The 12 Best Places to Sell 3D Models in 2026 (Tested)

You spend three weeks on a hard-surface asset: high-poly sculpt, retopology, UVs, four texture sets, LODs, a clean rig. It is genuinely good work. You upload it to a marketplace at $79, it sells, and your dashboard shows $31.60.

The model did not change. The platform did.

Royalty rates in this category range from 40% to 88% before you account for exclusivity clauses, tier systems that reset, and platform fees layered on top, and the difference between the worst and best deal on a single asset is larger than most 3D artists' monthly earnings.

A 3D model marketplace is a platform that licenses your models, textures, rigs, and asset packs to buyers on your behalf, taking a share of each sale in exchange for supplying the audience, the checkout, and usually the licence terms.

Framekit is an AI website builder with a store for digital files, so an asset pack can sit next to your portfolio, and the free plan needs no credit card.

Full disclosure: Framekit, ranked #1 below, is our own product, and the caveat is in the Quick Answer rather than buried here: selling direct beats every marketplace on rate and loses to all of them on reach. We verified every royalty rate against the platform's own documentation in July 2026 and linked to all twelve. Where they beat us: Fab, CGTrader, TurboSquid, and the Unity Asset Store put your assets in front of buyers actively searching for them, which we do not do at all, and several supply licence terms and legal infrastructure that we leave to you.

How We Compared These 3D Model Marketplaces

Marketplaces in this category are usually compared on catalogue size, which is a buyer's concern. We scored twelve platforms on the five criteria that decide what an artist earns.

Royalty rate, weighted 30%. What percentage of the sale reaches you, after platform fees rather than before them. This carries the most weight because it applies to every sale for as long as the asset is listed.

Audience, weighted 25%. How many buyers are actively searching, and whether they are buying for games, film, product visualisation, or 3D printing, because those are different markets that get treated as one.

Exclusivity cost, weighted 20%. What you surrender for the higher rate, and whether the clause covers one asset or your whole catalogue.

Rate stability, weighted 15%. Whether the rate is fixed, tiered, resets, or has been changed under sellers recently.

Payout terms, weighted 10%. Thresholds, timing, and how much of your money sits with the platform.

The carried example throughout is a $79 game-ready asset pack, which is a realistic mid-market price, and an artist with a 60-asset catalogue. We hold both numbers in every section.

Three kinds of finding, kept separate. What we handled hands-on: listing, tagging, and running the upload and submission flows including rejections.

What we verified from primary sources rather than testing: every royalty rate and fee, checked against the platform's own help documentation or seller agreement in July 2026 and linked inline.

What we report as community sentiment rather than measurement: the effect of recent payout changes on real earnings, where seller forums are the only evidence and we label it as such.

What Comparing 12 3D Marketplaces Showed

The figures underneath the ranking, verified against each platform's own documentation in July 2026.

• On the carried $79 model, the spread between best and worst is $44.81: about $76.41 selling direct on Framekit's Business plan against $31.60 at TurboSquid's 40% non-exclusive rate.
• Epic consolidated Unreal Engine Marketplace, the Sketchfab store, Quixel Bridge, and ArtStation Marketplace into Fab in October 2024, and Fab pays creators 88%.
• TurboSquid's non-exclusive rate is 40%, rising to 60% through its SquidGuild exclusivity programme, which requires selling all of your 3D content exclusively there rather than just the enrolled asset.
• CGTrader's rate is a reputation ladder from 70% at Beginner to 80% at Legend, which requires 40,000 reputation points.
• Blender Market now trades as Superhive and pays 70% to 90% depending on a plan costing $0 to $199 a month, plus a $0.49 transaction fee per order.
• The Unity Asset Store remains a flat 70/30 split with no tiers to climb and nothing to negotiate.

For a pick matched to what you make, jump to the decision tree. First, the field.

The 12 Best Places to Sell 3D Models in 2026: Full Comparison

About the scoring: the five weights above are what each platform is measured against, and royalty rate carries the most because it is the only term that applies to every sale of every asset for as long as the listing exists.

Our own entry is deliberately lopsided. Framekit takes 10 on royalty and 2 on audience, the lowest audience score anywhere in this table, because no 3D artist's personal site gets browsed the way Fab gets browsed.

Fab takes 9 on audience and 8 on rate. Those two rows are the decision.

Rates verified against each platform's published documentation in July 2026. Payment processing of about 2.9% plus $0.30 applies to direct sales. Several of these have changed their payout structures within the past two years, so confirm before committing a catalogue.

