What are you planning for your Patreon in 2026?
Happy new year! ✨
New year, new you. OK, we won’t go there. But the new year is an excellent time to shake off the dust and try something new: be that taking the latest Patreon features for a test drive, or changing up your posting strategy.
We asked creators part of our Creator Ambassador Program what they’re cooking up in the new year: here’s what they had to say.
1️⃣ Re-examine your tiers
Taking a look at your tiers to refresh them is a great way to start the year. Make sure your offerings are up to date, manageable for you to deliver, and priced appropriately. Consider repricing your tiers, or adding or removing tiers to streamline your offerings.
Here's how a few fellow creators are approaching their tiers in the new year:
Glenn of The Race Members' Club, a motorsport creator who joined Patreon in June of 2024, is adjusting their pricing to better reflect all of the amazing work they put out for members.
"We're going to adjust our prices slightly for the first time since joining the platform. We do so much more content than we did initially, that we feel it's justified. Some of our members even tell us we are too cheap, so we hope it will be well-received!" -Glenn of The Race Members' Club
Jess Holyfield of Jess Reviews, a reaction and dance/choreography creator, is planning to add a new tier to cover TV and movies. Scaling your tier offerings over time to deliver what fans want is one of our top ten recs for optimizing tiers!
Finally, if your members are merch fans, consider rolling out a new offering like Sabrina of I Know Dino. And if you haven’t ever tried out merch, you can do a low-risk poll to assess interest before launching anything.
"We're going to offer another dinosaur patch for our [members] at the beginning of the year (it's a sauropod this time, with some really cool, long neck spikes)
And, if all goes according to plan, we'll be launching two new podcasts to complement I Know Dino!" - Sabrina of I Know Dino, a dinosaur podcast creator
2️⃣ Change up your editorial calendar
Another idea to consider is shaking up when, how, and/or what you post for your free and paid members!
Eledryll of Eledryll Maps, a creator of tabletop role playing game maps, is giving members an early look using Quips, a new type of short, low-effort posts that sparks connection. We’ve seen creators grow their memberships by using Quips.
📝 Learn more about our discovery network tools and access eligibility, including Quips.
"I plan on sharing more sneak peeks of my works in progress with my community via Quips. Out of everything I post, I was surprised to see in my post insights that these were apparently generating the most impressions." - Eledryll of Eledryll Maps
Launching a monthly theme can also drive member engagement. Jimbo of Shoutbam, a drawing and lettering creator, did just that in 2025:
"This year I started creating themed months, where all my content revolves around one specific subject. I love it because I get to learn things I didn’t know much about, and I get to share the whole process with my [members]." - Jimbo of Shoutbam
3️⃣ Build community through livestreams and hangouts
Over 90% of creators who have highly active communities — where fans are consistently commenting, reacting, or chatting, for example — earn at least $1K per month. So if increasing or maintaining your earnings is a big priority this year, consider some ways you might build community to help achieve that goal.
Derek of Elven Tower, a gaming creator, is connecting with members through livestreams and collab posts with other creators his members might like.
"We're going LIVE on Patreon for next year. We're going to build a schedule to have livestreams every week. We'll do more Collaborations and reach new milestones!" -Derek of Elven Tower
Jimbo of Shoutbam is also doubling down on community this year. Using their monthly themes as a launching point, they’re adding ways for members to engage:
"My plan for 2026 is to…get my [members] even more involved with challenges, live hangouts, and just giving this community everything I’ve got. Here’s to an amazing 2026!🍾🍾🍾" - Jimbo of Shoutbam
Here’s to trying new things!
What are you planning to try in 2026, what strategies are you exploring and experimenting with? Share in the comments below, and help inspire other creators to try new things this year!
Comments (43)
I want to find a way to create more engagement with my members. My chat sounds like crickets at the moment. I was thinking a 30 day challenge but thats a lot of commitment for people. Maybe a 15 day challenge or 15 prompts in 30 days. Anyone else have any ideas
Bump! Great tips! I've noticed my community is here to support my own work (and just pledge and stop there, get billed monthly) and is rarely checking this platform to see what's up - will you work on the mobile app so as not to have such big bugs, problems and crashes? That was the main complaint that I've got.
2nd month of the year, I hope it's not too late to leave this comment. As for my 2026, I'm just starting my Patreon, I know, right, where were me this whole time...
I'd love for you to join my community! I enjoy talking about many things and drawing. I'm a small-time artist, so I don't have many views.
"I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the limited discovery features and the lack of a one-time payment or quick tip option (similar to YouTube's 'Super Thanks').
Currently, my community is asking me to leave Patreon and return entirely to YouTube because they have better tools for interaction and immediate support. If Patreon doesn't soon implement internal discovery features to help creators grow, I'll be forced to close my account and prioritize platforms that do listen to these needs.
