Summary: This article outlines the different ways you can earn with Envato. It also looks at the Author Fee structure and the different ways you can get your earnings paid out, depending on where you sell your items.
Earning With Envato
Whether you’re selling your items on one of our marketplaces, or across Market, Envato Elements and Placeit, we want to make it easy for you to understand how your earnings work at Envato.
As we have a couple of different platforms and products, it can seem a little overwhelming to begin with. But for a great overview, please read through this article - All about Envato.
Below we’ll take a brief look at the different ways you can earn across our platforms and products.
To find out more about keeping track of your earnings, please read our article on Managing Your Sales.
Earning on Market
Envato Market has a traditional model of a customer purchasing single items that each have their own price set by you, the Author.
The total cost of the item is made up of:
- List price: The price shown to customers on the item page (item price plus buyer fee).
- Buyer fee: The portion of the list price that represents Envato's fee to the customer (this is a fixed fee in categories with author-driven pricing).
- Item price: The price paid to the author for the item license.
- Author fee: The portion of the item price that represents Envato's fee to the author.
You will then also need to take into account any withholding tax.
So how much of this will you earn?
Let’s take a look at an example.
Using the image above, let’s say you are a new, non-exclusive author looking to sell an item with a regular license.
- You can see the Buyer Fee above is set for this specific item type ($3)
- You decide to set your Item Price to $13
- This means your purchase price will be $16
- You check your Withholding Tax and find that it’s 10%
- Because you are non-exclusive, your Author Fee is always 55% of your Item Price ($7.15)
Putting it all together, let’s find out how much you will earn from the above.
Your Earnings = (List Price/Purchase Price - Buyer Fee - Withholding Tax) - Author Fee
= ($16 - $3 - 10%) - 55%
= ($11.70) - $6.44
= $5.26
So in this example you would earn $5.26 USD.
Where can I see my earnings?
Your earnings will first be displayed in your Market account as you make sales. On the 8th of every month, any earnings in your Market account will be moved to your Balance Dashboard in your Author Profile. Your earnings will accumulate here until they reach the minimum payout threshold of $50 USD, at which time they will be paid out to your on the next payout day through the payout information you have provided.
Earning on Elements
Envato Elements earnings work a little differently to the traditional marketplace model. As a subscription platform, we use the subscriber share model to allocate Elements earnings.
With this model, Author earnings are directly linked to the money collected from each individual subscriber. We look at each subscriber in turn and assign you a share of 50%* of the net revenue from the base subscription price, based on how important your items were to them (i.e your share of all item points they used in that period).
You’ll find some great examples within the Subscriber Share Model article to help explain how this can work across a variety of situations.
* The only exception to the 50% allocation is for Enterprise subscriptions where we assign a share of 25% of net revenue to Authors. This takes into account the costs associated with growing the Enterprise business, as compared to regular self-serve subscriptions. Read more in our Subscriber Share Model article.
Earning on Placeit
Unlike Market and Envato Elements, as an Author you can’t apply to sell on Placeit. You’ll need to first be an Envato Elements Author, and then your items may be considered for sale on Placeit. This does not necessarily mean they will be chosen for sale, but rather they will be selected for Placeit based on what customers are looking for. You can read more about Placeit here.
Customers can purchase items on Placeit either individually, or download them through a paid subscription.
In general, 20% of net revenue from a single purchase or subscription download is allocated to the authors of assets and templates included in the purchase.
This means if the template consists of assets from only 1 author (a mockup, for example), then the author gets 20%.
If multiple assets are used in the purchased item (for example, the user downloaded a design template that includes 1 graphic, 2 fonts and a background) then we split the 20% between authors in the following way:
- 5% goes to the author of the template
- The remaining 15% is divided between the authors of the assets. This part is divided into how many assets are used in the design. The value of all assets is equal.
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Possible Assets found in a Placeit template
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- Fonts
- Icons
- Illustrations
- Stock Videos
- Stock Photos
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Possible Assets found in a Placeit template
Envato Author Fee Structure
Envato charges an Author Fee that varies depending on your all-time sales and whether you’ve chosen to sell your work exclusively on Envato.
Non-Exclusive Author Fee: 55%
Exclusive Author Fee: 12.5% - 37.5%
The amount you earn for every sale is calculated by taking the Item Price and deducting our Author Fee.
For Exclusive Authors, the more items you sell, the less our Author Fee becomes.
When a customer makes a purchase, they are charged your Item Price and an Envato Buyer Fee. We call the total amount the List Price. We take the Item Price of all your previous sales to determine our Author Fee.
