Earning money from the comfort of your house (read: bed) is no rocket science anymore. Back in the day, making money meant breaking your back as an employee or struggling through intense pressure being a business owner. Thanks to technological advancements, you can now make money with live streaming.
And the opportunity keeps growing. The global live streaming market was worth about $99.8 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $345 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. Every major platform now pays creators directly, through ads, tips, memberships and shopping. Hence, live stream monetization is a goldmine! Go live and earn money!
There are countless ways you can make money with live streaming. Here are seven that work in 2026.
Key Takeaways:
- You can make money with live streaming through ads, tips, sponsorships, affiliate links, pay-per-view, live selling and memberships.
- YouTube fan funding, such as Super Chat and channel memberships, opens at 500 subscribers in eligible countries, and creators keep 70% of Super Chat revenue.
- Tips and memberships pay more reliably than ads, because ad blockers and changing ad rates make ad income unpredictable.
- Pay-per-view and live selling work at any audience size, as long as your content or products are worth paying for.
- Multistreaming to several platforms at once multiplies your audience, and with it every income stream on this list.
How Much Do Platforms Pay Live Streamers?
Each platform pays live streamers differently. Here is a quick look at the main live income options and what creators typically keep. Splits change often, so always check your own creator dashboard.
| Platform | Main live income | What creators keep |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Super Chat, Super Stickers, memberships, ads | 70% of Super Chat and Super Stickers, 55% of ad revenue |
| Twitch | Subscriptions, Bits, ads | 50% of subs by default (up to 70%), $0.01 per Bit |
| Kick | Subscriptions, tips | 95% of subscriptions |
| TikTok LIVE | Gifts, LIVE subscriptions | Varies, often around half of gift value |
| Stars, subscriptions | About $0.01 per Star |
In-Video Ads
You must have noticed the short ads that keep popping up (and irritating) while you're watching your favorite show on YouTube. And you're only able to skip after a wait of 5 seconds.
These short clips are ads that help content creators make money streaming video games or any other content. And it is one of the easiest techniques to monetize streaming platforms.
You can do it in a few ways:
- Pre-roll ads: start as soon as the viewer clicks the stream. The viewers have to view the ad before they can actually start watching your content.
- Mid-roll ads: play in the middle of your stream. You choose when to run them, ideally at a natural break.
- Banners or companion ads: these appear at the bottom of the stream and encourage your viewers to click. However, they can also be easily removed.
YouTube offers pre-roll, mid-roll and display ads on live streams for members of the YouTube Partner Program, which needs 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days. Facebook moved its in-stream ads into its Content Monetization program in 2025, and Twitch offers ads to its Affiliates and Partners.
Pro Tips
Donations and Tipping
You can encourage your viewers to donate while you're live streaming, an effective way to make money with live streaming. This approach works magic for churches and other philanthropic organizations that can collect donations during their live streams.
You can set up an external donation link. Once your audience clicks on it, they will be diverted toward a payment page. Moreover, most platforms now have built-in tipping, with virtual goods and currencies that viewers can use to support you.
Built-in tipping on major platforms:
- YouTube Super Chat and Super Stickers: viewers pay to highlight their messages in your live chat, and creators keep 70%. Fan funding opens at 500 subscribers, 3 public uploads in the last 90 days and 3,000 watch hours in the past 12 months (or 3 million Shorts views in 90 days), in eligible countries.
- Twitch Bits: viewers cheer with Bits, Twitch’s virtual currency, and you earn $0.01 per Bit. Since May 2026, every streamer can turn on Bits and subs, but you need Affiliate or Partner status and a $50 balance to cash out. See our guide on how to set up donations on Twitch.
- Facebook Stars: viewers buy and send Stars during your live videos, and you earn $0.01 per Star. You need 500 followers for 30 days in a row and must be 18 or older.
- TikTok LIVE Gifts: viewers send virtual gifts that turn into Diamonds you can cash out. In most regions, you need 1,000 followers to go LIVE and must be 18 or older to receive gifts.
- Kick tips: viewers can tip you with Kicks, Kick’s virtual currency, during your stream.
You can also look into services like CareBuzz, which enables your audience to make cashless donations.
Pro Tips
Sponsorship
Sponsorships work best when you have a significant following on your socials, making it a great strategy to make money with live streaming. You can collaborate with brands to endorse their products through your live streams and charge for your services. With numerous advertisers in the market, securing sponsorships should be straightforward, particularly if you use live streaming apps to make money. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement; both the brand and the streamer benefit financially. Thus, you effectively get paid for live streaming.
Common sponsorship formats:
- Sponsorships: a brand will sponsor your entire live stream.
- Banners: you can display banners or other adverts during your streams or on your profile page or channel, which helps to monetize streaming platforms.
- Sponsored Content: the content owners sponsor you to stream their content. For example, a game developer may ask you to play their game in a live stream, an excellent way to make money streaming video games.
