Payout keeps getting worse and they keep repackaging it.
2020: 70% base, 80% cap.
2025: floor dropped to 60%, cap raised to 85% - but almost nobody actually hits 85%. People in this forum went from 73% to 61%, 79% to 69%. Real cut, just with "levels" slapped on it.
Now Sept 2026: floor drops again to 55%, cap to 80%. Same thresholds, less money for everyone under them.
Every time it's "creator levels," reputation points, dumb names like Explorer/Genius/Legend, like we're grinding XP in a mobile game instead of trying to make a living. It's not a reward system, it's a pay cut with a UI.
Most of us aren't anywhere close to the top tiers. So this isn't "sell more, earn more" like they claim, it's "your floor gets lower every year and the bar to escape it gets higher." Anyone actually seen their rate go up from one of these "updates," or is it always down
CGTrade will sink in future. Artist and creators will leave this site. No new models to be sold. And onlything this site will have is going to be Ai crap that is un-usable. It wont pull ne buyers cuz AI crap is cheap and useles and thousands other sites or programes where to get Generated stuff. Simply sales will plumit and it will sink. And some one like Epic will buy this web like with Sketchfab.
CGTrader cares way more about the clients than the designers. They take a whole month to pay you for your work, even for a single sale. Every day they lower your profit percentage more, and on top of that, you have to wait a month to receive your payout. What happens if, on day 29, the client decides to contact customer service and says: 'The design I bought doesn't work'? They just refund the money and cancel the sale, and they don't even bother to check if the client is right or not.
This actually happened to me with a $3,500 job. It was a project that was supposed to take at least a month. The client made the prepayment, and I worked around 18 hours a day for over two weeks just to deliver it on time. Without suspecting a thing, I checked my client's profile and it said 'project canceled'. I thought: 'Hmm, they have a canceled project... what did they cancel?' And to my surprise, it was the project I was working on! I found it incredibly weird because CGTrader never notified me, so I had just kept on working.
I contacted customer service and they told me: 'Yes, your client did cancel, and the $3,500 was refunded.' When I read that they had refunded the full amount, there was nothing I could do. I asked them why they didn't investigate first and why they didn't contact me to see what was going on. They realized their mistake, and Julius messaged me saying: 'You're right, for the inconvenience, we're going to give you 5 free sales.'
I felt so humiliated that I honestly would have preferred a coupon for a Big Mac and a soda."
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