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Patreon is a monetization platform co-founded in May 2013 by musician Jack Conte and developer Sam Yam. It is operated by Patreon, Inc.; which provides business tools for content creators to run subscription services and sell digital products. Patreon is most commonly known as a platform for various creators (artists, youtubers, etc.) to make money off their work in return for benefits such as getting content early, or accessing otherwise unavailable content. Patreon is often chosen by creators because of more creative freedom compared to other platforms like YouTube. It is also a more direct way to financially support them through subscription-based memberships and one time purchases.

Patreon
Basic information
Founded 2013
Legal structure Private
Industry Monetization
Official website https://www.patreon.com

Platform fees edit

As of August 4th, 2025, Patreon takes 5-12% from all purchases made within their platform. Creators can choose how purchases made on the App Store version of Patreon will implement Apple's 15%-30%[1] tax.[2]

Incidents edit

Arbitrary account suspensions (non-creator accounts) edit

 
Suspension email example

Many have reported being arbitrarily suspended from Patreon and thus prevented from supporting creators, for arbitrary or capricious reasons, unrelated to "bad faith" behavior. This sometimes happened seconds after signing up or months after using and paying on the platform.[3][4]

Suspension factors appear to include:

  • Using a Mexican debit card [5]
  • Using a VPN[3]
  • Using IP from other country without updating country of residency[6]
 
Email from Patreon requesting information to "unsuspend" account

After suspension, users are informed that they can appeal the suspension, but this leads to personal information being asked, namely: a name, location, ISP, payment method (last 4 card digits). The image shows an example of this information being requested.

References edit

  1. "Auto-renewable Subscriptions - App Store - Apple Developer". developer.apple.com.
  2. "How iOS in-app purchases work on Patreon". Patreon Help Center. 3 Sep 2024.
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Finally created a Patreon account, then was instantly suspended". Reddit. 10 Oct 2024.
  4. "Why soon as I joined not long after I get this,Account was deactivated : r/Patreon". Reddit. 15 Apr 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. "Recently created account got suspended for "suspicious activity" : /r/Patreon". Reddit. 21 May 2025. Archived from the original on 2025-05-31.
  6. "I am extremely confused about something patreon did. Can anyone help me and my buddy out?". Reddit. 14 Apr 2025. Archived from the original on 2025-05-31.