One of the cool parts of being a streamer is receiving donations from people who want to support your stream. But how much of your donations on Twitch actually go to you, the streamer? Does Twitch take a cut? I’ll discuss that and how to set up donations below.

How Much Does Twitch Take From Donations?

Twitch does not take any money from donations as most donations from viewers to streamers happen on payment systems such as PayPal or Cash App and not Twitch. Twitch does however have their own tipping system called “Twitch Bits” where they take around a 30% cut when the bits are purchased.

If you have ever donated to a streamer, or have donations set up on your stream, then you know that Twitch has nothing to do with donations.

They are simply the platform by which viewers discover the streamers they want to donate to, but they do not process donations themselves.

For most streamers donations are done through PayPal as they are easy to use and reliable.

So we know Twitch does not take a cut from your donations, but now let’s talk about whether or not PayPal takes a cut of your Twitch donations.

Does PayPal Take Money From Twitch Donations?

PayPal does charge a transaction fee for each donation. Currently, PayPal charges a flat $0.49 fee plus a 2.89% fee per transaction. So if you receive a $1 donation on Twitch you will only receive $0.48 from PayPal and a $100 Twitch donation would get you $96.62 using PayPal.

Streamers, PayPal has recently increased its transaction fees. A $1 tip will now only net you $0.48. That's right, less than half of a $1 tip actually goes to you.

Please be aware of this when setting tip goals and checking revenue reports! pic.twitter.com/nEgioA1hmY

— Lowco (@LowcoTV) August 9, 2021

As you can see, if you are not receiving 100% of your donations it is because PayPal is taking a cut of your donation and not Twitch.

Now the reason I bring up PayPal is because it is the most common payment system used by streamers to receive donations as it is secure and easy to link to streaming software such as Streamlabs.

But with that being said I have seen streamers who post their Cash Apps or Venmos in their Twitch panels for people to donate to.

It really just depends what you feel comfortable with and what platform your viewers feel comfortable donating to you with.

If you want to set up donations on your stream here is how you would do it.

How To Set Up Donations On Twitch

To set up donations on Twitch follow these steps:

1. Link your Twitch to Streamlabs
2. Click on “Dashboard” in the bottom left
3. Click on “Account” then “Settings” then “Donation Settings”
4. Now click on the payment system you want to use to accept donations such as PayPal
5. Connect the payment system with your Streamlabs and post the link in your Twitch panels

Once that link is in your Twitch panels anyone who clicks on it will be taken to your donation page where they can donate to your stream.

This is what mine looks like:

And once people click on that panel they will be taken to this page here where they can donate to my stream.

If you need some more help I have some screen shots below to help guide you through setting up donations on your channel.

Here is the “Dashboard” icon. It is typically found in the bottom left of Streamlabs. If it is not you may have adjusted Streamlab’s appearance in which case just look for the icon you see below.

Once you click dashboard you will be taken to a new tab on Streamlab’s website where you will see your dashboard.

From here click “Account”, then “Settings”, then “Donation Settings”. You will be presented with a list of payment systems to use.

Choose the one you want to use and go through the process of linking the accounts with Streamlabs. And like I mentioned, most people choose PayPal because it is secure and easy, but the choice is yours.

The cool thing about using Streamlabs is that not only is it easy to link PayPal and Streamlabs but it is also easy to set up alerts for your stream whenever someone donates to you.

I use Streamlabs Prime (click to check it out) and got some sweet overlays from OWN3D.TV (click here to check them out) and so anytime someone donates on my stream I get a cool little alert and their username displays at the top of my stream.

Little things like this not only make your stream look more professional, but it is also great for engagement. And who couldn’t use a little more engagement on their streams?

Do You Have To Be A Twitch Affiliate To Get Donations?

You do not have to be a Twitch Affiliate in order to receive donations on Twitch. Donations you receive on Twitch are sent to your own personal payment systems, like PayPal, that you have setup. With that being said you do have to be a Twitch Affiliate to receive things like bits and subs.

For most streamers on Twitch, especially smaller streamers, most of your income will come from things like subs and bits and not from donations.

This is because this is how most Twitch users are used to contributing to streamers on the platform. It’s easy and straight forward and they don’t have to try to find the payment system of their favorite streamer to try and donate to them.

There are also tons of awesome extensions on Twitch that will showcase your top bit donors and top gifted subs contributors on your channel which even further incentivizes these types of contributions.

But with that being said, you don’t have to be a Twitch Affiliate in order to make money on Twitch. If you want to know of ways you can make money without being a Twitch Affiliate then check out my video below.

Do Twitch Donations Get Taxed?

Any money you make on Twitch through donations, Twitch bits, subs, etc. is indeed taxable income; however, how much you will have to pay will depend on where you live and other sources of income that you may have.

Now I don’t want to go too much into detail regarding taxes as that is not my specialty. If you have any questions regarding what you have to pay regarding taxes from Twitch it is best to talk to a financial advisor.

Now we know Twitch doesn’t take money from donations, but if you want to know more about how much money Twitch takes from Twitch bits check out my article here.

Sources

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

https://www.dexerto.com/business/new-paypal-fees-could-cost-streamers-thousands-of-dollars-in-donations-1628050/