Skip to content

Terms of Service

Effective October 22, 2026

These Terms cover your use of Artist Alley, run by Artist Alley Org LLC: your account, your store, buying, commissions, auctions, raffles, messages and payments. By using Artist Alley you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy.

The basics

You must be at least 13 years old to use Artist Alley. If you are under 18, you may use it only with permission from a parent or legal guardian.

You must be at least 18 years old, and able to make a binding payment commitment, to bid in auctions.

You are responsible for keeping your account secure, and for what happens through it. Artist Alley may restrict accounts, orders, payouts or deliveries when the law, a payment provider's rules or safety require it.

You can buy without an account, with only your email address. We email you links and codes to reach your guest orders, and if you later make an account with that email, your orders move into it. Bidding, entering raffles and blocking need an account.

To sell, you apply to open a store, and it opens once Artist Alley approves it. To take card payments through Artist Alley, you must also pass Stripe's onboarding, identity and payout checks. An artist under 18 may sell only when a parent or legal guardian takes responsibility for the store, and takes card payments only when Stripe allows the account.

Buying, paying, payouts, delivery and tax support aren't open in every country or for every kind of product. Countries, regions or ways of delivery that aren't supported, or carry more risk, may be blocked or reviewed by hand. We aim to be open widely wherever we are legally and practically ready, and may limit a country, tax, payout, shipping or provider while one of its requirements is unresolved.

Artist Alley isn't meant for children under 13. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

Your account

Give accurate account, store, payout, tax, shipping and contact details. Don't impersonate another person, artist, store, organization or brand, and don't get around a suspension, ban or moderation decision.

You can delete your account from Settings once nothing is still open: orders not yet delivered, live bids, commission requests waiting for an answer, problem reports, and for artists, store orders and money still to settle. Your account is deleted for good 30 days after you ask, and signing in before then lets you keep it. While a report about you is open, staff may wait up to 90 days from your ask before deleting it. Some records are kept for tax, payments, fraud and the law.

Don't get around payment restrictions or sanctions controls either. If you run more than one store, keep each store's identity, policies, delivery details and promises to buyers accurate and separate.

You can ask for a copy of your data on the official Artist Alley Discord, our preferred support channel, or by email at support@artistalley.org. We send what we have within a reasonable time, normally within 30 days.

For artists

You keep ownership of your artwork. By uploading or selling it here, you let Artist Alley host, show and deliver it only as needed to run the service. Artist Alley will never use your artwork to train AI, and nobody may use art bought here to train AI without the artist's written permission.

Describe what you sell accurately: what it is, how it's delivered, the price, the usage rights, the timing and your refund policy. Generative AI artwork isn't allowed, even when disclosed, and neither is dropshipping.

Also say how far a physical piece ships, and rate each piece General or Suggestive. You need the rights to list, sell, license and deliver what you offer: fan art, derivative works, character goods, parody and transformative works are your responsibility, and Artist Alley doesn't clear licenses or promise that a rights holder allows the work. Buyers' reference pictures and private messages may not be used to train AI either, without the rights holder's written permission.

Finish the work you accept, tell your buyer about any delay that matters, and deliver what was agreed. For physical listings, keep where you ship to and from, handling, customs details and convention pickup accurate, and don't offer shipping or pickup unless you can do it lawfully and reliably.

Don't take an Artist Alley sale somewhere else to avoid its rules, fees, taxes, disputes, safety checks or payment records. Letting buyers pay you directly through your store's payment settings, by your own PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or another way you name, is allowed. Those orders still follow these Terms. The buyer pays you outside Artist Alley, Artist Alley never holds that money, and Artist Alley Protection doesn't cover those orders. Mark an order paid once its money reaches you, and pay the buyer back yourself if you cancel or refund it.

Until a store has delivered 5 orders with no problem, it can have at most 5 unfinished orders paid directly and delivered later, such as commissions and pre-orders, unless Artist Alley lifts the limit.

