Patreon Billing Changes

Update 11/7/2024:

According to the email Patreon just sent me, subscription billing is now in effect!

As mentioned below, current members will not be impacted. Only new patrons and people who have canceled and re-subscribed will be billed on a subscription basis.

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As some of you may or may not know, due to how Apple processes payments via their App Store, Patreon now requires that all billing cycles be changed to the monthly subscription model, rather than 1st of the month billing (my current cycle).

This change will take place immediately, starting November 1, 2024. If you are currently a Patron and are charged on the 1st of the month, your billing cycle will not change, unless you un-sub and re-sub.

Here's Patreon's original email explaining this change:

Apple is requiring that Patreon use their in-app purchasing system and remove all other billing systems from the Patreon iOS app by November 2024. This means that starting in November, new memberships purchased in the iOS app will be subject to Apple's 30% App Store fee.

‌You're currently on a first-of-the-month billing model, but Apple's in-app purchase system only supports subscription billing. Apple has made clear that if creators on Patreon continue to use unsupported billing models or disable transactions in the iOS app, we will be at risk of having the entire app removed from their App Store.

So, starting in November, your fans in the iOS app won't be able to purchase subscriptions to your membership until you switch to subscription billing. And, as a result of Apple's mandates and in order to make sure that you can continue getting new members in the iOS app, we've started a 16-month-long migration process to bring all creators onto subscription billing by November 2025. This means that your current billing model will be discontinued in November 2025.

To help you keep growing across all platforms, we're going to automatically switch you over to subscription billing in November 2024.

Once you're on subscription billing, you can control how Apple's fee is applied. You can either maintain your earnings by setting a higher price for new memberships purchased in the iOS app (default) or absorb the App Store fee yourself. Remember: the Apple fee only applies to new memberships purchased in the iOS app.

You can delay the migration to subscription billing by choosing to in your settings. The deadline to delay the migration to subscription billing is November 1, 2024.
If you delay, you'll be able to stay on your current billing model until November 2025, but Apple's mandate still applies. Come November 2024, your fans won't be able to purchase memberships in the iOS app until you switch to subscription billing.

All of this is to say that I'll be keeping my tiers at the prices they are currently, and will let my billing cycle default to monthly subscriptions. This change is unfortunately out of my hands, so I hope you will all understand.

I'm currently in the process of purchasing a new home, so I plan on being away until everything is finalized and my partner and I are moved into our new home. We're aiming for the beginning of December if all goes smoothly.

Until then, stay well 💗