Becoming an Envato Author FAQs

How do I join Envato?

To join Envato, you’ll first need to sign up and create an Envato Account. You’ll use this account to upload your items and manage your portfolio going forwards.

Once you’ve created an Envato Account, you can start uploading your items to sell on Envato Market (except for photo and audio items), as well as apply to contribute items to Envato Elements and Placeit.

Learn more about how to join and sell on Envato here, as well as in our Beginners Guide to Selling on Envato.

How do I upload items?

After creating your Envato Account, you can start uploading by following instructions below:

1. Sign-in to your Envato account.
2. Head to your Author Dashboard where you can now begin the upload process by clicking on Upload My First Item.
3. During the upload process, make sure you add your Item Information and Item Presentation requirements, so that your items look attractive to customers and they can find your items through search.
4. When you’re ready, click upload!
5. Once uploaded, every item submitted to Envato is sent through our review process. We’re looking for great items that work well for customers and follow our quality expectations, including Item Information & Presentation requirements, Technical requirements and Legal requirements.

Note: Some item types have specialized pathways to make things easier and quicker (especially if you have a lot of items to upload) or if you are contributing them to other platforms (such as Envato Elements or Placeit).

Learn more about the Uploading Process.

How do I contribute my items to Envato Elements?

You can apply to sell on Envato Elements by filling out this quick application form, so that we can learn more about you and the types of items you’d be looking to contribute to the platform.

Learn more about what we’re looking for and how to best prepare for success by reviewing the Envato Elements Selection Criteria here.

How does the review process work and how long does it take to be approved?

There’s nothing more we want than to see your items live and make sales. However, to ensure that customers have the best experience possible, we have a review process in place to maintain our quality expectations.

Once your item is uploaded to Envato, it is evaluated and assessed across our main Item Quality areas, including:

Item Presentation Requirements
Item Information and Metadata Requirements
Technical Requirements
Legal Requirements

Once assessed by the Quality team, they will be given an approval, soft or hard rejection.

If approved, your item is published immediately.

If hard rejected, this means that the Quality team has determined that the item is not suitable for sale on Envato. This can be for a number of reasons but generally, it means that the item is not at the quality level required or it has breached legal content guidelines. If your item has been hard rejected, you cannot resubmit the item.

If you receive a soft rejection, you will be given the opportunity to correct your item and re-submit based on the notes from the Reviewer (as outlined in the email or comments in the Author Dashboard).

The current review times across content-types on Envato can depend on a number of factors, such as the amount of items currently in the queue and the available resources of our reviewers. You can view the current average wait times here.

Learn more about the review process, or see our top review tips and the most common rejection reasons.

What kind of items are in demand at the moment?

Envato regularly publishes trend reports that show market and customer trends on the Author Hub. You can also visit our platforms on Envato Market and Envato Elements, and use the filter option to see what items have sold well, have been recently approved, and what items are trending for inspiration.

How much can I earn with Envato?

While it’s impossible to say exactly how much any one author can earn, Envato is a fantastic opportunity to get your items directly in front of an engaged buyer community. Many authors earn a living from their item sales while doing what they love.

Learn more about how earnings work. 

How and when will I get paid?

Payouts are processed once a month on the 15th of each month for Market payouts and the 16th of each month for Elements payouts. To be paid for the month, you need to set up your payout profile before the 14th of that month.

To set up payout profile (if you haven't already done this) please follow these steps, or head to our relevant Market and Elements articles for more information. 

1. Access your payout profile: 
   • Market: https://themeforest.net/accounts/payouts
   • Elements: https://author.envato/profile/payment
2. Fill out your general information
3. 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 both Elements and Market, once you have your payout profile set up, you can make changes to your details at any time until pay days (15th for Market and 16th for Elements). Do not attempt to change your details during processing days, as this might affect your payment.

