Earn and payouts
Tips, products and tip-to-unlock links paid through your gateway, how earnings are recorded, how creators request payouts and how you pay them.
4 min readUpdated Oct 17, 2026Applies to LinkNest 1.0.0
On this page
Creators can take money on their page in three ways: a support button (tips), products, and tip-to-unlock links. All three are paid through the payment gateway you, the platform operator, connect under Admin → Payment settings. LinkNest records each payment against the creator, and the creator asks you for a payout.
Warning
Money from creators' visitors lands in your Stripe, PayPal or Razorpay account. You are collecting payments on their behalf and paying them out by hand, which can bring obligations (merchant of record, tax reporting, money-transmission rules) that depend on your country. Check them before you switch this on for other people. LinkNest takes no platform fee on these payments: the creator's balance is the full amount.
Who can use it
The Earn screen opens when the plan includes the tips key (Pro and Premium as created by the migrations). The support button and products on the public page show for any page that has them switched on.
The support button
In Earn → Support button:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| On/off | Shows the button on the public page. |
| Label | The button text, default "Support me" (also under Settings). |
| Amounts | The preset amounts visitors pick from (default 3, 5 and 10). |
| Thank-you line | Shown when the visitor comes back from checkout. Default "Thank you." |
| Monthly goal | An amount and a label. When set, the page shows a progress bar of this month's paid tips. 0 hides it. |
| External tip URL | Used instead of checkout when no gateway is connected, for example a Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee page. |
Products
Under New product: a title, one line of description, a price (at least $1) and a URL. Products show on the public page with a buy button that starts a checkout for the product's price.
Important
The product URL is labelled "File or thank-you URL (after pay)", but in 1.0.0 it is not delivered after payment: a buyer who pays is returned to the creator's page with the thank-you line. And when no gateway is connected, the buy button sends visitors straight to that URL without payment. Do not put paid files behind it; deliver them yourself until this is fixed. See Known limitations.
Tip to unlock
A link locked with Tip to unlock (see Building a page) shows a tip button for the amount the creator set. After checkout the visitor returns to the page, which checks the payment; if it has been confirmed, the page says "Unlocked — open the link again" and the link opens for the rest of that browser session. A tip unlocks only the link it was paid for.
Two cases do not unlock automatically in 1.0.0: a Stripe or Razorpay payment whose webhook has not arrived by the time the visitor is back (the page does not retry), and any PayPal payment (the return address does not carry the unlock details).
How a payment is recorded
- The visitor chooses a tip, a product or an unlock. LinkNest writes a pending earning and opens a checkout with your first connected gateway, in this order: Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay.
- The visitor pays.
- The gateway tells LinkNest, and the earning becomes paid:
- Stripe: the
checkout.session.completedwebhook. - PayPal: the order is captured when the visitor returns to the page, and the
CHECKOUT.ORDER...andPAYMENT.CAPTURE...webhooks are also accepted. - Razorpay: a payment link is created; the
payment_link...orpayment.capturedwebhook marks it paid.
- Stripe: the
| Gateway | Currency for tips and products |
|---|---|
| Stripe | USD |
| PayPal | USD |
| Razorpay | USD by default. With the currency set to INR and an INR per 1 USD rate saved, the amount is converted at that rate: a $5 tip at 83.5 is charged ₹417.50. Without a rate, USD. See Razorpay. |
The minimum for any tip or product is $1 (100 cents).
The creator's balance
Earn shows:
- earnings this week and this month, a 14-day chart and a breakdown by source;
- an activity list with each earning's source and status;
- the available balance: paid earnings minus payouts already requested or paid.
Creators can also Record a cash tip (added as paid) and Mark paid on a pending earning.
Warning
Both of those count towards the available balance. A creator can therefore raise their own balance and request a payout for money that never passed through your gateway. Always check a payout request against your gateway's records before you pay it.
Requesting a payout
The creator sets a payout email and chooses Request payout. The request must be at least $10 and no more than the available balance. It is reserved immediately, so it cannot be requested twice.
Paying creators
Requests appear in Admin → Finance → Creator payouts. For each one:
- Check it against your gateway's records.
- Send the money yourself, by bank transfer, PayPal or however you agreed with the creator. LinkNest does not move money.
- Choose Mark paid, or Reject with an optional note. A rejected request is released back to the creator's available balance.
Home in the studio says "Request a payout" once the available balance reaches $10.