Frequently Asked Questions

No back and forth, no revision rounds. When you submit a request, you're trusting the artist to interpret your idea their way. Just remember to include good details and references upfront.

After you submit a request, the artist can optionally send you one question before deciding whether to accept. It's there to clear up anything ambiguous without turning into a negotiation.

Yes. Fan art is welcome on Scratch and very common in commission communities. Artists can decline any request for any reason, including fan art they're not comfortable creating. Responsibility for IP compliance rests with the artist and client.

Only from artists who have NSFW enabled in their settings. If an artist hasn't enabled it, you won't see the option. All NSFW content must comply with our Content Policy, which prohibits depictions of minors, non consensual content, and other restricted categories regardless of context.

Nothing upfront, no subscriptions. We take a 5% cut on each completed commission, and payment processing fees (~2.9% + $0.30) get deducted too. Everything comes out of what the client paid, so you never owe us anything out of pocket.

When you deliver. The money hits your Scratch Payments account minus the 5% platform fee and processing costs. We do daily payouts, so after the settlement period (2 business days in the US, 3 in Canada/EU), it shows up in your bank. First payout might take 7 to 14 days while your account is verified.

Yes. Scratch uses Stripe for payments, which currently supports 46 countries including the US, Canada, UK, most of the EU, Japan, and Australia. If Stripe operates in your country, you can get paid on Scratch.

PNG, JPG, and PSD. Specific format options and file size limits are shown during the delivery process.

No. Scratch is for human created art. The creative substance of all work (composition, character design, rendering) must be made by you. Post processing tools like upscaling or color correction are fine, but generating visual elements with AI will get you removed from the platform. See our Content Policy for full details.

Toggle it on in your settings and set a percentage uplift that gets applied on top of your base price. If you don't enable it, clients won't see the option. You're always free to decline any request regardless of the use type.

If you're a US-based artist, you might. Stripe (our payment processor) handles all tax reporting. They'll send you a 1099-K if you cross the federal threshold ($20,000 and 200+ transactions in a calendar year). Some states have lower thresholds, as low as $600. Stripe collects your tax info during onboarding, and they file everything directly. You don't need to do anything extra on Scratch.

Artists set minimum and recommended prices on their profiles. You can offer anything at or above the minimum. For the full breakdown, check out our How It Works page.

Personal use means the art doesn't touch money in any way. Profile pictures, social media posts with credit, prints for your wall, that sort of thing. Commercial use is anything where money is involved: monetized streams, YouTube thumbnails on videos with ads, merchandise, business branding. If you're unsure, treat it as commercial. To request commercial use, toggle it on when submitting. The artist has to accept commercial requests (and may price them higher). If you didn't mark it as commercial, your license is personal use only. Either way, the artist keeps full copyright. You're getting a license to use the art, not ownership of it. Using art commercially without selecting it at request time violates our Terms of Service.

Scratch is built on trust. When you submit a request, you're accepting the artist's interpretation of your idea. Refunds aren't available after delivery. Your best bet for a great result? Give detailed descriptions and references upfront, and check the artist's portfolio to make sure their style matches what you're looking for.

Cancel anytime before the artist accepts and resubmit with the correct info. Your original request text gets prefilled so you don't have to start from scratch (pun intended). Once an artist has accepted, the request can't be changed.

You're covered. If an artist goes silent or doesn't deliver, you automatically get a full refund. No action needed on your end. See "How do refunds work?" for the specific timelines.

You automatically get your money back if the artist declines, they don't respond within 30 days, or they accept but don't deliver within 60 days. Once you receive your art, refunds aren't available. Refunds usually take 5-10 business days to process.

Absolutely. Submit the request like you normally would. The art gets delivered to your account, and you can share it however you'd like within the usage rights of your license.

Every artist works at their own pace. There are built-in windows for responding and delivering, and if those pass, you're automatically covered. You can always check your request status on your dashboard.