Patreon Reviews, Complaints & Contacts

Contacts

PhoneEmailAddress

• Official websitepatreon.com ↗

Customer service & general contact

• Support request form (email only; use the Submit a request button)support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042749… ↗

Cancel, billing & returns

• Legal contact for disputes under the Terms[email protected]

Report abuse or suspicious activity

• Security reports[email protected]

Settlements & legal notices

• Phone listed in the Impressum legal notice (Patreon offers no phone support)(833) 972-8766

Other contacts

• Accessibility questions[email protected]

Locations

• Mailing addressPO Box 410777 San Francisco CA 94141-9777

Is Patreon Legitimate?

BBB, Trustpilot

Legal name

Patreon, Inc.

Founded

2013

Business type

Creator membership platform where fans pay creators through monthly, annual or per-creation subscriptions

Website

patreon.comSource: Patreon About page, checked 2026-10-29

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Complaints about Patreon and about creators

No published complaint reports are currently linked to this profile.

Patreon versus the creator. The Terms say members get benefits from creators through tools Patreon supplies, that Patreon "attempt[s] to screen for fraudulent creator pages, but cannot guarantee the identity of creators or the validity of any claims they make," and that it has "limited control over the quality and specific benefits." The Help Center article "How to request a refund" says that while it is "discouraged, it does not violate our terms if a creator doesn't deliver expected benefits." A complaint about late or missing posts, rewards or merchandise is therefore usually a dispute with the creator; a complaint about a charge, a cancellation that did not take effect, a refund request, a login lockout, a suspension or a payout is a dispute with Patreon.

Better Business Bureau. BBB's profile of Patreon, Inc. in San Francisco shows 200 complaints in the last three years, 58 of them in the last 12 months. Patreon is not BBB accredited, and BBB rates it F, giving as its reason the company's failure to respond to 9 complaints filed against it. BBB says Patreon came to its attention in November 2015 and that it completed a review of complaints in July 2026. Customer reviews on the BBB profile average 1 out of 5 across 27 reviews.

Trustpilot. Patreon has claimed its Trustpilot profile, which shows a TrustScore of 1.2 from 957 reviews. BBB and Trustpilot figures are counted by those sites and are not combined with the complaints published on this site.

Where to escalate. Complaints about billing or unfair practices can go to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general; Patreon, Inc. is based in California, so the California Attorney General's office also takes complaints about it. Court actions involving Patreon are in the Lawsuits section.

Cancelling, refunds, billing errors and account problems on Patreon

Who to deal with. Patreon, Inc. runs the platform and takes the payment; the creator you support provides the posts and benefits. A charge, cancellation, refund, login or suspension problem goes to Patreon. A dispute about what a creator delivered usually starts with the creator (see the Complaint record section).

Cancel a paid membership. The Help Center article "Canceling a paid membership" gives these steps on desktop: Settings, then the Memberships tab, then View Details next to the membership, then Cancel membership, then confirm and choose whether to stay on as a free member.

What you keep after cancelling. Per the article "What happens when I cancel?": "If you cancel a charge upfront or subscription billing membership, you'll retain access until your next billing date"; if you cancel a monthly (non-charge upfront) or per-creation membership, "you'll lose access when you cancel." A per-creation membership can still produce a final charge for paid posts made while it was active.

Ask for a refund. "You can request a refund right from your Billing history, within 60 days of the original payment": Settings, Billing History, the three dots next to the payment, Request refund, pick a reason and add written context. The creator reviews the request and can approve or decline it. Outside 60 days, or for a per-creation charge, contact Patreon Product Support and "provide documentation showing that products, services, or benefits were not delivered within the agreed-upon timelines." For purchases made through Apple's in-app purchase system, request the refund from Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com. Full rules are in the refund section.

Charged after you cancelled. The article "Why was I charged after canceling?" says canceling "does stop future billing" but Patreon processes pending bills: a per-creation creator's paid posts published while you were a member, or a renewal date that had already arrived.

Contact Patreon. The Help Center article "How to contact Patreon Product Support" says requests about "payments, login issues, or questions about our guidelines" go through an email request form and that "we don't offer phone support."

If Patreon does not resolve it. For a card charge you do not recognize or that Patreon will not fix, you can dispute it with your card issuer. For a credit card, the federal Fair Credit Billing Act requires a written billing-error notice that reaches the issuer at the billing-error address on your statement within 60 days after it sent the first statement showing the charge. For a debit card, Regulation E gives the same 60 days from the statement on which the error first appears, and the notice may be oral or written. These clocks keep running while a Patreon refund request is pending, so watch the date even if you start with Patreon. Patreon's refund policy lists orders "charged back/disputed by the fan's or creator's bank" among the situations that do not qualify for a Patreon refund, so the two routes do not combine.

