When does Kickstarter charge the fees?

Fees are deducted automatically before Kickstarter pays out to your bank account, which typically arrives around 14 days after your campaign ends. You never see the gross amount hit your account, only the net after fees.

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Kickstarter calculator (2026)

Q: Does Indiegogo charge less than Kickstarter?

No. Indiegogo's platform fee is also 5% and their payment processing is comparable to Kickstarter's. Fees are not a good reason to pick one platform over the other.

Q: Are Kickstarter fees taken before or after tax?

Kickstarter fees are taken from the gross pledge amount before you deal with VAT or income tax. In the UK, VAT liability on rewards is a separate consideration handled after Kickstarter pays out.

A £30,000 raise does not land £30,000 in your bank. Plug your numbers in below and see what actually arrives after Kickstarter's 5% platform fee and roughly 3% + £0.20 per pledge in payment processing.

Currency:

1. Add your agency fees

If you're hiring an agency, drop in what they'll charge. Some take a flat retainer, some take a percentage of your raise, some take both. Leave at 0 if you're going without an agency.

Agency retainer (flat fee)

£

Typical: £8,000–£10,000 for pre-launch only.Agency % of raise

%

Typical: 5–10% of gross raise.

2. Add your marketing spend (if you have any)

Anything you'll spend directly on ads, PR, influencers, giveaways or landing-page tools. This is on top of any agency fee above.

Direct marketing spend

£

3. Run the numbers

One calculator, two directions. Pick which number you already know and the tool solves for the other.

Which number do you already know?

Enter what you plan to raise on Kickstarter. I'll show you what lands in your bank and how many backers you need.

Enter your campaign goal (amount you plan to raise)

£

Price per reward (average pledge)

£

Working out a realistic funding goal is one of the first things I do with founders.

The calculator gives you the fee side. It doesn't tell you whether the goal itself is right. That takes cost of goods, target margin, shipping estimates and honest projections on the size of your list. A 60-minute strategy call gets all four on paper.

Book a £60 strategy call

What the calculator assumes

Kickstarter platform fee: 5% of successfully-collected funds. Same on Indiegogo. Not negotiable.
Payment processing: 3% + 0.20 per pledge (in your local currency). This is Stripe's standard rate for the UK, US and EU on Kickstarter. Micro-pledges under about £10 are actually charged less per pledge (Kickstarter's "discounted payment"), so if most of your backers are at low tiers your real fees are slightly lower than this shows.
Failed pledges are not modelled here. On average 5–10% of pledges fail to collect because of card issues after the campaign ends. Your real net is usually a bit lower than a calculator like this suggests. Plan for it.
VAT is separate. If you're a UK VAT-registered business, VAT on rewards is a whole other calculation handled after Kickstarter pays out. Don't confuse fees with tax.
Currency conversion is not modelled. If your campaign is in USD but you bank in GBP, expect another 1–2% loss on the FX conversion.

Common questions

How much does Kickstarter take from your raise?

Kickstarter takes 5% of successfully-collected funds as a platform fee. On top of that, payment processing is roughly 3% plus a small per-pledge fee. Combined, expect to lose about 8–10% of your gross raise. On a £30,000 raise with 500 backers, that's around £2,500–£2,900 gone before you see a penny.

Does Indiegogo charge less than Kickstarter?

No. Indiegogo's platform fee is also 5%, and payment processing is comparable. Fees are not a good reason to pick one platform over the other. Audience size and category fit are the real questions. I wrote about that here.

Are Kickstarter fees taken before or after tax?

Fees are deducted from the gross pledge amount before VAT or income tax comes into it. VAT and corporation tax are separate calculations, handled by you after Kickstarter pays out.

When does Kickstarter deduct the fees?

Automatically, before the payout hits your bank account. Payout typically arrives around 14 days after the campaign ends. You never see the gross number, only the net.

Do backers get refunded the fees if the campaign fails?

If a campaign doesn't reach its goal, nobody's card is charged. No fees, no pledges, no payout. That's the whole point of Kickstarter's all-or-nothing model.