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GitHub Sponsors

Deep guide to receiving sponsorship through GitHub Sponsors — the default starting platform for most maintainers because personal sponsorships carry a 0% platform fee and the "Sponsor" button is wired natively into every repo via .github/FUNDING.yml.

All fees below are GitHub's published schedule, cited from docs.github.com — treat as reference only and re-verify the current schedule before publishing a rate card.

Table of contents

At a glance

Field Value
Status alive
Category sponsorship (direct recurring/one-time)
Best for Individual OSS maintainers who want 0% fees and native GitHub integration
Personal fee 0% platform fee (only payment-processing applies)
Org fee up to 6% = 3% card processing + 3% GitHub service fee; invoiced billing removes the 3% card fee
Payment methods debit/credit cards. PayPal was dropped Feb 23, 2023.
Regions 103 supported. Mainland China NOT supported; HK/Macau SAR are. Russia + sanctioned countries excluded.
Payout Bank via Stripe Connect; bank region must match region of residence
Tax W-9 (US) / W-8BEN (non-US)
Tiers up to 10 one-time + 10 monthly; max $12,000/mo; price immutable after publish
Lifetime paid $40M+ to maintainers; 4,200+ orgs sponsoring
Docs https://docs.github.com/en/sponsors

Source: GitHub Sponsors docs.

Eligibility & supported regions

  • 103 supported regions. Mainland China (PRC) is NOT supported; Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR are. Russia and several sanctioned countries are excluded.
  • Waitlist exists for unsupported regions — you can join it, but there is no guaranteed timeline.
  • 2FA is mandatory before you can be sponsored.
  • A fiscal host can only be chosen at initial sign-up — pick correctly the first time; you cannot switch later without starting over.
  • Bank region must match your region of residence (Stripe Connect requirement). A bank account in a different country than where you live will fail verification.

Setup: the exact steps

Follow this order — skipping a step blocks the next:

  1. Sponsors → Get sponsored. Start the application from github.com/sponsors.
  2. Enable 2FA on your GitHub account (required).
  3. Profile. Link up to 6 repos you want associated with your sponsor profile.
  4. Tiers. Create one-time and/or monthly tiers (see Tier design).
  5. Stripe Connect. Connect a bank account whose region matches your residence.
  6. Tax. Submit W-9 (US persons) or W-8BEN (non-US persons).
  7. Request approval. GitHub reviews — typically a few days. You are not live until approved.

Tier design

  • You can publish up to 10 one-time tiers + 10 monthly tiers.
  • Maximum monthly tier price: $12,000/mo.
  • A tier price is immutable once published. To change a price you must retire the tier and recreate it — existing sponsors on the retired tier are notified. Plan your ladder before publishing.
  • Anchor your ladder to real disclosed tiers (label your own numbers estimate / reference only):
    • Vite: Backer $5 / Supporter $15 / Bronze $50 / Silver $150 / Gold $500 (source)
    • Astro: Backer $10 / Sponsor $100 / Gold $250 / Theme $200 / Platinum $1,000 / Exclusive $10,000 (source)
    • Homebrew: Backer $5 / Sponsor $100 (source)
  • Common ladder shape: a $2–$10 individual entry, a $50–$250 mid "Sponsor", and a $500–$5,000+ "Partner/Platinum" for companies. Caleb Porzio reached ~$9,390/mo ($112,680/yr) on GitHub Sponsors (source); komorebi (~10k stars) made only ~$155/mo in 2024 (source) — the difference is active sales, not stars.

Fees

Sponsor type Platform fee Card fee Notes
Personal account 0% processing only 100% to developer; the default for solo maintainers
Organization account 3% service + 3% card up to 6% total
Org with invoiced billing 3% service 0% (card fee removed) best for org sponsors who can pay by invoice
  • No PayPal — dropped Feb 23, 2023. Cards only.
  • Personal sponsorships: 0% platform fee; only payment-processing applies.
  • Org sponsorships: up to 6% = 3% card processing + 3% GitHub service fee; the 3% card fee can be removed with invoiced billing.

Reference only — verify at docs.github.com/en/sponsors.

Displaying sponsors in your README

The dominant pattern across Vue, Vite, Astro, and Homebrew is a bottom ## Sponsors section that renders a remotely-hosted, dynamically-generated SVG/PNG logo grid. The grid is built from a sponsors endpoint/JSON, so the README never needs editing when a sponsor joins or leaves — the image regenerates on the next fetch.

  • Tier labels (Diamond/Platinum/Gold) are rare inside READMEs; they live on an external sponsor page (Vue self-hosts vuejs.org/sponsor/). The README just renders the grid and links out.
  • 2 of 6 sampled repos (Tailwind, esbuild) keep READMEs minimal and route sponsorship externally — a legitimate "no-README-sponsor" pattern.
  • GitHub Sponsors + Open Collective are the most-cited platforms. Astro uses .github/FUNDING.yml as the CTA target; Vue self-hosts a sponsor page and keeps an in-repo BACKERS.md.

A minimal README block:

## Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here.

<!-- Replace src with your dynamic sponsors image endpoint -->
<a href="https://github.com/sponsors/[your-handle]">
  <img src="https://[your-sponsors-endpoint]/sponsors.svg" alt="Sponsors" />
</a>

FUNDING.yml

.github/FUNDING.yml wires the Sponsor button on your repo. Current supported keys (12): community_bridge, github (single user OR array up to 4), issuehunt, ko_fi, liberapay, open_collective, patreon, tidelift (PLATFORM/PACKAGE; platforms: npm, pypi, rubygems, maven, packagist, nuget), polar, buy_me_a_coffee, thanks_dev (u/gh/USERNAME), custom (single URL OR array up to 4; any URL containing a colon MUST be wrapped in quotes).

Not supported (do not list): otechie, givebutter, lfx_crowdfunding.

For a ready-to-edit file, see the copy-paste template: funding-yml-example.md.

Limitations & gotchas

  • Mainland China, Russia, and other sanctioned regions cannot receive funds. HK/Macau SAR are supported. Use the waitlist otherwise, or route through an Open Collective fiscal host instead (open-collective.md).
  • No PayPal. Cards only since Feb 2023.
  • Tier price is immutable after publish — must retire + recreate to change.
  • Org sponsorships cost up to 6% unless the sponsor uses invoiced billing (drops the 3% card fee).
  • GitHub Traffic is not publicly visible — only maintainers with push access can read Views/Unique visitors/Clones (REST: /repos/{owner}/{repo}/traffic/views, /clones, /popular/referrers, /popular/paths; fine-grained PAT needs Administration:read). Traffic is a 14-day rolling self-reported snapshot, not a lifetime total. Any traffic figure you put in a sponsor kit is self-reported and not independently verifiable by the sponsor.
  • Stars are a popularity proxy, not a pricing metric. Price from traffic + downloads + audience fit, not star count. See getting-started.md and ../data/pricing-benchmarks.yml.

See also