Once your payment has been processed, you will receive an email with the estimated delivery time—which will vary depending on payment method and your location. In most cases, you should receive payment within 1–5 business days of the payout date. However, bank transfers may take longer in some regions, especially for first-time payments.

Please note: if the 15th day of the month falls on a weekend or an Australian public holiday, then payouts will be processed the following business day

What payout options do I have?

We support PayPal and bank transfers, as well as additional options for Local Currency transfers. If you want to be paid in USD, you may want to consider a virtual provider, also known as a money transfer provider (MTP), such as Wise, Revolut and Payoneer. These are listed under our 'bank transfer' option. 

We encourage you to evaluate the different payout options on offer and choose the option that best suits your needs.  

Are underage members and Authors allowed?

Unfortunately, individuals under 18 years of age cannot become members or authors on Envato Market and Envato Elements.

If you’re under 18, you will need to get a parent or guardian to buy items as a Guest or use the account of a parent or legal guardian who is at least 18 years of age, with their permission, and this adult will be responsible for all your activities.

As per our requirements, if we receive evidence that any members are under 18, the account will unfortunately be disabled.

Using your Envato account for charitable purposes

If you’d like to use your Envato Market account to engage in fundraising on behalf of a recognized, tax-deductible charitable organization, there are a few things you’ll need to consider.

Contact the organization you wish to raise money for:

• Let them know what you have in mind. They may have some tips and guide you on the best way to approach your project.
• Ask them whether you need permission to use their name and trademark especially if you’ll be promoting your items on the Market by affiliating yourself with that charity.
• They’ll also be able to help answer any questions you and customers might have about how donated funds are used. This way everyone’s on the same page about your intentions.

Decide on how you will promote the charity:

• Be sure to include clear information about the donation details and the organization you’re supporting on your profile page and in your item description.
• Provide as much information as possible, about the charity you’re supporting. Include a link(s) to their website, so customers can find out more about the charity and your fundraising efforts.
• We wish you well and hope that your generosity and hard work make a positive impact on your chosen charity.
• Please keep the charity promotion to your profile and item pages only and not on the forums.

As always, any use of your Envato Market account must be in line with the Envato Market Terms and Author Terms.

Am I allowed to have multiple Author accounts?

Authors are not allowed to have more than two author accounts - one exclusive, one non-exclusive. Exceptions may be considered on a case by case basis and are solely at Envato’s discretion.

If you already have more than these two accounts, please contact us to provide your account details and reasons why you require multiple Author accounts.

* Your email address is your unique identifier for each account, so you cannot have more than one account per email address. 

Please note that additional accounts created with the intent to breach our policies will not be tolerated.

Can I sell on my own site if I am exclusive?

As an author on Envato, you have the choice to offer your items on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis with Envato.

If you are an exclusive Author, then you cannot sell your items that you sell with us anywhere else - including your own website. However, this does mean you can enjoy lower fees that gets even better with the more items you sell!

Learn more about our exclusivity policy and how it applies to your items here.

As an exclusive Author on Envato Market, can I upload the same items to Envato Elements?

Yes! Think of your Exclusivity Setting as Envato-wide. So if you set your account as Exclusive on Envato Market, you can still sell those same items on Envato Elements and PlaceIt as they are all part of Envato, but you couldn’t sell these items commercially anywhere else. Your exclusivity status and the associated commission rate will not affect what you can earn through Elements or Placeit.

If you are accepted onto Envato Elements (apply here!) you will learn that almost all items that are on Elements, are also on Market. The exception to this is Graphics items which can be uploaded to Elements independently of Market. Graphics items that exist solely on Elements are considered non-exclusive.

Why do I need to verify my identity with Author ID Checks?

As a professional marketplace, it's critical for us to confirm the identities of our authors. This provides a trusted environment for our customers and authors to conduct business, and maintain the success of our community.

As a new author, you will be required to complete an Author ID check to verify your identity when your first item is approved for sale using our verification process called Envato Verify.

Learn more about how Envato Verify works and the steps required here.