Rethinking the New Payout Rate System: A Call for Balance and Recognition

Yes it is pure greed all my new stuff going forward will be posted else where. I went from 75% to 68%. F that shit.

I’m going to make my entire catalog available for free for a week or longer. This will be my way of protesting against the new payout rate system. If enough people do the same, I believe it will have a greater impact on CGT than on us.

I pulled discounts. 30 and 50 percent are just too high given the reduction in royalty rates.

Yes! Enough of these discount events. Let’s pull out and raise product rates by 5–10%. It’s time the customer bears the cost, we’re done taking the hit. We’re the ones absorbing pressure from all sides, and it needs to stop.

The reduction in earnings percentage for model designers is simply unacceptable. This isn’t just a financial loss — it’s a complete disregard for the years of effort, time, and creativity we’ve put into our work. Uploading affordable models no longer makes sense, because the compensation doesn’t reflect the value of our labor.

!!!Joining any discount event under these new terms would only hurt us further. That’s why we must not participate in any discount campaigns. Maybe then, our voices will be heard and this unfair revenue model will be reconsidered.!!!

We’ve contributed to the growth and quality of this platform for years. We’ve met the standards, consistently produced content, and invested ourselves fully. But clearly, all that effort means nothing now. Designers are the foundation of this system, yet we’re the ones suffering the most from this decision.

Being part of a system that ignores its creators like this is becoming harder to justify. We are truly disappointed.

The decision to reduce the payout percentage for model designers is a complete disappointment. It doesn’t just affect our earnings — it deeply damages our motivation. Uploading affordable models is no longer an option, because we’re simply not being compensated fairly for our work.

!!! Under these conditions, the only logical response is to opt out of every discount event. Maybe that’s the only way we can even begin to reach the already reduced percentage they expect us to earn from.!!!

We’ve spent years building up our portfolios, meeting every standard this platform demands, investing countless hours into creating high-quality models. And this is the thanks we get? Designers are the backbone of this system, yet we’re the ones being neglected the most.

This is a major letdown for every artist who’s ever contributed to this platform. You need to hear our voices — because if this decision stands, many of us are losing faith in the future here.

from 74% to 64% this is disappointing and unfair cgtrader!?

I'm taking to move to 3dcult and art stasion

Like blender market ( their subscription is also very not friendly ), CGTrader might opt for subscription as their next move, and like 3dmodels.org , most top creator will move exclusive with their own site, eventually , Big boys like Epic with occupy This market like ( Artstation )as well, probably the end .

As an artist, I find the recent royalty rate reduction deeply disappointing and frankly unfair to the very creators who power CGTrader’s marketplace. At a time when the creative industry is already struggling, this move feels like a step in the wrong direction—making it even harder for us to survive, let alone thrive.

Creating high-quality content takes immense time, skill, and dedication. Yet the returns are already minimal, especially after platform fees and discounts. Even during CGTrader’s promotional sales, while products may show higher sales numbers, the actual earnings for artists often amount to next to nothing. Cutting royalties on top of that feels like a disservice to the people whose work brings value to this platform.

This decision undermines the trust and motivation of your creative community. I strongly urge CGTrader to reconsider and find ways to support, not squeeze, the very artists who have helped build your brand and marketplace from the ground up.

TO EVERYONE.

Did you saw the 26 steps? Its fucking hilarious.
300.000$ MONTHLY to get 80% Are you fucking idiots or what?

Look at ArtStation Marketplace 95% PAYOUT!!!! 95 fucking %
You all here in the system of CGTRADER are insane.
60% payout is where you SELLERS are all gonna be for the couple of years or more.

Lets assume: from 2mln models available here
the average monthly sales on all the platform is roughly 250.000$
(from which CG Trader grabs to itself and ASTONISHING amount of money!!! 40% is 100.000$ to the pocket

I'm sorry to say this but, did you looked at your site from 2005?
With such an amount of income monthly you doing ASTONISHINGLY BAD JOB and you want MORE MONEY!

Your payout rate must be AT LEAST 85% to 95% to all of the USERS PERIOD!
USERS.... LETS VOTE FOR THIS!!!!!!!! 85 to 95 or we just QUIT to any other available place with better %

Otherwise its not a platform its a fucking robbery. Are you a TAX 40% system on which we pay another fucking 40% tax on top? GET OUT!

They don't understand that by lowering the interest rates they will end up making things worse for themselves. After such actions by the administration, sellers will have to raise their prices. As a result, sales will fall overall. Competition has not been cancelled, there are other sites with models.

Someone has become even more greedy. Now artists will receive even less money. The attractiveness of the сgtrader is going down.

I was never a big seller here, but I have just deleted all my models. I will still continue being a member here to support my past customers.

This new payout rate, which will start on June 2, will completely discourage new and small sellers. The rate is very low and to compensate for the 10% increase, the price of the products sold will have to increase. And with the increase in the price of the products, there will be fewer sales. The previous percentage was already low, now it will be practically unfeasible. This is quite sad.

What a strange coincidence that this statement now came out after the avalanche of model purchases by cgt-clients.... very strange.....

CGT wanted to raise their cut by 10% meanwhile keeping the royalties
of the vaste majority of sellers under 70%.
This is what it is.

Welcome at TurboSquid Junior (formally known as CGTrader...)

