The NFT Royalty Calculator projects how much a collection can earn from its initial mint plus ongoing creator royalties on secondary trades. Because most chains do not enforce royalties at the protocol level, it models income under full, partial and zero enforcement so you can plan realistically.
Two income streams: primary and secondary
Primary revenue — the mint — is simple and one-time:
Primary revenue = collection size × mint price
Minting a 10,000-piece collection at 0.05 ETH, for example, yields 500 ETH upfront. Marketplace fees (commonly 2.5%) and gas costs reduce what the creator actually pockets, but the gross is the starting point.
Secondary royalty income is ongoing but variable:
Royalty per period = secondary volume × royalty rate × enforcement factor
A 7% royalty on 80 ETH of monthly trading volume earns 5.6 ETH per month at full enforcement. The enforcement factor — the key variable in the current market — scales that down.
Why enforcement is the critical variable
Blockchain royalties are not enforceable at the protocol level on most chains. Whether a creator receives their stated royalty depends on which marketplace the buyer and seller use. Marketplaces that honour royalties deduct and forward them automatically; others make them optional or bypass them entirely for buyers who opt out.
The tool models three scenarios:
- Full enforcement (factor 1.0) — every secondary sale pays the stated royalty. This is the optimistic ceiling.
- Partial enforcement (custom factor) — a blended outcome if volume is split across platforms with different policies. For example, if half your volume goes through a royalty-paying platform and half through one that doesn’t, a factor of 0.5 gives a realistic mid-case.
- Zero enforcement (factor 0.0) — the floor: secondary income is nil. Some creators have experienced this as the dominant outcome after certain marketplace policy shifts.
Worked example
A 10,000-piece collection minting at 0.05 ETH:
- Primary revenue: 10,000 × 0.05 = 500 ETH (one-time)
- Ongoing secondary volume: 80 ETH/month
- Royalty rate: 7%
- Full enforcement: 80 × 0.07 = 5.6 ETH/month (≈ 67.2 ETH/year)
- 50% partial enforcement: 2.8 ETH/month (≈ 33.6 ETH/year)
- Zero enforcement: 0 ETH/month
The difference between full and zero enforcement over two years is over 130 ETH at these volumes — illustrating why enforcement risk is the single biggest uncertainty in secondary income planning.
Setting your royalty rate
Most collections set royalties between 5% and 10%. Rates above 10% can deter traders by raising the effective resale cost and depressing secondary volume — meaning a higher rate can paradoxically produce lower income. The optimal rate balances per-sale income against total trading activity. If your community trades heavily, a 5% rate on large volume can exceed a 10% rate on thin volume.