Roblox makes it possible for you to create content and experiences, while providing incentives and minimizing upfront costs. During September 2022, 3.4 million creators and developers earned Robux (our platform's currency). On average, Roblox pays developers 29 cents* per in-experience dollar spent. When you build on Roblox:
You only pay after earning on Roblox. On other platforms, you can incur expenses such as storage, hosting, and infrastructure before you earn any money (or even start building). On Roblox, developers have minimal risk as you are only charged after you monetize, which is reflected in the developer share numbers in Cash Payout Structure. This is your estimated take home after all expenses tied to building, storing, testing, and maintaining an experience have been covered.
Growing an experience on Roblox is significantly more cost effective than off-platform. Developers can take advantage of our organic channels, our network effect, and our cost effective on-platform ads.
Roblox uses its share of earnings to pay for all the tools, services, support, fees, operating costs, and R&D costs. This lets you build with minimal upfront fees and risk, so you can grow and monetize on the platform more easily.
* 29 cents assumes the full amount of Robux paid out are exchanged through the DevEx program, and not spent on the platform. Figures are as of September 30, 2022.
Cash Payout Structure
The following chart illustrates the estimated utilization of each dollar spent in an experience on Roblox. Note that the chart doesn't reflect our expenses as disclosed in our GAAP financial statements.
App Stores & Payment Processing Fees
This reflects the processing payment fees related to all purchases of Robux. These fees are paid directly to Apple (iOS), Google and Amazon (Android), and Microsoft (Xbox and Microsoft Store). These costs also include processing fees associated with other payment methods, such as credit card or PayPal, as well as costs associated with the sale of our prepaid cards.
Platform Hosting & Support
These costs relate to Roblox's maintenance of the servers that all Roblox experiences use, as well as platform-wide customer support, user and experience moderation, and user acquisition.
Platform Investment
These costs relate to future-looking investments in the Roblox platform and ongoing research & development.
Roblox Share
Roblox uses this percentage to cover ongoing services and operating costs.
Developer Share – Developer Exchange
This percentage is the experience owner's earnings based on transactions in the experience, after cashing out through our Developer Exchange program (before any developer spending on the Roblox platform such as ads). Each developer's earnings share may differ.
Developer Share – Engagement-Based Payouts (EBP)
Developers also get extra Robux for simply building an engaging experience through the Premium Payouts feature. Roblox calculates payout based on the share of time a Premium subscriber spends in your experience as a way to reward engaging experiences. This percentage reflects our platform average, though the actual percent of earnings from EBP may vary from experience to experience based on the engagement level in the experience.
Calculating Cash Earned
Depending on how you earn Robux on our platform, your specific share of cash can vary from the average share Roblox pays. Ultimately, we calculate your share of cash with the following variables:
- Robux earned from each transaction in your experiences or sale of virtual avatar items in the Marketplace.
- Robux earned from engagement (through EBP).
- The conversion to real money of all Robux earned from transactions and engagements (as noted above) using our Developer Exchange program.
The following sections describe in more detail how you can 1) earn Robux, 2) how your share of Robux is calculated, and 3) how Robux is converted to cash.
How to Earn Robux
Roblox offers you the following ways to earn Robux by creating content and experiences:
- Creating and selling avatar items – Creators can create and sell accessories and clothes for avatars in the Roblox marketplace or in their own experiences.
- Offering in-experience purchases – Developers can offer purchases in their experience, such as special abilities and accessories for people to purchase.
- Having an engaging experience – Developers earn extra Robux for simply building an engaging experience. Roblox calculates an EBP payout based on the share of time a premium subscriber spends in your experience. These engagement based payouts happen automatically, as a way to reward engaging experiences, and are in addition to payouts based on in-experience purchases.
- Creating and selling Studio assets and plugins – Developers can create and sell specialized tools and assets to the community such as models, meshes, and plugins.
How Your Share of Robux is Calculated
You can see your total Robux balance on the Developer Exchange page when signed into your account. When creating or selling anything on Roblox, you will receive a percent of every transaction you're a part of as follows:
- The creator of the virtual item gets 30%.
- The seller or distributor of the item gets 40%.
- The platform gets 30%.
Oftentimes, the creator of the item is also the seller of the item. This is true when you built an experience and also created the items sold in your experience. For example, if you create and sell an "avatar flying ability" in your experience for 100 Robux, you earn 70 Robux for creating and selling the item and Roblox earns 30 Robux (platform share). Other times, you might create items that you sell in the Roblox marketplace. In this case, Roblox is both the seller and the platform and earns 70%, and you earn 30% as the creator.
In addition to Robux earned from a transaction, you might also earn Robux with EBP, which rewards engaging experiences. During September 2022, over 40% of our top 10,000 experiences (based on hours) earned more from EBP than from in-experience purchases.
How Robux is Converted to Cash
Once you earn Robux, you can continue to use it in our platform to buy developer assets, plugins, ads, in-experience items, or virtual items. In addition, when you have at least 30,000 Robux in your account, you may be eligible to exchange your earned Robux for real currency using the Developer Exchange program. Roblox currently uses an exchange rate of USD 0.0035 per Robux earned to calculate the amount of real currency you receive.