Your income taxes, business registrations and other taxes Artist Alley doesn't handle are yours.

For buyers

Read the listing, the store's policies, the delivery details, the usage rights and the content rating before you buy, bid, enter a raffle or send a commission request.

You buy from the artist or store; Artist Alley didn't make the work.

Some stores let you pay the artist directly, by a way the store names. You then pay the artist outside Artist Alley, following the store's instructions, and you need an account or an email address you've confirmed with a code. The order waits until the artist marks it paid, and is cancelled if it isn't paid within 7 days. Artist Alley never holds that money, and Artist Alley Protection doesn't cover those orders. If something goes wrong, report it from the order.

Give accurate payment, billing, shipping, reference and contact details, and use the order's conversation to arrange a convention pickup.

A digital checkout may use the billing place of the payment method you pick, even when the tax comes to zero. A physical checkout is taxed and offered by where the piece ships to, or the artist's saved pickup area, and where the artist ships from. Shipping may need your address, your agreement that import charges may be due, and a country we support before you can pay.

Your downloads stay with your order. If the artist adds files to a piece you bought, you get them too, and you keep what you had.

Don't harass artists, pressure them for unpaid work, abuse disputes or file false reports, and don't use a chargeback in place of our dispute process unless the law requires it.

Custom work follows the request and the accepted quote. Changes beyond the accepted scope may need a new quote, more payment or the artist's agreement.

Where Artist Alley works

We aim for wide access for buyers. Paid orders are generally open in every country we don't block, where the payment goes through and nothing about the product, a provider, fraud, moderation, the law, payouts or delivery stops that order.

  • Artist Alley can't take orders or send payouts for Cuba, Iran, North Korea or Syria, or for Crimea, Sevastopol or the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
  • Under US export rules, shipped pieces can't go to Russia or Belarus, or be picked up there. Downloads, commissions and other orders that don't ship stay open there.
  • A shipped piece is open only when the artist's shipping covers your address and the order passes the shipping, address and product checks.
  • Convention pickup is open only when the listing offers it and the artist's saved pickup area passes the place, tax and product checks. The artist needs no Artist Alley convention or vendor record to offer it.
  • A paid order shipped across a border may ask you to agree that import charges may be due. Unless checkout says otherwise, import duties, import taxes, customs fees, brokerage, carrier charges and customs delays are yours.
  • A free physical raffle prize is open worldwide unless the artist leaves out countries they can't ship to, and entrants there can't win. The winner meets no paid checkout or shipping charge, the usual account and access rules still apply, and the artist, not the winner, pays every shipping, import, brokerage and carrier charge.
  • An artist can take card payments through Artist Alley only once their payout country is supported and they pass the onboarding, identity and payout checks. A store paid directly doesn't need them.
  • Taxes and any shipping or import charges Artist Alley collects show at checkout. With no tax line at checkout, you pay the price shown.

Buying and selling rules

Kinds of listing

  • Ready-made listings are goods or files already made, sold at a fixed price, by auction or by raffle.
  • Commission listings are custom work a buyer requests and an artist accepts, through a request, quote, auction or raffle.
  • Raffles are free to enter and take no payment for entries. A ready-made raffle may give a digital or a physical prize; commission raffles are digital only. An artist may limit a raffle to the store's past buyers: people with an order paid there before it started. Every raffle win is a $0 order.
  • Physical delivery is open only where the listing offers it. Fixed-price physical ready-made and commission listings may offer shipping, convention pickup or either. Physical auctions and physical raffle prizes only ship, and commission raffles have no physical delivery. A public listing doesn't promise that every shipping, pickup, tax or import case is supported.

