How Much Does StartPlaying Take in Fees?

StartPlaying takes a 15% booking fee out of every paid session, deducted from the player's payment before the remainder reaches the game master's account. Game masters who want same-day access to that money can also opt into an Instant Payout, which costs an additional 2% of the amount being transferred to the bank.

What does StartPlaying's 15% fee actually cover?

StartPlaying's 15% booking fee funds player acquisition, booking and scheduling admin, Stripe payment processing, fraud and dispute handling, the review system, catalog advertising, and an email support team — not campaign management tools. StartPlaying's help center states the fee is charged only on completed paid bookings, never on listings, profiles, or subscriptions.

StartPlaying's help center states the platform takes a 15% platform fee from each booking, meaning 85% of each booking is paid out to the game master (StartPlaying Help Center, "How Does Payment Work For Running Games On StartPlaying?"). Per StartPlaying's own fee documentation, the 15% specifically funds:

• Player acquisition — paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, plus SEO that drives players to game listings
• Booking and scheduling admin — automated session reminders and calendar tooling
• Payment processing and fraud protection — Stripe-based collection, dispute resolution, and transaction reports
• The review system that unlocks visibility in GM Search and builds an on-platform reputation
• Inclusion in Facebook and Instagram product catalog ads for listings that are public, have Instant Book on, have at least 3 sessions scheduled, and use a.jpeg cover image under 1MB
• A human support team, described as available Monday–Friday, 9AM–6PM EST via email

The same page is explicit about what the fee does not fund: "Campaign management tools (notes, loot tracking, character sheets)," phone support, and guaranteed player matches or booking volume.

Who actually pays the 15% fee, the GM or the player?

The game master's payout absorbs StartPlaying's 15% fee. StartPlaying deducts the 15% from the player's payment before sending the remainder to the game master, so the game master never handles the fee as a separate charge, and the player is charged exactly the seat price the game master set.

StartPlaying's help center puts the mechanic directly:

"You set your own session price. When a player books and pays, StartPlaying automatically deducts 15% before the remainder is paid out to you. You never handle the fee directly." — StartPlaying Help Center (What Does the 15% Fee Cover?)

A game master who lists a session at $30 per seat therefore receives $25.50 per seat once a booking is completed, before any separate Instant Payout fee. StartPlaying's fee applies only to completed, paid bookings — not to listing a game or creating a game master profile.

When does StartPlaying actually charge the fee?

StartPlaying charges a player's card one hour after a session's scheduled start time, and the 15% booking fee comes out of that charge before the game master's share reaches the Payouts page. No fee applies to a listed game that is never booked, and no fee applies to a session the game master cancels in advance.

StartPlaying's help center states that players are automatically charged 1 hour after the session start time, a window that lets a game master cancel before anyone is billed. The same page states that payments appear on the game master's Payouts page "typically within a few minutes" of that 1-hour mark. StartPlaying's fee documentation adds the condition plainly: "You only pay the 15% when a session is booked and completed".

Is there an extra fee to get paid faster?

Yes. Eligible US game masters can take an Instant Payout that settles within 30 minutes, and StartPlaying charges 2% for it. That 2% is calculated on the payout transfer amount — the balance the game master moves to the bank, already net of the 15% booking fee — not on the gross booking price a player paid.

StartPlaying's Instant Payout guide states the basis and gives a worked example:

"An Instant Transfer costs 2% of the total amount you are transferring. Example: DM Bob goes to transfer $100 to his bank account. If he transfers $100 using a Standard payout, it will take 1-5 business days and he will receive $100. If he uses an Instant payout, it will take up to 30 minutes and he will receive $98." — StartPlaying Help Center (How to Instant Payout)

StartPlaying limits eligible game masters to one Instant Payout per day, and restricts the feature to verified US hosts with a supported bank account — debit cards are not supported. For reference on the underlying rail, Stripe charges direct Dashboard users a 1.5% Instant Payouts fee in the US, AU, NZ, and AE, and 1% in CA, the EU, the UK, SG, NO, HK, and MY. Skipping Instant Payout avoids the 2%, but never the base 15%: StartPlaying's 15% applies to every completed paid booking regardless of payout speed.

