How to make money on OnlyFans, according to creators

• OnlyFans has boomed in the last two years, particularly for adult content creators.
• The subscription platform has become a lucrative way for many influencers to earn money.

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, makes $6.4 million per year, she told Insider. She uses three profiles to cater to different kinds of customers.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

Read more about how Adams built her business to over $6 million 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 Justine Jakobs, a creator with 36,000 OnlyFans subscribers.

Read how Jakobs reached the 0.1% of creators on OnlyFans and what her daily schedule is like

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

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

5. Promo 'shoutouts'

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

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

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.
• 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 is on track to make $300,000 in 2022.
• 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.

From messaging fans to shoots at LA mansions, a day in the life of an OnlyFans creator:

• Justine Jakobs, a creator with 36,000 subscribers, is in the top 0.1% of OnlyFans earners. She shared what her schedule looks like on a workday.
• Edwards, the creator who made more than $2 million, let us in on what one of her days on the job is like.

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.