WillItSurvive
Creator economy and media tech · United States

Passes

passes.com ↗

Passes runs a fan subscription platform where creators sell content and keep about 90% of what they earn.

Protection under test
Assessed 23 July 2026 · Evidence as of 23 July 2026
Something worth protecting exists and is being tested right now.
On the recordSince 23 July 2026 · Checkable from next 6-12 months from Oct 2025 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Ruling, settlement, or discovery leak in Alice Rosenblum v. Passes Inc. CSAM class action
The call

Passes competes on a 10% fee and safety story that rivals can match or beat, while a pending CSAM lawsuit tests the safety claim directly.

Passes lets creators (like podcasters or artists) earn money from fans by taking a 10% cut instead of the 20% that OnlyFans charges. The problem is that anyone bigger, like OnlyFans or Patreon, can copy this idea tomorrow, and rivals like Whop already dropped their fee to zero, making Passes' main selling point worthless. A federal lawsuit about child safety content is also damaging the one thing Passes claimed to do better than others: keep the platform trustworthy and brand-safe. The lawsuit's outcome in the next year will likely decide whether Passes survives or fades.

Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. AI features like auto-messaging and pricing tools are add-ons any rival can copy, not something eating Passes from outside. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: OnlyFans. OnlyFans moves $7.2B a year and 4.63M creators, and nothing stops it from cutting fees or courting mainstream creators Passes wants. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Small brand-safe positioning and celebrity ties, but a live CSAM lawsuit undercuts the safety pitch that was its main selling point.
What would change this call
Ruling, settlement, or discovery leak in Alice Rosenblum v. Passes Inc. CSAM suit. Shows whether Passes' brand-safety claim survives legal scrutiny.
Passes announces a new priced funding round within 12 months. Shows investor confidence after a 2.5-year funding gap.
Patreon or OnlyFans launches a matched low-fee tier for top creators. Shows incumbents closing Passes' remaining pricing wedge.
Key numbers
  • $9.5M ARR estimate, now stale (Feb 2024)
  • ~1,000 creators on platform (Jul 2026)
  • No new funding round in 2.5 years (2026)
Named risks
  • Federal CSAM class action (filed Feb 2025) unresolved, directly attacks brand-safety positioning. Severity: high
  • No new funding round since Feb 2024 Series A, a 2.5 year gap as of mid-2026. Severity: medium
  • Fee-based differentiation eroded by Whop's zero-fee move in May 2025. Severity: medium
  • Key traction metrics (revenue, creator count) are stale, self-reported, or inconsistent across sources. Severity: low
Rivals, as read in July 2026
RivalDirectionEvidence
OnlyFanslosing toOnlyFans had $7.2B gross payments in 2024 vs Passes' $9.5M ARR estimate (Feb 2024)
Whoplosing toWhop cut its fee to 0% in May 2025, undercutting Passes' 10% fee pitch
PatreoncontestingPatreon faces no structural barrier to matching Passes' fees or brand-safety pitch, as of 2026
Fanhousegaining onPasses acquired competitor Fanhouse in July 2023
Questions people ask
Is Passes profitable in 2026?
No public profitability data exists. The last independent revenue estimate (Sacra) put Passes at $9.5M ARR in February 2024, and no new funding round has been announced since its $40M Series A closed February 28, 2024, suggesting flat or unproven growth as of mid 2026.
Who owns Passes?
Passes was founded in 2022 by Lucy Guo, co-founder of Scale AI. It remains privately held, backed by Bond Capital, Multicoin Capital, and others, with roughly $49-50 million in total disclosed funding as of June 28, 2026, per Crustdata.
Who is Passes' biggest competitor?
OnlyFans dominates the space with $7.2 billion in gross fan payments in FY2024, dwarfing Passes' estimated $9.5M ARR from February 2024. Whop and Patreon also compete directly, with Whop cutting its fee to zero in May 2025.
Could AI replace what Passes does?
Unlikely to replace the core business, which is payments and creator distribution, but Passes' own AI features like smart scheduling and auto-pricing are commodity add-ons any competitor can copy, per the company's own 2025-2026 product blog posts.
Has Passes raised new funding since its Series A?
No new funding round has been publicly reported since Passes closed a $40 million Series A led by Bond Capital on February 28, 2024, leaving a roughly 2.5 year funding gap as of mid-2026.
How does Passes' creator fee compare to OnlyFans?
Passes takes 10% plus a $0.30 transaction fee versus OnlyFans' flat 20% cut, per a July 6, 2026 comparison. However, rival Whop undercut both by dropping its fee to 0% in May 2025.
Timeline
  • 2026-05OnlyFans sells 16% stake to Architect Capital for $535M at $3.15B valuation
  • 2026-04-22Passes rebrands from 'monetization platform' to 'Creator Accelerator'
  • 2026-03OnlyFans founder Leonid Radvinsky dies; control passes to his widow
  • 2025-05Rival Whop cuts marketplace fee to 0%
  • 2025-02-26Federal CSAM class action filed against Passes and Lucy Guo
  • 2025-02Passes launches charity/crowdfunding tools via Pledge.to partnership
  • 2024-02-28Passes closes $40M Series A led by Bond Capital
  • 2024Passes expands into college athlete NIL market
  • 2023-07Passes acquires competitor Fanhouse
  • 2022Passes founded by Lucy Guo; raises ~$9M seed led by Multicoin Capital
Revision history
23 July 2026
First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
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