How long does a standard StartPlaying payout take?

Standard StartPlaying payouts take 2–3 business days for US game masters and 7–11 business days for game masters outside the US, with a first-ever payout taking 5–7 business days regardless of location. Standard payouts carry no extra fee; only the optional Instant Payout adds StartPlaying's 2% transfer charge.

StartPlaying's payment guide lays out the tiers by game master location and payout history:

StartPlaying's own documentation is not fully consistent on standard timing: the Instant Payout guide describes the standard alternative as taking "1-5 business days", while the payment guide gives the 2–3 / 7–11 / 5–7 business-day tiers above, so treat standard timing as a range rather than a guarantee.

All payments route through Stripe, players are charged in US dollars, and Stripe sends each payout in the default currency of the game master's home country, converting automatically for game masters outside the United States (StartPlaying Help Center).

What does a $30 seat actually pay out after StartPlaying's fees?

A $30 seat on StartPlaying pays out $25.50 to the game master after the 15% booking fee, and $24.99 if that $25.50 is moved with the optional 2% Instant Payout. StartPlaying's 15% comes off the player's payment first, and the 2% is then charged on the amount transferred to the bank.

Every figure in the table above is arithmetic applied to StartPlaying's published 15% and 2% rates (StartPlaying Help Center, "How Does Payment Work For Running Games On StartPlaying?" and "How to Instant Payout"). In practice a real payout usually bundles several bookings, so the 2% is charged once on the combined transfer rather than seat by seat. One further wrinkle: if a payout mixes card payments and StartPlaying site credit, the site credit included is capped at 15% of the card-payment total, and the excess credit stays on the Payouts page — StartPlaying's example is $100 in card payments plus $25 in credit paying out as $115, with $10 of credit held back.

Does StartPlaying charge anything besides the booking fee?

No StartPlaying platform fee beyond the 15% booking fee and the optional 2% Instant Payout applies to game masters: there is no subscription, listing, or sign-up charge. Refunds, income taxes, and currency conversion on international payouts sit outside that fee schedule and can still reduce what a game master ultimately keeps.

StartPlaying states that it "charges a 15% fee on bookings, with no subscription or sign-up fees". Four costs sit outside that fee schedule and are worth scoping precisely:

• Refunds. StartPlaying's refund policy states that all StartPlaying refunds are issued as site credit, and StartPlaying's refund guide states that game masters can issue refunds up to 14 days after a charge (StartPlaying Help Center, "Everything You Need to Know about Refunds"). A refunded booking reduces a game master's earnings, and it is not a fee StartPlaying publishes a rate for.
• Disputes and chargebacks. StartPlaying states that it handles dispute resolution as part of the 15% and does not publish a separate game-master-facing chargeback fee in its fee documentation, so the game-master cost of a disputed charge is best confirmed with StartPlaying support rather than assumed to be zero.
• Taxes. StartPlaying does not withhold any funds for taxes and issues a 1099-NEC only to US-based game masters whose completed payouts reach $600 or more in a calendar year (StartPlaying Help Center, "How do Taxes Work for Game Masters?"). Income tax is the game master's own liability, not a StartPlaying charge, and the $600 reporting threshold applies to US game masters only.
• Currency conversion. Stripe's published pricing adds 1% when currency conversion is required (Stripe Pricing), which is the layer that applies when Stripe converts a USD-denominated payout into an international game master's local currency.

Player-side checkout costs are a separate question: StartPlaying's game-master-facing fee documentation does not describe a player service fee, and it is the game master's payout that the 15% is taken from.

How does StartPlaying's fee compare to running paid tables off-platform?