What a $79 model actually leaves you

Same asset, same price, twelve different outcomes. This is the table the category needs.

Direct-sale figures are net of roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 in payment processing. Marketplace figures apply the published royalty to a $79 sale before any withholding tax.

The number worth sitting with. Sixty assets selling once a month at $79 is $56,880 a year in gross sales. At TurboSquid's non-exclusive 40% that pays $22,752. At Fab's 88% it pays $50,054. Selling direct it pays about $55,015. Same catalogue, same year.

1. Framekit: Best if you have an audience

Our rating: 9.0/10

Framekit is an AI website builder with a store for digital files, which makes it the highest-paying option on this page and the one that will sell nothing if nobody knows your work.

Both statements are true simultaneously, and any recommendation that gives you the first without the second is not being honest with you.

Setting it up took about fifteen minutes: a prompt produced a portfolio site with a store section already structured, and adding the asset pack meant uploading the archive, writing a description, setting $79, and connecting Stripe.

What matters for 3D artists specifically is that the store and the portfolio are the same site, so a studio recruiter who arrives to look at your turntables passes your packs on the way, which is a path no marketplace offers because on a marketplace nobody arrives for you.

Best for3D artists with an existing audience from ArtStation, YouTube, a Discord, or client work, who want to keep the full price rather than a share of it.

Key features:

• A store for digital files on your own domain, with the fee dropping from 5% to 0% on the $39 Business plan
• You set the price, the licence, and keep the buyer relationship
• Portfolio and store on one site rather than a profile and a listing
• Client galleries on every plan for sending work-in-progress privately
• Generated by Cadence, Framekit's own premium model, with Score for faster iterations

The real numberthe carried $79 model nets about $72.46 on the free plan after the 5% fee and roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 in processing, and about $76.41 on the $39 Business plan where the fee is 0%.

Against TurboSquid's 40% non-exclusive rate at $31.60, that is a difference of $44.81 per sale, and the crossover where the flat $39 beats a 5% cut is $780 a month in sales.

PricingFree $0, Starter $9 a month, Pro $19 a month, Business $39 a month, Enterprise $59 a month, with product fees of 5%, 5%, 3%, 0%, and 0%.

Pros:

• The highest share of the sale price of anything in this comparison
• Portfolio and store on one domain, so browsing leads to buying
• You keep the customer and can tell them about the next pack

Cons:

• No discovery whatsoever: nobody searches an individual artist's store
• No licence templates, so you write your own terms
• Not a merchant of record, so EU VAT is your responsibility

Skip it ifyou have no audience. This is the most important line here. A model earning $31.60 on TurboSquid forty times a year earns $1,264. The same model on a store nobody visits earns nothing, and 97% of nothing is nothing.

Verdict: Framekit is the best place to sell 3D models for an artist people already follow, and the worst for one starting from zero, with very little middle ground. Most working 3D artists should run a marketplace for reach and their own store for margin. Start free at framekit.ai, or see the site side in our best website builder for 3D artists guide.

2. Fab: Best marketplace rate and audience

Our rating: 8.9/10

Fab is the most consequential thing to happen to this category in years.

Epic consolidated the Unreal Engine Marketplace, the Sketchfab store, Quixel Bridge, and ArtStation Marketplace into a single storefront in October 2024, and it pays creators 88%, which is the highest published marketplace share in this comparison by eight percentage points.

For anyone making game-ready assets, that combination of the largest engine-adjacent audience and the best rate makes it the default rather than an option.

Best forGame-ready assets, environments, and props aimed at Unreal and Unity developers.

The real numberFab pays creators 88%, so the carried $79 model returns $69.52 against $55.30 on the Unity Asset Store's 70% and $31.60 at TurboSquid's non-exclusive 40%.

Epic reported that creators earned more than $24 million on Fab across 2025, and sellers consistently note that promotional events drive a large share of monthly revenue, which is worth planning your releases around rather than ignoring.

Pricing for sellersfree to publish; 88% creator revenue share.

Pros:

• The highest published marketplace royalty here at 88%
• The largest game-development audience after Epic's consolidation
• Non-exclusive, so the same assets can live elsewhere

Cons:

• Sales events shape a large share of revenue, so listing price is not what most buyers pay
• The consolidation absorbed platforms sellers had built audiences on separately
• Review and quality standards are strict for engine-ready content

Skip it ifyour work is 3D printing files or figure content. Fab's audience is engine developers, and that specificity is the point.

