Poe Creator Monetization FAQs

What is creator monetization?

The creator monetization program pays Poe bot creators for engaging users with their bots. There are two ways: set a price per message sent to your bots, and/or earn per subscription your bots help drive.

How do I participate in creator monetization?

Join the program

Visit poe.com/creators via a desktop web browser, or navigate to Creators in the Poe menu. Navigate to Creators in the menu. Follow the steps to join creator monetization.

Adjust message limits

Control when to show paywalls by customizing message limits on each bot. Consider how many messages will engage the user, so they are most likely to subscribe when they see the paywall.

Set your price

You can set a bot’s price per-message. Each time a user messages your bot, you earn that price from Poe. Choose a price that balances your earnings with user accessibility - lower prices attract more users, while higher prices could limit your bot’s use, as it turns away some users and potentially limits your bot’s access to subscribers only.

Share

Share your bots with your friends, on social media, or use any other marketing approach to help people discover them. The more users engage with your bots, the more you’ll be able to earn.

Get paid

Earn money when:

• your bot brings a user to Poe for the first time and they subscribe
• your bot brings a user back to Poe and they subscribe
• your bot's paywall is seen just before a user subscribes
• users send messages to your bot

Check the Creator page to see earnings per bot.

Who is eligible to be monetized?

Bot creators must agree to the Poe Creator Monetization program terms and conditions and must be based in an eligible region to earn per subscription or set a price per message. Below are the regions where the Poe Creator Monetization program is currently available:

How are message earnings calculated?

For every message sent to you that your bot responds to, you earn the price you set. Total message earnings are the sum of all those creator prices earned during a pay period.

For example, the below table illustrates how changes to your per-message price can affect your earnings. For the full month, total earnings from messages would be $65:

You can view your total monetized messages and total earnings accumulated per-bot on the Creators page on Poe.com’s desktop website. These message counts or total earnings may be adjusted in accordance with the Terms of Service (e.g. policy violating behaviors).

How should I decide on a price?

The cost to users will be displayed in compute points which are an aggregate of the price you set and our costs (e.g. base bots, compute costs, etc). So balance is important. We recommend starting with lower prices and making infrequent adjustments. If you have your own server costs, set a price that covers those costs. Higher prices and frequent price changes could affect your distribution on Poe and result in fewer users messaging your bot.

The system will allow you to change the per-message price as often as you would like and view the current user-facing points price from your bot’s edit page. It may take up to 24 hours for a price to update. The maximum price per 1,000 messages is 100 USD, meant to cover API bots that are expensive to run or contain highly specialized knowledge bases. On Poe, prices and earnings are in United States Dollars (USD).

How are subscription earnings calculated?

Subscription earnings come from each successfully converting "activation" or successfully converting "paywall."

• An activation is when your bot brings a user to Poe. That activation successfully converts when that same user subscribes within a set period of time. There are two ways this can occur:
  • Your bot brings the user to Poe the first time they log in, and they subscribe within 14 days of that first visit.
  • Your bot brings the user back to Poe after they were inactive for 14+ days, and they subscribe within 14 days of returning.
  • We use a variety of mechanisms, including cookies and IP addresses, to track conversion of a user from first landing on Poe to sign up and ultimately subscription.
• A paywall is when a Poe user sees one of your bot’s paywalls. That paywall successfully converts when that same user subscribes within a set period of time after seeing one of your bot's paywalls. Specifically:
  • A successful paywall occurs when your bot's paywall was the last one a user saw within 1 hour of subscribing.

Every time a person subscribes to Poe, the potential earnings are a percentage of the first payment: 100% for monthly subscriptions or 50% for annual subscriptions. That full amount is split between any monetizing creators with successfully converting activations and successfully converting paywalls for that subscription. Bots that Poe creates or supports itself - rather than bots made by creators on the platform - do not count for this purpose.

For example, let's assume a user pays for a monthly subscription. As a result, Poe sets aside $20. We then check if a successful activation or a successful paywall led to that subscription.

• If creators’ bots had a successful activation (e.g., the user followed your social media post to Poe) but not a successful paywall (e.g., the user signed up in Poe Settings un-prompted), then the activating bot's developer would earn the full $20.
• If creators’ bots had both a successful activation and a successful paywall, then each bot's developer would earn $10 ($20 divided by the two successes).
  • If one developer made both bots (or it's the same bot), then that developer would earn the full $20.
• If no creators’ bots had successfully converting activations or paywalls, then the $20 is not paid out.

Earnings are displayed in the Bot Analytics section of the Creators page. Actual earnings paid out under the program may differ based on adjustments described in the creator monetization program terms and conditions (e.g., a subscriber ultimately not paying). Refer to your payout reports and Stripe account for accurate actual earnings data.

How do I receive payments?

Complete your account setup on Stripe to receive payouts. After joining creator monetization, navigate to the Creators page and follow the instructions to connect to our payment processor. Fill in your taxpayer information within 90 days of joining the program to be eligible for payments. You will receive payments through your Stripe account. Poe will send payments in USD to Stripe, and Stripe will transfer payments to you. If needed, Stripe will convert to the currency set in your Stripe account based on their available conversion rate at that time.

When will I receive payments?

Assuming you are eligible, have joined creator monetization, completed all required information, and remain in good standing, you will become eligible for a payment when you have earnings of $10+ to be paid. Payments are made within 30–45 days of the end of a month. For example, if your bot has earnings January 1st and January 28th, the end of the month is January 31st; 30-45 days later- February 28th to March 15th- you would be paid those earnings. See the terms and conditions for full details. 

What can I do to have more successful activations?

First, create bots that people love using and want to share, and enroll in creator monetization. Then, share your bots with friends and anyone else who will appreciate them. Social media can be an effective channel to reach a large audience, or you can experiment with any other marketing technique.

What can I do to have more successful paywalls?

After joining creator monetization, every one of your bots will have a monetization control. That control sets the maximum number of messages a user can send to your bot before seeing a paywall. To maximize revenue, you will likely want to find a balance between giving users the ability to try your bot out for free and making sure your bot's heavier users end up seeing a paywall from your bot. Test different maximum message limits to find what works best.

How do I edit the message limit of my bots so they show paywalls?

You can edit the message limit during new bot creation or bot editing. This feature is currently only available on poe.com via a desktop web browser. You will not be able to customize bot message limits on your mobile device.

New bot message limits:

1. Visit poe.com via a desktop web browser.
2. Click "Create bot" in the menu.
3. Scroll down to monetization tools.
4. Customize your bot's message limit.

Existing bot message limits:

1. Visit poe.com via a desktop web browser.
2. Navigate to your profile to view your bot list.
3. Click on the bot you wish to edit. This will open a chat page with that bot.
4. In the bot details on the right of the page, click the overflow button.
5. Click "Edit bot".
6. Scroll down to monetization tools.
7. Customize your bot's message limit.

How do I set a price for my bot?

You can set a bot’s price when you create or edit one of your bots.

New bot price setting:

1. Visit poe.com or the Poe app.
2. Click "Create bot" in the menu.
3. Scroll down to Monetization tools.
4. Customize your bot's price.

Existing bot price setting:

1. Visit poe.com or the Poe app.
2. Navigate to your profile to view your bot list.
3. Click on the bot you wish to edit. This will open a chat page with that bot.
4. In the bot details on the right of the page, or on the bot info card at the top of the chat thread, click the overflow button (ie “...”).
5. Click "Edit bot".
6. Scroll down to Monetization tools.
7. Customize your bot's price.