Patreon / Memberful Subscription Income Estimator

Three tiers, blended into one net figure

180 members at $5, 40 at $12, and 8 at $25 produce gross pledges of $1,580 ($900 + $480 + $200). After an 8% platform fee, monthly net comes to $1,453.60.

Tier 1 (the $5 tier) generates the most total revenue here ($900) despite having the lowest price, purely on member count -- a reminder that for most creator membership bases, the low-cost, high-volume tier usually drives more total revenue than the premium tier, even though the premium tier looks more impressive per-member.

The 8% fee is applied once, to the full gross pledge total across all three tiers combined -- it isn't tiered or reduced for higher-price members, so it scales proportionally regardless of which tier a member sits in.

What the 8% fee doesn't include

Fee percent is yours to set. Payout rails and VAT are extra. Patreon and Memberful both charge a platform fee, but the specific percentage varies by plan tier, and payment processing (typically an additional 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) is layered on top of the platform fee, not included in it.

International members can trigger VAT collection obligations depending on the platform and the creator's location -- neither this calculator's fee field nor the gross pledge total accounts for VAT that may need to be remitted separately.

Member churn isn't modeled here either -- this is a single-month snapshot at the current member counts, not a growth or retention projection.

Comparing to other creator subscription platforms

The same tiered-membership structure exists on Patreon specifically with a different payout mechanism -- see the Patreon Tier Payout Calculator for that platform's specific rules.

For a newsletter-based subscription model instead of tiered membership, the Newsletter (Substack/Beehiiv) Revenue Calculator uses a similar take-rate structure.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)