Physical raffles

  • Entering a physical raffle asks only for the country you expect it to ship to, which the artist can't see before a winner claims.
  • Each winner has 7 days to claim with a full saved shipping address in any country the raffle includes, which may differ from the country given on entry. A prize not claimed expires with no payment, fee or strike, and Artist Alley draws another winner for that place.
  • The winner pays nothing to enter, claim or receive the prize. The artist supplies one prize per winner and pays postage, customs duties, import taxes, brokerage, carrier fees, returns and every other delivery charge, buying postage through Artist Alley or elsewhere and giving tracking when there is some.
  • Publishing and sending a prize need no saved payment method, payout account, shipping deposit, label that prepays import charges or particular carrier service. If an unexpected charge reaches the winner, the artist must settle it or pay the winner back.

Auctions

  • Only people 18 or older may bid. By bidding you say you are, and that you can make a binding payment commitment.
  • Bids are binding. Your highest bid stays private, and the current bid rises only as far as the auction's rules need.
  • You may take back your leading bid within 5 minutes of placing it, while the auction runs. That cancels all your bids on the piece, and you can't bid on it again.
  • An artist may end an auction early, but never in its last 12 hours while a bid stands.
  • When an auction ends, the winner's saved card may be charged automatically. If it can't be, the winner has 48 hours to pay. A winner who doesn't pay loses the win and gets a strike, and the piece may be offered to the next bidder. Strikes can pause or end your bidding. At a store paid directly, the winner pays the artist directly instead, within 7 days.
  • Bidding on a piece that ships asks for one of your saved addresses it ships to, which you can change until the auction ends. If you win, the piece ships there. The artist gets the full address only after you win and the payment goes through.
  • A commission auction's winner sends the request's details within 48 hours of winning, and the artist then accepts them, declines with a full refund, or asks for an extra.
  • Shill bidding, fake bids, working together to move a price and interfering with bids are not allowed.

No-show fees

A commission auction won by card carries a no-show fee, told before the buyer commits. If the request's details don't come within 48 hours of winning, or break the listing's rules so the artist refuses them, Artist Alley keeps 10% of the winning price plus $5, at least $10 and at most $100, and never more than the price. The rest is refunded, less the card fee on it. No other deadline carries a fee.

Physical shipping

  • Artists ship physical orders on the shipping terms shown at checkout, in the accepted quote or in the raffle prize's promise.
  • Shipping is priced by the artist's own rates, or, for some ready-made pieces, live at checkout from the carrier's price for your address, with no markup. An order priced live can't move to another address after you pay.
  • Artists may buy postage labels through Artist Alley at the carrier's price, paid from the order's money, other money Artist Alley holds for the same store, or a card with its card fee. A carrier's later charge on a label is the artist's.
  • The carrier's handoff, tracking, the shipping terms, the address the buyer gave and the law may decide who is responsible for a lost or damaged parcel. A dispute weighs the order's record and the shipping evidence there is.
  • A paid order shipped across a border may use delivered-at-place or buyer-importer terms. Unless checkout says otherwise, Artist Alley doesn't estimate or collect the destination's import duties, import taxes, customs fees, brokerage, carrier charges or landed cost, and the buyer pays any charges and bears customs delays on delivery.
  • A physical raffle prize is different: the artist pays every delivery charge, even with postage bought elsewhere or a carrier asking for payment later. Artist Alley requires no particular Incoterm.

Convention pickup

  • Convention pickup is open only for eligible fixed-price physical ready-made and commission listings; physical auctions only ship. A pickup order is bought on its own or as a direct commission request, since the bag only ships.
  • The artist gives a general pickup country and postal code, and may add a public note. A listing doesn't reserve or promise a particular convention, venue, date, booth, schedule, admission or meeting place: the artist and buyer arrange the convention, the time and the meeting place in Artist Alley's messages.
  • Picking convention pickup replaces shipping for that order. No shipping is charged, but the price, discounts, tax worked out from the artist's saved pickup area and the other checkout amounts still apply. The method and pickup details shown when you commit are saved with the request or order.
  • Artist Alley doesn't organize, check, reserve or guarantee a convention, admission, attendance, booth, meeting place or a handoff that works. Each of you tells the other about changes and follows the event's rules.
  • Once the piece is actually handed over, the artist marks it picked up. That counts it as delivered, tells the buyer and may release the payment under the usual rules. The buyer doesn't need to confirm.
  • A missed or changed pickup doesn't by itself bring shipping instead, a cancellation, a refund or a pickup no-show fee. Use the order's conversation and the usual cancelling, refund, dispute and support paths; what follows depends on the listing's and order's terms, what was said, the evidence, who was at fault and the law.
  • If the artist marks a pickup before the handoff, or the piece has a problem, report it from the order. The time for problems after delivery starts when the artist marked the pickup, and Artist Alley may weigh the order's record, messages, the pickup notice and other evidence.

