OnlyFans pricing: how to set subscriptions, PPV and bundles based on data

What makes up OnlyFans revenue?

OnlyFans revenue is the sum of several streams you set independently: subscriptions, paid PPV content, tips, and bundles and promotions.

• Subscription – a monthly fee for access to your feed. You can also set it to zero (a free account).
• PPV (pay-per-view) – paid messages or posts that a fan unlocks separately, independent of the subscription.
• Tips – voluntary payments on posts, in messages or during live streams.
• Bundles – a subscription for several months paid upfront at a discount, for example 3, 6 or 12 months.
• Promotions and free trial links – time-limited discounts for new or returning subscribers, and links that give free access for a few days.

The platform takes 20% of every payment and 80% goes to you – the same on OnlyFans and Fansly. This matters for your calculations: it is worth working out all the metrics below on net amounts, after the platform's fee.

Before you change any price, check in your account statistics what share of revenue each stream brings in. If most of it comes from PPV, raising the subscription price may change little; if almost everything is subscriptions, retention is usually your biggest lever. This breakdown shows where to start optimising.

Free or paid account – when does each model make sense?

A free account pays off when you have lots of traffic and enjoy selling through messages; a paid account when you want predictable, recurring income from a smaller but engaged group.

Model	Pros	Cons	Best for
Free account	Low barrier to entry, fan numbers grow faster, easier to attract social media traffic	Income depends on PPV sales, more work in messages, many fans never buy anything	Creators with a large reach who have time for regular communication
Paid account	Steady monthly income, fans with stronger purchase intent, easier forecasting	Slower growth, higher expectations of regular content, churn hurts more	Creators with a clear niche and a steady posting rhythm
Both accounts in parallel	The free account acts as a funnel into the paid one, you can test two audiences	Twice the management and content planning, risk of cannibalisation	Accounts with established traffic and a well-organised content calendar

If you are just starting out, it is usually simpler to launch with one model and only consider a second after a few months of data. Remember that you should be the one talking to your fans – that builds the trust every sale depends on.

How do you set your starting subscription price?

Your starting price is determined by your positioning: what exactly a fan gets, how often, and how that compares with similar accounts.

1. Describe your account's promise in one sentence – niche, style, posting frequency. The narrower and more distinctive your niche, the less pressure to compete on the lowest price.
2. Review 10–15 similar accounts in your niche and note their prices, posting frequency and bundles. You are interested in the range, not the average.
3. Decide where you sit in that range – lower if you are still building your content library; higher if you have a recognisable brand, consistency and a large archive.
4. Leave room for promotions – your base price should allow a temporary discount without dropping below a level you consider fair for your work.
5. Write down a hypothesis – for example "at this price I expect roughly this conversion from my traffic" – so that in a month you have something to compare the result with.

At the time of writing, OnlyFans lets you set a subscription between USD 4.99 and USD 49.99 a month, or run a free account; PPV and tips have their own minimum and maximum amounts. Limits change, so always check the current settings in your dashboard.

How do you price PPV without putting fans off?

Price PPV in value tiers and send it less often but more precisely – a fan who receives mass offers several times a day is quicker to cancel their subscription.

• Build three value tiers: shorter material at a lower price, a standard session at a mid price and your most extensive content at the top price. Fans see the logic of your pricing, and you can compare which tier sells best.
• The price should match what the fan gets – length, uniqueness, effort. The offer description should say clearly what is included, with no empty promises.
• Segment your audience – different offers for new subscribers and for loyal fans who have already bought. Sending the same message to everyone is the quickest way to see open rates fall.
• Set a rhythm – for example a few well-considered offers a week instead of daily ones. Measure whether sending more often pushes up churn.
• Don't undercut your feed – if a fan pays a subscription, your regular feed posts need real value, and PPV should be an extra, not the only reason to stay.

How do you use bundles, promotions and free trials?

Bundles and promotions serve specific goals – winning new fans, bringing back those who left, or extending retention – and they work best when they are time-limited.

• Multi-month bundles (for example 3, 6 or 12 months at a discount) turn a monthly fan into a longer-term one and make your income more predictable. The discount usually grows with the length of the bundle.
• Promotions for new subscribers help with social media campaigns – run them for a few days and measure how many of those fans stay at full price.
• Promotions for former subscribers are a cheap way to win back people who already know you.
• Free trial links work well for collaborations and specific traffic channels – create a separate link for each source so you know which one works.

Be wary of permanent discounts: if a promotion runs all the time, fans learn that the full price doesn't exist. A promotion should have a start, an end and a measurable goal.

Which metrics should you track so your pricing is data-driven?

Four metrics are enough to judge any pricing decision: conversion, retention (churn), average revenue per fan and fan lifetime value.

• Conversion – the share of profile visitors who bought a subscription. Illustration: 40 new subscribers ÷ 2,000 profile visits = 2%.
• Churn – the percentage of subscribers at the start of the month who didn't renew; retention is its inverse. Illustration: 30 cancellations ÷ 200 subscribers at the start of the month = 15% churn, or 85% retention.
• Average revenue per fan (ARPF) – how much you earn net each month per active fan, including PPV and tips. Illustration: USD 2,000 net revenue ÷ 200 active fans = USD 10.
• Fan lifetime value (LTV) – how much you earn on average from one fan over the whole time they stay subscribed. Illustration: ARPF of USD 10 ÷ 15% churn ≈ USD 67.

All the figures above are purely illustrative, to show how the calculation works – they are not market data or a forecast. What matters most is comparing these metrics over time on your own account. When Scarlet Growth works with creators, we usually start with exactly this set of numbers, because it shows whether the problem is traffic, price or retention.

How do you test prices every month? A simple routine

Test one change at a time, measure it for two to four weeks and only then decide – otherwise you won't know what actually worked.

1. At the start of the month, record your baseline: conversion, churn, ARPF and traffic sources.
2. Pick one variable – subscription price, PPV tiers, bundle discount or offer frequency. Don't change your price and your promotion strategy at the same time.
3. Write down a hypothesis: what should improve and by roughly how much.
4. Wait two to four weeks – a shorter period often shows random fluctuations rather than the effect of the change.
5. Compare the result with your baseline and look at the whole picture: a higher price may lower conversion but raise ARPF and LTV.
6. Keep, roll back or adjust – and plan the next test for the following month.

Keep a simple spreadsheet with the date of each change, the hypothesis and the result. After a few months you'll have your own data about your fans, which is worth more than any "universal" price from the internet. If you'd like someone with an analytics background to look at your numbers, Scarlet Growth does this as part of an account audit.