How to get donations on Twitch, with or without Affiliate

Quick answer: you can get donations on Twitch through Bits (cheers) and subscriptions once Twitch gives your channel access (normally Affiliate or Partner), or through a direct donation link, which works from your first stream. A €5 iDEAL donation through DonoLink leaves you €4.53.

Can you get donations on Twitch without Affiliate?

Yes. A donation link does not depend on Affiliate or Partner status: you can share it from your first stream once your DonoLink page is live and Stripe has verified your account. DonoLink is available to creators in every EU country except Germany: the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain have their own site, the other 22 countries use donolink.eu. Bits and subscriptions are different: Twitch only switches them on when your channel has access, normally after reaching Affiliate. Twitch shows your progress under Achievements in the Creator Dashboard.

Four ways a Twitch viewer can support you

• Subscriptions: viewers pay monthly for emotes and badges. By default you receive half of the net revenue; Twitch's Plus Program can raise that to 60% or 70%.
• Bits (cheers): virtual points viewers buy from Twitch and cheer in your chat. You receive 1 US cent per Bit, so 100 Bits earn you 1 dollar before taxes.
• Ads: Twitch runs ads during your stream and shares the revenue. The amount depends on your viewers, their country and how often you run ad breaks.
• Direct donations: a viewer pays on your own donation page outside Twitch and you keep most of it, with no follower or viewer threshold.

Subs, ads and sponsors are covered in detail in how to make money on Twitch.

Why direct donations often matter most

First, the split: Twitch passes on half of a subscription's net revenue by default, while a €5 iDEAL donation through DonoLink leaves you €4.53 after the DonoLink fee and Stripe costs. Second, Bits need a logged-in viewer who has bought Bits; a donation works without any account, also after the stream. Third, Affiliate takes time, because Twitch asks for a minimum number of followers, broadcast days and average viewers. More in our starter guide.

Where to put your donation link

Put it in a Twitch panel, your bio and a !donate command; the click path is in how to set up donations on Twitch. To show donations on stream, follow the OBS donation alert guide.

Stop troll donations

Trolls send a small donation with an offensive message, hoping it is read out on stream. You have four controls:

• Your own minimum. DonoLink accepts donations from €1 (Klarna from €10). Set a higher minimum on your page if small troll donations become a problem.
• Message threshold. Choose from which amount a donor's message appears on stream; below it, the alert shows without the message.
• Text to speech threshold. Text to speech stays off until you switch it on; messages are then read aloud from €3 by default, and you can raise that amount.
• Profanity filter. Switch it on to replace offensive words with a smiley or a happy word, or to hide the whole message, and add your own words. Links in messages are hidden by default.

You can also pause the alert queue or skip an alert from your dashboard.

Bookkeeping for Twitch income

Twitch asks creators outside the US to complete a tax interview, usually ending in a W-8BEN form. Without it, Twitch can withhold US tax from your payouts, so complete it before your first payout. DonoLink donations do not go through Twitch: they arrive in your connected Stripe account, and Stripe handles the bank payout. Save Twitch statements and direct-donation exports separately so the source and fees remain traceable. Whether income is taxable depends on your circumstances; get professional advice instead of treating the word “donation” as a tax exemption.

Your plan for this week

Create the page, connect payouts, add the link and OBS source, make a real low-value test payment and export the transaction. Once all five work, you are ready to share the link on stream.