Pre-orders

  • A pre-order is a fixed-price ready-made piece the buyer pays for in full before it is ready: a physical one before it ships or is picked up, a digital one before its files are ready on the day shown at checkout. When it ships, the artist must have a sound basis for the ship-out dates shown at checkout; a pre-order that is only picked up has no ship-out dates.
  • A pre-order is bought on its own, never in a bag with other pieces. The pre-order and the delivery terms shown at checkout stay part of the order: the ship-out dates when it ships, the saved pickup details when it is picked up, or a digital one's ready day. Later changes to the listing affect only later purchases.
  • A digital pre-order's files reach the buyer's library once the artist adds them. If the artist moves the ready day, the new day becomes the promise only once the buyer accepts it, and the buyer may instead cancel and get everything back. If the day ends with no files, the buyer may keep waiting or cancel and get everything back.
  • If a shipped pre-order runs late, the artist must tell the buyer and may propose new ship-out dates. The first dates stay in the order's history, and new ones become the promise only once the buyer accepts them. When a pre-order to be picked up is ready, or a convention plan changes, is arranged in messages. Missing the dates or changing a pickup plan doesn't by itself decide who is at fault. Requests to cancel or refund are judged under these Terms and the law, and where the law requires a delay notice, a choice to cancel or a prompt refund, Artist Alley gives or honors it.
  • A pre-order's payment through Artist Alley is held until the carrier has the piece, the pickup is done or a digital pre-order's files are ready. At a store the Artist Alley team marks as a trusted seller, it is released to the artist when the buyer pays instead; the buyer is still covered by Artist Alley Protection, and if the pre-order never arrives the buyer gets their money back and the artist repays it from later payments. A pre-order paid directly goes straight to the artist, outside Artist Alley.
  • The artist stays responsible for refunds, chargebacks, provider costs or shortfalls that are their fault. If an artist was paid and then fails a duty that is their fault, the artist owes the refund or shortfall. Where allowed, Artist Alley may reverse transfers, take it from later payments or balances, ask for repayment, limit payouts or selling, or suspend or ban the account, and doesn't promise to recover every amount paid out.
  • Artist Alley Protection explains cancelling, delays, refunds and disputes in practice.

Your consumer rights, and what checkout asks

  • Depending on where you live, you may have cancellation, withdrawal, refund or consumer rights that can't be waived. Nothing in these Terms limits them.
  • For a download you get at once, checkout or a bid may ask you to request it at once and agree that your right to cancel or withdraw may end when it starts, where the law allows.
  • For commissions and other work made to order, checkout or a bid may ask you to have the artist start before any cancelling period ends, and to agree that cancelling may be limited once work starts, where the law allows.
  • For a paid shipped order, the destination's customs duties, import taxes, VAT, GST, brokerage, carrier fees and customs delays are yours unless checkout says otherwise. They aren't Artist Alley's taxes, and a government, carrier, broker or postal service may bill them later.
  • For a physical raffle prize, the artist pays those charges. If someone asks you to pay, contact the artist or Artist Alley rather than treating it as part of your free prize.
  • For convention pickup, checkout or a commission request asks you to agree that pickup replaces shipping and that you and the artist arrange the convention, the time and the meeting place in messages.
  • For a store paid directly, checkout or a bid asks you to agree that Artist Alley Protection doesn't cover the order.
  • Auction bids are commitments. Bidding may ask for consumer rights and age statements before the auction ends, since the winning bid may be charged after it closes.