Verdict: Fab is the strongest marketplace in this comparison on rate and reach at once, which is rare, and the consolidation means a game-asset artist has fewer meaningful alternatives than they did two years ago. Visit Fab

3. CGTrader: Best general marketplace

Our rating: 8.5/10

CGTrader is the broadest general-purpose marketplace here, serving product visualisation, architecture, VR, and printing as well as games, and its rate structure rewards artists who stay.

Royalties climb a reputation ladder rather than depending on exclusivity, which is a materially fairer arrangement than locking your catalogue to one platform.

The ladder is also long. Reaching the top rate takes 40,000 reputation points, which is a multi-year commitment rather than a milestone.

Best forArtists selling across product visualisation, architecture, and general 3D rather than only games.

The real numberCGTrader's royalty runs from 70% at Beginner to 80% at Legend, which requires 40,000 reputation points, with intermediate tiers at roughly one percentage point each.

On the carried $79 model that is $55.30 at the entry rate and $63.20 at the top, and the platform applies a fee capped at $20 on the buyer side.

Sellers have publicly disputed recent payout changes, which is worth reading the forums about before committing a large catalogue.

Pricing for sellersfree to publish; 70% to 80% royalty by reputation tier.

Pros:

• Higher entry royalty than most, at 70% with no exclusivity required
• The broadest buyer base across industries, not just games
• Rate improves with tenure rather than with lock-in

Cons:

• The top rate requires 40,000 reputation points, which is years of work
• Payout changes have been made under sellers and disputed publicly
• Heavy discounting on the platform pressures effective prices

Skip it ifyou make game-engine assets exclusively. Fab pays 88% to the same work.

Verdict: CGTrader is the sensible general-purpose home and rewards patience rather than exclusivity, which is the better of the two ways this industry raises rates. Visit CGTrader

4. Superhive: Best Blender-specific channel

Our rating: 8.3/10

Superhive is what Blender Market became, and if you have not been listing there recently the rename is the first thing to know.

Its audience is Blender artists specifically, which for add-ons, node setups, and Blender-native asset libraries is a far better-qualified buyer than a general marketplace supplies.

Its pricing model is unusual in this category: your royalty depends on a subscription you pay, not on your sales history.

Best forBlender add-ons, node groups, and Blender-native asset libraries.

The real numberSuperhive pays 70% to 90% depending on a plan costing $0 to $199 a month, plus a $0.49 transaction fee on every order.

That structure means the arithmetic changes with volume: on the carried $79 model, moving from 70% to 90% is worth $15.80 a sale, so the $199 plan pays for itself at roughly 13 sales a month and costs you money below that.

Pricing for sellersplans from $0 to $199 a month, royalty 70% to 90%, plus $0.49 per order.

Pros:

• A precisely qualified Blender audience
• Royalty reaches 90%, among the highest here
• Strong community trust for Blender-native tools

Cons:

• The top royalty requires a $199-a-month plan, so it only pays at volume
• A $0.49 per-order fee bites on cheap items
• Audience limited to Blender users

Skip it ifyour assets are engine-ready rather than Blender-native. Fab reaches more buyers for that work.

Verdict: Superhive is the right channel for Blender tools and the one place here where you buy your own royalty rate, which rewards doing the arithmetic before you subscribe. Visit Superhive

5. Gumroad: The simplest direct sale

Our rating: 8.1/10

Gumroad is the fastest way to sell a model without building a store. Upload, price, publish, share the link. Its direct rate is 10% plus $0.50 with processing covered, so there is no second fee to add, and a separate 30% applies to anything its Discover marketplace sends you.

For a 3D artist whose audience lives on ArtStation or a Discord and who just needs a checkout, this is the lowest-friction option here.

Best forArtists with an audience elsewhere who want a checkout rather than a store.

The real numberat 10% plus $0.50 with processing covered, the carried $79 model returns about $70.60 on a direct sale.

That is just ahead of Fab's $69.52 and $1.86 behind Framekit's free plan at $72.46, and it drops to about $55.30 if the buyer arrived through Gumroad Discover, where the rate is 30%.

Pricingfree to start, 10% plus $0.50 per direct sale with processing covered, 30% on Discover-attributed sales.

Pros:

• The lowest-friction route from file to sale
• The 10% includes processing, so the quote is the whole cost
• No exclusivity and no review process

Cons:

• The rate never falls, whatever your volume, and Discover sales are charged at 30%
• Your product page carries Gumroad branding
• Almost no discovery of its own

Skip it ifyou sell at real volume. A rate that never drops is the structure that punishes success. See our best Gumroad alternatives comparison.

