Our guide, How buying works, explained the process buyers go through when purchasing something on itch.io. This guide explains how creators can accept payments and get paid.
itch.io works with third-party payment gateways to handle all financial transactions. The following payment providers are available:
itch.io never stores any payment information on its servers. Buyers are directed to the payment gateways where they can securely enter their purchase information.
When using PayPal, the buyer will be redirected to the PayPal web page where they can securely pay, then back to itch.io with a secret download access link.
For most PayPal transactions, a fee of $0.30 + 2.9% is applied per transaction. Depending on your account here may be additional fees for currency conversion when receiving funds into your account.
When using Stripe the buyer will be redirected to a checkout page on itch.io where they can enter their credit card. itch.io never sees or stores credit card numbers. Payment information is sent security to Stripe through the buyer’s browser session.
For most credit card transactions, Stripe takes a fee of $0.30 + 2.9%.
Read more about Stripe's pricing
itch.io is a marketplace for creators of all kind. It’s our goal to support creators by giving them the tools to sell and distribute their work. As a way of saying thanks to those using itch.io, we utilize an Open Revenue Sharing model. (Read about the launch)
You (the seller) can decide what percentage of your sales will go towards itch.io, from 0% to 100%. All money collected is used directly for running servers, paying for bandwidth, and supporting the development of new functionality. You can read more about itch.io’s mission on our About page.
Here’s an example of how Open Revenue Sharing is calculated for a transaction. For the sake of simplicity, we'll assume the default rate, 10%, and that we're working in USD.
First, itch.io will take the percentage configured on your account’s revenue sharing settings. In this example, the default would be 10% of $10. Next, the payment provider fee is subtracted (Generally $0.30 + 2.9% of the total price).
--itch.io-- ----PayPal/Stripe----
$10 - ($10 * 0.1) - $0.30 - ($10 * 0.029) = $8.41
You can choose what percentage of your sales to give to support the development and operational costs of itch.io in your Seller Settings.
All payment processors we work with (PayPal, Stripe) have a per-transaction fee. Regardless of whether you're receiving payouts from us or using our direct payments system, this fee is applied per transaction at the time or purchase.
On the dashboard we report gross revenue, which is the total amount paid by buyers, before any fees have been subtracted. Because fees can fluctuate slightly, your final net earnings will be calculated when you request a payout when using our Payouts system.
A payment processor’s fee is typically comprised of a fixed amount around 30 cents and a percentage amount around 2.9%. Due to the fixed fee, the total percentage of the entire transaction the fee represents changes depending on the price of your product.
For example 30 cents of a 1 dollar payment is 30%, 30 cents of a 2 dollar payment is 15%, etc. You can avoid high payment processor fees by selling your work for a higher price.
For this reason we recommend people minimally sell their work at $2 to avoid giving up a large percentage of their earnings to the payment processor.
itch.io supports two different payout modes. Your choice affects what payment options are available to buyers, who is listed as the merchant of record, taxes, how chargebacks are handled, and more.
Here’s a table of the differences, refer to the table below for more detailed explanations.
| Direct to you | Collected by itch.io (Payouts) | |
| Setup | Manually connect to each payment provider. Provide tax information to each payment provider | No manual connection. Complete one tax interview on itch.io and accept seller terms |
| Payment methods for buyers | You have to manually setup each payment provider you want to support | You instantly get every supported method. New ones added will automatically be available |
| Currency | You manually select a currency | itch.io handles all transactions as USD. You get paid in USD. We handle automatic currency conversion |
| Getting paid | Each transaction goes directly into the balance of the respective payment provider you've connected | itch.io collects payments, you request a payout at a later time. You can be paid via PayPal or Payoneer |
| Merchant of Record | You are the Merchant of Record | itch.io is the Merchant of Record |
| Chargebacks | You are liable for chargebacks | itch.io is liable for chargebacks |
| Fraud detection | itch.io provides fraud detection | itch.io provides fraud detection |
| VAT | You are responsible for collection and remittance. You can enable automatic VAT collection from itch.io | VAT is always automatically collected. itch.io is responsible for remittance |
| Tax forms | Each payment provider will generate tax forms for you | itch.io will generate tax forms for you |
| Split transactions | Your account only supports transactions that go fully to your account. No support for co-op bundles | You can participant in any promotions that split payments across multiple sellers, like co-op bundles |
| Transaction eligibility | You may need to configure your payment provider account to accept payments from certain regions, otherwise they may be blocked | itch.io's payment provider account is configured to accept all payments |
| Refunds | itch.io will refund payments on your behalf when necessary | itch.io will refund payments on your behalf when necessary |
In order to sell with Direct to you, you must manually connect every payment provider you wish to make available to your buyers. Your payment provider account will be the Merchant of Record, meaning that transactions will list your name (or company name).
You will need to provide your tax identity information directly to each payment provider you connect with. They will report your income and file tax forms at the end of the year.
Each individual transaction will appear on your account as they happen. You will have access to your earnings as soon as the respective payment provider makes it available to you.
In this mode you are responsible for collecting and remitting VAT tax. You can enable tax collection from your payout mode selection screen on your account settings.