Check the table below for more Author Fee information for Exclusive Authors:
Earning Expectations
Envato Elements
- 98% of authors consistently earn each month (the amount can vary due to content type and the nature of your portfolio, as well as wider industry trends)
- Over the last year, 99% of authors that have published items on Elements have had their content licensed and generated earnings.
- 50% of all items published are licensed within the first 7 days of publication.
Envato Market
Over the last year:
- 37% of published market authors earn in any given month
- We have sold 10 licenses per minute
Market authors have full control of their pricing, although we provide tools to help with sales/discounting.
How to complete your tax forms
No matter where you sell your items, to get paid you’ll need to make sure you have filled in your personal information and tax details correctly.
As an Envato Author, it’s best to complete your tax forms as early as you can. If you don't, Envato may be required by law to tax your earnings at a higher rate and/or withhold a portion of your earnings to remit to the tax office. And we don't want to do that!
See below for the relevant sections of the Author Agreement.
21. If required by law, we may deduct or withhold taxes (including withholding tax) in connection with your being an Author. If so, we will give you relevant document that’s required by law about the deduction or withholding (like documentation allowing you to access rebates or credits, or to manage your tax affairs).
22. We may collect geographical location information to determine your location, and other information from you that may be used for tax purposes (so the information you give us must be accurate).
At this time, you need to complete your tax forms on the Envato Market platform, whether or not you sell on Market or Envato Elements.
Here's a detailed walk-through of how to complete the tax forms:
Are you already an Envato Market Author?
YES: Skip ahead to step 6.
NO: Work through steps 1 to 8 below.
If you're new to Envato and not currently selling items on Envato Market here's what to do:
- Login with your Envato Account to one of the Market sites (e.g. https://graphicriver.net/).
- Once logged in, select Become an Author from the drop-down menu.
- Select Become an Author today button.
- Read the required information and click the Read it and got it! I'm ready to be an Author button.
- Choose if you would like your Envato Market account to be set as Exclusive or Non-Exclusive. Remember exclusivity is Envato-wide so you can sell the same products on both Elements and Market without affecting your exclusive rate on Market.
- Now you're an Author on Envato Market, navigate to the Settings tab.
- Go to Tax Information in the left hand nav.
- Complete the form and submit.
For more specific tax form information, please check the following sections
Author Payment Options
Setting up a Payout Account
Setting up your payout account is quick and easy. You can follow these steps to set up your payment account:
On Envato Market
- Go to your payouts tab, select Update Payout Method
- You will then be prompted to 'Add Payout Method'
Once you have accessed your payout profile follow the steps below:
- Fill out your general information
- Select your payout method—either Bank Transfer or PayPal. If you want to select a virtual provider like Payoneer, Wise or Revolut, you need to select the Bank Transfer option.
For more details on the payout options available to you, head to our 'Getting started with the Market payout system' article.
On Envato Elements
- On the Author dashboard, go to 'Dashboard' dropdown and select Elements Payouts
- You will then be prompted to 'Add Payout Method'
Once you have accessed your payout profile follow the steps below:
- Fill out your general information
- Select your payout method—either Bank Transfer or PayPal. If you want to select a virtual provider like Payoneer, Wise or Revolut, you need to select the Bank Transfer option.
Refer to the Setting Up your Elements Payout Methods article for more details.
Which Payment Option Do I Choose?
You’ll need to select the most appropriate payment method in order to receive your earnings. Author payments can be made via:
- Bank Transfer (which may include, depending on your location and bank: IACH, SWIFT bank wires, USD to USD SWIFT wires or a virtual provider such as Payoneer, Wise and Revolut) or
- PayPal
Once set up, we will use this account for processing monthly payouts. You can change your payout account at any time before the 8th of the month.
Payment Option Guidelines
Check the points below before selecting your payment option.
- Each payment method and the provider may have restrictions regarding which countries they pay to, for legal and/or commercial reasons.
- Please note: not all payment methods are available in all regions and countries. It’s a good idea to check which payment options are available in your location before you begin selling your items.
- There may be fees associated with your chosen payout account, please make sure you read all of the information displayed before updating your payout account.
- It is your responsibility to select the correct payment method in order to receive your earnings.
Envato has no control over these conditions. Rules and conditions are set by the company or financial institution and are subject to change without warning. - The minimum threshold for your payment to be sent is $50
We encourage you to evaluate the payout options on offer to choose the option that best suits your needs. For information about various options and fees, head to our Help Center article.