Every reserve is released 30 days after the sale it came from. How much is reserved is a separate question — for your first 30 days as a creator the rate is 10%, then it drops to nothing.
A reserve is a percentage of each sale held back for a while and then paid out to you. It is not a fee — every penny of it reaches you.
Two separate things
These get confused constantly, so they are worth stating apart:
- How long money is held: 30 days. Each sale's reserve is released 30 days after that sale. This never changes.
- How much is reserved: a percentage. This is where the new-creator rate comes in, below.
So a creator on the new-creator rate is not having money held for a shorter or longer time than anyone else. The hold is always 30 days. Only the percentage differs.
What percentage
Two things can set it, and the higher of the two applies:
- The new-creator rate — 10%. Every creator is on this for their first 30 days after connecting payouts. That is how long you stay on the rate, not how long the money is held. After it, the rate drops to nothing on its own.
- A risk-based rate. Set on your account if your dispute or refund history warrants it. Most creators never have one.
So if you are seeing 10% of your sales reserved, the usual reason is that you are inside your first 30 days as a creator — see is the reserve permanent.
Your financial dashboard shows the exact percentage on your account right now, and the date the new-creator period ends.
Why it exists
A card payment can be disputed by the buyer weeks after it was made. The reserve is what covers that window, and it is a large part of why this platform's payments stay switched on when other creator platforms lose theirs.
What it is calculated on
Your net earnings — never on what the supporter paid. The fees a supporter covers at checkout are not yours, so they are not reserved against.
VAT is not reserved either. It is tax you hold on HMRC's behalf, and holding part of it back would leave you unable to remit it in full.
When it is released
30 days after that sale's own date — not from the payout run it was part of.
That is why a reserve can still be held after the rest of that same sale has already been paid to you: the sale and its reserve are on two different clocks. Once released, a reserve is never held again.