You did a four-hour show, the room was busy, and the payout was disappointing. That gap between "the room felt good" and "this is what I earned" is the whole problem with camming — and it usually isn't about how well you performed.
It's about token maths that nobody explains, and a percentage that doesn't mean what it looks like.
Rates as of August 2026, and they change. These are published figures and our own reading of them, not a guarantee — check the current terms in your model account.
Nobody earns "tokens", everybody earns a percentage
Every cam site runs the same trick, and it's not a scam — it's just badly explained. A viewer buys tokens at one price. You are paid out at a different, lower one. The gap is the platform's cut, and it's much easier to see once you convert everything into what a viewer's dollar is actually worth to you.
- Chaturbate: roughly $0.05 per token to you, which works out to around 50% of what the viewer paid.
- Stripchat: also around $0.05 per token, with a revenue share commonly in the 50–60% band depending on tier.
- BongaCams: around $0.025 per token to the broadcaster while viewers buy at roughly $0.068 — so you keep something closer to 37%. Its published share is tiered, roughly 25–60%, and you only reach the top of that band at serious volume.
Same 1,000 tokens, very different money. Before you compare sites at all, work out your own effective rate per viewer dollar, not per token.
The comparison
| Chaturbate | Stripchat | BongaCams | CamSoda | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your share | ~50% | ~50–60% | tiered, ~25–60% | varies by contract |
| Per token | ~$0.05 | ~$0.05 | ~$0.025 | varies |
| Traffic | the largest | very large, fast growing | large, strongest in Russian-speaking markets | mid-size, US-heavy |
| Studio support | yes | yes, formal studio rules | yes, deeply studio-oriented | yes |
| Best for | maximum volume | discovery and tags, crypto payouts | Eastern European and RU-speaking audiences | a smaller, less crowded room |
One naming note, because it trips people up: the site is CamSoda. "SodaCams" isn't an adult platform — if you searched for it and found nothing, that's why.
Why the highest percentage usually pays least
This is the part that costs new models months.
A site offering 60% instead of 50% looks 20% better. It is only better if it sends you the same number of paying viewers. In practice the big-traffic sites convert so much more that a lower percentage of a much larger room wins almost every time — which is why Chaturbate keeps outperforming higher-rate competitors on take-home for most models.
The number that matters is earnings per hour online, not the percentage on the page. Track it for two weeks per site. That single spreadsheet beats every ranking article, including this one.
The cost camming doesn't put on the page
Camming has one enormous advantage over a subscription page: real discovery. Nobody browsing OnlyFans stumbles across you — on Chaturbate or Stripchat, strangers find you constantly. That is genuinely valuable and it's why so many creators start there.
But be clear about the trade:
- You are paid for hours, not for work. Stop streaming and income stops the same minute. There is no back catalogue earning while you sleep.
- Peak hours aren't your hours. The money is concentrated in specific evening windows for the audience you want, which may be the middle of your night.
- The audience lives on their account. Your followers there are theirs, not yours. A ban, a rule change or a bad week and you're rebuilding.
- It's physically demanding in a way that scales badly. Doubling your income means doubling your hours until something gives.
None of that makes camming a bad choice. It makes it a bad only choice.
What to actually do with cam traffic
The creators who turn camming into a real business treat it as the top of a funnel rather than the business itself:
- Cam for discovery. Those are the hours that get you found, and they pay while they do it.
- Send every room to one page you own — OnlyFans or Fansly, with the link in your bio, your room notice and your tip menu. That page earns when you're offline.
- Sell the recordings. The show you already did becomes a clip that sells for years on a clip site. Same work, second income.
- Keep a direct channel. Telegram or a mailing list, so no platform decision can cut you off from your own fans.
- Consider streaming to more than one site at once — the same hours, more rooms. It has real rules and real traps, which we cover in multistreaming for cam models.
If you're in Eastern Europe and a studio has offered you a contract, read what that contract actually costs before you sign.
How we handle it at Pony Agency
We're not a cam studio. There are no shifts, no room to show up to, no minimum hours — and the account stays in your name. If camming is part of your mix, we build the layer that turns those hours into something that compounds: the right main page and mirror for your market, a link hub that routes every viewer to a page they can actually pay on, your clips packaged and listed, and a chatting team across English, Spanish, German and French so the DMs a busy room generates actually convert.
Your payout account stays yours and your money never passes through us — that's the line a legitimate partner doesn't cross.
Apply to Pony Agency if you want the hours you already work to keep paying after you log off.
FAQ
Which cam site pays the most?
Per token, Chaturbate and Stripchat are similar at roughly $0.05, with BongaCams about half that. But take-home is traffic times conversion, not the headline rate — most models earn more per hour on the highest-traffic site even at a lower percentage.
How much is a token worth?
Roughly $0.05 to you on Chaturbate and Stripchat, and around $0.025 on BongaCams. Viewers pay meaningfully more than that; the difference is the platform's cut.
Is Stripchat better than Chaturbate?
Stripchat has stronger on-site discovery through tags and offers crypto payouts. Chaturbate has more traffic. Run both for two weeks and compare earnings per hour online — the answer differs per model and per niche.
What is SodaCams?
There's no adult cam site by that name. You're probably thinking of CamSoda, a mid-size US-focused platform.
Should I cam or run a subscription page?
Both, in that order. Camming has real discovery and pays by the hour; a subscription page is an asset that earns while you're offline. Use the first to feed the second.
Do I need a studio to cam?
No. Studios give beginners equipment and a schedule, but commonly take half or more of what you earn and set your hours. Read the contract terms carefully before signing anything.
Compare earnings per hour, not percentages. Cam where you get found, send every room to a page you own, and turn the shows you already did into clips that keep selling — or apply to Pony Agency and we'll build that machine with you.