Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee: fees, payouts and which one to pick

Both let fans tip you without making an account. The differences sit in the fine print: fee modes, payout holds and which countries can get paid.

By Josh Wade, co-founder of SpoiletUpdated October 21, 20267 min read

The short answer

On a $10 tip you keep $9.41 on Ko-fi in Free mode, $8.91 in Ko-fi's default Standard mode and $8.86 on Buy Me a Coffee.
New Ko-fi pages start in Standard mode, which takes 5% of tips too. Free mode is one setting away.
Buy Me a Coffee lets fans cover the card fee. Ko-fi doesn't document a way to do that.
Buy Me a Coffee pays out in 49 countries, through Stripe only. Ko-fi works anywhere Stripe or PayPal does.

From the outside, Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee look almost the same. A fan lands on your page, picks an amount, pays with a card or Apple Pay and never makes an account. Both started as a way to send a creator the price of a coffee, and both still center the one-off tip.

The money works differently. On a $10 tip, the gap between the cheapest setup and the most expensive one is $0.55, and on Ko-fi it comes down to a single setting most new creators never touch.

Which one should you pick?

Pick Ko-fi if

Most of your income is one-off tips and you'll switch on Free mode for 0% on them
You want PayPal as an option, or you live outside Buy Me a Coffee's 49 countries
You sell commissions or a small shop next to your tips
You make mature work that fits under an NSFW tag

Pick Buy Me a Coffee if

You want fans to be able to cover the card fee
You live in one of its 49 Stripe countries and don't need PayPal
You'd rather have one flat 5% with no modes or plans to manage
Your page is safe for work

If you already have a page on one of them, the difference on a $10 tip is $0.55 at most. Moving your audience costs more than that, so switch only if one of the reasons above applies to you.

What you keep from a $10 tip

Ko-fi has two fee modes. Free mode charges 0% on one-off tips. Standard mode charges 5% on everything, and it's the default for new creators. Memberships, shop sales and commissions cost 5% in both modes.

Buy Me a Coffee has one rate: 5% of every transaction. Stripe then takes 2.9% + $0.30, and Buy Me a Coffee adds 0.5% for payout processing, 1% on payments from outside the US and 0.5% on subscriptions.

Where a $10 tip goes

You keep
Platform fee
Card processing

Ko-fi(Free mode)You keep $9.41
Ko-fi(Standard mode, the default)You keep $8.91
Buy Me a CoffeeYou keep $8.86

Ko-fi in Free mode leaves you $0.55 more than Buy Me a Coffee on every $10 tip. Figures assume a US card at Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30. Buy Me a Coffee's processing includes its 0.5% payout charge.

Ko-fi Gold costs $12 a month and removes the 5% from everything, memberships and shop sales included. It pays for itself once those sales pass $240 a month. Below that, Free mode for tips is the cheaper route.

Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee side by side

Ko-fi vs Buy Me a Coffee, from each platform's help center (October 2026)
	Ko-fi	Buy Me a Coffee
Fee on one-off tips	0% in Free mode, 5% in Standard mode	5%
Memberships	5%	5%, plus 0.5% on subscription payments
Shop and commissions	5%	5%
Card processing	PayPal or Stripe rates, about 3% + $0.30	2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.5% payout and 1% on non-US payments
Paid plan	Ko-fi Gold, $12 a month, 0% fee	None
Fans can cover the fee	Not documented	Yes, one setting
Fan needs an account	No	No
Payout	Straight to PayPal or Stripe, no minimum	Stripe only, $10 minimum
Countries	Stripe's 40+ countries, PayPal elsewhere	49 countries
Adult content	NSFW tag allowed, no pornography	Not allowed

How fast each one pays you

Ko-fi never holds your money. Tips go straight into your PayPal or Stripe account, there's no minimum, and Ko-fi charges no payout fee. The waiting happens at the processor: your first Stripe payout to a bank usually takes 7 to 14 days, and after that Stripe pays out every 7 days. PayPal may hold a new account's funds for up to 21 days.

Buy Me a Coffee pays through Stripe only. You need a $10 balance before you can ask for a payout, and the first request goes through a manual review, so the first payout can take 7 to 14 days. After that you set the schedule in your Stripe dashboard.

$0
Ko-fi minimum payout
Tips land in your PayPal or Stripe account right away
$10
Buy Me a Coffee minimum
The first payout is reviewed by hand, 7 to 14 days
21 days
Longest PayPal hold
What Ko-fi warns new PayPal accounts can wait

Which countries can get paid

Buy Me a Coffee lists 49 payout countries: 44 through Stripe Standard and 5 through Stripe Express (India, Israel, the Philippines, South Korea and Turkey). Anywhere else, you can't get paid. That's why Google suggests searches like “buy me a coffee alternative Pakistan” and “Bangladesh”.

Ko-fi uses Stripe in the 40-plus countries Stripe supports and PayPal everywhere else, so it reaches many creators Buy Me a Coffee can't pay. If you live outside the 49, Ko-fi is the answer by default.

What you're allowed to post

Neither platform is built for adult creators. Buy Me a Coffee's rule is short: “We do not allow adult content, services, or anything sexually explicit.” It does allow an NSFW tag for mature work that isn't explicit, and artistic nudity that isn't sexual.

Ko-fi has an NSFW tag too, and its help center says the tag “does not provide an option for pornography or sexually explicit nudity”. Its content guidelines also ban sexual services. If your work is horror, mature fan art or anything that needs a warning, both will take it behind a tag.

What your fans see at checkout

On both, a fan taps an amount, pays by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and can leave a message. Ko-fi adds PayPal and, for US supporters, Venmo. Neither asks the fan to sign up first. Ko-fi emails a link to make an account afterward, which only matters if you post supporter-only content, since that needs the fan to log in.

Buy Me a Coffee has one extra: a setting that passes the card fee to the fan. Turn it on and a $25 support charges the fan $26.03, so the fee comes out of their pocket instead of yours. Ko-fi's help center doesn't describe an equivalent.

Questions creators ask

Is Ko-fi better than Buy Me a Coffee?

For one-off tips Ko-fi costs less once you switch on Free mode: 0% against Buy Me a Coffee's 5%. Buy Me a Coffee is the better fit if you want fans to cover the card fee or you'd rather keep PayPal out of it.

Does Buy Me a Coffee take a fee?

Yes, 5% of every transaction. Stripe adds 2.9% + $0.30, and Buy Me a Coffee adds 0.5% for payout processing, 1% on payments from outside the US and 0.5% on subscriptions.

Do fans need an account to tip on Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee?

No, on both. Ko-fi emails supporters a link to make an account after they pay, and they can ignore it.

How fast do Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee pay you?

Ko-fi sends tips straight to your PayPal or Stripe account with no minimum, though the first Stripe payout to your bank usually takes 7 to 14 days. Buy Me a Coffee needs a $10 balance and reviews your first payout by hand, which can take 7 to 14 days.

Do Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee allow adult content?

Buy Me a Coffee doesn't allow adult content. Ko-fi has an NSFW tag for mature work but bans pornography and sexually explicit nudity.

From the Spoilet team

Let fans spoil you with one link

On Spoilet, fans tap a fixed-price Spoil, from a $5 Coffee to a $100 Golden, and pay without an account. Spoilet is in an invite-only beta, so claim your name and we'll hold it while we send invites.

Sources

Every fee and rule above comes from these pages, read on October 21, 2026. Platforms change their terms, so check the page before you decide.