How much platforms pay streamers in 2026: subscriptions, donations and ads

Kick gives streamers the most: 95% of a 5 dollar subscription and 95% of KICKs virtual gifts. YouTube pays 70% on memberships and Super Chat, 55% on ads in long videos and 45% on ads in Shorts. Twitch splits a subscription 50/50 by default, and through the Plus program the share rises to 60 or 70%. Bits earn the streamer 1 cent each. TikTok does not officially disclose its share of gifts, and by estimates the creator gets about a quarter of the viewer's money. VK Video Live has not published a percentage either: the VK Video partner program rules say the reward is calculated "in accordance with internal policies". For streamers in Russia the choice is already made: money can legally be received only through VK Video Live and Russian donation services.

Summary table: what share the streamer gets

Data from the help centers and official blogs of the platforms as of October 2026.

Platform	Subscription: price and share	Donations and gifts	Ads
Twitch	$5.99 for Tier 1 in the US, local prices in other countries; streamer gets 50%, with the Plus program 60% or 70%	Bits: 1 cent per bit	55% at 3 minutes of ads per hour
YouTube	memberships: the creator sets the price, in the US from $0.99 to $499.99; creator gets 70%	Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks: 70%	55% in long videos, 45% in Shorts
Kick	$5, streamer gets $4.75 (95%)	KICKs: 95%	not published
TikTok LIVE	base 50%, up to 70% with a bonus; in the US and Canada 70%, up to 90% with a bonus	not published, estimated at about 25% of the viewer's money	not published for live streams
VK Video Live	paid subscriptions exist, share not published	share not published	share not published, calculated under VK internal rules
Rumble	not published	80% (Rumble fee 20%)	60% (fee 40%)

Why the numbers differ so much. Kick officially keeps 5% only for payment processing and describes this as having no commission of its own. TikTok earns on the exchange rate difference: the viewer pays for coins, while the creator receives diamonds at a rate TikTok does not disclose. We covered this chain in detail in the article on coins and diamonds in TikTok LIVE.

Thresholds: when you start getting paid

Platform	Monetization threshold	Payouts
Twitch	Affiliate: 25 followers, 4 hours of streaming, 4 different days, an average of 3 or more viewers on at least 4 days within 30 days	only for Affiliates and Partners, from $50 (SWIFT from $100)
YouTube	memberships and Super Chat: 500 subscribers, 3 videos in 90 days and 3,000 watch hours in a year (or 3 million Shorts views in 90 days); ads: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours (or 10 million Shorts views)	through AdSense
Kick	Streamer status after 5 hours of streaming in total, two-factor authentication required	only through Stripe, no minimum amount
TikTok LIVE	18 years old, follower threshold not officially named (in practice about 1,000)	through LIVE rewards in the app
VK Video (including Live)	from September 1, 2026: 1,000 subscribers, 30,000 minutes (500 hours) watched in 90 days, 3 original videos of 3 minutes or longer	through cashout.vk.ru, contracts with Russian residents, sole proprietors and legal entities

Since May 2026 Twitch has opened subscriptions and Bits to all channels worldwide, even without a status. But only an Affiliate or Partner can withdraw this money; everyone else just accumulates a balance. If you have not passed the threshold yet, start with it.

How the shares work on each platform

Twitch

The standard share of a subscription is 50%. Since 2024 a higher rate is also available to Affiliates through the Plus program. If you earn 100 Plus points three months in a row, the split becomes 60/40 in the streamer's favor, and at 300 points it becomes 70/30. A Tier 1 subscription gives 1 point, Tier 2 gives 2, Tier 3 gives 6. Twitch converts Bits simply: the streamer gets 1 cent for each bit, so 1,000 bits is 10 dollars.

From ads the streamer gets 55% of net revenue if they run at least 3 minutes of ads per hour under the incentive program. Those who show less get 30% under the 2023 terms. The Tier 1 price in the US has been 5.99 dollars since July 2024, while most other countries have local, lower prices. So the real income from one subscription depends on where your viewers are from.

