Emotes are the smallest thing most artists sell and one of the steadiest. A streamer who reaches Affiliate needs a first set, each new emote slot needs another, and a channel that likes your style comes back for sub badges, an animated version and a holiday pack. The hard part is pricing a 112 pixel drawing so the work actually pays. Here is what emote artists charge right now, read straight off their own sheets.
The short answer. In a sample of 8 emote artists' public price sheets, a custom static Twitch emote costs $25 at the median, with a range of $8 to $40. Animated emotes run $45 to $60 for a simple loop, and up to $160 for a complex one. Sub badges cost $5 to $30. Packs are discounted by 8% to 25% against the single price, so a 5-emote pack from a $25 artist lands between $100 and $125, and a 6-pack with one animated emote between $175 and $260.
Twitch emote commission price calculator
Set your static and animated counts, your per-emote prices and your pack discount. The calculator gives the pack price and what you keep from it on each common way artists take emote orders.
Gig page rows add the plan fee on completed orders to card processing on your own Stripe link. The monthly plan price is not spread over the pack.
Want clients to order a fixed pack instead of haggling over a custom number in DMs? A gig page lists your emote, badge and pack tiers with what each includes, takes the brief with the order, and sends the streamer to your own card checkout. See how artists sell art commissions from their own page.
How much do Twitch emote commissions cost?
These are the published prices from 8 emote artists whose sheets rank for this search. Every figure is copied from the sheet as it stood on 15 October 2026. The sample is small and it skews toward artists who are good at being found, so read it as the going rate among visible, established emote artists rather than an average of everyone.
| Artist sheet | One static emote | Pack price | Animated emote | Sub badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cloudiefluffs | $25 to $40 | 2 to 5 emotes $50 to $200, 6 with 1 animated $175 to $260 | $50 to $60 | Not listed |
| tsundegrey | $10 | 3 for $28, 6 for $52 | Not listed | $8, 6 for $38 |
| megasarts | $25 | 10 for $230, 50 for $1,100 | Not listed | Not listed |
| floppydugong | $25 | 5 get 1 free, 10+ at 15% off | $45 | Not listed |
| mikeydikescomms | $8 | 10 for $60 | $12 | $5 |
| tsukishikon | From $35 | Not listed | Priced per animation | From $15 |
| wfpuppsiclecomms | $25 | $22 each for 10 to 20, $20 each for 21+ | $45 to $160+ | Listed separately |
| laziyu | $25 | 3 for $65, 5 for $100 | Not listed | $30, 5 for $125 |
Five of the eight start at $25 or more, and that is the price a streamer buying from a known emote artist expects to see. The two sheets at $8 and $10 are real and they sell, but they sit in a different market: volume work for new streamers with a small budget. Pick which market you are in on purpose, because the clients, the turnaround they expect and the revisions they ask for are different.
How much should I charge for Twitch emotes?
Start from your time, not from the cheapest sheet you have seen. A custom emote is a sketch, a clean line pass, color, a readability check at 28 pixels and usually one revision. Say that takes you an hour and a half. At $25, after the $1.03 a Stripe link takes, that is about $16 an hour before tax, under the $26.68 median hourly wage federal data gives for fine artists and illustrators. At $35 it is about $22.50 an hour, and at $40 about $25.70.
That is why the established sheets cluster at $25 to $40, and why the artists at $8 and $10 sell packs and badges in volume. If emotes are a side line next to bigger illustration work, $25 is a reasonable floor. If they are your main product, price closer to $35 to $40 and use packs to keep the per-emote figure attractive. Our guide to art commission prices walks through the hourly rate a US artist needs once tax and unbilled hours are counted, and the freelance rate calculator does the arithmetic for your own numbers.
How much do animated emotes cost?
A simple animated emote, such as a bounce, a wave or a shake built from one drawing, costs $45 to $60 on the sheets above. Emotes that need new drawings for each frame cost far more: one sheet lists $80 for a nodding emote, $90 to $100 for more complex loops and $160 and up for a two-character hug. Price animation by the number of new drawings, not by the second, and say so on the sheet.
Twitch caps an animated emote at 60 frames and 1MB, and it must not flash more than 3 times a second. Those limits shape the job: a 60-frame loop that has to fit in 1MB needs a limited palette and clean shapes, which is a real skill and worth charging for.
How much are sub badges?
