How Much Do OnlyFans Creators Make in 2026? The Realistic Math

The average income on OnlyFans is a lot lower than the internet makes you think, but the top earners make way more than you had imagine.

OnlyFans earnings are split into a massive gap. The median active creator makes between $150 and $180 a month.

However, if you look only at creators who post consistently i.e. 5 to 7 times a week and actively promote their page, that average jumps directly to $2000 to $3000 a month. The top 1% of accounts bring in $20000 or more monthly.

This guide breaks down what real creators actually earn in 2026.

How much do beginners make in their first week?

How much does the average person make after six months?

How much do top creators pull in?

How does OnlyFans pay you?

And

How much does OnlyFans take from your earnings?

No fluff.

No fake testimonials.

Just the real numbers from public data, creator surveys, and official OnlyFans reports through April 2026.

How Much Do OnlyFans Creators Make on Average?

How much does the average OnlyFans creator make?

What is the OnlyFans average income for someone posting regularly?

About $180 a month. That number sounds low, and it is.

Here is why.

OnlyFans has over 4 million creator accounts. Most of them are not active. Some people sign up, post a few photos, get no subscribers, and quit. Those dead accounts get included in the average, which pulls the number down.

The average income on OnlyFans changes dramatically based on which creators you include.

If you only count creators who post regularly and have at least 10 paying subscribers, the average income from OnlyFans jumps to about $800 a month.

If you only count creators who treat it like a real job and post 5 to 7 times a week, the average climbs to $2,000 to $3,000 a month.

The most useful number is the median.

People often search how much OnlyFans creators make and get back wildly different answers because of the gap between average and median figures.

The median is the person in the exact middle. Half of all creators earn more than this, and half earn less. The median active OnlyFans creator earns around $150 a month.

So when someone tells you the average creator makes $5,000 a month, they are talking about a tiny slice of top performers, not the typical person. And when someone says the average is $20 a month, they are counting all the dead accounts.

The truth lives in between.

How Much Does OnlyFans Take From Creators?

OnlyFans takes 20% of everything you earn. They keep 20%, you keep 80%. This applies to every single dollar that moves through your account.

How much does OnlyFans take from tips?

The same 20%. The cut covers payment processing, hosting, the website, customer support, and the company's profit. It is the same rate they have charged since 2016, and there are no hidden fees on top of it.

Here is what that looks like in real numbers.

The 20% cut applies to subscription fees, tips, pay-per-view content, and live stream tips. There is no separate fee for tips, no extra charge for pay-per-view, and no hidden monthly fee for being a creator.

Compared to other creator sites, the 20% rate is right in the middle. Some niche sites like FeetFinder charge 15%, while others charge as much as 30% or 40%. The OnlyFans rate is fair for what they offer, which is a massive built-in audience and reliable payments. For a side-by-side comparison of platform fees and creator economics, see the list of the best OnlyFans alternatives.

After the 20% cut, you also need to set aside money for taxes. In the US, self-employed creators pay 15.3% in self-employment tax plus regular income tax.

So if you earn $1,000 gross, you keep $800 after OnlyFans, and you should save another $250 to $300 for taxes. That leaves about $500 in real take-home pay from $1,000 gross.

How Much Can You Make on OnlyFans in Your First Week?

Most new creators make $0 in their first week. Some make $20 to $50. A small number make $200 to $500. Almost nobody makes thousands in week one.

The reason is simple.

The amount of money you can make on OnlyFans depends entirely on the audience you bring with you. OnlyFans does not show you to subscribers, so you have to bring your own audience from somewhere else.

If you have 10,000 followers on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok, you can convert maybe 1% to 3% of them into paying subscribers. That gives you 100 to 300 subscribers at $9.99 a month, which is $999 to $2,997 in your first week.

If you have zero outside followers, you have a much harder time. You will need to build an audience on social media first, post content that gets shared, drive traffic to your OnlyFans page, and convince people to pay. This takes weeks or months, not days.

Real first-week numbers from creator surveys show this pattern.

✓   Creators with 10,000+ engaged social media followers: $500 to $3,000 in week one

✓   Creators with 1,000 to 10,000 followers: $100 to $500 in week one

✓   Creators with under 1,000 followers: $0 to $50 in week one

✓   Creators with no outside audience at all: usually $0 in week one

How Much Do OnlyFans Creators Make Per Month?

The average OnlyFans income per month depends on three things:

How many active subscribers do you have?

How much do they pay per month?

and

How much extra do they spend on tips and pay-per-view content?

The average OnlyFans monthly income figures vary widely based on these same factors.

Here is what monthly income looks like at different subscriber levels, assuming a $9.99 monthly subscription price.