YouTube

YouTube's rates are set out in the help article on partner revenue. From memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks the creator receives 70% of net revenue. From ads on the watch page (long videos and stream recordings) it is 55%. From ads in the Shorts feed it is 45% of the amount allocated to creators. US tax is withheld from revenue from US viewers, so everyone needs to fill in their tax information in AdSense.

Kick

The simplest scheme: a subscription costs exactly 5 dollars, and the streamer gets 4.75. The remaining 5% goes to payment processing. KICKs gifts also pay 95%. The help center does not say how much one KICK is worth in dollars. Payouts go only through Stripe to a bank account, with no minimum amount. We compared the pros and cons for our region in the article Kick or Twitch for streamers from the CIS.

TikTok LIVE

TikTok gifts work through coins and diamonds, and TikTok does not publish the creator's share. In 2022 the BBC ran a test: out of gifts worth 106 dollars the creator received 33, and TikTok replied that its commission is "significantly less than 70%". A working estimate from creators' reports is about 25% of the viewer's money if the coins were bought on the website, and less if in the app. Subscriptions on TikTok are split differently: according to trade media citing Creator Academy, the creator's base share is 50% with a bonus of up to 20%. In the US and Canada, since October 2025 it is 70% after app store fees and up to 90% with a bonus.

VK Video Live

Streams on VK Video Live are part of the VK Video partner program: the section is named directly in the rules. In the version dated September 1, 2026 the threshold was lowered to 1,000 subscribers. The rules do not state a percentage of ad revenue: the reward is determined "in accordance with the internal policies of the Company". When VK launched the new program in September 2024, it named a range of 50-80% of ad revenue, but that applied to videos, and these figures are not in the current rules. Paid channel subscriptions exist on VK Video Live, but VK does not officially publish the streamer's share. If you connect VK Donut for a community, the service fee is 10%, as stated in the official VK help for creators.

Rumble

Rumble's Terms of Service (version dated September 1, 2026) set out agency commissions. Rumble takes 20% of tips and donations, and 40% of programmatic ads and sponsored integrations. Creators are paid nothing from Rumble Premium subscriptions. We did not find the share of paid channel subscriptions in the agreement.

How much a streamer gets from 100 subscriptions

The calculation below covers only the platform's share. Taxes, bank fees, currency conversion and app store fees are not included. For YouTube and TikTok the creator chooses the subscription price, so we took a notional 4.99 dollars.

Platform	Subscription price	Streamer's share	Per 100 subscriptions
Twitch, standard	$5.99 (US)	50%	about $300
Twitch, Plus 60/40	$5.99 (US)	60%	about $360
YouTube, memberships	$4.99 (notional)	70%	about $349
Kick	$5	95%	$475
TikTok, subscription	$4.99 (notional)	50-70%	about $250-349
VK Video Live	set on the platform	not published	cannot be calculated

Pay attention to Twitch. 100 Tier 1 subscriptions is exactly 100 Plus points. If you hold that level three months in a row, your income grows by a fifth without any new viewers. If your subscribers are from countries with local prices, the amount will be noticeably below 300 dollars: the price in Turkey or Brazil is several times lower than the American one.

What is available to streamers from Russia and the CIS

• Twitch. Payouts to Russian banks have been blocked since March 2022 because of sanctions, and there are no official announcements about resuming them. For other CIS countries there is no sanctions block, but the available payout methods are visible only in your Creator Dashboard, and before the first payout you must complete the W-8BEN tax form. The procedure and withholding rates by country are in our guide how to withdraw money from Twitch.
• YouTube. Since March 10, 2022 creators have not received revenue from viewers in Russia: not from memberships, not from Super Chat, not from Premium. In August 2024 Google deactivated AdSense accounts registered in Russia. For other CIS countries, check the official list of countries where the partner program operates.
• Kick. Payouts go only through Stripe, and Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries are not on the Stripe list.
• TikTok LIVE. In Russia live streams and monetization have been unavailable since March 2022.
• VK Video Live. Works in Russia, partner program payouts go through cashout.vk.ru. Individuals take part as Russian residents, and you can also register as self-employed, a sole proprietor or a legal entity.