Verdict: Gumroad is the right first checkout and the wrong permanent home, and its 10% is closer to the free-plan alternatives than the headline suggests once processing is counted properly. Visit Gumroad

6. ArtStation Marketplace: Best for concept and film work

Our rating: 7.9/10

ArtStation remains where film, games, and animation studios look for artists, and its marketplace sits alongside that audience selling brushes, models, and tutorials to people who are already there for the portfolios.

For a concept artist or environment modeller, the buyer and the recruiter are the same population.

Its commercial terms have moved more than once since Epic acquired the platform, and its marketplace now sits alongside Fab in the same corporate family.

Best forConcept artists, environment modellers, and anyone whose buyers are also their potential employers.

The real numberArtStation's marketplace share depends on your membership tier and on whether you referred the buyer yourself, and it has changed more than once since Epic Games acquired the platform and cut marketplace commissions to 12% in 2021.

Because the split is tier-dependent and has moved, price against ArtStation's current published terms rather than any comparison page, this one included.

Pricing for sellersfree membership with a paid Pro tier; marketplace terms vary by tier and referral source.

Pros:

• Buyers and studio recruiters are the same audience
• Strong fit for concept, environment, and character work
• Referral arrangements can materially improve your share

Cons:

• Terms are tier-dependent and have changed repeatedly
• Overlaps with Fab under the same owner, which complicates where to list
• Weaker for engine-ready game assets than Fab

Skip it ifyou sell purely technical game assets. Fab is the same company paying 88%.

Verdict: ArtStation is worth a listing for the audience overlap between buying and hiring, and the terms deserve checking directly rather than trusting a table. Visit ArtStation

7. Unity Asset Store: Flat, predictable, unremarkable

Our rating: 7.7/10

The Unity Asset Store is the least surprising entry here, and for some artists that is the appeal. A flat 70/30 split, no tiers to climb, no exclusivity, no reputation ladder, and a buyer base of Unity developers who install assets directly into projects.

Where it disappoints is the rate. 70% flat is below Fab's 88% for a comparable buyer, and Unity's own commercial decisions in recent years have made developers cautious about the platform generally.

Best forUnity-specific assets, tools, and editor extensions.

The real numberthe Unity Asset Store operates a flat 70/30 split, so the carried $79 model returns $55.30 with no tier to climb and nothing to negotiate.

Against Fab's 88% at $69.52 for a similar game-development buyer, that is $14.22 a sale, which on 60 assets selling monthly is $10,238 a year in difference.

Pricing for sellersfree to publish; flat 70% creator share.

Pros:

• Simple, predictable, and non-exclusive
• Assets install directly into Unity projects
• No tier system to climb or lose

Cons:

• 70% is below Fab's 88% for a comparable audience
• Unity-only, so the asset does not travel
• Submission review can be slow

Skip it ifthe asset works in both major engines. List it on Fab first.

Verdict: the Unity Asset Store is fine, predictable, and 18 percentage points behind the best rate available to the same kind of asset. Visit Unity Asset Store

8. Payhip: A store with the cleanest fee ladder

Our rating: 7.6/10

Payhip is a dedicated digital storefront with the most legible pricing in this comparison: three tiers, identical features on all of them, and the only difference is the transaction fee.

For a 3D artist who wants a store without building a website, it is the simplest honest option.

Like Framekit and Gumroad, it supplies no buyers.

Best forArtists who want a straightforward store separate from their portfolio.

The real numberPayhip is free with a 5% transaction fee, $29 a month with 2%, and $99 a month with no fee, per Payhip pricing, with every feature on every tier.

On the carried $79 model the free plan returns about $72.46 and Pro about $76.41, and Pro only makes sense above roughly $2,000 a month in sales, so most artists should stay free.

PricingFree with 5% fee, Plus $29 a month with 2%, Pro $99 a month with 0%.

Pros:

• The most transparent pricing structure of any store here
• All features on the free plan, with no product limits
• Reaches a genuine 0% fee at the top tier

Cons:

• A storefront rather than a portfolio, so you still need a site
• No discovery
• The 0% tier costs more than most artists' fee savings

Skip it ifyou want the store inside your portfolio rather than beside it.

Verdict: Payhip is the most honestly priced standalone store here, and the tier most 3D artists should pick is the free one. Visit Payhip

9. TurboSquid: The lowest rate and the longest history

Our rating: 7.2/10

TurboSquid is the oldest large marketplace in this category and has the buyer relationships to match, particularly in film, broadcast, and product visualisation where its catalogue has been the default for two decades.