Partners or Affiliate Program
You can also sign up for an affiliate program to earn money every time your follower purchases a product you endorsed on your live stream. Once an approved partner, you will be given a vanity link to share with your followers during your live videos and encourage them to purchase the products based on your personal experience and recommendation. All you have to do is speak honestly about the products during your live stream and share your link with your followers. And, make money with live streaming.
Sometimes you don't even have to post the link. You can use a coupon code and direct your viewers to shop for the product you're promoting using this code. This coupon code will be given to you when you join the affiliate program. Just another way streamers make money. Learn more about live stream video affiliate marketing.
Pro Tips
Pay-Per-View
Pay-per-view took off during the pandemic, when conferences and meetings were called off, and it has stayed a standard way to make money on a live stream. Organizers now arrange virtual summits, conferences, classes and concerts, charge for admission and make money on a live stream. Viewers enjoy the same value as they used to during face-to-face events when they paid for tickets physically.
Several sites will allow you to do this, such as TicketSpice, which can be integrated with Facebook Live and YouTube Live. And with OneStream Live, you can go live on both these platforms at the same time!
To make pay-per-view work:
- Create content that people are willing to pay to watch.
- Create a sense of exclusivity to compel people to pay to watch your content.
Pro Tips
Live Selling
Although a rather traditional route, live selling is still the most widely practiced way to make money through streaming. You can showcase your products live, interact with your audience to answer their queries and concerns in real time, conduct product demos, and share how-to tutorials, all through live streams. The ultimate takeaway is a lead converted to a customer.
Platforms have made this easier than ever. TikTok Shop LIVE and YouTube Shopping let viewers buy without leaving the stream, and Amazon Live pays creators a commission on every sale.
Pro Tips
Regular Viewer Payments
What's better than getting paid by your viewers for your regular streams? These periodic payments might only be a couple of bucks, but if you can get enough of them, you can surely make big.
Membership programs on major platforms:
- YouTube channel memberships: viewers join your channel with a monthly payment, and creators keep 70%.
- Twitch subscriptions: Affiliates and Partners keep 50% by default, rising to 60% or 70% through Twitch’s Plus Program. Since June 2026, you can become an Affiliate with 25 followers, 4 hours streamed on 4 different days and at least 3 viewers.
- Kick subscriptions: creators keep 95% of subscription revenue.
- Facebook and TikTok LIVE subscriptions: both let fans pay monthly for perks like badges and subscriber-only content.
Pro Tips
Bonus Point: WpStream Video Streaming Plugin for WordPress
If you want complete control over how you stream and make money, the best approach is to choose a professional streaming platform that allows you to host your stream content directly on your own website and monetize it directly without relying on third-party platforms.
One such platform is WpStream, a WordPress plugin that allows you to stream straight to your WordPress website and enables you to make money with live streaming directly from your website.
It works with WooCommerce, so you can sell pay-per-view access and recurring subscriptions, and add your own logo to the player to match your brand. It also accepts streams from any tool that supports a custom destination.
To Wrap It Up
The internet is full of opportunities to do interesting things and make money with live streaming while doing what you do best. Live streaming is currently one of the most exciting frontiers offering promising prospects of making money. The catch is to first create content that can successfully grab viewers' attention and keep them coming back for more. When it comes to monetizing your live streams, your audience is undeniably your biggest asset.
OneStream Live offers you a cloud-based live streaming platform that allows you to stream and make money by multistreaming to 45+ social media platforms and the web. The more places you go live, the more viewers, tips and sales you can reach. Time to go live and make money. After all, who minds a few quick bucks? 😉
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make money with live streaming?
You can make money with live streaming through ads, tips and donations, sponsorships, affiliate links, pay-per-view tickets, live selling and paid memberships. Most successful streamers combine two or three of these.
How many subscribers do I need to make money on YouTube Live?
YouTube fan funding, including Super Chat and channel memberships, opens at 500 subscribers, 3 public uploads in the last 90 days and 3,000 watch hours in the past 12 months. Ad revenue needs 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days.
Which platform pays streamers the most?
It depends on how you earn. Kick lets creators keep 95% of subscriptions, YouTube pays 70% of Super Chat, and Twitch pays 50% of subscriptions by default. Many creators stream to several platforms at once to earn on all of them.
Can I make money live streaming with a small audience?
Yes. Affiliate links, live selling and pay-per-view events can earn money even with a few hundred loyal viewers, because they depend on how engaged your audience is, not how big it is.
Can I make money on several platforms at the same time?
Yes. With a multistreaming tool like OneStream Live, you can go live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and more at once, and earn tips, ads and memberships on each platform from one stream.
OneStream Live is a cloud-based live streaming solution to create, schedule, and multistream professional-looking live streams across 45+ social media platforms and the web simultaneously. For content-related queries and feedback, write to us at [email protected]. You're also welcome to Write for Us!
