Redbubble is a Horrible Platform for Small Artists

Although I registered my account a long time ago, I didn’t start uploading art to Redbubble until somewhere after 2021. I made my first sale on January 8th of 2022. Since then, I’ve made 8 sales to date. Never enough to actually get paid out, though. And all this time, I was wondering if Redbubble would still be a good place to sell my art. After all, it feels good to make a sale. Not even because of the money – I earned peanuts on a couple of stickers – but because someone actually thought my art was nice enough to make a purchase. That makes me happy. And I’d love to continue that.

Then I made a larger sale, again out of nowhere: a print of one of my snake drawings. Roughly 60 centimeters in size! Someone paid 20 USD for that! Wow! I was SO happy to see that.

And my margin? 3 USD…

Well, it’s a horrible margin in all reality. But when you only look at the number, it’s pretty nice compared to the sales of stickers.

So I started looking into whether Redbubble is still worth investing time and effort into… And unfortunately, I’ve come to the conclusion that Redbubble is a horrible platform for small artists. In this blog post I’m going to delve into the details about the platform’s fees, how they work and what it means for you as a small artist. And finally, my conclusion on all of this.

Small Artists Basically Earn Nothing with Redbubble

Unfortunately, on Redbubble’s Standard account, if you’re a small artist making occasional sales, you’ll almost certainly earn next to nothing under the current fee system.

Let’s be blunt:

What it means for you:

• You have some profit? That’s nice, but they’ll take $8.40 or more.
• Sticker profits of $0.20? You’d need 40–50 sales just to get past the lowest fee bracket.
• And even then, they’ll still take half.

Unless you:

• sell a lot each month ($100+ in artist margin, not retail price), or
• get upgraded to Premium, which exempts you from the fees,

…then Redbubble will bleed your earnings dry, month after month.

This system isn’t designed for small artists anymore. It’s focused on mass-sellers and high-volume shops. For someone who:

• Sells beautiful, occasional art,
• Mostly stickers and posters,
• Wants a fair share for their work,

Redbubble is just no longer a good platform.

The e-mail I received in 2022.

The Solution: Reach the Redbubble Premium Tier

Redbubble’s Premium Tier is reserved for artists who demonstrate positive engagement, unique content, and a growing customer base. While Redbubble doesn’t allow artists to directly request a tier change, they do periodically review accounts based on various factors. To increase your chances of being reclassified to Premium, you have to be creating high quality, unique designs, be consistently active, promote your store by driving traffic to it and engage with trends. In other words, it’s a reward for artists who are already doing well enough on their own – almost like a “thanks for proving you don’t really need us.”

It’s less about supporting smaller or emerging artists, and more about recognizing those who bring in consistent sales or invest heavily themselves.

So, for many small or mid-level artists, it’s like being stuck in the Standard tier, paying fees, with little support.

It’s a tough system. There’s no sugar coating it.

How to Make Money on Redbubble Selling Stickers

As a small artist, let’s take a look into how to make money on Redbubble if you were to sell stickers alone.Your situation:

• Profit per sticker sale = $0.20
• You’re on a Standard account, so you pay monthly account fees based on your earnings.
• The fee table example shows a minimum fee around $8.40 for low earnings.

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How many stickers do you need to sell to cover fees?

Let’s say the lowest fee bracket is $8.40 per month.

To break even (earnings = fees), you need to sell at least 42 stickers in a month to cover the minimum account fee of $8.40.

Only after 42 stickers sold will you start to make a profit beyond the fees.

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But wait, there’s more:

• If your earnings increase, the fee rises too.
• For example, if you earn $75 in a month (from 375 stickers), the fee is $43 (per their fee table), so your actual profit is only $32.
• That means even at 375 stickers, Redbubble takes more than half your earnings through fees and account fees combined.

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TL;DR:

• Sell 42 stickers just to break even (cover the $8.40 fee).
• Sell more than 42 stickers, but expect Redbubble to take about 40-50% or more of your earnings in fees.
• For small-scale sticker sellers, the fees can make profit very slim or even negative if sales fluctuate.

So yeah, Redbubble is a horrible platform for small artists, especially if you focus on low-margin items like stickers. And ironically, stickers are one of the easiest things to sell because they’re cheap and fun.