Implementation of One-Time Payments: The exclusive reliance on monthly subscriptions discourages followers who want to support on a one-off basis without long-term commitments. Discovery Improvements: The lack of internal visibility forces me to do all my marketing externally, while other platforms offer a much more aggressive organic growth ecosystem. As a creator, I value the independence Patreon offers, but the lack of competitiveness compared to YouTube's tools is forcing me to prioritize my channel there and close my account here. I hope this feedback is escalated to the product development team as a creator retention priority. Lack of Fast One-Time Payments: Unlike YouTube, Patreon focuses on monthly subscriptions. You can request that they facilitate "One-Time Purchases" so they function as tips without requiring a subscription. Low Internal Visibility: They mention needing more aggressive "Discovery" tools, such as the "Explore" tab or "Collab Posts," which are currently being tested for some creators. Risk of leaving: It's important to be clear: if your followers prefer YouTube for these features, Patreon is losing a creator due to a lack of competitiveness. I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with the current limitations of the platform, which are directly impacting my growth and financial sustainability. Currently, I face a real risk of leaving the platform, as my community is actively requesting that I move all my activity to YouTube. The reason is simple: Patreon lacks critical immediate monetization features such as 'Super Thanks' (one-time payments) and efficient discovery tools. Currently, my community is asking me to leave Patreon and return entirely to YouTube because they have better interaction tools and immediate support there. If Patreon does not soon implement internal discovery features to help creators grow, I will be forced to close my account and prioritize platforms that do listen to these needs. I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the limited discovery features and the lack of a one-time payment or quick tip option (similar to 'Super Thanks'). (from YouTube). Here I am, creator Twinsofpeasantry, and I'm absolutely devastated about Patreon. All of us who create videos try to get ahead, to show what we love, but not so that Patreon can eat up our earnings and doesn't even provide what we need.
Hey how are you all doing here?
Great article, thank you! My target for this year is reaching more people..
I'm planning to get more fans, make money for my setup and find sponsors.
Twinsofpeasantry. Here
Has anyone seen my page yet? It’s called “wings and wonders”.
: My goal for 2026 is to grow my community and gain more members.
Always love these posts. I find it super useful hesring what others are doing and seeing all the "early access" features being rolled out is SO exciting. Can't wait to get my hands on Quips!
To try to get more members 😞
This will be the year I launch a proper trailer for my movie Chasing Rocks https://youtu.be/DxkTFt8zVfU?si=-sjhYAAuJnBA_-yP
I have got a hand full of ideas. Would love some constructive feedback on them. They're list on my page in my first post. Is linking to my patreon page okay? Either way, if you find it, let me know which one or ones you like best.
I'm hoping to grow my bellydance community 💃🏻
More Audiobook lessons for my Patrons
i am planning to use this great platform as a creator where i share educational stuff on whatisthesalary.com and i have marketing agency rankifyed.com.
Creating reactions to movies and Discussion
I must get members on my patreon page. Give me some tips to what I should do to get members? When I search for "travel" or "aviation", my page does not appear. I also have shared my patreon on my YouTube channel, discord servers, and have posted the link on community pages of other YouTube channels. Here's the link to my patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WC25
I find that when I provide helpful content, I get new members
Thank you for the shoutout! Love seeing how other creators are tackling the new year. We're always getting great ideas from this community :)
Thanks for the shoutout! Amazing work and also what has been featured here by other creators.
I really appreciate these tips and inspirations from other creators... My new year will be unfolding later in the proper season of early spring; so much change this past year... I'll be deepening the spiritual and Natural Law aspects, whilst continuing with new enthusiasm The Art Of Life podcast. And my recycled clothing will be slowing - until we have space created specifically for this, on our magical, mystical new homestead 💝🙏🤗⭐🌟
I already post super often (regular series as well as sometimes extra stuff for free) and a lot and restructured all tiers 6 months ago. I want to use the shop more, sell merch and offer my first calendar or maybe a small book. I also need to put out more for my free followers I guess. So will do that too. All in all I'm more than happy with my patreon and the support from my followers ✨💜
I'm actually not sure what I'll do or change. I run a mail club and it's going okay! I've had a few cancellations throughout December but with the economy that's to be expected. I will be here on these posts to thing of sustainable ways to keep my community around. Perhaps Livestreams? I forgot Patreon offered them - honestly!
We are definitely focusing heavily on community this year! We’re leaning heavily into chats and livestreams. We’re toying with the idea of community spotlight posts or special badges- something to encourage interaction. We onboarded two amazing community modereratora who have been SO enthusiastic and drumming up a lot of conversation in our chats!
My plan is to post consistently every week and talk about my Patreon to more people. Having it completely free to join has taken the pressure off me to “sell” and I’ve already gained a few paying patrons from this! Once Patreon gets the newsletter feature to where non-members can sign up to it, I’ll add that to my strategy as well. I can ask former clients and customers if they’d like to get periodic updates.
I am really struggling to get members. Nobody is seeing or discovering or finding my page. I have over 150 posts.
Yeah I feel you we just have to keep pushing that all
Im very happy on how my Patreon is working, love my community 💜, but yeah, on 2026, i wish for the "Shop" to be available on my Pateron 😥🙏.
I agree with all of this! I touched up my tiers, and have been researching getting into merch tiers!
good
I think I’m going to try hosting livestreams this year.
Starting the new year by reviewing an unreleased prototype. Opened a free Patreon tier and started quipping. Everyone is welcome - no paywalls. Have paid tiers for those who feel they can safely afford it. Got more members in the last few months then the past year. Life is good.
Fascinating!
hoping to update my graphics and make the podcast branding more sleek
Thank you for help us grow our members and patrons! My plan is one short, 20-sec video every week for the whole year! Going from zero hair on January 1st to... well, we'll see 😄 Today is video #2
Building a fan base
love it!!!
Just grateful for having people like my art & comic 😃