Where to sell 3D game assets in 2026: fees, payouts and tax

The short answer

• List each pack on several stores. Each store has its own buyers, and none of them sends you much traffic on its own.
• Keep the base price the same everywhere. Unity’s publisher terms ask for a price comparable to other stores, and buyers notice differences.
• Your own site with a checkout that handles tax for you (we use Gumroad) keeps more than any big marketplace, without registering for VAT abroad.
• Give away a few free items. They bring followers, and a store that shows you the buyer’s e-mail lets you announce the next pack.

What each store keeps

For one sale at $9.99. Card and PayPal fees move a few cents depending on the buyer’s country. Try your own price in the fee calculator.

The cheapest store isn’t always the best one. A Unity sale nets less than a Payhip sale, but Unity brings buyers who would never find your site. Payhip and your own site only sell what you send to them.

Who deals with VAT and sales tax

When a store is the merchant of record, legally it sells to the buyer, charges the tax and pays it; you sell to the store. That matters: selling digital goods straight to people in the EU makes you liable for EU VAT from the first sale.

• The store handles it: Gumroad, Fab, Unity Asset Store, Patreon, and itch.io when it collects the payments (its default payout mode).
• Partly: Payhip collects VAT for buyers in the EU and the UK; elsewhere you are the seller.
• You handle it: your own PayPal buttons or bank checkout.

Tax at home is separate: the stores report what they paid you, and you declare it where you live. Ask an accountant about your own case.

Getting paid without Stripe

Stripe isn’t available in every country (Georgia is one example). That rules out some routes, but most stores have another way:

• Gumroad pays out to PayPal where it can’t pay to a bank.
• Patreon pays to PayPal (Georgia is on its list) or Payoneer.
• Fab and CGTrader pay through Hyperwallet.
• Payhip takes cards through Stripe, so without Stripe your buyers can pay only with PayPal.
• Roblox Creator Store sales for US dollars need a Stripe account in a supported country.

PayPal often withdraws only to a Visa card in smaller markets, and charges for currency conversion. A US-dollar card avoids the conversion.

Pricing across stores

• One base price. Unity’s publisher agreement asks that the price be comparable to the same product elsewhere, and its listings can’t advertise other stores.
• Make your own site better, not cheaper: bundles that exist only there, early access to new packs, and promo codes for followers.
• Discount rules differ. BuiltByBit, for example, allows a sale at most every 28 days and no price rise in the 30 days before one.
• Store sales you don’t control. CGTrader runs its own discount programs, so the price buyers see can be lower than yours.

If you use AI anywhere in the pipeline

Most stores now ask. Fab has a CreatedWithAI tag, itch.io a disclosure field in the page editor, and CGTrader a checkbox for AI-generated content. Some stores and communities don’t accept AI-made art at all. Read the rules of each store before you upload, describe honestly what was made how, and never leave the label off.

Memberships

A $9 monthly membership nets about $7.54 on Patreon (10% + card processing for pages started after 4 August 2025) and about $7.04 as a Gumroad membership. Members who join inside Patreon’s iPhone app pay through Apple, which takes 30% in the first year, so link people to your Patreon page on the web.

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