# Platform Economics

*As of 2026-05-16.*

What you pay, what it covers, and what we commit to.

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## What You Pay

See [Pricing](./pricing.md) for the current tier prices, the founding-creator rate, and the provisional standard rate.

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## What It Covers

Your subscription funds three things, at a high level:

**Cost to deliver.** The infrastructure that hosts your content (application servers, database, object storage, bandwidth) and the payment processing fee Stripe charges on each transaction.

**Platform overhead.** Ongoing development, day-to-day operations, legal and compliance work, and reserves held against unexpected costs so a bad month doesn't force a price increase or a shutdown.

**Returned to creators.** Surplus beyond what cost-to-deliver and platform overhead require is earmarked to come back to you as earn-back credit. We've committed to launching that program no later than 2027-01-01.

See the full breakdown on the [pricing page](/pricing#cost-allocation) — every tier fee broken into Stripe processing, storage, human support time, product engineering, reserves, and earn-back surplus.

No surplus goes to investors, shareholders, dividends, executive bonuses, paid acquisition, or marketing spend. We have none of those things.

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## What We Commit To

The binding commitments live in [What We Guarantee](./guarantees.md). The short version:

- No surprise raises. Prices only change under conditions stated in writing.
- At least 90 days notice on any change.
- Existing creators are grandfathered at their current rate for at least 12 months when standard rates rise.
- When our cost structure permits, the direction is downward. Cost-favorable changes apply retroactively to active subscriptions.

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## What We Won't Do

- **Percentage cuts.** We will not skim a percentage of what fans pay you.
- **Per-transaction fees on top of Stripe.** The only deduction is Stripe's processing fee, which goes to Stripe.
- **Surge pricing.** Tier prices do not move based on demand, time of day, or who you are.
- **Quiet plan-gating.** Features won't migrate between tiers without notice and grandfathering.
- **Paid acquisition or marketing.** We don't fund growth by spending your subscription on ads.

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## See Also

- [Pricing](./pricing.md): Current rates, founding-creator rate, standard rate
- [What We Guarantee](./guarantees.md): Binding commitments in writing
- [How We Work](./how-we-work.md): Business model and operating principles