Usage rights

Artists keep the copyright unless a written agreement says otherwise. A purchase gives only the usage rights shown in the listing, quote, checkout, order, license terms or another written agreement between buyer and artist.

The standard licenses are their 2026-05 version unless the checkout, quote or order names another.

Personal use lets the buyer enjoy the work themselves: on display, as a wallpaper or avatar, as personal prints and in a private collection. It doesn't include resale, business use, content that earns money, merchandise, sublicensing or passing on the raw files.

Creator content includes Personal use and adds streams, videos, podcasts, VTuber assets, thumbnails, banners and similar online content. It doesn't include merchandise or selling the work as a digital product unless a broader license gives that.

Merch or business use includes Personal use and Creator content, and adds business, client, branding, promotion, packaging and physical merchandise for the buyer's project. It doesn't include reselling the delivered files on their own, sublicensing, exclusivity or a transfer of copyright unless agreed separately in writing.

A custom license built on a standard one keeps all its grants. The artist's terms may add rights, describe the use allowed or add conditions that fit, but may not take away the standard grants; for different limits, the license must be the artist's own, with written terms.

  • Personal, non-commercial use is included unless the listing or agreement gives more.
  • Earning money from the work, commercial use, merchandise, buyouts, redistribution, sublicensing or reselling raw files apply only when given outright.
  • Credit is required for public use unless the artist waives or changes it in the license, listing, quote or order.
  • Art bought here may not be used to train AI, to build datasets, to mint NFTs or resell as tokens, for hate or harassment, or for anything illegal.
  • Artists may show finished work in their portfolios unless privacy was agreed in writing at purchase or when the quote was accepted.

Content rules

Artist Alley is for fandom, original and community art made by people. Content must follow these Terms, the Trust and Safety policy, the law, payment providers' rules and moderation decisions.

  • Pieces are rated General or Suggestive. Explicit adult content isn't allowed.
  • Generative AI artwork is not allowed, even when disclosed. Artist Alley may remove or limit listings, files, stores, deliveries or accounts that upload, sell, raffle, commission or deliver artwork made mostly with generative AI.
  • Dropshipping, resale fulfilled by a supplier and delivery to the buyer by someone else are not allowed.
  • Stolen art, scams, fraud, illegal content, sexual content involving minors, sexual content without consent, hate, doxxing, threats, harassment and getting around moderation are not allowed.
  • Fan art and transformative works are allowed only where the artist has the rights or legal basis to offer them. Artist Alley doesn't promise that a fan work is allowed by the rights holder.

Volunteer staff

Artist Alley may let some people apply for or get volunteer staff access, to help with the community, moderation, outreach, events, testing, reporting, art or promotion. Unless Artist Alley agrees otherwise in writing, these roles are unpaid community help: they make no one an employee, contractor, partner or agent, and give no lasting access.

  • Volunteer staff follow these Terms, the Trust and Safety policy, the team's guidelines and staff instructions.
  • Volunteer staff use their access only for the Artist Alley work they were given, and keep private what isn't public: reports, people's data, private messages, features not yet released and internal decisions.
  • Work you make or send for Artist Alley's official use as volunteer staff may be used, shown, copied, adapted, published and promoted by Artist Alley for its running and marketing, unless a separate written agreement says otherwise.
  • Artist Alley may approve, refuse, change, limit, suspend or remove volunteer staff access at any time.

