Fees

IHow the numbers above are made

The figures above this text are not typed into this page. They are computed from the platform's current settings each time the page is rendered, and the same settings produce every price and fee sentence on the application form, in the Studio and at checkout. If a number here ever disagreed with a number at checkout, that would be a bug, and we would want to hear about it at support@lotusmake.com.

IIOne share for every payment

Every maker pays the same share, stated above, on every payment a supporter makes: a tip or GPU hours, a tier, an offer, hardware once or every month, and a contribution to a project. The maker keeps the rest, less Stripe's fee. The share is stated again as a sentence before every checkout.

There is no plan to choose, no monthly price, no listing fee for pages hosted here, no fee on exports and no advertising. Accounts for supporters are free.

Contributions sent to a wallet address a maker publishes carry no share, because the platform never touches them.

IIIWho is the merchant of record

LotusMake is the merchant of record and the seller of record for every payment on this site. The charge on a supporter's statement carries our name with the creator's handle beside it. Prices are in US dollars. The creator is the beneficiary of the payment and is paid by Stripe from each charge under Stripe's Connected Account Agreement, which the creator accepts when connecting a payouts account. Stripe pays out weekly to a bank account in one of the countries we support: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the European Economic Area.

Because we are the merchant of record, refunds and disputes come to us, not to the creator. A refund reverses the creator's share of that payment along with ours. A lost dispute reverses the creator's share, and the dispute fee Stripe charges is our cost. While a dispute is open, the monthly payment it concerns is paused; if the dispute is lost, that tier or hardware month ends.

IVWhat Stripe's fee is

Stripe charges for processing each payment: a percentage of the amount plus a fixed amount per card payment, and a further small percentage on recurring payments. Stripe bills that fee to us, and we pass it through to the creator's share at Stripe's published rate, with no markup. The exact figures in force are in the sentences above.

Because Stripe's fee includes a fixed amount per payment, a small payment loses a larger share to it than a large one. That is why the GPU hour above leaves the maker a smaller part of what was paid than the larger example does, and why there is a minimum tier price.

On the pages visitors see, Stripe's fee is named but not quantified, because it varies by payment method and country. Creators see it quantified in the Studio, in the ledger of every tip and each supporter's monthly payment: the gross amount, Stripe's processing fee, the platform's share and the net.

VProcessor approval

Stripe lists content creation platforms among the businesses it restricts and monitors. LotusMake must hold Stripe's approval as a content creation platform before any creator is onboarded, and rule B11 of the terms says so. Stripe's own payment rules, List B on that page, apply to every payment made through this site.

Stripe has not yet granted the processor approval we have asked for, and we will publish its date here when it does.

VIChanges

A change to the share is announced 30 days ahead on the transparency page and never applies to a payment already made. The date at the top of this page is the date this text last changed. The figures above change only with the settings they are computed from.