Sub badges cost $5 to $30 each on these sheets, and most artists price them below an emote because they are smaller and simpler. Badges come in sets for the months a viewer has been subscribed, so they sell as packs: 6 for $38 on one sheet, 5 for $125 on another. A badge set is a natural add-on after an emote order, and listing it as its own tier makes that upsell a single click instead of a new conversation.
Emote pack prices and bundle discounts
Every artist in the sample with a pack price discounts it. Working the published figures back against the single price gives the size of the discount.
| Pack on the sheet | Full price | Pack price | Discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 emotes at $25 | $250 | $230 | 8% |
| 10 to 20 emotes at $25 | $25 each | $22 each | 12% |
| 6 emotes at $10 | $60 | $52 | 13% |
| 3 emotes at $25 | $75 | $65 | 13% |
| 5 emotes at $25 | $125 | $100 | 20% |
| 21 or more emotes at $25 | $25 each | $20 each | 20% |
| 10 emotes at $8 | $80 | $60 | 25% |
A 10% to 15% pack discount is the middle of the market. The larger discounts make sense where the emotes share a base drawing, which is exactly the trick one sheet spells out: emotes built on the same rig cost less to make, so they are sold cheaper together. Match your discount to how much work the pack actually saves you.
What Twitch requires from a commissioned emote
The delivery spec belongs on your sheet and your order page, because a rejected upload turns into a revision you did not price. These are Twitch's own rules for the files.
| Static emote | Animated emote | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | PNG | GIF |
| Single upload (auto-resize) | Square, 112 x 112 to 4096 x 4096 px, up to 1MB | Square, 112 x 112 to 4096 x 4096 px, up to 1MB |
| Manual upload | 28, 56 and 112 px, each under 100KB | 28, 56 and 112 px, each under 512KB |
| Background | Fully transparent | Transparent, first frame is the thumbnail |
| Other limits | Sharp lines, legible at 100% | 60 frames at most, no more than 3 flashes a second |
Twitch reviews emotes, and some streamers do not have instant upload yet, so an emote can be denied after you deliver it. Several sheets in the sample say up front that changes for a denied emote cost extra. Put that line in your terms too. It is fair to the client and it protects the price.
Who keeps what on a $150 emote pack
| Where the pack is paid | Fees on $150 | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe payment link | $4.65 | $145.35 |
| PayPal invoice, PayPal balance | $5.73 | $144.27 |
| Gig page on Studio, plus Stripe link | $9.15 | $140.85 |
| VGen | $12.15 | $137.85 |
| Gig page on Pro, plus Stripe link | $12.15 | $137.85 |
| Gig page on Starter, plus Stripe link | $16.65 | $133.35 |
| Fiverr | $30.00 | $120.00 |
A bare payment link is the cheapest way to be paid, and if every client already knows you and arrives by DM, that is all you need. The order page costs more per pack and earns it back on the other side: streamers pick a defined pack instead of asking for a quote, the brief arrives with the order, and the page can be found by channels that have never heard of you. Fees on every option are compared in more depth in our breakdowns of VGen fees and Fiverr for artists.
What to put in your emote commission terms
- Deposit. One sheet in the sample takes 50% before any work begins. For packs of five or more, that is the standard to copy.
- Refunds by stage. A clear ladder works: full refund before you start, a partial refund once sketches are shared (one sheet uses 75%), nothing once the final is delivered.
- Twitch rejections. Say whether reworking a denied emote is included or billed.
- Files and sizes. 112 px PNG by default, an uncropped or larger file on request.
- Payment method. Most sheets here take PayPal; say which you accept and invoice through it, so the payment carries the order. The art commission invoice calculator splits a pack into deposit and balance and shows the fee on each method.
Emote income tends to arrive in small amounts from several places at once: a PayPal invoice here, a VGen payout there, a tip on Ko-fi. Keeping a running record of every payout across platforms makes quarterly estimated tax much less of a scramble.
Where to sell emote commissions
Most of the artists in this sample sell from a Carrd sheet and take orders by DM or a form, which works once you have a following. Commission sites bring buyers at the cost of a bigger cut; our comparison of art commission sites puts VGen, Ko-fi, Etsy, Fiverr and the rest on the same $150 order. A gig page sits in between: your own page with your own tiers, an order form that collects the brief, and a plan fee only on completed orders. Plans run Starter $9 a month plus 8%, Pro $19 plus 5% and Studio $49 plus 3%; compare them on the pricing page.