An illustration commission Terms of Service should plainly state what's included, how many revision rounds are covered, who owns the resulting image and for what use, the turnaround window, and what happens if either side backs out. Posting it on the same link-in-bio page where the fan pays keeps it visible before checkout, not discovered after a dispute starts.
Scope note: the legal examples in this guide are U.S.-focused — federal copyright law plus state and city freelance-contract statutes. Copyright transfer, consumer refund rights, and contract-formation rules differ by country and by state, so treat this as general information for structuring a policy, not legal advice for your jurisdiction.
In our experience helping illustrators set up paid commission listings, the disputes that escalate tend to share one shape: the buyer assumed something the artist never promised. That is a practical observation from working with creator pages, not a measured statistic — we have not found a published survey quantifying the causes of art-commission disputes. A short, visible TOS closes the assumption gap before the first payment rather than after the third "can you also add..." message.
What should a commission TOS actually cover?
An illustration commission TOS should cover six things: what the price includes, how many revision rounds are included, what usage rights the buyer receives, the turnaround window, when payment is taken, and the refund or cancellation policy. Style notes, reference requirements, and content restrictions are useful additions, but they are secondary to those six.
| Section | What to state | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Exact deliverable (e.g., "one bust-up illustration, one character") | Prevents scope creep mid-commission |
| Revisions | A specific number of rounds, not "reasonable amount" | Removes the most common source of disagreement |
| Usage rights | Personal use vs. commercial, credit requirements | Determines what the buyer can legally do with the file |
| Turnaround | A stated window, e.g. "5–10 business days" | Sets expectations without a locked-in deadline promise |
| Payment | When payment is collected and what happens if declined | Avoids starting unpaid work |
| Refunds | What's refundable at each stage of progress | Protects both sides if the commission is canceled |
Professional design contracts are built the same way. AIGA's Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services, updated in 2020, separates a per-project schedule of services from a fixed block of standard terms, so variables such as revision rounds and usage rights are set for each engagement instead of assumed (AIGA).
Keep the wording short enough that a fan will actually read it before paying, rather than a multi-page legal document buried in a linked PDF. Length is not what makes a commission TOS work; being visible at the moment of payment is.
Does an artist automatically own a commissioned illustration's copyright?
Under U.S. copyright law the artist who draws a commissioned illustration owns the copyright; paying for the piece does not by itself transfer it. Section 204(a) of the Copyright Act provides that a transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless it appears in a written instrument signed by the copyright owner (U.S. Copyright Office, Title 17, Chapter 2).
The U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 30 explains when a "work made for hire" exception applies:
"A copyrightable work is 'made for hire' in two situations: When it is created by an employee as part of the employee's regular duties [or] when a certain type of work is created as a result of an express written agreement between the creator and a party specially ordering or commissioning it."
The commissioned "work made for hire" route is narrower than it sounds. Section 101 of the Copyright Act limits commissioned works made for hire to nine listed categories — a contribution to a collective work, a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, an instructional text, a test, answer material for a test, or an atlas — and requires a written agreement signed by both parties (U.S. Copyright Office, Title 17, Chapter 1, § 101). A standalone character illustration ordered through a link-in-bio page generally fits none of those nine categories, so the default holds: the artist keeps the copyright and the buyer receives a license.
Ownership and registration are separate steps. Copyright exists from the moment the illustration is fixed in a tangible form, while registering it with the U.S. Copyright Office costs $45 for one work by a single author, same claimant, not made for hire, filed through the Single Application. The Copyright Office proposed a revised fee schedule in a notice of proposed rulemaking dated March 20, 2026 and has said it seeks to implement the new fees in fall 2026, so an illustrator budgeting for registration should check the published schedule before filing.
State that license explicitly. "Includes personal use only. Commercial use, resale, or NFT minting requires a separate license" is a complete usage line in plain English. Whether a term like that actually binds a given buyer is a separate question that depends on jurisdiction, how visibly the terms were presented, whether the buyer assented before paying, and the facts of the transaction — visibility before checkout is the part the artist controls. Leaving usage rights unstated is, in our experience, where a delivered commission most often turns into an argument.
How many revisions should a commission include?
State a specific number of revision rounds rather than "unlimited" or "a reasonable amount." No published industry survey establishes a standard revision count for illustration commissions, so treat any figure you encounter — including the familiar one or two rounds — as common practice rather than a benchmark, and pick the number your own pricing can support.