A few things stand out from these numbers.

Tips and pay-per-view often equal or beat the subscription revenue itself. Many creators earn 50% to 70% of their total income from tips and PPV, not the base subscription. This matters because a creator with 100 active subscribers can make $1,500 to $2,000 a month, not just the $800 you would expect from subscriptions alone.

Subscriber retention also matters more than total signups. A creator with 100 loyal subscribers who stay for six months is worth more than a creator with 200 subscribers who all leave after one month. The loyal-subscriber model is what produces real long-term income.

Most successful creators reach 100 active subscribers within their first 60 to 90 days if they have an outside social media audience. Without that audience, the same milestone can take 6 to 12 months of consistent posting and promotion.

How Much Do Top OnlyFans Creators Make?

The top OnlyFans creators make money that sounds fake.

It is not fake.

The numbers are real, public, and verifiable through tax records and creator-reported earnings.

The top 1 creator on OnlyFans currently earns over $40 million a month. That single creator has made over $400 million on the site since starting, in just a few years.

The top 10 creators each earn between $1 million and $10 million a month. Most of them are women, with a few couples mixed in. They have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, run their accounts like full businesses with assistant teams, and post multiple times a day.

The top 100 creators each earn between $100,000 and $1 million a month. The average OnlyFans model income at this tier is well into six figures monthly. This is where most public creators sit, the ones whose names you might recognize from social media.

The top 1% (about 40,000 creators) earn $20,000 to $100,000 a month. This is the realistic ceiling for most serious creators with strong outside audiences.

The top 10% (about 400,000 creators) earn $1,000 to $20,000 a month. If you treat OnlyFans like a real job for at least a year, you have a real chance of reaching this tier.

How Does OnlyFans Pay Creators?

How does OnlyFans work for creators when it comes to getting paid?

OnlyFans pays creators through direct bank transfer or wire transfer. They do not use PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, or any other peer-to-peer payment service.

When you sign up as a creator, you connect a bank account. OnlyFans verifies the account, then sends payments to that bank automatically. Payments arrive within 3 to 5 business days for US creators, and 5 to 10 business days for international creators.

You can request payouts manually or set them up on a weekly schedule. The minimum payout is $20, and there is no limit on the maximum payout.

Your money does not go straight from a subscriber to your bank. It goes through a 7-day holding period first to protect against chargebacks (when a subscriber disputes a charge with their credit card company). After 7 days, the money is yours and shows up as available for payout.

The bank statement description will say something neutral like OFTV LLC or OnlyFans Ltd. It will not say anything explicit. This protects the creator privacy if their bank account is shared or if a family member sees the statement. For a complete breakdown of how OnlyFans protects users beyond just bank statements, read the thorough guide on Is OnlyFans safe.

For tax purposes, OnlyFans sends a 1099-NEC form at the end of the year if you earned over $600. You report this income as self-employment income on your tax return. Save 25% to 35% of every payout for taxes if you live in the US, more if you live in a high-tax state.

How Much Can Men Make on OnlyFans?

The average male OnlyFans income is less than that of the average female creator. Even the platform is more female driven than male. Approiximately 84% creators on OnlyFans are female and 14-16% are male.

Source: FeedSpot

The numbers are roughly half: average male creator income is around $90 a month, while the average OnlyFans income female creators see is around $200 a month.

Why?

Most paying subscribers on OnlyFans are men, and most of them subscribe to female creators. Male creators have a smaller potential audience, which limits average earnings across the site.

But the top male creators do very well.

Top male creators (gay creators with strong fan bases, fitness models, and male couples) can earn $20,000 to $100,000 a month, with a few earning over $500,000 a month.

Successful male creators tend to follow a few specific patterns.

✓   Gay male creators serving the LGBTQ+ male audience generally earn more than straight male creators. The audience is smaller but more willing to pay.

✓   Fitness and physique creators earn well by combining workout content with paid content. The fitness audience overlap creates organic traffic from social media.

✓   Male creators in couples earn more than solo male creators. The couple format opens up a bigger paying audience that includes both straight and bisexual subscribers.

✓   Male creators with established followings on TikTok, Twitter, or Instagram convert at much higher rates than men starting from zero. The outside audience matters more for men than it does for women.

How Much Can Beginners Make on OnlyFans?

How much can I make on OnlyFans as a beginner?

Beginners (creators in their first 90 days) typically earn $50 to $500 a month.

The wide range depends almost entirely on whether you bring an audience with you from somewhere else.

If you start OnlyFans cold (no Instagram, no Twitter, no TikTok, no Reddit presence), expect $0 to $100 a month for the first three months. Building an outside audience while running OnlyFans takes time.