Payments and fees

  • Stripe processes card payments made through Artist Alley. Other payment providers may be added.
  • A store may also let you pay the artist directly, by the artist's own PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or another way. That money goes from you to the artist outside Artist Alley. Artist Alley never holds it, takes no fee on it, and Artist Alley Protection doesn't cover it.
  • Stores that take card payments price in US dollars at launch. A store paid only directly may price in another currency.
  • Where Stripe can lock a rate for your currency, you see prices and pay by card in your own currency, converted with the small cost of the swap built in. Otherwise you pay in US dollars. Checkout shows the exact amount before you pay, and a refund goes back in the currency you paid.
  • Artists are paid in their store's currency. Stripe or payout providers may convert artists' payouts where supported.
  • Where Artist Alley and Stripe offer it, an artist may choose to be paid in USDC, a stablecoin, to their own crypto wallet instead of a bank. A USDC payout costs 50 cents plus 0.5% of the amount sent, taken from the payout. The artist gets USDC, not their local currency, and any fees their wallet or exchange charges are theirs. Artist Alley sends to the address and network the artist gives Stripe, and can't recover a payout sent to a wrong one.
  • Artist Alley takes 0% commission on sales, and adds or keeps no marketplace fee on paid sales. Stripe's card fee on a sale comes out of the artist's share.
  • Artist Alley holds a card payment until the work is done: the download is ready, the piece ships or is handed over, or the commission is approved. Then it is released to the artist's payout account. A pre-order at a store the Artist Alley team marks as a trusted seller is released when the buyer pays.
  • Stripe, payout and tax providers, carriers, card networks, banks and other providers may charge costs, hold reserves, convert currency or take amounts by their own rules and the checkout, refund, dispute and tax steps that apply.
  • Tips are voluntary, and Artist Alley takes no commission or fee on them. A tip may not be refunded once custom work has started or an order is complete, unless Artist Alley, the artist, the law or a refund that makes the buyer whole requires it.
  • Pre-order payments and who repays what follow the pre-order terms.

Taxes

Where required and supported, Artist Alley or its payment and tax providers may work out, collect, withhold, report and pay taxes. How depends on the buyer's place, the kind of product, the shipping, our tax registrations, the payment provider and the law. Artists stay responsible for their income taxes, business taxes, VAT or GST duties and anything else Artist Alley doesn't handle.

A tax amount may be zero when the provider or our policy finds no tax due. A zero tax is still part of the order's record and doesn't mean the sale skipped the tax review.

Paid downloads, digital commissions and service-like checkouts need the buyer's tax place, and are meant to be open in every country we don't block where the payment goes through. Artist Alley may let an order go ahead with no tax line where it hasn't set up tax collection for that place. If checkout shows tax, Artist Alley or its providers may collect, report and pay it; if it doesn't, the buyer pays the price shown. Supported countries and tax handling may change over time.

Refunds and disputes

  • Artist Alley Protection explains who can get money back and the time limits for a problem, for orders paid through Artist Alley.
  • To report a problem with an order, open it and press Get help. To cancel an order not yet delivered, press Ask to cancel. For help with a dispute, following up or anything else, contact us on the official Artist Alley Discord, our preferred support channel.
  • Disputes that aren't settled go to an admin, who may weigh the listing's terms, the order's record, messages, files, approved works in progress, delivery and other evidence.
  • Card fees on a refund follow fault. When it's the artist's fault, the buyer gets everything back and the artist bears the fee. When it's the buyer's, such as a cancellation, the card fee, or a no-show fee we told you of, may come off the refund. Otherwise Artist Alley bears it.
  • Refunds may include tax where required and the payment or tax steps support it. Banks, card issuers and providers decide when an approved refund appears.
  • A refund doesn't take back files already delivered, unless the payment was made with a stolen card.
  • Chargebacks are judged on the order's evidence and the seller protection rules. If the artist wins, Artist Alley normally covers the provider's dispute fee unless the review finds fraud or abuse. If the buyer wins, the artist or the order's money may bear the amount and the provider's fees when the loss comes from the artist's fault, fraud, non-delivery, breaking the rules, or a reversal of delivered work that can't be recovered.

Questions about these Terms?

Ask on DiscordEmail us