StartPlaying's 15% booking fee buys player discovery, and a direct payment link does not. A game master collecting payment through their own link keeps a larger share of each seat but has to bring their own players and pays whatever that tool charges instead. FanBell, one such direct-link tool, charges 12% per fan payment with no monthly fee — the same fee-avoidance logic that leads streamers to collect donations without Streamlabs fees on the tipping side of their income.

The StartPlaying figures on this page come from StartPlaying's own help center. The FanBell figures below are first-party claims published by FanBell, which operates this site, and are not independently verified: FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays (https://fanbell.link/pricing), and FanBell does not host, schedule, or run a live session itself (https://fanbell.link/how-it-works).

Underneath either platform's own fee sits card processing: Stripe's published US rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards. That processing cost is already inside StartPlaying's 15% and inside FanBell's 12%, not an additional charge on top of either. The real decision is what the extra 3 percentage points buy: StartPlaying's fee includes a search marketplace that puts listings in front of players, while a lower flat fee moves the discovery work back onto the game master's own audience. Take D&D bookings without StartPlaying's fees covers the mechanics of that migration for game masters who already have players to redirect.

What does the 15% fee not include?

The 15% fee excludes campaign management tools, phone support, and any guarantee of player matches or booking volume. StartPlaying describes itself as a marketplace and payment platform rather than a full campaign suite, so notes, loot tracking, character sheets, and a virtual tabletop remain the game master's own cost and responsibility.

StartPlaying is explicit that "campaign management tools (notes, loot tracking, character sheets)," phone support, and "guaranteed player matches or booking volume" fall outside what the 15% covers. A game master who wants those tools still pays separately for a VTT such as Roll20 or Foundry, or runs the table through Discord.

For a game master pricing per seat before working out what StartPlaying keeps, how much to charge for a paid D&D one-shot covers the pricing math separately from the fee question answered here.

Frequently asked questions

StartPlaying charges game masters two fees and no others in its published fee schedule: a flat 15% platform fee on every completed booking, and an optional 2% Instant Payout fee charged on the amount transferred to the bank. There is no subscription, listing, or sign-up cost, and the 15% never varies by volume.

Does StartPlaying's 15% fee change based on how many sessions a GM runs?

No. StartPlaying's published fee documentation describes a flat 15% platform fee on each booking with no tiered, volume-based, or negotiated discount mentioned.

Is the 2% Instant Payout fee available to international game masters?

No. StartPlaying states that Instant Payouts are only available for connected accounts in the United States with a supported bank account, because Stripe only allows Instant Payouts to connected accounts in the same country as the platform. Game masters outside the US use the standard 7–11 business day payout timeline instead.

Is the 2% calculated on the booking price or on the payout?

The 2% is calculated on the payout transfer amount. StartPlaying states that "an Instant Transfer costs 2% of the total amount you are transferring," and its own example transfers $100 and receives $98. The 15% booking fee has already been deducted before that balance exists, so the two fees do not both apply to the gross booking price.

Does StartPlaying charge players anything beyond the session price?

StartPlaying's game-master-facing fee documentation does not describe a separate player service fee, and states that players are charged the session price the game master sets, one hour after the session start time. Players who receive a refund receive it as site credit rather than cash (StartPlaying Help Center).

Can a GM avoid the 15% fee while still listing on StartPlaying?

No. StartPlaying states that "taking payment outside of StartPlaying for games listed on the platform is a violation of our Terms of Service". Avoiding the fee means moving bookings to a different platform entirely rather than collecting off-platform for a StartPlaying listing.

What does FanBell charge instead of a booking-fee marketplace model?

FanBell states that it is free to start with no monthly fee, takes a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays, and sets no follower minimum — a first-party claim from the operator of this site. A game master lists a paid session as a Creator Service with a set price and turnaround, collects through their own FanBell link, and sends session details through the private order thread.

Create your free FanBell page and see exactly what a paid session keeps when the only fee is 12%, charged only when a fan actually pays.