In the commission listings we help creators build, one or two defined rounds is the pattern we see most often; we are describing observed practice, not citing measured data. For negotiated norms with an actual editorial basis behind them, the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, now in its 17th edition, is the field's standing reference for illustration pricing and contract terms.
Attach the revision count to a production stage rather than leaving it floating: "one round of sketch approval, one round of color approval" is clearer than "two revisions" with no indication of when they apply. Additional rounds beyond the stated count work better as a paid add-on than as goodwill folded into the base price. On FanBell, a Creator Service is listed with a set price and turnaround, so writing the revision count into the listing description keeps it visible at the point of payment instead of buried in a separate document.
What refund and cancellation terms are fair to both sides?
A fair refund policy scales with how much work has been done: a full refund before sketching starts, a partial refund if only a rough sketch exists, and no refund once the final file has been delivered. Writing that ladder into the TOS upfront prevents an argument about what counts as "fair" after a cancellation request arrives.
A simple three-stage structure covers the usual cases:
- Before work begins: full refund if the artist hasn't started.
- Sketch or rough stage: partial refund reflecting time already spent.
- Final delivery: no refund, since the deliverable has been completed and sent.
On FanBell, a creator can decline and refund a request that falls outside the agreed scope before starting it, so the "before work begins" stage has a built-in mechanism rather than requiring a manual payment reversal (how FanBell works).
If a U.S. fan disputes a delivered commission through their card issuer instead of contacting the artist, the process runs on a fixed statutory clock: the cardholder must dispute a billing error in writing so the letter reaches the issuer within 60 days after the first bill containing the error was sent, the issuer must acknowledge the dispute within 30 days, and the issuer must resolve it within 90 days of receiving the complaint (U.S. Federal Trade Commission, "Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges"). Those deadlines come from U.S. consumer-protection law; a buyer outside the United States is covered by their own country's card rules instead. A chargeback also carries a direct cost to the artist: Stripe's published pricing lists a $15.00 fee for disputed payments, plus a $15.00 dispute-countered fee for each dispute a business responds to manually (Stripe pricing). A clear, visible refund policy reduces how often a buyer concludes a chargeback is the only route available.
Does a commission TOS need to be a formal written contract?
For most independent illustrators, a short, plainly worded policy displayed on the commission listing functions as the working agreement, and no signed contract is required to set expectations. Several U.S. jurisdictions do impose a written-contract requirement once the engagement passes a dollar threshold, so the answer changes as commissions get larger.
Three U.S. freelance-contract regimes are worth knowing, each described here from the state or city agency that enforces it:
| Jurisdiction | Written contract required at | Payment deadline if the contract sets no date | In force since |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York City | $800 or more, one project or aggregated across any 120-day period | Within 30 days after the work is completed | May 15, 2017 |
| Illinois | $500 or more, one contract or aggregated across a 120-day period | Within 30 days of completing the services | July 1, 2024 |
| New York State | Written-contract and timely-payment protections under General Business Law Article 44-A | Varies — check current New York State Department of Labor guidance | August 28, 2024 |
New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection requires a written contract once freelance work totals $800 or more on one project or in the aggregate across any 120-day period, and requires the hiring party to pay within 30 days after the work is completed when the contract names no payment date (NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Freelance Worker Rights). New York City's Freelance Isn't Free Act, Local Law 140 of 2016, took effect on May 15, 2017.
The Illinois Freelance Worker Protection Act covers work valued at $500 or more in a single contract or in the aggregate over a 120-day period, requires full payment by the contract due date or within 30 days of completing the services if no date is specified, and applies to contracts taking effect on or after July 1, 2024 (Illinois Department of Labor). New York State's Freelance Isn't Free Act added Article 44-A to the General Business Law effective August 28, 2024, extending written-contract and timely-payment protections statewide.
Enforcement of these statutes is not theoretical. New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection reported that since the Freelance Isn't Free Act took effect in 2017 the agency had received nearly 4,300 complaints about potential violations, closed more than 3,500 cases, and helped freelancers recover over $3,470,000.
New York City's agency states the written-contract rule in one line:
"All contracts worth $800 or more must be in writing. This includes all agreements between you and the hiring party that total $800 in any 120-day period." (NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection)
The New York City, New York State, and Illinois freelance statutes are local and state laws aimed at the hiring party, not universal rules that apply to every commission everywhere, and an artist outside those three jurisdictions is governed by their own country's or state's contract law. Those thresholds are still a useful benchmark: once a piece is priced high enough to matter, a written record — even a saved copy of the paid listing and its terms — is worth keeping regardless of where either side is based.
