Twitch isn’t just a fantastic entertainment resource, it’s also a major source of income for lots of streamers, from major names like Ninja to smaller streamers with ‘only’ a few hundred or thousand followers and just a few subscribers.
Even the best Twitch streamers depend on the generosity of their fans, be that subscriptions, donations, bits, or gifts. There are several ways Twitch allows fans to support their favourite creators – and not all of them are obvious. If you are wondering how to donate to a streamer on Twitch, we got you covered.
With the many ways that Twitch has to let fans support their favourite content creators, a lot of questions arise.
We have all the answers!
What a streamer earns from their fans on Twitch depends on a variety of factors. Anyone with less than millions of followers is extremely unlikely to be able to live off of what they earn – even for subs, the streamer doesn’t receive the full amount that is paid, as Twitch takes a cut. For each sub, the streamer earns 50% of what the subscriber pays. Donations in the forms of bits are worth $0.01 per bit donated.
Donations that are given via third party sites or links that the streamer shares on their profile aren’t affected by Twitch, of course – the streamer gets to keep those donations (based on the conditions of the third-party site anyway). What a streamer earns from ads depends on their contracts, as is the case with sponsorships – they depend on the person, and are usually not at all available until a streamer hits Partner level on Twitch.
We’ve compiled some simple instructions, explaining all the ways you can support your favourite streamers, whether they’re well-known established streamers or up-and-coming newbies:
The easiest way to support a content creator on Twitch is to follow them and subscribe to their channel. Subscriptions on Twitch cost money – the exact cost depends on where you live and what tier of subscription you want. The cheapest Tier 1 subscription (and its equal, the Amazon Prime subscription) costs, for example, £4.99 in the UK, $4.99 in the US, and Rs 110 in India.
Tier 2 and 3 subscriptions are more expensive, and usually offer additional benefits to the subscribers, such as more emotes. Using pounds as an example, a Tier 2 subscription costs £9.99, and a Tier 3 subscription £24.99. If you don’t want to pay for a subscription but still support your favourite streamer, you can do so via a Prime sub if you have a Prime subscription!
If you have an Amazon Prime subscription and your Twitch account uses the same email as your Amazon Prime subscription, you can subscribe to one Twitch channel per month for free. How to sub with twitch prime? It works the same way as subscribing the regular way does – on the page of the subscriber you want to subscribe to, you’ll see the Subscribe button.
If you have an available Prime subscription to use on Twitch, there will be a section saying ‘Free Subscription with Twitch Prime’. There, you’ll find a button that says ‘Start your Trial’. Click on it to subscribe to that channel with Prime!
This will only work if the streamer in question has either Affiliate or Partner status on Twitch – if the content creator you want to subscribe to does NOT have that status, you won’t be able to use your free subscription. In that case, you’ll need to subscribe the regular way, or wait until the creator achieves Affiliate status.
A lot of streamers accept donations on their page. Look around for a Donation button – whether they have one and what it looks like is entirely up to the streamer, so you’ll have to find it on your own. You could always ask the streamer though, if you’re not sure how to donate to them. When you have found the button in question, simply click it and follow the instructions until you’ve completed the process – that process too will depend on what site and service the streamer uses to accept donations!
Not all streamers accept donations at all – and something important to be aware of is that donations are NOT refundable. You won’t be able to get your money back later, so be sure to only donate an amount you are comfortable giving away.
To understand how to donate bits on twitch, you first have to understand what they are.
Bits are an integrated way to donate within twitch chat on supported channels. To donate bits, you can click on the bits icon just next to the emoji icon in the chat box. Then select a cheermote – special bit donation emotes – you want to use and the number of bits you want to donate. Alternatively, you can just type “cheer” followed by the number of bits you want to donate, with no space in between, so “cheer500” for a 500-bit donation.
Each bit that you donate to a channel, gives the streamer US$0.01. This means that a 500-bit donation gives them $5 and a 10000-bit donation, $100. For those wanting to make larger donations, the limit per cheermote is 10000-bits, however, you can use multiple cheermotes in one message for up to 100000-bits or $1000.
Tip: In some cases, such as charity streams, a larger percentage of the bit cost may be given to the stream at Twitch’s discretion. How much do streamers get from bits in this case is hard to know.
You can buy twitch bits via the “Get Bits” button next to the subscribe button. Bits cost $1.40 per 100, with up to a 12% discount if you but 25000 bits at once for $308 or your local equivalent. If you’re looking to throw large bit donations around, you can have up to 250000 bits in your inventory at once and buy up to 500000 bits a day.
While all bit donations are final, to prevent streamers from having to deal with chargebacks, there is a protection in place in case you accidentally add too many 0’s. Every time you donate bits, you have a popup that lasts for five seconds that allows you to cancel the donation before it’s finalized.
Each time you donate bits, a massage shows up in the chat, announcing your donation. Combined with the cheermotes this is a great way to donate to your favourite streamers and show your excitement for a cool moment.
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