I mean percentagewise.
If a buyer buys 25 images a day for a month, he pays $249. If he buys images from top tier contributors only Shutterstock pays out $285-294 to its contributors, so there's a potential loss for Shutterstock. I know very well that most buyers don't use up their full subscription, but I've no idea why Shutterstock doesn't come out to reveal the average percentage they pay contributors as I suspect it's very high. They could brag about it if they wanted to.

If I were to buy a 25 a day subscription I'd probably use up 70% or more, even if I didn't "need" those images. If half of those 525 images are 25c ones and half are 38c ones Shutterstock would pay out around $165, which is 66% of what I paid for my subscription. If 25% of the images I buy are 38c and 75% are 25c, which is probably more realistic, that's a payout of $148 - an average commission of 59%.


So without knowing buyer habits, we can never know the exact percentage, but I'd like to hear some thoughts and estimates. What do you think is the average commission on Shutterstock ? With ELs and ODDs taken into consideration, I think the average percentage is somewhere between 40%-50%

About 6 years ago Jon stated on the forum that roughly 36% was being returned to contributors.

Your figures are slightly out as referral fees of 3c per subscription download may also apply. Shutterstock are therefore paying out up to 41c per subscription download.

Shutterstock have always walked something of a tightrope in that they need to balance the risk to the business whilst, at the same time, they need to provide as much incentive to the contributors as possible to prevent them being lured into exclusivity.

That would be an interesting figure to know, not just at SS, but at every MS site that sells subscriptions. I really don't know if what they pay to On Demand sales could be a clue.

To add to the confusion, subscriptions are sold at different prices in different currencies (e.g. a one-month subscription here in Germany is sold for �199 which at current exchange rates is about $280).

Whatever we get percentage-wise, one thing is for sure, its better than Istock. And amazingly Shutterstock can stay in business, but Istockphoto can't without cutting to the bone. Oh I know we don't do it for the money...;o)

Your math is wrong.

First of all a NORMAL month has 22 working days.
Assume a 30c per d/l payout (on average)
Assume a 50% average daily subscription usage (Wouln't be suprized at all if it is actually lower, MUCH lower)
22x0.3x50%x25=82.5$
82.5$/249$=33.13%

Take into consideration chirstmas and other vacations and the actuall figure is even lower...
A ~25% figure like leaf said makes more sense.

I would vote for something between 20-30% depending on your level. I saw also some estimation bellow 20% but I think leafs is right aout this.

Always keep in mind that most microstock photographer never upload over 100 photos or reach payout - between 80-90% of them based on DT and IS stats. Only about 5-8% of contributors have more then 250 pictures online. Most contributors sell for 25c and only few for 38c. However it is hard to say how many pictures are sold for 25c or 38c - based on pareto's law, it could be 80% of all pictures submitted by 20% of top contributors - so it well might be that most pictures are 33c and 38c to the contributor.