If you earn about 20 cents per sticker on Redbubble Standard, your actual profit after monthly account fees can be much lower than it seems. For example, if you sell around 50 stickers in a month, your $10 earnings might only leave you about $1.60 after fees – that’s just 3 cents (THREE CENTS) profit per sticker. If you sell more, like 375 stickers ($75 earnings), you might keep about $32 after fees, which is around 8.5 cents per sticker.

So, after Redbubble’s account fees, your effective margin per sticker can drop to as little as 3 cents, meaning Redbubble takes 60–85% of your earnings on top of their usual cut. For small artists selling mostly stickers, this makes actual profit very slim.

To me, this feels like like exploitation, especially when you’re just starting out or mostly selling low-margin items like stickers. Platforms like Redbubble should support artists, not squeeze them dry.

Long Story Short:

I helped Redbubble make money through hours of my time. Creating art, curating my art, uploading my art, adding custom tags, creating optimized and creative descriptions, adding links to my Redbubble page via my own website – all for Redbubble to take 80% of the revenue and take all of my profits away.

Sadly, I joined Redbubble just before they brought in account tiers. In hindsight, that timing changed everything.

Now, the flat fees disproportionately hurt small creators; Redbubble knows full well most creators won’t make enough to offset them. They basically changed the system in a way that ensures Redbubble profits even if you don’t.

So, ultimately, although I enjoy people buying my art even if I don’t make a lot of profit off of it, in the end I do need to make a living. I can not afford to spend as many hours as I did before, just to end up making zero profit and giving it all to Redbubble.

Passion alone doesn’t pay the bills. The joy of “someone bought my art!” is overshadowed by the reality that I’ve been subsidizing Redbubble’s business with unpaid work.

I want people to enjoy my art, but not at the cost of my livelihood.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Am I seeing it wrong? Do you have a different experience with Redbubble? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Redbubble account tiers?

Redbubble has three account tiers: Standard, Premium, and Pro. Standard accounts pay monthly fees based on earnings. Premium and Pro accounts are exempt from those fees, but you can’t request an upgrade – you’re selected based on sales performance and “engagement” with the platform.

Can you make a living on Redbubble?

Only a small percentage of artists make a real income on Redbubble, and it’s become even harder with the 2024–2025 fee changes. If you don’t already have a large audience or a high-volume shop, it’s very difficult to earn consistent, livable income – especially on a Standard account.

Is Redbubble worth it in 2025?

For most small or starting artists, Redbubble is no longer worth it in 2025. The new account fee structure for Standard accounts takes a significant portion of your earnings – sometimes 60% to 85% – especially if you mostly sell low-margin items like stickers. While it’s still free to list your work and you won’t owe money if you don’t make sales, the profit you actually keep is often too small to justify the time and effort required to update, manage and promote your Redbubble Store.

If you’re just looking to get your art seen or enjoy the novelty of seeing your designs on products, it might still be fun. But if you’re trying to earn a sustainable income , I would recommend looking at other platforms instead.

Does Redbubble charge you if you make no sales?

No. You’re only charged an account fee if you make sales in a given month. If you earn nothing, you pay nothing. If your earnings are below the payout threshold, Redbubble rolls them over to the next month.

How do Redbubble fees work in 2025?

Redbubble charges account fees for Standard tier artists based on their monthly earnings. These fees can range from a few dollars to over 50% of your total earnings, depending on how much you make. The fees are only deducted if you make a sale.

Why did Redbubble introduce account fees?

Redbubble says the fees help them invest in the platform and cover marketplace costs. However, many artists feel the changes mostly hurt small creators by taking a large share of their earnings.

Can I avoid Redbubble’s account fees?

Yes, but only if your account is upgraded to Premium or Pro status, which Redbubble decides based on your sales and engagement. There’s no official way to apply or upgrade manually.

What is the Redbubble payout threshold in 2025?

You need to earn at least $20 USD to receive a payout. If your earnings are under that amount, they’ll roll over to the next month.

Is selling stickers on Redbubble profitable?

Not really, especially after the account fees. Since most stickers earn artists about $0.20 each, you need to sell hundreds per month to make a decent profit, and even then, the fees eat into your earnings.

Can you sell digital downloads on Redbubble?

No. Redbubble is a print-on-demand platform and doesn’t currently support digital product sales. For digital downloads, platforms like Etsy or Gumroad are better options.