How do Artist Earnings work?

Artist Earnings are calculated based on the Purchase Price and Base Cost for each product sold. Artists will earn the entire difference between the base price and the sale price of a product.

Sale Price - Base Cost = Your Artist Earnings

For Artist Earnings, subtract the "Base Costs" from the purchase price and you keep the difference as Artist Earnings. Each Artist Shop product has a Base Cost, which is equal to the Product Cost plus a 5% processing fee based on your retail price for that product.

Find the full list of Product Costs for Threadless Marketplace and Artist Shops in the POLICY CONCERNING PAYMENTS TO ARTISTS AND ARTIST SHOP OWNERS of the Threadless.com Community Guidelines and Terms of Use.

Artist Payments

All Artist Earnings are paid through PayPal. To ensure you receive your Earnings, add the email address associated with your Paypal account in the Payment Information section of your Artist Dashboard. If you don't have a Paypal account, you can get one here.

Make sure you enter your Paypal address correctly and hit 'Update'. Once you see the confirmation message below, your Paypal account was successfully added!

Once your Paypal email is added to the payment information, you'll start receiving payments for any cleared earnings the following month directly to the PayPal address associated with your account, typically around the 15th and 20th of each month. If you have past payments that were not paid out because your Paypal account was not associated with your account, these payments will also be paid out the following month.

Artist Earnings Details

You can find all your Artist Earnings details in your Artist Dashboard. Earnings are separated into 3 sections: Pending, Cleared, and Paid Earnings.

Pending Earnings

Pending Earnings appear as 'Pending' when a sale for your design is made and the customer's order is sent to be printed and fulfilled. To account for customer cancellations and order changes, there may be a slight delay (think 1-2 hours) from the time the order is placed to when it appears in Pending Earnings. The sale of your design will remain in 'Pending' for 15 days.

Cleared Earnings

If not returned or canceled during the 15 days 'Pending', the sale will move to Cleared Earnings. Any Cleared Earnings will be paid out in the next Artist Earnings monthly payment.

Paid Earnings

Paid Earnings are all Artist Earnings paid out in the lifetime of your designs. Once Cleared, Earnings are paid out between the 15th and 20th each month.

The Purchase period is the month your design earnings were earned. This will help you keep track of when a sale was made and when the payment for something might be due.