Buy Me a Coffee Fee Calculator

Guide

About the Buy Me a Coffee Fee calculator

Our Buy Me a Coffee fee calculator is a free tool that shows exactly what the platform takes from every payment and what you keep. Buy Me a Coffee (often called BMaC) is one of the most widely used creator-support platforms, enabling artists, writers, podcasters, developers, and content creators to accept one-time tips and recurring memberships from their audience. Understanding its fee structure helps you price your support tiers correctly and know your real earnings before you withdraw.

How Buy Me a Coffee's fees work.

Buy Me a Coffee charges a single flat platform fee of 5% on every transaction. This applies equally to one-time coffee payments, shop purchases, membership subscriptions, and any extras you sell. There's no monthly subscription fee for creators — the 5% is only charged when you receive money. This keeps the platform genuinely free to use until you start earning.

On top of the 5% platform fee, Stripe processes the payment and charges its standard rate. In the US, Stripe's base processing fee is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. BMaC also incurs a 0.5% Stripe payout fee when transferring funds to creators — bringing the total Stripe component to 3.4% + $0.30 for domestic transactions.

Additional surcharges for international and subscription payments.

For payments made by supporters with non-US cards (international payments), Stripe applies a further +1% international processing surcharge. For recurring subscription and membership payments, Stripe's Billing product adds a +0.5% fee. These surcharges are additive, so an international recurring payment would add both +1% and +0.5% to the base Stripe rate.

Toggle the surcharges on in the calculator above to see their impact. On a $10/month international membership, the combined fee reaches about 14% — significantly more than the headline 5%.

Buy Me a Coffee fees vs Ko-fi.

The most common comparison is Buy Me a Coffee vs Ko-fi. Ko-fi's Free plan charges 0% on tips and donations — BMaC charges 5% on everything, including tips. If you primarily rely on small one-time tips, Ko-fi's free plan is financially better. If you have a strong membership following or sell digital products, the difference narrows.

BMaC's 5% is lower than Patreon's Lite plan (5%) and significantly lower than Patreon's standard and Pro tiers (8–12%). For most creators, BMaC and Ko-fi Gold are the lowest-cost options in the creator support space.

The impact of the fixed $0.30 processing fee on small payments.

On small payments, the $0.30 fixed Stripe fee is proportionally significant. On a $3 coffee: total fees are about $0.57 (5% = $0.15, Stripe = $0.40), leaving you $2.43 — an effective 19% take rate. On a $15 payment, the effective rate drops to about 10.4%. On $100, it's about 8.7%. The fixed fee always hurts small transactions more, which is why creators who primarily receive $3–$5 tips see a higher effective fee than the headline rates suggest.

How to calculate your Buy Me a Coffee payout.

For a standard US one-time payment, your payout = amount − (amount × 5%) − (amount × 3.4% + $0.30). For a subscription, add 0.5% to the processing rate. For an international payment, add 1%. Use the calculator above for instant results — adjust the toggles and your amount to model any scenario.

Accuracy and what this calculator covers.

All rates in this calculator are taken from Buy Me a Coffee's official help documentation, verified on 2026-06-13. The 5% platform fee and Stripe processing components (2.9% base + 0.5% payout = 3.4% + $0.30) reflect the published fee structure as of mid-2026. Surcharges for international (+1%) and subscription payments (+0.5%) are also sourced from the official help pages. Payment processing fees outside the US (different Stripe countries) are not modelled — international creators should check their local Stripe rates. Check the sources linked below before making pricing decisions.