Patreon was built for memberships, but a lot of illustrators use it to sell commissions too: a tier that buys one sketch a month, a higher tier for a rendered piece, or a one-time purchase for a custom drawing. It works, and plenty of artists earn real money this way. It also costs more than most people expect once the platform fee, processing and the quirks of monthly billing are added up. Here is how Patreon commissions actually run, what each commission pays you after fees, and when a separate commission page earns more.
The short answer. You can sell commissions on Patreon as a paid tier or as a one-time purchase, and Patreon treats each one like any other payment. On the standard plan that means a 10% platform fee plus 2.9% and $0.30, so a $150 half body pays you $130.35. Commission tiers suit regulars who want a piece every month. One-off clients are cheaper and simpler to serve on a page that sells fixed tiers per order.
Can you do commissions on Patreon?
Yes. Patreon has no dedicated commissions feature, but nothing stops you from selling custom work through the tools it does have, and its own help center mentions commissions as a tier benefit. You create a paid tier, describe what the patron gets (one headshot a month, for example), and deliver the piece through posts or chat. Patreon also lets you sell one-time purchases, which some artists use for a single commission slot. Either way the payment is processed by Patreon and its fees apply.
One detail worth knowing: Patreon notes that tiers with tangible benefits, such as commissions delivered by mail, may be exempt from Apple's in-app fee on iPhone. Digital commissions bought inside the iOS app are not, and Apple takes 30% of those before Patreon's platform fee.
How do Patreon commissions work?
Artists run them in three ways. The model you pick decides how much admin you do and how often a client is charged.
| Model | How it runs | Works well for | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commission tier | A patron joins a tier (say $60 for a headshot) and gets one piece per billing cycle | Regulars who want art every month | One-off buyers forget to cancel, then ask for a refund |
| Rolling pledge | A patron stays on a lower tier for several months and redeems the total for a bigger piece | Fans saving up for a full illustration | You track credit by hand, and churn wipes it out |
| One-time purchase | A single paid post or product that buys one commission slot | Occasional slots, YCH bases | No brief form, no scope options, no queue view |
In all three, the brief usually arrives in a direct message or the patron chat, references get posted in threads, and you keep the queue in a spreadsheet. That is fine at three clients a month and tiring at fifteen.
What is the Patreon commission fee?
There is no separate commission fee. A commission paid through Patreon carries the same platform fee and processing as a membership. For pages published after August 4, 2025 that is 10%, and processing for US cards and PayPal is 2.9% plus $0.30 on every payment. Older pages that have stayed published keep their legacy rate of 5%, 8% or 11%. Here is what you keep at four common commission prices, next to what a fixed-price gig page keeps per order on our Pro plan.
| Commission | Patreon standard 10% | Patreon legacy Pro 8% | Gig page, Pro plan 5% | Patreon's cut on the standard plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 sketch | $21.48 | $21.98 | $22.73 | $3.52 |
| $60 headshot | $51.96 | $53.16 | $54.96 | $8.04 |
| $150 half body | $130.35 | $133.35 | $137.85 | $19.65 |
| $400 full piece | $348.10 | $356.10 | $368.10 | $51.90 |
The gig page column includes card processing at 2.9% and $0.30 but not the $19 monthly plan price, which is the honest catch: per order the gig page keeps more, but you pay the plan whether you sell or not. Our full breakdown of Patreon fees by plan, with a calculator adds the plan price, payout fees and the break-even point, which sits at about $375 a month in commission sales for a creator on the 10% plan.
How much should a Patreon commission tier cost?
Price the piece first, then the tier. A tier that includes one headshot a month should cost at least what you would charge for that headshot on its own, plus the fee. US fine artists and illustrators earn $26.68 an hour in employment, according to federal wage data, and a freelance artist needs roughly $77 an hour to match that once self-employment tax, unbilled hours and fees come out. A headshot that takes 45 minutes is therefore close to $60, and a two-hour half body is $150 or more. The worked numbers and an example price sheet are in our guide to art commission prices for digital and character work.
Then build the fee in. On the 10% plan a $60 headshot pays you $51.96, so if $60 is what the piece is worth to you, the tier needs to be about $69 for you to clear $60. Most artists round tiers to clean numbers and accept a slightly lower take rather than charge $69.23, which is reasonable as long as you know the real figure.
Where Patreon commission tiers break down
The fee is the visible cost. The less visible ones come from using a membership tool for orders.
- Monthly billing for a one-off job. Patreon is moving every creator to subscription billing by November 1, 2026, so a patron is charged when they join and again a month later. A client who wanted one piece and forgot to leave pays twice, and the refund conversation lands on you.
- No scope at checkout. A tier describes a benefit, not a deliverable with revisions, turnaround and usage rights. Disputes about what was included start here.
- Hard to find. A Patreon tier does not rank for "hire an illustrator" or "commission a character portrait". Your existing fans find it; new clients rarely do.
- Commercial clients. An author or an indie studio wants an invoice-like order and a clear license, not a membership.
None of this means you should drop Patreon. It is good at what it was built for: fans who pay every month for process posts, early access and community. The question is whether one-off commissions belong in the same place.
Patreon commissions or a commission page, which is cheaper?
It depends on your plan and your volume. Here is the full monthly cost of four $150 commissions, $600 in sales, with every fee included.
| Where you sell | Monthly cost on $600 | Who should pick it |
|---|---|---|
| Patreon legacy Founders 5% | $41.05 | Anyone who still has it. Never unpublish |
| Patreon legacy Pro 8% | $66.85 | Legacy creators, roughly a tie with a gig page |
| Gig page, Pro plan | $67.60 | New creators selling above about $375 a month |
| Gig page, Starter plan | $75.60 | Cheaper than the Pro plan below about $333 a month |
| Patreon standard 10% | $78.85 | New creators selling only a few small pieces |
The pattern is simple. If you joined Patreon before August 2025 and kept your page live, your legacy rate is hard to beat, so keep commissions there if they sell. If you are on the 10% plan, Patreon wins at low volume because there is no monthly charge, and a commission page wins once you pass a few hundred dollars a month. At eight $150 commissions the gap is $41 a month in favor of the page. Artists deciding between other platforms will find the same math for VGen fees per commission and every other option in art commission sites compared by fee.
How to run commissions alongside Patreon
Most artists who sell well do both: Patreon for the community, a commission page for orders. A setup that keeps the two from competing looks like this.
- Keep Patreon for membership perks. Process posts, early access, a monthly sketch for top-tier patrons. Leave per-piece commissions out of it, or keep one discounted slot as a patron perk.
- Publish fixed commission tiers on a page you own. Headshot, half body, full piece, each with what is included, revisions, turnaround and price. Our art commission gig page takes the brief and records the order with each tier, and the art commission sheet maker turns the same tiers into an image for socials.
- Link both ways. Put the commission page in your Patreon about section and pin it in patron chat, and mention the Patreon on the commission page for clients who become fans.
- Show proof from past clients. Buyers who have never met you want to see what earlier clients said, so it pays to collect short reviews from each finished commission and keep them next to your tiers.
If you take payment yourself rather than through a platform, the fees on each method are compared in PayPal for art commissions. And if you are weighing Patreon against a creator storefront for digital products instead of commissions, the numbers for Gumroad fees per sale are worked out the same way.