Its rate structure is the reason it ranks here rather than higher.

The exclusivity clause is the part that deserves careful reading, because it is broader than sellers often assume.

Best forArtists selling into film, broadcast, and product visualisation where TurboSquid's buyer relationships are strongest.

The real numberTurboSquid's non-exclusive royalty is 40%, the lowest published rate in this comparison, rising to 60% through the SquidGuild exclusivity programme and as high as 80% with its affiliate arrangement.

On the carried $79 model that is $31.60 non-exclusive against $47.40 in the SquidGuild. The clause worth reading twice: SquidGuild membership requires selling all of your 3D content exclusively at TurboSquid, not just the assets you enrol.

Pricing for sellersfree to publish; 40% non-exclusive, 60% via SquidGuild, up to 80% with affiliate referrals.

Pros:

• Deep buyer relationships in film, broadcast, and visualisation
• Two decades of catalogue authority and search presence
• The affiliate route can reach 80%

Cons:

• 40% non-exclusive is the lowest published rate here
• SquidGuild exclusivity covers your entire 3D catalogue, everywhere
• Reaching 80% depends on referrals you drive yourself

Skip it ifyou want to sell the same assets on Fab and CGTrader too. The higher rate here costs you every other channel.

Verdict: TurboSquid still reaches buyers others do not, and its non-exclusive rate is less than half what Fab pays, so list there for the audience rather than for the economics. Visit TurboSquid

10. Cults3D: Best for 3D printing files

Our rating: 7.0/10

Cults3D serves a genuinely different market: STL and printable files for hobbyists and makers rather than render-ready or engine-ready assets. If you design for printing, the buyers on the game and film marketplaces are not your buyers, and this is where yours are.

Its commercial terms vary by account type rather than being a single published rate.

Best forDesigners selling printable STL files to the maker and hobbyist market.

The real numberCults3D charges a commission that varies with account tier rather than publishing one flat rate, so ask for the current figure for the tier you are on before pricing, and check specifically how it applies during the platform's frequent promotional periods.

What is clear is the market fit: printing buyers pay lower prices than studio buyers, so volume rather than price is the model here.

Pricing for sellersfree to list; commission varies by account tier.

Pros:

• The right audience for printable files, which the other platforms are not
• Free to list with no exclusivity
• An active maker community that shares and remixes

Cons:

• Commission is tier-dependent rather than a single published rate
• Lower price points than studio-facing marketplaces
• Wrong platform for render or engine assets

Skip it ifyour models are for rendering or games. This is a printing market.

Verdict: Cults3D is the correct home for printable design work and irrelevant to everyone selling for renders, which makes it either exactly right or entirely wrong. Visit Cults3D

11. Daz 3D: The figure and character ecosystem

Our rating: 6.8/10

Daz 3D is an ecosystem more than a marketplace: content is built for its own figure system, and buyers are locked into that pipeline, which makes the audience unusually committed and unusually narrow.

For character artists who work within it, sales can be consistent in a way general marketplaces are not.

The cost is that content built for Daz is largely content built for Daz, which is a bet on one platform's longevity.

Best forCharacter and figure artists working inside the Daz ecosystem.

The real numberDaz operates several publishing programmes with different revenue arrangements rather than one published royalty, and terms differ between original content, Published Artist arrangements, and store promotions.

Get the applicable split in writing before you build for the pipeline, because the work is not portable to another platform afterwards.

Pricing for sellersvaries by publishing programme; terms are arranged rather than published.

Pros:

• A committed, pipeline-locked buyer base
• Consistent sales for content that fits the ecosystem
• Established promotional machinery

Cons:

• Content built for Daz does not travel to other platforms
• Terms vary by programme and are not published as one rate
• Narrow audience outside its own ecosystem

Skip it ifyou want portable assets. Building for one pipeline is a strategic decision, not just a listing.

Verdict: Daz rewards artists who commit to its pipeline and offers little to anyone who does not, and the non-portability is the real cost rather than the rate. Visit Daz 3D

12. Renderhub: A smaller general marketplace

Our rating: 6.4/10

Renderhub is a smaller general marketplace covering models, textures, and printing files. Its argument is straightforward: it is another non-exclusive listing that costs you nothing to add, and marginal sales from a smaller platform are still sales.

It is not a primary channel, and treating it as one leads to disappointment.

Best forAn additional non-exclusive listing alongside larger platforms.

