Creator platforms are strange about their own economics. The fee is stated, usually in a footer, and then the subject closes. What the fee pays for, what it actually costs to move the money, and what happens on a one-dollar contribution are treated as internal matters.
We think that is backwards. A writer deciding where to put their world is making a decision about a business they cannot see, and the honest response is to show them the business.
So: CanonBoard charges a 10 percent platform fee, and card processing is passed through at cost. Here is the entire arithmetic behind that, including the parts that are unflattering.
The two deductions, and nothing else
There are exactly two subtractions between what a reader pays and what reaches you.
- **CanonBoard's platform fee: 10 percent of the gross.** This is what we charge for the product.
- **Card processing: passed through at cost.** Around 2.9 percent plus a fixed 30 cents on a typical card. We take no margin on it — where we can read the exact figure back from the payment processor, that exact figure is what we deduct, not a rounded-up estimate.
Nothing else. There is no listing fee, no charge for opening a Board, no withdrawal fee, no monthly minimum, and no plan requirement — the same terms apply on the free tier and on Pro.
On a ten-dollar contribution: one dollar of platform fee, about 59 cents of processing, **about $8.40 to you.** Every earning in your account is itemised with those three numbers shown separately, so you never have to take our word for the arithmetic.
Why processing is passed through rather than absorbed
We could bundle it. A single headline rate of around 14 percent with no separate processing line would look simpler, and plenty of platforms present it that way.
We do not, for a reason worth stating plainly: **a platform that absorbs processing has to price for the worst transaction it might receive.** Processing costs vary considerably — an international card, a currency conversion, or a payment method with a higher rate can cost several times what a domestic card does. A bundled rate has to cover all of it, which means every creator pays a premium sized by the most expensive transactions on the platform, whether or not any of theirs were.
Passing it through at cost means your deduction reflects your transaction. It is less tidy on a marketing page and it is a fairer number.
The trade-off is real and worth being honest about: it makes the total less predictable. You cannot know in advance exactly what a given contribution will net, only that it will be the gross minus 10 percent minus whatever the card actually cost. That is why the itemisation exists.
The part that is bad for you: small contributions
The fixed 30 cents in card processing is the uncomfortable number, and it lands on the creator.
- **$1 contribution** → 10¢ fee, ~33¢ processing, **~57¢ to you.** You keep 57 percent.
- **$3 contribution** → 30¢ fee, ~39¢ processing, **~$2.31 to you.** 77 percent.
- **$5 contribution** → 50¢ fee, ~45¢ processing, **~$4.05 to you.** 81 percent.
- **$25 contribution** → $2.50 fee, ~$1.03 processing, **~$21.48 to you.** 86 percent.
- **$100 contribution** → $10 fee, ~$3.20 processing, **~$86.80 to you.** 87 percent.
A one-dollar contribution is, in pure percentage terms, a poor deal for you. That is not a policy we chose — it is what the card networks charge to move a dollar — but the effect lands on your side of the ledger and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
We have kept the one-dollar option anyway, and we think you should too. The first contribution somebody makes is rarely about the money; it is the moment a reader decides they are a supporter rather than an observer, and a low threshold is what makes that decision easy. The people who start at a dollar are disproportionately the people who are still there a year later. If you would rather steer them higher, most Boards find that simply suggesting an amount does most of the work.
What the 10 percent actually pays for
In rough order of cost: the infrastructure that runs the Boards, and the human time to settle payouts and handle the disputes, refunds, and edge cases that any system moving money generates.
Payouts are settled manually — a person reviews the request and sends the money. That is slower than an automated rail and it is a deliberate trade. The automated alternative requires every creator to complete payment-processor onboarding before they can earn anything: identity verification, business details, and a supported-country requirement that excludes a substantial number of writers outright. For a creator whose first payout is fifty dollars, being able to earn at all matters more than receiving it the same afternoon.
The honest summary is that audience funding is not, on its own, a large business for us at current volume. The subscription business pays for the company today. The funding layer exists because it is the thing we think should exist, and because a platform whose revenue rises with its creators' revenue is pointed in the right direction.
Why 10 and not 5, or 20
Below about 8 percent, a platform fee stops covering the cost of running the thing at realistic volumes, which means it is being funded by something else — usually investors, and usually temporarily. Fees that exist because a runway exists tend to be revised, and creators discover the revision after they have built an audience they cannot easily move.
Above about 15 percent, the fee starts changing behaviour. People route around it, ask their audience to pay them directly, and the platform becomes a shop window for a transaction happening elsewhere. A fee that people work to avoid is too high, regardless of what a spreadsheet says.
Ten is the number that covers the work without being worth avoiding. It is not a clever number. It is the boring one that survives contact with the arithmetic.
What we will and will not do with this
Stating a fee is easy. What is worth committing to is the behaviour around it.
- **The rate applies to everyone.** There is no plan that buys a better split. Funding works identically on the free tier and on Pro — see the pricing page, where the same figures are stated.
- **We take no margin on processing.** It is a pass-through, and if we ever changed that it would be a change to the headline rate, made in the open, rather than a quiet markup on a line item most people never check.
- **Every deduction is shown.** Gross, platform fee, and processing appear separately on each earning in your account. A fee you cannot verify is a fee you are trusting rather than agreeing to.
- **Your audience is not held hostage.** Your world is exportable and the relationship with your readers is yours. We think that matters more than the fee, and a platform confident in its product does not need lock-in.
If any of the above turns out to be untrue in practice, we would like to hear about it before your readers do. The complete funding mechanics are on the funding guide, and the payout plumbing is in creator payouts, fees, and getting paid.
Frequently asked questions
- What percentage does CanonBoard take from creator funding?
- A 10 percent platform fee on the gross contribution, plus card processing passed through at cost — roughly 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on a typical card. There is no listing fee, no charge to open a Board, no withdrawal fee, and no plan requirement. A ten-dollar contribution reaches the creator as about $8.40.
- Does CanonBoard mark up payment processing?
- No. Processing is a pass-through at cost, and where the exact fee can be read back from the payment processor that exact figure is deducted rather than an estimate. Each earning is itemised with the gross, the platform fee, and the processing shown separately so the arithmetic can be checked.
- Why doesn't CanonBoard just charge one bundled rate?
- Because a platform that absorbs processing has to price for the most expensive transactions it might receive — international cards, currency conversion, higher-rate payment methods — which means every creator pays a premium sized by the costliest payments on the platform. Passing processing through at cost means your deduction reflects your own transaction. The trade-off is that the total is less predictable, which is why every earning is itemised.
- Why do small contributions keep a smaller percentage?
- Because card processing includes a fixed charge of about 30 cents regardless of amount, and that fixed portion is proportionally much larger on a small payment. A $1 contribution nets the creator around 57 cents, while a $25 contribution nets about $21.48 — roughly 86 percent. The one-dollar option is kept available anyway, because a low threshold is often what turns a reader into a supporter in the first place.
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