How to set up donations on Twitch: donate button and alerts
How to set up donations on Twitch in five steps: a donation page, a donate button panel, a !donate chat command, OBS alerts and a goal, plus Affiliate rules.
DonoLink editorial team.
This guide is for streamers in the United States. DonoLink is coming soon to donolink.us; most steps work with any donation tool, and the waitlist tells you when you can start.
Does Twitch have a donate button?
No. Twitch has no built-in button that sends money straight to a streamer. Its own ways to support a channel are Bits, which viewers buy from Twitch and use to cheer in chat, and subscriptions. Twitch now lets streamers switch those on through the Monetization setup in the Creator Dashboard, but it only pays out to Affiliates and Partners. Affiliate currently means 25 followers, 4 hours of streaming in total, streams on 4 different days and an average of 3 concurrent viewers on 4 of those days, all within the same 30 days, plus two-factor authentication. Twitch has changed these thresholds before, so check its Affiliate page. For direct tips, streamers link a donation page outside Twitch, and Twitch’s Bits guide says viewers are free to support streamers through third-party services.
Step 1: create your donation page
Start with the page your viewers will actually pay on. DonoLink gives you a free account with no subscription and a personal donation page with suggested amounts and an optional message from the viewer. Add a clear profile picture and one line about what the support helps with, so people know they are in the right place. Connect Stripe, which handles your payouts. DonoLink charges 3.5% per successful donation, and Stripe’s payment processing fees are charged separately. Then open the public link in a private window on your phone and check your name, the amounts and the checkout, where viewers pay by card or with a wallet. That public link is the only address you share on Twitch: never post a dashboard or overlay URL.
Step 2: add a donation button to your Twitch panels
On Twitch, a donate button is simply a panel with an image that links to your page. Open your channel page and turn on the Edit Panels switch under the video; when you are offline, you edit panels in the About section of your channel. Click the + to add a panel, give it a title such as Support the stream, upload an image and paste your donation link into the image link field. A short description is optional and accepts Markdown, not HTML. Click Submit, then switch Edit Panels off to see the result. Twitch scales larger images down to a maximum of 320 pixels wide and 600 pixels high, and the file must be under 1 MB, so design your button 320 pixels wide. Finally, click it while signed out.
Step 3: set up a !donate command in chat
Not every viewer scrolls down to the panels, so give chat a quick way to find your link. A chatbot can reply with your page whenever someone types !donate. Linky, the DonoLink chatbot for Twitch and YouTube, can answer !donate with your link. If you already use another bot, point its command to the same link. Keep the reply short: one sentence and the link. Ask your moderators to use the command instead of pasting links by hand, so every viewer sees the same official address. Mention it now and then on stream, for example after a raid or when a goal is close, without turning it into constant reminders. Then test it: ask a moderator to type !donate and click the link that comes back.
Step 4: add donation alerts in OBS and test them
Alerts put each tip on screen, so the viewer gets a moment on stream. Copy the alerts URL from your DonoLink dashboard. In OBS, select the scene you broadcast, click + under Sources, choose Browser, paste the URL into the URL field, set the width and height and click OK. An alert can combine an image, GIF or video with sound and text-to-speech. Send a test alert and make a short recording to check picture and sound: a test checks the display, not a payment. Connect your Twitch account too, and your alerts can also cover follows, subs, gift subs, raids and Bits. Treat the alerts URL like a password: never show it on stream and never paste it in chat.
Step 5: set a donation goal
A goal gives viewers a shared reason to chip in, such as a new microphone or a better camera. Create the goal in DonoLink and add the goal overlay to OBS as a browser source, the same way as the alerts. If you want to thank people on screen, overlays for recent donations and top donors are available as well. Twitch’s own Goals feature counts followers and, for Affiliates and Partners, subs or Bits; tips on an external page do not count there, so use the DonoLink goal for those. Pick a realistic target, say clearly what the money is for and tell viewers when you reach it. Never promise rewards you cannot deliver, and only call it a charity stream if the money really goes to a charity.
How much do you get from Bits, subs and donations?
Bits: Twitch pays you 1 US cent per Bit cheered in your channel, while viewers buy their Bits from Twitch at Twitch’s prices. Subs: the standard split is 50/50 of net revenue, after taxes, payment processing and other costs. Affiliates and Partners who reach 100 or 300 Plus points for three consecutive months move to 60/40 or 70/30 through Twitch’s Plus Program. Twitch pays out only to Affiliates and Partners, once the balance passes the payout threshold: 50 US dollars with most payout methods. Before Affiliate, you can only spend the balance on Twitch purchases such as gift subs or Bits. Donation page: the viewer pays the amount they choose, you keep it minus the 3.5% DonoLink fee and Stripe’s processing fees, and payouts go through Stripe.
Keep donations safe for you and your viewers
Never post a personal email address or your bank details in chat or in a panel to collect money: it exposes your identity and gives scammers something to copy. Share one official link, and ask your moderators to share only that link, never one sent to them in a direct message. Tell your community that you will never ask for payment by DM. Donor names and messages can appear on stream, so decide what you are comfortable showing. Card payments can be disputed later through the cardholder’s bank, which is called a chargeback, so keep a record of every payment and wait before spending an unusually large tip. Keep tips voluntary: do not tie them to prize draws or to promises you cannot keep.
Can you get donations on Twitch without being Affiliate?
Yes. A donation page does not depend on your Twitch status or on Affiliate, and tips on it are not part of the Affiliate requirements. Bits and subs also work once you finish Twitch’s Monetization setup, but that money stays on Twitch until you reach Affiliate. Is a donation link allowed on Twitch? Yes: Twitch’s Bits guide says viewers are free to support streamers through third-party services. Just follow Twitch’s rules on what you say and offer on stream. Do you need OBS? The page, the panel and the !donate command work without it; on-screen alerts and the goal need streaming software that can show a browser source, such as OBS. Can you add more than one link? You can, but one clear link keeps things simple and safe.