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The Truth About OnlyFans: What 1 Million Subscribers Taught Us About Who Actually Pays
·9 min read
Everyone has opinions about OnlyFans. How much creators make. How subscribers behave. What actually drives revenue.
Most of those opinions are wrong.
We got our hands on real data—over 1 million subscriber accounts, 58 million transactions, and nearly $2.1 million in tracked revenue. No guesswork. No estimates. Actual numbers from actual accounts.
What we found challenges almost everything people assume about how OnlyFans works.
Here's what the data actually says.
Ask someone how OnlyFans works and they'll probably say "people pay monthly subscriptions to see content."
That's technically true. It's also almost completely irrelevant to how money actually moves on the platform.
Subscriptions account for just 4.11% of OnlyFans transactions.
Let that sink in. The thing everyone thinks drives OnlyFans revenue—the subscription model—generates barely 4 cents of every dollar.
So where does the money actually come from?
| Revenue Source | % of Transactions |
|---|---|
| Private Messages (PPV) | 69.74% |
| Tips | 21.65% |
| Subscriptions | 4.11% |
| Resubscriptions | 3.84% |
| Posts | 0.64% |
| Streams | 0.01% |
Private messages dominate everything. Nearly 70% of all money spent on OnlyFans comes from pay-per-view content sent through DMs. Tips add another 22%.
Together, messages and tips account for over 91% of revenue.
This completely changes how you should think about OnlyFans—both as a creator and as someone trying to understand the platform. The subscription is just the door. The real business happens in the DMs.
Here's the stat that surprised us most:
95.8% of OnlyFans subscribers never spend a single dollar beyond their initial subscription (if they even paid for one).
Out of 1,003,855 subscribers analyzed, only 42,162 made any purchase at all. The rest? They subscribed, maybe looked around, and never opened their wallets again.
This has massive implications.
If you're a creator, it means the vast majority of your subscribers will never pay you anything extra. Your entire business depends on identifying and nurturing the 4.2% who actually spend.
If you're trying to understand the economics of OnlyFans, it means the platform runs on a tiny fraction of its user base. Most "subscribers" are essentially window shoppers.
The 4.2% who do spend aren't messing around.
Average spend per paying subscriber: $48.52
That's not per month—that's total spend with a single creator. Some spend more. Some spend less. But the average paying fan drops nearly $50.
The math becomes clear: creators don't need millions of fans. They need to find and convert the small percentage who are willing to pay.
Every platform has whales—the heavy spenders who generate disproportionate revenue. OnlyFans is no different, but the concentration is extreme.
Just 0.01% of subscribers generate 20.2% of all revenue.
These are fans spending between $1,400 and $59,000 on a single creator. Yes, you read that right. Some fans spend tens of thousands of dollars.
In our dataset of over 1 million subscribers, this "whale" segment contributed $412,823 out of $2,045,944 total.
You never know which subscriber might be a whale. That quiet fan who subscribed three weeks ago and hasn't said much? They might be sitting on a $10,000 spending budget waiting for the right connection.
This is why successful creators treat every subscriber interaction as potentially high-value. The person you ignore today could have been your biggest spender tomorrow.
This is the question everyone asks. And the honest answer is: it depends wildly.
But we can give you real numbers.
Across all subscribers (paying and non-paying), creators earn an average of $2.06 per subscriber.
Why so low? Because 95.8% of subscribers pay nothing. That massive non-paying majority drags the average way down.
This number matters for one critical reason: acquisition costs.
If you're paying for traffic, ads, or promotion to get subscribers, you need to keep your cost per subscriber under $2 to stay profitable on average. Spend $5 to acquire a subscriber who statistically generates $2.06? You're losing money.
Of course, averages hide enormous variation.
| Creator Tier | Avg Monthly Earnings | % of Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Top 0.1% | $146,881 | 76% |
| Top 0.1-1% | $33,984 | 17.72% |
| Top 1-5% | $8,208 | 4.28% |
| Top 5-10% | $1,955 | ~1.5% |
| Bottom 50% | $24 | <0.5% |
The top 0.1% of creators capture 76% of all revenue.
Read that again. Three-quarters of all money spent on OnlyFans goes to less than 1 in 1,000 creators.
The next tier (top 0.1-1%) earns a respectable $34K monthly average. The top 1-5% still makes over $8K. But drop below the top 5%, and earnings fall off a cliff. The bottom half of creators average just $24 per month.
OnlyFans has a winner-take-most economy. A tiny percentage of creators make serious money. Most make almost nothing.
Timing matters more than most creators realize.
83.3% of all subscriber spending happens within the first 48 hours.
That's not a typo. The overwhelming majority of money a subscriber will ever spend happens in the first two days after they subscribe.
After 48 hours, spending drops dramatically. After a week, most subscribers who haven't spent probably never will.
This finding has huge strategic implications:
For creators: Your welcome message and first interactions are everything. If you wait a few days to engage new subscribers, you've already missed most of your revenue window.
For subscribers: That "I'll check this out later" mentality? Most people never actually come back with their wallets open.
The creators who win are the ones who engage immediately—personalized welcome messages, exclusive offers, direct conversation—all within hours of someone subscribing.
We found an interesting funnel in the data:
That means roughly 13% of subscribers engage in conversation but never buy anything.
This is a massive opportunity gap. These are people who showed interest—they took the time to actually message—but something stopped them from spending.
What stopped them? Probably:
Creators who can convert even a fraction of that 13% "engaged but not paying" segment would see significant revenue increases.
Not all days are equal on OnlyFans.
| Day | % of Weekly Revenue |
|---|---|
| Saturday | 15.4% |
| Sunday | 14.3% |
| Friday | 14.6% |
| Thursday | 14.3% |
| Tuesday | 14.2% |
| Monday | 13.6% |
| Wednesday | 13.6% |
Weekends (Saturday + Sunday) drive 29.7% of weekly revenue. Add Friday and you're at 44.3%.
The pattern makes sense. People have more free time on weekends. They're relaxed, browsing, more willing to spend on entertainment.
For creators, this means:
Based on everything the data shows, here's what separates the top creators from the 50% making $24/month:
With 70% of revenue coming from private messages, successful creators treat their inbox as their primary revenue channel—not their feed, not their subscription price.
The 48-hour window is real. Top creators have systems for immediate engagement—automated welcome messages, quick personal follow-ups, early offers.
Knowing that 0.01% of fans generate 20% of revenue, successful creators invest in building deep relationships. They look for signals of high spending potential and nurture those connections.
17% of subscribers start conversations. Only 4% buy. The creators who close that gap—who turn conversations into transactions—are the ones who win.
With $2.06 average revenue per subscriber, there's no room for expensive marketing. Successful creators find efficient, low-cost ways to grow their audience.
OnlyFans isn't what most people think it is.
It's not really a subscription platform—it's a messaging platform where subscriptions are just the entry fee.
It's not a place where everyone makes money—76% of revenue goes to 0.1% of creators.
It's not driven by casual fans—a tiny percentage of serious spenders generate most of the value.
And it rewards speed and engagement over almost everything else.
Whether you're a creator trying to grow, or just someone curious about how the platform actually works, these numbers tell the real story.
The question is: what will you do with this information?
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Data methodology: Analysis based on 1,003,855 subscriber accounts, 58,947,698 transactions, and $2,045,944 in tracked revenue across 2,982 creator accounts. US-based subscriber data. Last updated 2025.