OnlyFans has become a lucrative way for many influencers, particularly adult-content creators, to make money.
The top ways to make money on OnlyFans include subscriptions, direct messaging, tips, pay-per-view content, and more. Some OnlyFans creators have even built their own coaching businesses. The incomes generated by OnlyFans stars can be very high, with some earning millions of dollars per year.
OnlyFans creator Bryce Adams, for instance, made $6.4 million in one year and close to $9 million in another, she told Insider. She uses three profiles to cater to different kinds of customers.
Read more about how Adams built her business to millions in yearly revenue and her strategies for success
Here are the top seven ways to make money on OnlyFans:
1. Subscriptions
The most basic way for creators to monetize is through subscriptions. In order to unlock content, like pictures and videos, users must pay a monthly or annual fee. The creator takes home 80% of that revenue, while the company gets the other 20%.
How much to charge for subscriptions is up to the creator, and can be a challenging number to determine.
Morgan Edwards, an OnlyFans star known as “Kitty K,” said she was “in the dark” when deciding how to price subscriptions to her content when she was a beginner. Devising a strategy takes some knowledge of the industry.
Read more about the strategy 7 creators use to set prices for their content on OnlyFans
Once she gained some experience, Edwards built a successful OnlyFans career, charging nearly $70 for three months of access.
Check out how Edwards built her presence on OnlyFans and made $1.2 million from the platform in two years
2. Pay-per-view content
On their feeds, creators have the option to put additional content behind a paywall, which the users can purchase at an extra cost — usually photos or videos.
3. Direct messaging
Another way to make money on the platform — for many the most profitable way — is direct messaging with fans who pay a per-message fee or flat fee, and creating custom content. Audrey Aura, a creator with 3,000 subscribers, turned private messaging into her biggest income stream.
See a breakdown of how much Aura made from each of her OnlyFans revenue streams in a year
Some creators have found ways to maintain anonymity by publishing content without showing their face except in private messages. Farrah, who goes by @nofacemom on the platform, charges between $100 and $200 for content in messages where she shows her face. Many OnlyFans creators also remain anonymous by using pseudonyms when posting on the platform.
Read more about how Farrah made over $1 million by charging to see her face and posting on Reddit
While direct messaging can be a top source of income for OnlyFans creators, it can be time-consuming, and some spend a large portion of their day answering fans. This is the case for Liensue, a cosplay creator. She told Insider she spends two to four hours a day chatting with her subscribers.
Here’s how Liensue built a subscriber base by focusing on personal connection, and without explicit nudity
Some creators have turned to outsourcing messaging, hiring “ghostwriters” from OnlyFans management agencies to answer messages on their behalf.
Dive into the world of a secretive OnlyFans management firm whose former employees say it provides ‘ghostwriting’ services
Some creators have taken a step further and turned to AI tools to support them with their chatting needs.
Here’s a breakdown of different AI-powered chatting tools creators have been using, and how AI is shaking up the OnlyFans industry
And when creators spend so much time interacting with their subscribers, sometimes they will develop a relationship that goes beyond just business.
For some men, building connections with OnlyFans creators has become a way to combat loneliness
4. Tips
Subscribers to an OnlyFans page also have the option to send cash to creators in the form of a tip. For example, Amber Sweetheart, whose OnlyFans business is based on her personal connection with her fans, says she has subscribers who come back daily to interact with her and send her tips.
Read more about how Sweetheart built her OnlyFans business to $2.6 million
Some OnlyFans stars even create menus with suggested tips for custom content and direct messages. Charlotte Lavish said her tip menu has helped her make more money from her free OnlyFans page because her fans message and tip her most there.
See 3 “tip menu” examples from OnlyFans creators who also shared their strategies for pricing custom content and messages
OnlyFans creator Morgan Edwards, known online as “Kitty K.”
Morgan Edwards
Many OnlyFans creators rely on various marketing tactics to get new customers, like buying and selling “shoutouts” from each other to advertise on OnlyFans and on other social-media platforms.
Read more about how OnlyFans promo “shoutouts” have quietly become a big business for some creators
For some creators, these types of promotional posts are so important to their business that they hire assistants to do the marketing for them.
Check out how a virtual assistant for OnlyFans creators built a business that makes almost $360,000
The business of cross-promotion can take different forms. After being employed by superstar OnlyFans model Bryce Adams, creator Rayna Rose started her own OnlyFans account and struck a deal with Adams. Adams advertises Rose’s content on her social-media profiles, and Rose gives her a percentage of her earnings.
Read more about how much Rose earns a month and the details of her revenue-share deal
6. Coaching
Some OnlyFans creators are also establishing private coaching businesses and course programs as another way to make money. Aura, for example, started an OnlyFans course after she started receiving an uptick in requests for advice on how to succeed on the platform.
Inside an OnlyFans coaching business and how creators network with each other
7. Livestreaming
Creators can build a deeper connection with their fans by livestreaming themselves on OnlyFans. Livestreams can be free for subscribers, or be accessible for an additional fee.