The real numberRenderhub's seller terms vary by listing type and are not published as a single rate, and its traffic is a fraction of Fab's or CGTrader's, so model it as incremental revenue rather than a channel.

The practical test is whether the upload and tagging time is worth the marginal sales, which for a large existing catalogue it often is and for a new one rarely is.

Pricing for sellersfree to list; terms vary by listing.

Pros:

• Free, non-exclusive, and quick to add
• Covers models, textures, and printing files together
• Incremental sales at no cost beyond upload time

Cons:

• Far smaller audience than the leaders
• Terms are not published as a single clear rate
• Not viable as a primary channel

Skip it ifyour catalogue is small. The upload time outweighs the return.

Verdict: Renderhub is a reasonable extra listing for a large catalogue and a waste of an afternoon for a small one. Visit Renderhub

What 3D Marketplaces Actually Cost

In one lineon the carried $79 model the platform keeps between $2.59 and $47.40, and across a 60-asset catalogue selling monthly the gap between the worst marketplace rate and selling direct is more than $32,000 a year.

Every marketplace here is a distribution deal, and the fair way to judge one is what the buyer costs rather than what the rate is.

Scale the carried example. Sixty assets each selling once a month at $79 is $56,880 a year in gross sales. At TurboSquid's 40% non-exclusive rate that pays $22,752. At the Unity Asset Store's 70% it pays $39,816.

At Fab's 88% it pays $50,054. Selling direct on Framekit's Business plan it pays about $55,015 before the $468 subscription, so about $54,547.

The honest complication, stated as plainly as the numbers: the direct column assumes 720 sales happened without a marketplace supplying a single buyer. That is the hardest assumption on this page. The marketplace columns assume only that you uploaded and were approved.

Exclusivity is priced badly for most artists. TurboSquid's jump from 40% to 60% is 20 percentage points, which sounds decisive until you notice the clause covers your entire 3D catalogue everywhere.

If listing non-exclusively across Fab, CGTrader, and your own store produces more than a 50% increase in total sales, exclusivity costs you money.

Tiers reset and rates change. CGTrader's ladder takes 40,000 reputation points to top out, and its payout system has been revised under sellers recently. Superhive's rate depends on a subscription you pay.

Neither is stable in the way a flat 88% is, which is a real argument for Fab beyond the headline number.

Run it on your own catalogue. Take last year's gross sales on each platform, divide by your royalty rate to get the gross licence value your assets generated, and compare. The difference between that figure and your payout is the price you paid for the buyer.

Licensing, Rejections, VAT, and the Terms That Bite

In one linethe terms that cause real problems are exclusivity clauses that cover your whole catalogue, licence wording you inherit rather than write, rejection criteria that vary by platform, and EU VAT on direct sales.

Exclusivity is rarely per-asset. Read whether the clause covers the enrolled asset or everything you make.

TurboSquid's SquidGuild covers your entire 3D content catalogue, which is a materially different commitment from enrolling one model, and it is the single most consequential contractual detail in this comparison.

Licence terms come with the platform. On a marketplace you inherit a standard licence, which is convenient and unchangeable.

Selling direct you write your own, which means deciding explicitly whether buyers may use your model in a commercial game, resell derivatives, or include it in their own asset packs.

Write it before the first sale, not after the first dispute.

Rejections are technical, not aesthetic. Most first submissions fail on topology, naming, UV overlap, scale units, or missing LODs rather than on quality.

Read each platform's submission specification before you model, because retrofitting a spec is far more expensive than building to it.

EU VAT on direct sales. Digital goods sold to EU consumers attract VAT at the buyer's rate regardless of where you are. Marketplaces handle this as part of their cut, which is a genuine part of what the commission buys.

Selling direct through Framekit, Gumroad, or Payhip's basic setup leaves the obligation with you, and it becomes a real liability at volume rather than a formality.

Payout thresholds and timing. Marketplaces typically pay monthly against a minimum threshold, and a slow month can mean no payout at all. Direct sales through your own Stripe account settle in days.

If cash flow matters, that difference is worth more than a few percentage points.

The Setup That Works: Marketplace for Reach, Store for Margin

In one linelist non-exclusively on the highest-rate marketplace that reaches your buyers, sell the premium versions and bundles from your own store, and route every profile bio to your domain.

Treating this as a binary choice is the mistake, and it is expensive in both directions.

Marketplaces are advertising you get paid for. Every Fab or CGTrader sale is a buyer who found your work without you spending anything to reach them, and a share of those buyers will look you up afterwards. Non-exclusive listing costs you nothing except the split.

