What Are Twitch Gift Subscriptions? How to Use Them

Gifting a subscription is a great way to support your favorite creators. Here's everything you need to know about gift subscriptions on Twitch.

Subscribing to your favorite Twitch creator is the best way to show your support for their content. Followers are great, but subscriptions allow streamers to earn money and keep streaming.

Gifting subscriptions to other users is another way to support a Twitch creator, with the added bonus of helping the community grow. Here's everything you need to know.

Gift subscriptions are, in many ways, the same as the regular Twitch subscriptions you can buy for yourself. They both exist as a way to support the activities of a Twitch creator. The main difference is that gifted subscriptions go to other users, but almost everything else is the same.

Gifted subscriptions reward the user with the same badges, emotes, and other perks as a subscription. If the stream chat is set to "sub only" mode, gifted subscribers have the same access as direct subscribers.

You can gift subscriptions to other Twitch users for one, three, six, or 12 months. However, unlike a Twitch subscription you pay yourself, they don't auto-renew at the end of the subscribed period, but the gifter and recipient will both get a notification offering the choice. You don't have to be a subscriber of the channel to gift subscriptions to other users, but you will need to be signed in to Twitch.

Gifting subscriptions can earn you a unique badge that displays next to your name in chat. Subsequent gifted subscriptions level up the badge, letting everyone know how kind and generous you are.

The standard cost for a single Twitch channel subscription at tier 1 is $4.99/month, and that's also how much you'll pay for a gift subscription. The subscription price varies depending on your geographic location, but it will work out to an equivalent amount.

There is no discount for volume, so if you gift 10 subscriptions, you will still pay $4.99 per subscription or $49.90. The money you pay for a gifted subscription is shared between the creator and Twitch in a 50/50 split.

Unlike direct subscriptions, there is also no discount for gifting multi-month subscriptions. The only time the price of a gift subscription changes is if you choose a different tier.

When you subscribe or gift a subscription, you will have the option to choose the tier. Twitch has three subscription tiers available, starting at the default tier 1.

Each subsequent tier rewards a subscriber with access to extra emotes, badges, and other perks. And even though these subscription tiers won't give you a better viewing experience on Twitch, it's still a great way to support your favorite creators.

There are a couple of ways to gift a subscription to a specific user, depending on whether you're using the Twitch mobile app or desktop browser.

If you don't want to gift the subscription to a specific user, you can gift it to one or more random members of the creator's community. Twitch uses an algorithm to decide who gets the gifted subscription, with users in chat and channel followers being the most likely to receive one.

If you prefer to keep your generosity hidden, you can gift individual and random subscriptions anonymously. To do this, just check the Gift Anonymously box on the subscription panel.

Your Twitch ID won't appear next to the gift announcement in chat, and you won't earn a gifting badge. But otherwise, there is no difference from gifting openly.

If you enjoy a creator's content on Twitch, the best way to support them, beyond clicking the Follow button, is by subscribing to their channel. Not only will you get more Twitch emotes, but you'll also help the streamer. And if you want to increase that support even further and help build the channel community, gifting subscriptions to other users is a great way to do it.

Russ has been writing about technology for more than 15 years. He specializes in creating guides that help users get more from their software and devices, but enjoys writing about almost anything. When not working on his next article, he can be found building websites, trying to learn Danish, or relaxing with a true crime book.