Guide

Glossary: creator-platform terms in plain English

PPV, pending periods, referral windows, chargebacks, promotional rates. What the words on creator platforms and on this site actually mean, in a sentence or two each, with a link to the page that has the figures.

Published 16 October 2026 Last verified 16 October 2026

Some links here are referral links: if you sign up we may earn a commission from the platform, at no extra cost to you. It does not change the ranking — here is how we rank.

New to creator platforms, or reading terms that assume you are not? These are the words you will meet on the platforms’ own pages and on ours. Each one says what the term means and, where a number matters, links to the page that cites it, so nothing here can quietly go out of date.

What fans pay for

Subscription: A monthly price a fan pays to see your page and its posts. It renews automatically until the fan cancels, so your income each month depends on how many stay.
Subscription tiers: Two or more subscription prices on the same page, each unlocking a different level of access. Not every platform offers them; Fansly does, as the Fansly review explains.
Free page (free tier): A profile anyone can follow without paying, where you earn from paid unlocks, tips and messages instead of a subscription. Often used to build a following before asking anyone for money.
PPV (pay-per-view): A single post or message a fan pays to unlock, on top of any subscription. Platforms can set a lowest and highest price for one PPV; the PPV price guide lists what each one is reported to allow.
Mass message: One message sent to many fans at once, often carrying a PPV unlock. It is how most PPV is sold.
Tip: A payment a fan chooses to send, with no fixed price and nothing locked behind it. The platform’s commission applies to tips as it does to everything else.
Custom (custom content): A photo set or video made to one fan’s request, priced and agreed one at a time. See the custom video and custom photo price guides.

What the platform takes

Gross: Everything fans pay you before anything is taken off. Platforms quote their fee as a percentage of gross.
Commission (platform fee): The share of gross the platform keeps. Usually quoted the other way round, as the share you keep: “80/20” means you keep 80% and the platform takes 20%. See creator platform fees compared.
Promotional rate: A lower commission offered for a limited time, usually to new creators. It is temporary by design and can be changed or withdrawn, so plan on the standard rate. The Fanvue review has the one current example.
Take-home (net): What reaches your bank after the commission, payout fees and any currency conversion. The earnings calculator works it out for each platform.
Chargeback: When a fan’s bank or card company reverses a payment, usually after the fan disputes it. The platform takes your share back, often after you have been paid, from your balance or a future payout. Each platform’s rule is on the terms tracker.
Refund: Money the platform returns to a fan itself, rather than through their bank. Like a chargeback, your share of it is normally deducted from your earnings.

Getting paid

Balance: The earnings the platform is holding for you. Part of it may still be pending; only cleared earnings can be withdrawn.
Pending period (holding period): How long new earnings wait before you can withdraw them. It gives the platform time to catch chargebacks and fraud. Most platforms hold for about a week; some can hold longer for new or flagged accounts.
Payout (withdrawal): Moving cleared earnings from the platform to you. Some platforms pay when you ask, some on fixed dates.
Payout schedule: When payouts can happen: on request, daily, or on set days each month. Matters more than the commission if you pay bills from this income. Compared in creator platform fees compared.
Minimum payout: The smallest balance you can withdraw. It often differs by payout method; balances below it wait for the next payout.
Payout method: How the money reaches you: bank transfer, wire, Paxum (a payments service used across adult industries) or cryptocurrency. Each carries its own fees and availability by country.
Verification (KYC): Proving who you are and that you are over 18, usually with photo ID and a selfie or live check. No platform pays an account that has not finished it. KYC stands for “know your customer”.

Referrals

Referral program: Paying you a share of what another creator earns after they sign up through your link. Not to be confused with fan referrals, which pay on what fans you send spend. See referral programs compared.
Referral rate: The percentage of the referred creator’s earnings you receive. It is the number platforms advertise, and the one that tells you least, because the window and the cap decide what it is worth.
Referral window (duration): How long you keep earning from one referred creator, counted from their signup: a set number of months, or “lifetime”. The single biggest difference between programs.
Lifetime referral: A referral that pays for as long as the referred creator earns. Treat it as an intention rather than a promise: a platform can change its terms, and one already has. The terms tracker records it.
Referral cap: The most you can earn from a single referred creator, however much they make.
Funded by: Whose money the referral commission comes from: the platform’s share, or the referred creator’s earnings. It decides whether you can honestly tell someone that using your link costs them nothing.

Finding fans

Discovery: Whether the platform shows your page to fans who have never heard of you, through search, tags or recommendations. Without it, every subscriber is someone you sent there. See best platform for beginners.
Off-platform traffic: Fans you bring from elsewhere: social media, forums, a mailing list. On platforms with little discovery it is almost all of your traffic.

How we label figures

Official: Taken from the platform’s own terms, help centre or legal pages.
Reported: Consistent across independent sources, but the platform does not publish it itself.
Unclear: Sources disagree, or the platform has changed it without notice. We show the conservative figure with a visible warning.
Checked date: The day we last compared a figure against its source. Every figure on the site carries one; how we research explains the process.

Missing a word you met on a platform or on this site? Tell us and we will add it.