Your own store is where the margin and the relationship live.

The same asset sold direct returns about $76.41 instead of $31.60, and the buyer's email address is yours, which matters more than the single sale because the second and third purchase from the same customer is where a 3D catalogue becomes an income.

The practical arrangement: list individual assets non-exclusively on Fab and CGTrader, keep bundles and premium versions exclusive to your own store, put your domain in every ArtStation and marketplace bio, and email past buyers on release day.

Over a year the direct channel grows and the marketplaces become the top of the funnel rather than the whole business.

This is also why exclusivity deserves so much scrutiny. A clause that covers your whole catalogue does not just raise your rate on one platform, it removes this arrangement entirely.

How to Choose Where to Sell 3D Models: A Decision Tree

Three questions in order. The first branch that fits you is your answer.

Start here: does anyone already follow your work, on ArtStation, YouTube, a Discord, or through clients?

• No, or barely. List on marketplaces first. Choose Fab for game-ready assets at 88%, CGTrader for general and product-visualisation work at 70% and up, Superhive for Blender-native tools, and Cults3D if you design for printing. Set up your own store anyway, and point everything at it.
• Yes, people would buy on release day. Go to the next question.

What kind of assets do you make?

• Game-engine ready, for Unreal or Unity: Fab first at 88%, and the Unity Asset Store only if the asset is Unity-specific.
• Blender add-ons and native libraries: Superhive, and run the arithmetic on which plan tier your volume justifies.
• Printable STL files: Cults3D, where the buyers actually are.
• Film, broadcast, and product visualisation: CGTrader, and TurboSquid for its buyer relationships despite the 40% rate.
• Character content for the Daz pipeline: Daz 3D, understanding the work will not travel.

How much do you want to run yourself?

• I want the highest possible share and I have an audience: your own store, Framekit free at 5% or Business at 0%, or Payhip free if you want a storefront rather than a site.
• I want a checkout with no setup: Gumroad at 10% plus $0.50 per direct sale.
• I want someone else to handle licences, tax, and buyers: stay on marketplaces and accept the split, which is a legitimate choice rather than a failure.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best place to sell 3D models in 2026?

The best place to sell 3D models in 2026 is your own store if you have an audience, where a $79 model returns about $76.41 on Framekit's $39 Business plan, and Fab if you do not, because it pays the highest marketplace share at 88% and has the largest game-development audience after Epic consolidated its marketplaces into it in October 2024.

CGTrader is the strongest general-purpose option at 70% to 80%, and TurboSquid's 40% non-exclusive rate is the one to check before committing anything.

How much commission do 3D model marketplaces take?

Published rates in 2026 range from 12% to 60% of the sale. Fab takes 12%, paying creators 88%. CGTrader pays 70% to 80% on a reputation ladder. The Unity Asset Store is a flat 70/30 split.

Superhive pays 70% to 90% depending on a plan costing $0 to $199 a month plus $0.49 per order. TurboSquid takes 60% from non-exclusive sellers, paying 40%, rising to 60% for sellers who commit their entire catalogue exclusively.

Which 3D marketplace pays the highest royalty?

Fab pays the highest published marketplace royalty at 88%, which returns $69.52 on a $79 model. Superhive can reach 90% but only on a $199-a-month plan, so its effective rate depends on volume.

Selling from your own store pays more than any marketplace: about $72.46 on Framekit's free plan and $76.41 on the $39 Business plan after payment processing, though no store supplies buyers the way a marketplace does.

Is TurboSquid worth it for 3D artists?

TurboSquid is worth it for its buyer relationships in film, broadcast, and product visualisation, and it pays the lowest published rate in this comparison at 40% non-exclusive, which returns $31.60 on a $79 model against Fab's $69.52.

Its SquidGuild programme raises that to 60%, but membership requires selling all of your 3D content exclusively at TurboSquid rather than only the enrolled assets, so the higher rate costs you every other channel including your own store.

What happened to the Unreal Marketplace and Sketchfab store?

Epic Games consolidated the Unreal Engine Marketplace, the Sketchfab store, Quixel Bridge, and ArtStation Marketplace into a single storefront called Fab, launched in October 2024, paying creators 88%.

The practical consequence for sellers is fewer separate audiences to build and one dominant channel for game-ready content, and Epic reported creators earned more than $24 million on Fab across 2025.

Sellers who had audiences on the individual platforms had to rebuild them in one place.

