Adult industry research firm SWR Data has announced the release of its latest report –
titled “How Much Money Do Creators Actually Make?” – saying that “despite sensational headlines, adult creator incomes tend to be fairly unsensational.”
According to SWR Data’s report, “adult creators earned, on average, about $59,000 from work OnlyFans and other sites in the past year.”
“While some creators are making millions selling feet pics or bathwater, the average income from adult content sales is closer to $5,000 a month,” said MelRose Michaels, founder of Sex Work CEO and cofounder of SWR Data. “Sex work is work, and at the heart of the adult creator community are hundreds of thousands of small, independent creators building their businesses one clip at a time.”
SWR Data explained that the figures come from the organization’s annual “State of the Creator” report, which is based on an anonymous survey of over 550 adult creators conducted in the fall of 2025. In the survey, creators were asked about their income over the past year, as well as which sectors of the adult industry they worked in and which platforms they used in the same period.
“The number rebut sensational claims used to attack the adult creator economy,” SWR Data said in announcing the release of the new report. “Religious groups and anti-porn feminists have repeatedly claimed the average OnlyFans creator earns just $150 per month, accusing the platform of exploitation.”
In the report, SWR said it “explores the faulty math underlying those numbers and details the multifaceted ways creators earn income,” noting that according to the data, “just a third of creators are entirely dependent on their adult work.”
“In state after state, we see politicians use bad data to push even worse policies,” said Mike Stabile, cofounder of SWR Data. “The more we know the community, the better it can advocate for itself. The data show that it’s time to bury outdated myths and work toward policies that help creators thrive.”
SWR Data said they will be “releasing additional insight into the creator economy in the coming weeks and months.”
To read the full report, “How Much Money Do Creators Actually Make?”, go to the SWR Data Substack. To sign up for the SWR Data mailing list and receive future updates, click here.