Donations bypassing the platform: DonationAlerts and Boosty

Direct donations do not depend on your status on the platform. The widget connects in OBS to a stream on any site. For the CIS, DonationAlerts has separate payment terms (version dated March 3, 2026):

• agency fee for ruble donations by card, through YooMoney and VK Pay is 12% if less than 1 million rubles came in last month, and 9% above that amount. In the first month after registration it is always 12%;
• fee for transferring a donation to the chosen payout method: bank card in rubles is 1.9% plus 20 rubles, mobile account 2.2%, YooMoney 2.5%, VK Pay 0%;
• if a donation arrives in a currency other than your main one, 10% of the exchange rate is withheld on conversion.

Example: from a 1,000 ruble donation withdrawn to a card, 12% (120 rubles) and 1.9% plus 20 rubles (39 rubles) are withheld, and the streamer keeps about 841 rubles, which is roughly 84%. On small donations the share is lower because of the fixed 20 rubles. This is more than YouTube's 70% and Twitch's 50%, but less than Kick.

For Boosty we could not verify the official fee rate: the terms pages did not open, and the figures in reviews differ and are often outdated. The current percentage is visible in the creator's account before connecting, so rely on that. Pay taxes on this money under the rules of your country: in Russia that is personal income tax, the professional income tax or the sole proprietor's tax.

What pays off more at different channel sizes

• New channel, up to 10 viewers. The percentage barely affects income: it matters more where you are easier to notice and where you can withdraw money. For a streamer from Russia that is VK Video Live plus DonationAlerts. For a streamer from the CIS it is Twitch, where the Affiliate threshold is the lowest, and YouTube if you already make videos.
• Mid-size channel, 30-150 viewers. This is where subscriptions appear and the difference becomes noticeable. On Twitch aim for 100 Plus points, on YouTube it pays to enable memberships from 500 subscribers. Kick pays the most, but only to those with an account in a Stripe country.
• Large channel. The main income usually comes from direct ad integrations and donations, not the platform's share.

On any platform subscriptions and donations start with live viewership: while a channel is at the bottom of the directory, nobody sees it. To get your first viewers and climb in the category list, you can assemble the right plan in the viewer control panel: it also has separate services for VK Video Live and Kick.

Frequently asked questions

Where does a streamer get paid more from a subscription?

On Kick: 95%, which is 4.75 dollars from a 5 dollar subscription. On YouTube it is 70% from memberships, on Twitch 50%, and through the Plus program 60 or 70%.

How much does a streamer get from 1,000 bits on Twitch?

10 dollars: Twitch pays 1 cent for each bit. They can be withdrawn only with Affiliate or Partner status and a balance of at least 50 dollars.

Is it true that YouTube pays 55% from ads?

Yes, 55% from ads in long videos and stream recordings. From ads in Shorts it is 45%. From memberships and Super Chat it is 70%.

What share does VK Video Live pay?

Officially it is not published. The VK Video partner program rules say the reward is calculated under the company's internal policies. The entry threshold from September 1, 2026 is 1,000 subscribers and 500 hours watched in 90 days.

How much does DonationAlerts take?

For users from the CIS: a 12% agency fee (9% on donations above 1 million rubles a month) plus a transfer fee: 1.9% and 20 rubles for cards, 2.5% for YooMoney, 0% for VK Pay.

Can you receive money from Twitch or YouTube in Russia?

Not to Russian banks. Twitch has not paid to them since March 2022, and in 2024 Google deactivated Russian AdSense accounts. You can legally receive payouts only to your own account in the country where you live and where those payouts work.