Creator not delivering. The Help Center article "Creator is not delivering benefits" suggests reading the creator's About section and membership description, messaging the creator, requesting a refund from the creator, and cancelling to stop future payments. To report a creator for breaking the Terms or Community Guidelines, the article points to Patreon's Trust & Safety team.

Patreon refund rules: Terms of Use and Help Center side by side

Terms of Use, "Refunds" (Last Updated May 27, 2026). "Our policy is not to provide refunds, including if you lose access to offerings and/or membership subscription benefits as described above, though we may allow for some exceptions where refunds are granted at our sole discretion. If you made a purchase on certain platforms (like the App Store), then Patreon may not be able to address any associated refund requests, and you may need to contact those platforms directly."

Help Center, "Patreon's refund policy." This page sets out a request process: fans request a refund from Billing History within 60 days of the original payment; otherwise they are "directed to contact Patreon Product Support." If Patreon finds in the fan's favor, "the refund amount will be deducted from the creator's account balance." It adds: "all decisions on fan refund claims are made at Patreon's sole discretion" and "excessive or fraudulent refund claims may result in denied refunds, Patreon removing account access, or other action." Creators "may appeal this decision by contacting Patreon Product Support."

Help Center, "Canceling a paid membership" (FAQ). "Patreon doesn't typically offer refunds since payments go directly to creators. If you believe a charge was made in error, submit a request for review." The Terms say refunds are not provided as a rule; the Help Center describes a request process in which the creator or Patreon decides. None of the three pages guarantees a refund.

General situations the refund policy says "may qualify":

• technical errors caused by Patreon;
• an item not received within the delivery window the creator stated;
• a product that differs significantly from what was promised;
• the creator refunded the prior month but the fan forgot to cancel;
• the creator was suspended or removed within a week of a pledge or order;
• the creator broke Patreon's policies on harassment and abuse of fans;
• the creator blocked the fan before rewards were received;
• the fan canceled renewal but a charge still occurred;
• the fan did not access any content and canceled within 48 hours;
• currency confusion (for example a pledge read as pesos but billed in dollars);
• creator or fan death.

Digital products that "may qualify": the buyer loses access because the creator deletes the product or the campaign, or un-launches the campaign; or Patreon deletes or suspends the product or campaign (when Patreon deletes a campaign with a 28-day grace period, buyers keep access until the grace period ends).

Situations the policy says "do not qualify": purchases or exchanges that happen off Patreon's platform; orders already refunded or charged back or disputed with a bank; damage after delivery; and, for digital products, a creator switching from 18+ to all ages or only hiding a product (the buyer keeps access).

Timing. The "How to request a refund" article says an issued refund "can take 7-10 business days to process"; the refund policy says "it may take up to 28 days for a refund to be issued" in some instances; another article says processing "can take up to 10 business days."

Accounts disabled for suspected fraud. The article "Why are there refunds I didn't initiate?" says that when a member is suspected of fraudulent activity "their account is disabled, and the funds from their pledges are returned to the cardholder if we do not hear back from them within 10 days of the notice." Such refunds are listed as "Refunded by Patreon."

Gift memberships. Terms of Use, "Gifting": "All Gift Membership purchases are final. No refunds or exchanges (including for gifts not redeemed within the Redemption Period) are permitted." The Redemption Period is 90 days from purchase.

Apple in-app purchases. Both the refund policy and the iOS article say fans who bought through Apple's in-app system must ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com; a granted refund goes back to the fan's Apple account. The "How to request a refund" article states that Apple processes refunds "within 60 days of the purchase taking place" and that Patreon's own refund flow is for purchases made on the web.

Stark v. Patreon: video privacy class action settled for $7.25 million

Court records

The claims. The court's order describes the case as a putative class action against Patreon, Inc. "based on its alleged disclosure to Meta Platforms Inc. ... without subscribers' consent, of information about the videos its subscribers watched, which Plaintiffs allege violates the Video Privacy Protection Act." The case is Stark et al. v. Patreon, Inc., No. 22-cv-03131-JCS, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero.

Court & Public Records

Who runs Patreon

Operator. The Terms of Use state that "we," "our" and "us" refer to Patreon, Inc. For fans in the United Kingdom, and for fans outside the U.S. and U.K., the Terms add Patreon DLC Limited and Patreon Ireland Limited respectively, "solely for the purpose of processing payments." The website footer gives the mailing address PO Box 410777, San Francisco, CA 94141-9777.

