billing fee come out as well. On a $100 payment you keep about 86%, and on a $10 monthly subscription about 83% — because the fixed 30 cents weighs more at small amounts.
Why do comparison articles understate platform fees?
Because they quote the platform's headline percentage and stop there. Payment processing is charged separately by Stripe or PayPal, and fixed per-transaction fees are ignored entirely, which distorts small transactions most.
What is the biggest factor in how much a platform takes?
Who brought the customer. Nearly every platform charges far more when its own marketplace supplies the buyer than when you send them yourself — Udemy charges 3% versus 63%, and Gumroad 10% versus 30%, for identical products.
Sources & Further Reading
Every factual claim in this guide is drawn from primary, authoritative sources. Figures reflect the referenced pages at the time of our last review and can change — always confirm current terms on the official site.
- 1Stripe pricing — Stripe
- 2PayPal Merchant Fees (US) — PayPal
- 3Gumroad pricing — Gumroad
- 4Instructor revenue share — Udemy Support
- 5Store selling fees — eBay Seller Center
- 6AdSense revenue share — Google AdSense Help
- 7YouTube partner earnings overview — YouTube Help
- 8App Store Small Business Program — Apple Developer
EarnRoutes Editorial
Researched and fact-checked against primary sources
Compiled from the published fee schedules of every platform named, each verified against the company's own documentation and linked below. All effective rates were computed rather than quoted, and the working is shown so you can check it.
Last reviewed on September 13, 2026