Are Twitch Accounts Free?

Luckily Twitch is free to use, the only reason you have to pay is if you want to support your favorite streamer.

This post will cover all aspects of the costs of a Twitch account and where you may encounter potential optional costs.

Can You Watch Twitch for Free?

Yes, there is no need to pay if you are just watching Twitch, as you don’t have to pay to make a Twitch account, unlike a lot of other streaming services. Besides that many streamers have their Twitch channel available for everyone who wants to watch. You might need to pay only when the Twitch streamer has put their chat on subscribers only, but even then, it’s completely free to watch as it isn’t compulsory to chat.

You can also choose to donate money by giving the streamer bits, which is the digital currency on Twitch. Besides subscriptions and bits, the streamer gets money from the advertisements that get played for their audience as they watch.

How Much Does Prime Gaming Cost?

If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can connect this to your Twitch account to give you access to Prime Gaming (formerly Twitch Prime). Doing this allows you to use a free sub on your favorite streamers’ channels. However, this is only one free subscription per month.

Any additional subscriptions you want to get cost money. So instead of paying $4,99 a month for a subscription, you pay only $2,99 a month. By having an Amazon Prime account, you can get a free sub you can use on any Twitch streamer and access to free games and various game loot.

The Twitch community also have the option of purchasing paid subscriptions to Twitch Turbo which also unlocks specific features on the site.

Do You Have to Sub on Twitch?

If you don’t have the money, you don’t have to pay for channel subscriptions, as these subscriptions cost money. However, suppose you have the money and want to support your favorite streamers. In that case, you can always pay money to subscribe and get access to custom emotes, a special badge, and access to the subscribers-only chat if activated.

Even for the subscriptions, you don’t always have to pay, as people can also gift subscriptions to the audience of their favorite streamer.

Can You Stream on Twitch for Free?

Besides the money you will have to pay for equipment or games, twitch is free to stream on. You don’t have to pay for a streaming subscription or similar to be able to broadcast yourself on Twitch. You do need to spend money on equipment or maybe a specific game, but you are also more than welcome to stream free games on Twitch.

What Costs Are There in Twitch Streaming

As stated before, as a streamer, you need to spend money on equipment, games, or potentially streaming software, but even then, you decide if you want to spend this money. So below is a list of any potential costs you can have as a streamer.

1. Streaming software

   You can use OBS studio, a free streaming software, in combination with many other streaming bots. There are also streaming software that have paid services. These typically provide additional professional features, some of which are not necessary for streaming on Twitch.

2. Streaming computer/console

   To stream, you will need a computer or console to support streaming. Luckily the newer game consoles have the option to broadcast into it and you won’t need that much else to stream.

3. Custom emotes

   When you become a twitch affiliate, you will be able to add custom emotes to your twitch channel. If you’re not that much of an artist yourself, you can always pay someone else to make your emotes.

4. Video game

   Unless you are, for example, a just chatting streamer, you will need to spend money on a video game, you can choose from the more popular games, but the smartest is to get a video game that you actually enjoy playing. Of course, there are also enough free games to play that you can use instead.

Conclusion

You can stream on Twitch for free and start watching for free; the only costs you will need to keep in mind are games and materials to stream. But even then, you don’t need to have the best gaming computer to start streaming, and these costs should not scare off new streamers. As you earn money, you can always upgrade your streams with new content or computer parts.