Steph Mi, for example, regularly goes live on the platform, normally for about two hours. She keeps the first hour public and switches to a private, pay-per-view version during the second hour.
Read more about Mi built her income using livestreams and a golf show
Bryce Adams, on the other hand, has slowly been incorporating more livestreaming into her content offering. She’s tried out different formats, and one of the most successful has been the “marathon” livestream — a show that can last up to eight consecutive hours.
Read about the different strategies Adams has tried with livestreaming, and how she made almost $60,000 from a single show
Justine Jakobs.
Justine Jakobs.
Here’s our full coverage on how OnlyFans creators make money and manage their time.
How OnlyFans creators make money — and how much they make:
- How much 7 adult content creators charge for different kinds of content on OnlyFans, and how they determined their pricing strategies.
- The strategies that allowed 4 adult creators to earn their first million dollars on OnlyFans.
- How much money 5 OnlyFans creators make in a year, and the top ways they use to earn money, from subscriptions to messaging.
- OnlyFans superstar Amouranth breaks down how she built an adult-content business that makes her $1.5 million per month, and her advice to creators.
- Audrey Aura is a creator with 3,000 subscribers in the top 0.46% of OnlyFans earners. She shared how much she made in a year and broke down her various income streams.
- Morgan Edwards, known on OnlyFans as “Kitty K,” has 5,000 subscribers. In two years, she built a business that made her over $2 million.
- Isabella James has over 128,000 subscribers. With $2 million a year in revenue, she is one of the top earners on OnlyFans.
- Bryce Adams has a page with more likes than Amouranth and Bella Thorne. She made almost $5 million on her page with 480,000 fans.
- Adams has been experimenting with a variety of forms of content to maximize her earnings. Livestreaming has been lucrative, with a single show making up to $60,000.
- Nita Marie made up to $40,000 just six months after joining OnlyFans. Now, she earns $100,000 a month from three platforms.
- Belle Grace, a British creator, has around 2,400 fans. She shared the exact schedule that makes six figures on OnlyFans and allowed her to buy a house.
- Jade Nicole was able to earn seven figures with a small fanbase. She shared how she managed to make $1 million with just 1,000 fans.
- Teddy Bear, a male OnlyFans creator, quit the adult entertainment industry to focus on OnlyFans. He built a business that was on track to make $300,000 in a year.
- Kitty Morgan has over 85,000 subscribers. She made $1 million on OnlyFans just 18 months after she joined.
- Amber Sweetheart built a subscriber base by emphasizing personal connection. She earned over $2 million in two years, primarily through direct messaging.
- Anne is an OnlyFans creator and stay-at-home mom. She primarily uses Reddit to promote her page.
- Steph Mi has around 50,000 OnlyFans subscribers and launched an OFTV show. She made five figures in a month using creative marketing strategies to grow her page.
- Farrah is a former healthcare worker with 3,500 subscribers who posts most content without showing her face. She’s earned more than $1 million in revenue by charging fans more to see her face.
- “Mrs. Robinson,” as she’s known on OnlyFans, has about 1,600 subscribers. She doesn’t show her face in most of her content. She uses a “hot teacher” persona to stand out while only revealing her face in pay-per-view messages.
- MelRose Michaels coaches other adult-content creators on how to grow their businesses, including using ASMR and other safe-for-work content to promote. She built her OnlyFans income to $30,000 per month.
- Chloe Sasha is a single mother of four who uses cooking and Spanish lessons to grow her audience. She made six figures in 11 months on the platform.
- Liensue has built a loyal fanbase with her cosplay-focused content. She doesn’t feature explicit nudity in her pictures and videos, but still makes thousands of dollars a month.
- Rayna Rose is a creator who makes up to $24,000 a month on the platform. She kickstarted her career by sharing almost half of her revenue with her former boss, who is also an OnlyFans creator.
- Isla Moon has built a business combining adult content with her passion for outdoor activities. She dropped her plan to pursue a Ph.D. for OnlyFans, and made over $4 million in a year.
From messaging fans to shoots at LA mansions, a day in the life of an OnlyFans creator:
The rise of AI is making a tangible impact on the adult-content industry:
And while the OnlyFans industry can be lucrative, it’s not without problems:
- Some religious adult content creators have faced criticism and backlash from their communities, endangering careers, friends, and family.
- Some OnlyFans models, overwhelmed with the amount of messaging with subscribers they had to keep up with, relied on a secretive firm offering ghostwriting services.
- Three creators sued an OnlyFans management company, with one alleging the firm edited out her underwear in photos.
- For some men, chatting with creators on OnlyFans has become a way to combat loneliness. Experts are split on the potential consequences of these online relationships, with some saying it can be detrimental in the long run.
- Creators, too, can find solace in the relationships they build with their subscribers as they experience stigma and isolation because of their work.
