OnlyFans management agencies

The claim

“pov: you started OFM instead of SMMA”

@patrykrx, posted 15 August 2024, 37,173 views as collected¹⁴¹

OnlyFans is a subscription site where fans pay creators for content and private messages; most of the content is adult. “OFM” is OnlyFans management: an agency runs a creator’s account for a share of what the creator earns. “SMMA” is a social media marketing agency. The tweet’s words state no income¹. The page judges the scheme, not the person who tweeted.

Agency staff called “chatters” usually answer fans’ private messages in the creator’s name.

The sums

OnlyFans keeps 20% of each fan payment and the creator receives 80%². The agency takes its cut from the creator; no source measures the usual cut. A pending US lawsuit alleges 20% to 30% for agencies it names, and the BBC reported “commonly 50%”¹¹¹⁷.

What the agency’s creators must receive each month (our sums, with the cut taken after the platform’s fee, as in one contract the BBC saw¹⁷):

That is the total across all the agency’s creators, before chatters’ pay, software and the cost of finding creators.

Such creators are rare. One 2020 self-published study of “around one thousand accounts” found “The median account makes $180 a month” (half earn less)²⁹. An analyst, Matthew Ball, applied that study’s shares to a later year and put the top 1% of accounts at about “$49,000 each” a year, about $4,100 a month (our division)⁵⁶. So $10,000 a month at a 30% cut needs about eight average top-1% creators, or one creator earning more than the average top-0.1% account (our division)⁵⁶. This is a rough guide from a small six-year-old sample.

Chat is the main cost. The lawsuit alleges most agencies pay chatters about $3 to $4 an hour¹¹. At that rate one 8-hour shift every day costs $720 to $960 a month (our estimate)¹¹. At $1,000 a month of commission, the owner does the chatting.

What happens to most people who try

We found no study or platform figure on how many new agencies sign a creator, earn anything or last a year.

The field is crowded. The BBC joined one agents’ Telegram group with 24,000 members, and one UK creator said she “receives more messages from OFMs than from fans”¹⁷. Group sizes are a loose guide: one Discord server advertised with 25,340 members held 21 people when measured³⁹.

Our inference is that many who start probably sign no creator who earns enough to matter¹⁷.

The upside

Agencies with large creators do make large sums. Neither figure below was audited.

• A chat management agency listed for sale. The seller states revenue of $10,833,375 in 2025 and profit of $317,000 a month, after 4 years, with “500+ contractors and staff”³⁰. The broker marks it “Verified” without saying what was checked³⁰.
• An allegation in the lawsuit. The complaint says one agency manages over 100 accounts, “the majority of those Creators making $40,000–$80,000 per month”¹¹. This is unproven and stated “on information and belief”, meaning the plaintiffs believe it but do not claim direct knowledge¹¹. A 20% to 30% cut of one such account is $8,000 to $24,000 a month (our sum)¹¹.

What it takes to compete

Those who succeed have:

1. Creators who earn thousands a month, or can be grown to it. Reuters reports that many of the top 1% are already managed by agencies, according to three agency officials¹⁹. Claims of growing small creators are unverified¹⁹²⁴.
2. A chat operation that sells. Screenshots shown to Reuters indicate one chat team generated $1.5 million in revenue for one model in eight months¹⁹.
3. A way to bring in fans. A creator with no traffic has nothing for chatters to sell to. Promotion runs on platforms that restrict adult links and can remove accounts⁵³⁵⁴.
4. A creator who stays. OnlyFans pays the creator, not the agency, and can suspend an account and withhold earnings “without warning”².
5. Acceptance of the legal position. Fans brought the pending US lawsuit against OnlyFans’ operator and several agencies, alleging they paid believing they were talking to the creator¹¹¹². Nothing has been decided against any agency; we read the court’s list of filings, not its orders¹³.
6. A clean way of working. The BBC spoke to 60 UK creators and found managers “are sometimes exploitative and threatening”; it did not name the agencies¹⁷.

Software costs $0 to $40 per creator a month at the lowest earnings band and rises with the creator’s earnings³⁴³⁵. The larger cost is months of unpaid recruiting and chatting.

To tell early (our judgement): do you already know a creator earning thousands a month who would hand you the account?

Who else makes money from it

OnlyFans takes its 20% first².

People also sell courses and paid groups to those who want to start an agency. The tweet’s profile leads to a checkout for “OFM Penthouse VIP Access” at a one-time $97 plus tax⁴¹⁴²⁴³. We did not see inside the group and do not know whether the account holder runs an agency. Several reviewers of one coaching programme say they paid $8,000; others on the same page praise it. These statements are unverified⁴⁵.