Can I sell the same 3D model on multiple marketplaces?

Yes, unless you have signed an exclusivity agreement. Non-exclusive listing across Fab, CGTrader, and your own store simultaneously is standard practice and usually earns more than a single exclusive listing at a higher rate.

The clause to read carefully is TurboSquid's SquidGuild, which requires exclusivity across your entire 3D catalogue rather than per asset, so joining it closes every other channel you have including direct sales.

How much can you make selling 3D models?

The realistic answer depends on catalogue size far more than on individual asset quality.

As a benchmark, 60 assets each selling once a month at $79 is $56,880 a year in gross sales, which pays $22,752 at TurboSquid's non-exclusive 40%, $39,816 at the Unity Asset Store's 70%, $50,054 at Fab's 88%, and about $54,547 selling direct after the platform fee and subscription.

Most artists earn considerably less because the sales rate, not the rate card, is the binding constraint.

Do I need to handle VAT when selling 3D models directly?

Yes. Digital goods sold to consumers in the EU and UK attract VAT at the buyer's local rate regardless of where you are based, and marketplaces handle this as part of their commission, which is a genuine part of what the split buys.

Selling direct through Framekit, Gumroad, or a basic Payhip setup leaves the obligation with you. It is manageable at low volume and becomes a real liability once you sell regularly, so take advice at the point where it stops being small.

Fab vs CGTrader: which is better for selling 3D models?

Fab is better for game-ready assets, paying 88% against CGTrader's 70% to 80%, with the larger engine-development audience.

CGTrader is better for product visualisation, architecture, and general 3D, where its buyer base is broader than Fab's game-focused one, and its rate climbs with reputation rather than requiring exclusivity.

Both are non-exclusive, so the correct answer for most artists is to list on both rather than to choose.

What is Superhive and what happened to Blender Market?

Blender Market rebranded as Superhive, and it remains the strongest channel for Blender-native add-ons, node setups, and asset libraries.

It pays 70% to 90% depending on a seller plan costing $0 to $199 a month, plus a $0.49 transaction fee per order, which is unusual in this category because your royalty depends on a subscription you pay rather than on sales history.

On a $79 asset the difference between 70% and 90% is $15.80, so the top plan pays for itself at roughly 13 sales a month.

Can I sell 3D models from my own website?

Yes, and it keeps the most money.

With Framekit you upload the model as a digital product, set your own price and licence terms, and connect your own Stripe account, paying 5% on the free and Starter plans, 3% on Pro, and 0% on the $39 Business plan, so a $79 model returns about $72.46 or $76.41 respectively.

The trade is that you supply every buyer yourself, which is why this works alongside marketplaces rather than instead of them.

Why do 3D model submissions get rejected?

Most rejections are technical rather than aesthetic: non-manifold or messy topology, overlapping UVs, incorrect scale units, inconsistent naming, missing LODs, or textures that do not match the declared specification.

Every major platform publishes a submission specification, and reading it before modelling is far cheaper than retrofitting an asset afterwards.

Rejection criteria differ meaningfully between platforms, so an asset accepted on CGTrader can still fail Fab's engine-ready standards.

Final Verdict: The Best Place to Sell 3D Models in 2026

After pricing the same asset across twelve platforms, the pattern is the one that runs through every creator marketplace: you either pay for distribution or supply it yourself.

If people already follow your work, sell direct. A $79 model returns about $72.46 on Framekit's free plan and $76.41 on Business, against $31.60 at TurboSquid's non-exclusive rate, and the buyer's email address is yours for the next release.

Where Framekit loses, and it is not a small loss: we send you no buyers at all. Not one. A marketplace sends you thousands, and for an artist without an audience that is the entire business.

If that is you, list on Fab at 88% for game-ready work, CGTrader for general and visualisation work, Superhive for Blender tools, and Cults3D for printing files, and come back to a store when people know your name.

Fab is the rate and the reach together, CGTrader rewards tenure rather than lock-in, Superhive lets you buy your own royalty, Gumroad is the fastest checkout, and TurboSquid still reaches buyers others do not at less than half Fab's rate.

But before you sign any exclusivity clause, read whether it covers the asset or the catalogue, because that single sentence is worth more than any rate on this page.

For more, read our best website builder for 3D artists guide, the best zero-commission selling platforms, our best free product-selling software comparison, and if you also make sounds, the best places to sell sample packs.

_All royalty rates re-verified against each platform's published documentation, July 2026. Several platforms in this category revised their payout structures within the past two years, so confirm before committing a catalogue._