How creator payouts work on Artha (Stripe Connect explained)

Every Artha subscription is processed through Stripe — specifically, through Stripe Connect, the version of Stripe built for marketplaces. Stripe Connect is what lets a subscriber pay you, automatically deduct Artha's platform fee, and route the rest to your bank account without Artha ever holding the money.

The split: 85% creator, 15% Artha

When a subscriber pays $50/month for your shop, Stripe handles the charge. The split runs at the transaction level: 85% ($42.50) is credited to your connected Stripe account, 15% ($7.50) is credited to Artha. You never have to send Artha an invoice or wait for a reconciliation. The 15% covers payment processing fees, brokerage integration (SnapTrade), hosting, notifications, support, and product development.

Stripe's own processing fees come out of the gross amount before the split, so the creator share is 85% of the net after Stripe's per-transaction fee.

The onboarding flow

When you set up your Artha shop and turn on the Notify or Auto paid tiers for the first time, you go through Stripe's hosted onboarding — the same flow used by every Stripe Connect platform (Shopify, Substack, Lyft, etc.). You provide:

• Your legal name and date of birth (Stripe needs this for KYC).
• A SSN or EIN for tax reporting.
• A bank account for payouts.
• Address and basic identity verification.

Stripe verifies all of this. Artha never sees your SSN or bank account details. Until Stripe finishes verification, your shop runs in a "pending payouts" state — subscribers can subscribe, but payouts accumulate until verification clears.

When you get paid

Stripe runs payouts on a rolling schedule, typically every business day, with a short delay after each charge (default is two business days from capture to availability, then a payout to your bank). You can see your current balance and upcoming payouts in your Artha dashboard or directly in your Stripe Express dashboard.

Refunds, chargebacks, and disputes

When a subscriber cancels, the subscription simply doesn't renew — there's no refund of the current period. When a subscriber requests a refund inside the policy window (or wins a chargeback), Stripe debits the refund from your balance pro-rata; the 15% platform fee Artha collected on that charge is also refunded back. You don't lose money on the platform side when you refund a subscriber.

Repeated chargebacks against your account can affect your Stripe standing — keep refunds humane and cancellation friction low. If a subscriber complains, refund them; the cost of a chargeback to your Stripe rating is much higher than one month of subscription revenue.

Tax forms

Stripe sends you a 1099-K if you cross the federal or state reporting threshold for the year. The threshold is based on gross volume, not net, and the form covers payments processed through Stripe — Artha's 15% does not reduce the gross. Talk to a tax pro about how to handle this; subscription revenue is generally ordinary income for the creator.

What you can ignore

Things Stripe Connect handles for you that you don't have to think about: PCI compliance, 3D Secure authentication, EU SCA, fraud monitoring, automatic card retries on failed renewals, dunning emails for expired cards, dispute response tooling. All of it is built in.

What this means in practice

You set your price, subscribers pay, and the money lands in your bank account every few days minus Stripe processing fees and Artha's 15% platform fee. No invoices, no reconciliations, no manual splits. That's what Stripe Connect buys us — and you.