// free tool · no signup · no email gate
Ko-fi Fee Calculator
Ko-fi built its brand on "0% fees" — true for donations, not for the shop. Once you sell products, commissions, or memberships, the free tier takes 5% and the interesting question becomes exactly when the $8 Gold subscription flips from expense to discount. The answer is a number, and it is below.
Quick answer
Ko-fi charges 5% on shop, commission, and membership sales on its free tier, plus Stripe or PayPal processing of about 2.9% + $0.30. A $29 shop sale nets $26.41. One-off donations carry 0% platform fee. Ko-fi Gold ($8/month) removes the 5%, paying for itself at $160 in monthly sales.
Calculator
| Ko-fi shop fee5% on shop + commission sales | −$1.45 |
| Payment processing (Stripe/PayPal)≈2.9% + $0.30 — paid to the processor | −$1.14 |
| Total fees (8.9% of price) | −$2.59 |
Same product on Gumroad direct: you would keep $24.46 on the same sale — $1.95 less. Self-hosting also means you run checkout, taxes, and delivery yourself.
Fees verified 2026-06-10 against the official pricing page. Spot an outdated number? Email support@toolgenx.com.
// the $160 line
The Gold break-even, worked out properly
Gold costs $8/month and saves exactly 5% of shop revenue, so the break-even is $160 of monthly sales — about five and a half $29 products. The annual plan (~$6/month effective) moves the line to $120. Two wrinkles make Gold better than the naive math: it also unlocks higher-priced shop items and membership tools that may raise revenue, and the 5% it removes was calculated before processing, so the saving is clean platform margin, not a blended rate.
The trap runs the other direction too. A dormant shop on Gold pays $96/year to save nothing — the same dead-subscription failure mode as Payhip's paid plans, just cheaper. Subscriptions that replace percentages only pay when the percentage was real money.
// instant settlement
The fee table misses Ko-fi’s actual superpower
Every payment on Ko-fi lands directly in your own Stripe or PayPal account the moment it happens. Ko-fi never custodies your money — so there is no payout schedule, no $25 minimum, no 90-day new-seller reserve, and no platform that can freeze your balance during a dispute spike. Sellers who have lived through a marketplace payout hold understand what that is worth; no percentage in this calculator captures it.
The same architecture explains the gaps. Because Ko-fi never sits in the money flow, it is not a merchant of record: VAT on EU digital sales remains your problem, unlike on Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy. And file delivery is basic — links and uploads, no license keys, no download caps. Ko-fi is a tip jar that grew a shop, not a shop that added tips, and its fee structure only makes sense read in that order.
// who it fits
Where Ko-fi wins on the full board
For a creator monetizing an existing audience with donations plus a light catalog — art packs, PDFs, commissions — Ko-fi free is close to unbeatable: 0% on tips, sub-9% on sales, instant settlement, zero monthly cost. For a software or template business that needs licensing, VAT handling, or marketplace discovery, the gaps push you toward the platforms that charge for those exact things. Line your candidates up at your real price point on the platform fee comparison — the right answer changes with the product, not the brand.
// free tier vs gold
Ko-fi net payout at $9, $29, $119
Free tier and Gold at three price points, with Gumroad direct as the benchmark. Gold’s $8 monthly cost lives outside the per-sale math — apply the $160 break-even to your volume.
| Sale price | Shop sale — free tier | Shop sale — Ko-fi Gold ($8/mo) | Gumroad direct |
|---|---|---|---|
| $9.00 | $7.99 | $8.44 | $7.04 |
| $29.00 | $26.41 | $27.86 | $24.46 |
| $119.00 | $109.30 | $115.25 | $102.85 |
Processor rates vary slightly between Stripe and PayPal (and PayPal's micro pricing can beat both under $10) — the table uses the common 2.9% + $0.30 approximation that Ko-fi's own docs cite.
// common questions
Ko-fi fees — common questions
- What fees does Ko-fi charge on shop sales?
- On the free tier, Ko-fi takes 5% of shop, commission, and membership sales. Payment processing — roughly 2.9% + $0.30 via Stripe or PayPal — is charged separately by the processor. A $29 shop sale nets about $26.41, an effective rate near 8.9%.
- Are Ko-fi donations really fee-free?
- Ko-fi takes 0% of one-off donations on the free tier — the platform’s founding promise. Payment processing still applies, since Stripe and PayPal charge on any money movement. A $5 “coffee” arrives as roughly $4.55 after processor fees, with nothing going to Ko-fi itself.
- When is Ko-fi Gold worth $8 a month?
- Gold removes the 5% platform fee on sales. Break-even: $8 ÷ 0.05 = $160 in monthly shop revenue. Selling less, stay free; selling more, Gold is a strict win — at $500/month it saves $17 net. Annual billing (about $6/month) drops the break-even to $120.
- When does the money actually arrive?
- Instantly. Ko-fi routes payments directly to your own PayPal or Stripe account at purchase time — it never holds your balance, so there is no payout schedule, no minimum threshold, and no platform-side freeze risk. Among the platforms in this calculator family, that settlement model is unique to Ko-fi.
- How does Ko-fi compare with Gumroad for a small digital shop?
- On fees, Ko-fi free (about 7.9% + $0.30 all-in) clearly beats Gumroad direct (about 12.9% + $0.80), and Gold widens the gap. Gumroad’s rebuttal is infrastructure: native file hosting with download limits, license keys, and Discover traffic. Ko-fi’s digital delivery is simpler — fine for PDFs and packs, thin for software licensing.
- What does this calculator assume?
- Shop or commission sales at published rates — 5% free tier, 0% with Gold, plus approximately 2.9% + $0.30 processor fees — verified 2026-06-10 against ko-fi.com/gold. Membership tiers follow the same 5%/0% split. Donations are excluded since Ko-fi’s own cut there is zero.
// tip jar to product line
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