If you start with an existing 5,000 to 10,000 social media followers who actually engage with your content, expect $300 to $1,500 in your first month. The audience converts to subscribers quickly when they hear about your OnlyFans for the first time.

If you start with 50,000+ engaged followers, expect $2,000 to $10,000 in your first month. This is the level where OnlyFans becomes a real income source from day one.

Three things help beginners earn faster. For a complete walkthrough of the signup process, account setup, and first-content checklist, check how to start OnlyFans guide.

First, post 4 to 7 times a week, every week, for at least 90 days. Consistency is the single biggest predictor of beginner success. Creators who post twice and quit make almost nothing, while those who post daily for three months almost always reach $500+ in monthly income.

Second, set a low subscription price for your first 60 days. Try $4.99 or $6.99 instead of $9.99. Lower prices mean more subscribers, which gives you reviews, momentum, and tip income. You can raise the price later once you have an established subscriber base.

Third, reply to every single message in the first 90 days. Subscribers who get a personal reply tip more, stay subscribed longer, and recommend you to other people. Personal replies cost nothing and dramatically increase income per subscriber.

How Much Can Couples Make on OnlyFans?

Couples on OnlyFans tend to earn more than solo creators. The average couples OnlyFans income runs $400 to $1,200 a month, compared to $200 to $800 for solo female creators and $90 to $300 for solo male creators.

Couple accounts work well because they appeal to a much wider paying audience. Straight subscribers, bisexual subscribers, and curious viewers all become potential customers. The variety of content options (solo from each partner, content together, themed scenes) also keeps subscribers engaged longer than single-creator accounts.

The top couple accounts earn $30,000 to $200,000 a month.

The most successful couples treat the account as a shared business with clear roles. One partner often handles content creation while the other manages messages and marketing, which lets couples post more content per week than solo creators can manage alone.

A few patterns help couples earn more.

✓   Couples who post 7 to 10 times a week (vs. solo creators who post 4 to 5) earn 2 to 3 times more on average. The shared workload makes higher posting rates realistic.

✓   Couples charging slightly higher subscription prices ($14.99 to $19.99) often earn more than couples charging $9.99. The premium price signals exclusive content and attracts more committed subscribers.

✓   Couples who run combined social media accounts on Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram convert outside followers faster than solo creators. The couple format gets more shares and engagement on social platforms.

✓   Couples who offer custom content with both partners (which solo creators cannot match) earn 30% to 50% more from pay-per-view content than solo accounts at the same subscriber level.

What Affects How Much You Earn?

How much money you make on OnlyFans depends on six specific things more than anything else, and none of them is luck.

Outside audience size- The single biggest factor. Creators with 10,000+ engaged followers on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or Reddit earn 5 to 20 times more than creators with no outside audience. OnlyFans does not bring you traffic, you bring the traffic to OnlyFans.

Posting consistency- Creators who post 5 to 7 times a week for at least three months earn dramatically more than creators who post once a week. Consistency builds subscriber retention, which compounds over months. Inconsistent posting kills retention faster than almost anything else.

Direct message activity- The top earners on OnlyFans spend 2 to 4 hours a day in DMs talking to subscribers, building parasocial connections, and selling pay-per-view content. Creators who ignore DMs earn 30% to 50% less than creators who actively engage.

Pay-per-view content strategy- Subscriptions are only the foundation. Top earners generate 60% to 80% of total income from pay-per-view content, custom requests, and tips. Creators who only rely on subscriptions max out at much lower income levels.

Niche specificity- Specific niches (cosplay, fitness, gaming, kink-specific content, etc.) tend to outperform general adult content. The audience is smaller, but the per-subscriber spend is higher because subscribers care more about that specific content type.

One important note for hyper-specific niches. If your content focuses on a single narrow category like feet content, for example, a dedicated niche-focused site often outperforms OnlyFans for that specific content type.

Sites like FeetFinder built their entire buyer base around one specific niche, which means buyers arrive ready to pay for that exact content rather than browsing for general adult material. The full comparison of the best sites to sell feet pics covers FeetFinder's pricing tiers and how it stacks against other niche options.

The per-hour earnings for hyper-niche creators on focused sites typically run 3 to 5 times higher than the same content on OnlyFans, where the audience is broader and less targeted.

Many smart creators run both at once. They use OnlyFans for general content and broader audience reach, and use a niche-focused site as a secondary income stream for their specific specialty content.

Time invested- OnlyFans is a real job for top earners. The creators making $10,000+ a month put in 30 to 60 hours a week between content production, DMs, social media, and editing. Treating it like a side hobby caps your earning potential.

Frequently Asked Questions