The following payment processors are available for “Direct to you”:
Selling with the itch.io Payouts system requires you to provide your tax identity information directly to itch.io. We use a third-party service to collect and securely store your information. They will also mail your tax forms at the end of the year.
With this model, itch.io is the Merchant of record. Payments will go directly to itch.io, and you are responsible for claiming your earnings at a later time by requesting a Payout.
A transaction must be at least 7 days old before the earnings are eligible for payout.
That 7-day window allows us to deal with fraud and various other problems that can arise regarding payments.
itch.io is not a bank, you should request your earnings from itch.io in a timely manner. If you don’t withdraw earnings from your account older than a year, we may charge a maintenance fee proportional to any unclaimed money older than a year left in your account. (Read more in our Terms of Service)
Once a payout is initiated, it is reviewed and paid at our earliest convenience. We human review all payouts after they are initiated, especially for first time sellers. Your patience is appreciated.
Payouts are paid to you via either PayPal or Payoneer. These transfers may include additional processing fees depending on what kind of account is receiving the payment. Generally, recipients outside of the United States will have the smallest fee with Payoneer.
European VAT laws dictate that any business, when selling to customers currently located in the European Union, must collect value-added tax (VAT) according to the current rate of the country the seller is buying from.
Note that EU-VAT also applies to non-EU business, and that it’s the country one is buying from, not living in, that is taken into account.
To help you comply with this legislation, itch.io allows you to:
With the Direct to you model, you are responsible for registering at a VAT MOSS and paying the tax collected. You can export all the necessary information about your transactions for your quarterly reporting from your dashboard. itch.io automatically collects address and geo-location from IP address for any buyers when necessary.
When using the Collected by itch.io model however, both those features are enabled by default, and itch.io pays tax quarterly to our VAT MOSS account located in Ireland. No work is required from you.
The Collected by itch.io model only supports accepting USD.
For Direct payments, you can select the currency you with to sell in. For PayPal users, it’s important to ensure your PayPal account is configured to accept the currency you selected, otherwise your payments may get blocked.
When using PayPal, the following currencies are supported:
When using Stripe, the following countries and currencies are available:
If you payment provider account is for a specific currency, you must set the same currency in your Seller settings page; otherwise, you may be unable to receive payments.
If you are using itch.io’s Payouts system then you must complete a Tax Interview before your account is eligible to collect any earnings through a payout. You can find instructions on how to complete the Tax Interview during the seller onboarding when setting up your account, or by navigating to the Tax Information tab on your account settings page.
Before your account can collect any payments you should complete the tax interview. After completing the tax interview your information will be on file and your account will ready to accept payments. (During this time your Validation Status may be shown as pending, but you can still start collecting payments)
Before your account is eligible to receive earnings through a payout, your tax information must be validated. Validation will take place after you open your first payout request. This means you can start selling before your information is validated, but you can not collect any earnings until validation succeeds. Generally validation happens instantly, but in some cases it may take longer to verify the information you have provided. If the validation has failed, then it will be reported on the Tax Information page. We are unable to process any payouts unless your tax information validates. You can either retake the tax interview or contact support for more assistance
During the tax interview, you must provide a Tax Identification Number (eg. Social Security Number, EIN, ITIN, local Tax Number, etc.). If you do not provide a valid Tax Identification Number then your account will be subject to the default 30% withholding rate, even if you are located in the United States or in a country that has a tax treaty with the United States.
This section is only relevant to sellers who are doing business as an entity located outside of the United States
Since itch.io is a U.S. company, funds we send to foreign entities are subject to a withholding tax. This only applies to sellers using itch.io’s Collected by itch.io (Payouts). Using Direct Payments you may be subject to the same tax but it is handled directly by the payment providers and not itch.io
The default tax rate is 30% but you may be eligible for a reduced rate if you operate in a country that has a tax treaty with the United States, and you provide a Tax Identification Number.
After you complete the tax interview you'll be shown your withholding rate on your seller account settings page. If you don’t agree with what is displayed, you'll have to retake the interview. You can contact support to get help with updating your tax information.
Although it may be possible to complete the tax interview without a tax identification number, you will be assigned the default withholding rate of 30% even if your country is eligible for a reduced rate. Please take the time to fill out the tax interview as much as you can. If you are unsure, then we recommending contacting a local financial professional.
This only applies to sellers using itch.io’s Collected by itch.io (Payouts). If itch.io needs to debit your account for previous activity then an adjustment will be applied the next time you request a payout. Any adjustments will be shown after you create a payout under the Adjustments summary section. If you do not see this section then there are no adjustments.
If the sum of your adjustments is larger than the sum of your revenue to be claimed, then you will not be able to initiate a payout. Once your balance is above your debits you can create a payout.
Here’s a list of adjustments you may see:
Why does itch.io pass fees on to me? itch.io utilizes “Open Revenue Sharing,” a system where sellers can decide what percentage of their revenue is shared with the platform. Because we are not guaranteed an amount from sellers through the sales of their goods, we pass any operating costs directly onto the seller. This includes payment processor fees, and any of the fees listed above.