Well now yes , after work I will start to delete every model , Clearly they don't care about the seller (although they say otherwise),

Something that I never understood was why this page never developed a 3D viewer of the models that the seller sold (like skechfab, FAB)? Is it a lot of investment? For months now cgtrader stopped working for me simply due to their bad policies, they simply don't care about the seller but with this new change in rates (now they are going to charge more LOL) this has gotten out of control

Practically the entire month there are discounts (like 4 times a month, CRAZY), now the profits are going to reset to 60% + at least 30% discount on sales WHAT IS THE PROFIT?? Please, this cgtrader team has no shame

I will continue to prefer other pages to sell models (in the end any page on the market is better than this one)

I am a small time designer but the income from designs is very important to me. I have worked very hard to get to a 74% payout rate over five years of selling on this platform. This past year I had the most sales yet ~$600. That may not seem like much to a company like this but that amount of money has helped me immensely.

Now you will be dropping my payout by 10% to just 64%. This feels like a slap in the face for all the work that I put in watching my rate increase one percentage point at a time. Your telling me after all that now I am going to be below the 70% that I started at five years ago! This stinks of corporate greed to the highest level!

Ok. It looks like you need more money or to lower our income to preserve yours:
An unrealistic 300 000 usd earning a year to reach a 85 % commission rate and a very realistic -10%+ commission rate compared to now for most of us. And it's supposed to be good ?!? Only for you ! Poor explanations/communication to try to justify this fact.

I got the payment email, I think this is the last payout with the current royalty, next payment we will be get the reduced royalty percentage ( new payout change ), so, possibly all the recent Bulk sale from cg- client will also be cut down in % ,

Last month they auto enrolled my models in a sale without notifying me and now they cut my royalty percentage. I'm voting with my feet, just deleted all my models and will delete my account as soon as the last royalty is paid.

I don't feel safe now after years of struggling to increase my profit percentage went in vain!!

Those are really good and valid suggestions, but the problem is that decision has been already made and we can discuss matters to death but that will change nothing. If cgtrader would care about opinion, they would announce changes well ahead and would invite sellers to discuss. The fact is, they don't care about us in a slightest, all they care is how to increase their profit and if the easiest way to do that is at sellers expense, so be it. Corporate greed.

That's just pure greed from CGtrader. I've worked hard to gain that 80% and trust from my clients. And now it's just gone for nothing. And they say it's a good thing. They changed freelance royalties too, like 6 monthes ago, I don't freelance there anymore. There are Cults and 3D Export that offers much more.

A utopian payout system for creators... basically means “buy yourselves IV drips and work 24/7,” and maybe you'll reach 70% royalties. Earning $300,000 a year is unrealistic if you're doing everything alone — that’s probably an achievable number for just a few percent of people across all 3D stock platforms. And as we know, those people aren't on CGTrader. This isn’t a food market; it’s a niche product... Seems like CGTrader just decided to lower royalties and came up with this scheme to justify it))) Thanks, CGTrader.
I’m disappointed in you!

Hello.

So after reading through the email on this subject and seeing that the new 12 month sales tab shows that your revenue for the year is based on the final earnings (and not on the after tax earnings).

This tells me that as a new user (less then a couple of years) will either have to raise the selling price (which could make it too expensive to buy) or accept a lower royality rate (which can be upto a loss of 13%).

This will make it very hard for new users on the site to grow a marketplace where they can be back upto a good royality rate (between 70 & 75 percent).

I hope their will be enough people who raise this issue and have them reevaluate this policy, because as of now it does more harm then good.

I completely agree with your suggestions about including buyer ratings, past earnings, and project success.

However, to reach the top payout rate of 85%, a seller would need to earn $300,000 per year, which means an average of $25,000 per month.

Honestly, that alone is enough to prove how out of touch and disingenuous this system is. I really wonder how many users have ever consistently made $25,000 or more per month since CGTrader was founded :)

To understand whether this decision benefits the sellers or CGTrader itself, it's enough to compare the old and new payout rates for the sellers.

In previous comments, everyone has complained about a significant drop in payout rates. While we don't have exact statistics, it's not hard to assume that this has been the case for the vast majority of sellers on CGTrader.

Of course, CGTrader is free to change its payout structure as it sees fit, but what's disappointing is the lack of honesty in the way it's being presented, as if it's somehow to the sellers' advantage.
I'd bet that the percentage of sellers whose payout rate has increased or even stayed the same doesn’t exceed one percent.

Additionally, the rise in AI-generated models has been used as an excuse for this change. If AI models are truly that valuable to CGTrader, I’d love to see what happens if, after a large-scale boycott, the platform is left with nothing but AI-generated content.

Hi, I have a question that's still unclear to me. With the new payout system, will payments be processed after June 2nd, or are we still going to receive payouts this month as usual? I couldn’t find a clear statement on this—maybe I missed it. Any clarification would be appreciated!

Obviously what CGTrader cares about now is faster growth. Productive people will be rewarded while those who can't keep up should be paid less as punishment. By looking at new rate graph I can see no one will get 85% - the threshold is ridiculously high. You can see top designer reputation points in your dashboard. For instance "Squir" - a company with 6k good quality car models earns about 20k points per month - which are surely mostly sales meaning if you apply 80% current rate is about 16,000 $ monthly\ 192,000 $ yearly earnings. Even this guy barely reaches 83-84% rate. Most of the artist will be stuck between 60-75%. So in conclusion - we are lowering your rates although promising 85% you will never reach. So keep up working even harder now(for lower pay), so you can stay at the same level or as close at your old 80% as possible.