What it does. Patreon's About page says creators can "launch their own digital shop or run a paid membership," and that joining Patreon is free for creators and their fans. The Terms define creators, fans and members: a member is a fan who subscribes or buys an offering. Patreon is "the billing entity" for the charge, while creators provide the content.

Company Relationships

• Affiliated withPatreon DLC Limited
• Affiliated withPatreon Ireland Limited

How Patreon billing works: renewals, price changes, declined payments and iOS pricing

Subscriptions renew automatically. Terms of Use, "Subscriptions and one-time purchases": paid memberships are monthly, per-creation or annual, and each type "automatically renews monthly (for monthly and per-creation memberships) or annually (for annual memberships) until you cancel via your membership settings."

Price changes. The Terms say the amount charged for a membership "may increase with notice to you," that creators can adjust prices, that Patreon can refresh currency conversion rates, and that tax "may increase without notice to you."

When the charge happens. The refund policy page lists the schedules: subscription billing renews "on your join date on UTC" (you may be charged up to 24 hours earlier because of time zones); creators on "1st of the month" billing charge on the 1st on Pacific Time, either upfront for the coming month or for the previous month; per-creation members "typically pay on the 1st of each month on PT for paid posts published the previous month." The article "What happens when I cancel?" calls Billing History "your source of truth for payments we've processed."

Charged more than expected. The article "Charged more than my membership amount" lists causes: a per-creation membership with no monthly maximum (every paid post is billed; members can set a monthly maximum on the Memberships page), retried payments that previously declined, and VAT for members in Europe.

Declined payments. The same article says Patreon will retry a declined payment, that "after ~30 days of payment declines, you'll be converted to free member," and that memberships whose payments had been stuck in decline since before January 2024 were cancelled as of March 2026. The Terms add that Patreon may convert a paid membership to a free one when a payment method fails.

iOS app pricing. The Help Center article "How iOS in-app purchases work for fans": "As of November 2024, new purchases, including new memberships and digital goods made in the Patreon iOS app, are subject to Apple's 30% App Store Fee." Creators choose whether to raise iOS prices to cover it; "for iOS users in the U.S.," fans can instead complete the purchase through Patreon's mobile web checkout, "not subject to Apple's App Store fee." Memberships started before November 4, 2024 are not affected by the Apple fee. Patreon says Apple requires this system for the app to remain on the App Store.

Creators moving to subscription billing. Patreon is moving all creators off its older per-creation and first-of-the-month billing models onto subscription billing; creators who do not switch are moved automatically, and their billing is paused until they set new prices.

Terms of Use: where disputes go, liability limits, creator fees and payout holds

Disputes. Terms of Use, "Dispute resolution" (Last Updated May 27, 2026): "We encourage you to contact us at [email protected] if you have an issue. If a dispute does arise out of these Terms or in relation to your use of Patreon, then the dispute will be resolved in the federal or state courts located in San Francisco, California.

Limits on liability. Terms of Use, "Limitation of liability": "To the greatest extent permitted by law, our liability for damages is limited to the amount of money we have earned through your use of Patreon.

Changes to the Terms. For existing users the updated Terms take effect on "the earlier of (a) sixty (60) days after the 'Last Updated' date or (b) your consent to, and acceptance of, the updated Terms."

Account deletion. "You can permanently delete your account at any time by going to our Privacy Center."

Creator fees. The Help Center says creators who publish a page after August 4, 2025 pay a standard 10% platform fee; payment processing is separate (for example 2.9% + $0.30 for a credit card or Apple Pay payment over $3), and creators who published on or before that date keep their existing pricing. The Terms list further fee types: feature-specific fees, payout fees and currency conversion fees.

Payouts and holds (creators). The Help Center article "How payouts work": adding or editing a payout method places "a 5-day payout hold" on the balance; funds from iOS in-app purchases stay pending for up to 75 days while Apple processes them. The Terms say Patreon may "block or withhold access to these funds for violations of our Terms or policies or for compliance reasons, including collecting tax reporting information," and that refunds and chargebacks can push a balance negative, in which case Patreon "reserve[s] the right to recover those funds from future payments."

Suspended or disabled accounts. For a suspended creator page, the Help Center says existing members "are not billed," the creator cannot process a payout, and the creator can reply to the Trust & Safety email with additional evidence for another review.

Frequently Asked Questions