Where should the TOS actually live?
A commission TOS works best attached to the listing the fan is about to pay for, not linked out to a separate page they can skip. Terms a buyer never saw before checkout are weak on every axis at once — practical, commercial, and legal — so visibility at the moment of payment is the real goal, not polished wording.
On a FanBell page, a Creator Service listing has its own description field, so scope, revision count, usage rights, and turnaround can sit directly next to the price and the buy button rather than in a linked PDF (how FanBell works). Cost disclosure belongs in the same place: FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays (FanBell pricing), and card processing is billed separately at Stripe's typical U.S. online rate of 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge (Stripe pricing).
Illustrators moving over from a private Discord queue or a spreadsheet of paid commissions often find that folding the TOS into the listing itself — instead of maintaining it as a separate document — is what finally gets it read.
What if a request doesn't match what the fan paid for?
A request outside the agreed scope — a second character added to a single-character commission, a style change mid-sketch, a content type the page doesn't offer — should be declined and refunded rather than absorbed as free extra work. Naming the boundary in the TOS in advance makes the decline straightforward to explain when it happens.
Common out-of-scope triggers to name explicitly in the policy:
- Additional characters, props, or backgrounds not itemized in the listing
- A style or medium different from the one advertised
- Content categories the artist doesn't accept
- Requests for the source file (PSD/CLIP) when only a flattened export was sold
Naming out-of-scope triggers in the TOS in advance means declining a request doesn't read as arbitrary — it reads as enforcing a policy the buyer could see before paying.
What's the difference between commission terms and a general pricing guide?
A commission TOS governs the rules of a single transaction: scope, usage rights, revisions, turnaround, and refunds. A pricing guide governs how much different deliverables cost and why. A TOS and a pricing guide answer different questions, and merging the two usually makes both harder to read and harder to point a buyer at.
For the pricing side of the decision — base rates, add-on pricing, and rush fees — see how much to charge for an art commission. For the operational side of running a commission queue on a paid-request link instead of a marketplace listing, see how to take paid commissions. Illustrators working across several platforms may also want a dedicated page for artists and illustrators covering commission-adjacent offers beyond a single deliverable, such as tips and project funding.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a lawyer to write a commission TOS?
A commission TOS is normally something an illustrator can write without counsel: a plain-language policy covering scope, revisions, usage rights, turnaround, payment, and refunds. A lawyer becomes worth consulting for high-value commercial licensing, for work in a jurisdiction with a statutory contract requirement, or if a dispute escalates beyond a simple refund. This article is general information, not legal advice.
Who owns the copyright to a commissioned illustration?
Under U.S. law the artist retains copyright by default, and a transfer is not valid unless it is in a written instrument signed by the copyright owner (U.S. Copyright Office). The commissioned "work made for hire" route is limited to nine statutory categories that a standalone illustration usually does not fall into (U.S. Copyright Office), so the TOS should spell out what usage rights the buyer receives instead.
How many revisions should be included in the base price?
There is no cited industry survey setting a standard, so state a specific number you can afford rather than copying a benchmark. One or two defined rounds tied to stages — sketch approval and color approval — is the pattern we see most often in creator listings, with extra rounds billed separately. Avoid "reasonable revisions," which is hard to apply consistently when a disagreement starts.
Does registering the copyright cost anything?
Registration is optional and separate from ownership. The U.S. Copyright Office fee schedule lists $45 to register one work by a single author, same claimant, not made for hire, through the Single Application (U.S. Copyright Office fee schedule). The Office proposed a revised fee schedule on March 20, 2026 that it seeks to implement in fall 2026, so check the published schedule before filing (U.S. Copyright Office).
Do these legal rules apply outside the United States?
No. The copyright, chargeback, and written-contract rules cited here are U.S. federal, state, and city rules. Creators elsewhere are governed by their own country's copyright law, consumer-payment rules, and freelance-contract statutes, though the structural advice — state scope, revisions, rights, turnaround, payment, and refunds before checkout — travels anywhere.
Can I decline a commission after payment?
Yes. On FanBell, a creator can decline and refund a request that falls outside the agreed scope (how FanBell works). Stating out-of-scope triggers in the TOS in advance makes a decline easier to explain and less likely to read as arbitrary.
What does FanBell charge to sell illustration commissions?
FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays. There is no follower minimum, and Creator Services support a set price and a delivery window of up to about 120 hours (how FanBell works). Card processing is separate: Stripe's typical U.S. online-card rate is 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge (Stripe pricing).
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