The number nobody in this market will say out loud
Ask ten OnlyFans agencies what they charge and you will get plenty of warm words about partnership, scaling and "unlocking your potential" — and, in most cases, no number at all. In August 2026 we sat down and verified, one by one, 40 agencies across the United States and Europe — the markets we operate in, and the competitors a British creator actually finds when she searches for management. Out of all of them, exactly one publishes its commission on its website. One. Every other agency makes you get on a sales call before telling you what their work costs.
The UK slice of that analysis deserves its own sentence. Among the top-ranking UK agencies we verified, not a single one publishes its commission — and two of them had websites that were broken or half-built. Pages ranking at the top of search, asking creators to hand over their income, with dead links and unfinished sections. We are not going to name anyone, because the point is not to embarrass a competitor; the point is to show you the state of the market you are shopping in.
It is worth sitting with that for a second, because in almost no other service industry would it fly. You would not hire an accountant, a solicitor or a builder who refuses to name a price until you are twenty minutes into a sales conversation. Yet creators sign with agencies under exactly those conditions every day — often for deals that run months or years.
This article puts the actual numbers on the table: the real market range, why almost nobody publishes it, the gross-versus-net detail that changes everything, the HMRC basics every UK creator needs squared away — and what we charge, published, because we think that should be normal.
The short answer: 30% to 50% of what you earn
Based on our August 2026 analysis, the real market range for full OnlyFans account management runs from 30% to 50% of a creator's earnings. That is the honest spread. Anything quoted below it usually turns out to cover only a slice of the operation, and anything above it should make you close the laptop.
Two things about that range matter more than the range itself:
- You almost never see the number in advance. Because only one of the 40 agencies we verified publishes its rate, the figure you eventually hear on a call is shaped by the conversation — by how much the agency reckons the deal is worth to them — not by a posted price you can compare calmly against others.
- The percentage is only half the equation. Whether that percentage is applied to your gross platform earnings or to your net payout changes the real cost dramatically. More on that below, because it is the single most expensive detail in these contracts.
We ran the same exercise across the wider market, by the way — the full breakdown of what each commission tier should actually buy you, plus the hidden-fee patterns we kept finding, is in our companion piece: How Much Do OnlyFans Agencies Charge? Real Commission Data (2026).
Why agencies keep the rate off the website
The generous reading is that every account is different, so agencies prefer to quote case by case. There is some truth in that — a creator handing over her entire operation is a different job from one who only wants chat coverage.
The less generous reading, which our analysis kept running into, is that opacity is profitable. When nobody publishes rates, nobody can be undercut on rates, and the first number you hear can be anchored as high as the call allows. We also found the surrounding signs you would expect in an opaque market: highly ranked agency sites that are abandoned or half-built, pages with no verifiable legal details anywhere, and plenty of "guaranteed results" claims without a single verifiable number behind them.
None of that means every agency hiding its rate is dishonest. It does mean the burden of clarity has been pushed onto you, the creator — and the rest of this article is about how to carry it without getting caught out.
Gross vs. net: the detail that moves more money than the rate itself
OnlyFans keeps 20% of everything a creator bills on the platform. That means there are two very different bases an agency commission can be applied to: your gross (what fans paid) or your net (what actually landed in your account after the platform's cut).
Do the arithmetic once and you will never un-see it. Say fans spend £1,000 on your page in a month. After OnlyFans' 20%, you receive £800. An agency charging "40% on gross" takes £400 — which is half of the £800 you actually received. The same words, "forty per cent", describe a 50% real cost. A commission quoted on net, by contrast, is applied only to the £800 that exists for you in the first place.
This is why the base matters as much as the rate, and why it belongs in writing, in the contract, with the words "net earnings after platform fees" spelled out. In our analysis, this was one of the most consistent gaps between what gets said on calls and what gets signed on paper.
What Empire charges — published, on purpose
We decided to be the exception to the pattern our own analysis found. Empire Management's commission is public, here and on our OnlyFans agency page for UK creators:
- 30% while you earn under $1,000 a month
- 25% between $1,000 and $3,000 a month
- 20% once you pass $3,000 a month
Three structural points, because the structure is the actual offer:
- Always on net. The percentage applies to what you take home after OnlyFans' 20% cut — never to what the platform bills.
- Nothing upfront. No retainer, no setup fee, no charge before you earn. If you do not earn, we do not get paid.
- The cut goes down as you go up. Notice the direction: the more you earn, the smaller our percentage. That is the opposite of how most of the market structures its deals, and it is deliberate — we would rather grow with you than tax your growth.
The rest of our terms are equally plain: a three-month initial commitment (a chat, pricing and traffic system does not produce measurable results in three weeks, and we will not pretend otherwise), weekly reporting on what came in and where it came from, and your accounts remaining your property throughout.
The tax side: HMRC already has the numbers
No agency commission matters if the tax side turns into a problem — and in the UK there is a detail most creators still have not clocked. Since January 2024, under the DAC7 digital platform reporting rules, OnlyFans sends your earnings data to HMRC automatically, and HMRC cross-checks it against your Self Assessment return. The income is visible before you declare it. "They will not notice" is no longer a strategy.
The mechanics themselves are simple once someone lays them out — the same essentials we cover in detail on our UK page:
- Past the £1,000 trading allowance in a tax year, HMRC treats what you earn as self-employment income: you register for Self Assessment (the deadline is 5 October in your business's second tax year) and file a return.
- Income tax runs at 20% up to £50,270, 40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that, plus National Insurance.
- VAT only enters the picture once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling twelve-month period.
We are not tax advisers and we will not pretend to be. What we do is keep your monthly numbers clean and organised, flag it when your figures start heading towards the VAT threshold, and put you in front of accountants who already work with creators — so January stops being the month you dread.
And the reason this sits in an article about commissions is simple: a serious agency knows this reality and organises the operation around it. If the agency courting you has never once mentioned HMRC, Self Assessment or how your records will be kept, it is not managing a career — it is just asking for a slice of your revenue.
What to demand in writing before you sign
Whichever agency you talk to — including us — do not sign until these five things are on paper:
- The exact commission and its base. The percentage, and whether it applies to gross or net earnings. Both, in the same sentence.
- Everything included at that rate. Chat, traffic, content strategy, reporting, protection — itemised, so nothing can migrate to a separate invoice later.
- Any cost outside the percentage. If the honest answer is "none", the contract should say none.
- Term length and exit clause. How long you are committing for and exactly how you leave.
- Ownership of your accounts. Written confirmation that your OnlyFans and social accounts remain yours — before, during and after the deal.
An agency that does real work has no reason to resist any of these. An agency that hesitates on even one of them has just answered your real question.
Rate secrecy vs. published terms — side by side
| What we kept finding (Aug 2026 analysis) | What you should demand instead |
|---|---|
| Commission revealed only on a sales call | Rate published or stated in writing before any call |
| Percentage quoted without naming the base | "Net earnings after platform fees" spelled out in the contract |
| "Everything included" — with services billed separately later | Every included service listed next to the rate |
| Guaranteed-results claims with no verifiable number behind them | A written plan and reporting cadence, no income promises |
| No verifiable company details on the site — or a site that is half-built | A legally incorporated company you can look up, on a site that works |
| Vague terms, no exit conditions discussed | Term length and exit clause in the same document as the rate |