What it actually costs to become a VTuber
Every number on this page is a range in US dollars, and every one of them is wide on purpose. Two people can both buy a Live2D model and pay four times apart, because they are buying different amounts of work rather than different amounts of quality.
Here is what each line actually is, what moves it, and which ones you can skip.
The short version
If you already own a computer you can stream on, the cheapest honest start is about $70. That is a ready-made model and a microphone worth owning. Everything else on this page can wait.
Most people who are still streaming a year later have spent somewhere between $1,000 and $1,600 in total, and nearly all of it went on a model they commissioned once they knew they would keep going.
A model, drawn and rigged for you: $650 to $1,600
The largest line, and the one most people buy first. It should not be.
You are paying for two separate jobs. Someone draws your character in movable layers, and someone builds the rig that makes those layers move. Each job runs roughly $350 to $1,000 on its own. Bought together from one person who does both, you will usually pay less than the two quoted separately.
What moves the price is how much the model has to do. A head and shoulders costs a fraction of a full body with hands. Every extra expression is separate art and separate rigging. Physics on hair and clothing takes time to tune. Rush work costs more, where it is offered at all.
If a quote looks unusually cheap, check whether it covers the art only. You will be paying a rigger separately, and the total can land higher than the expensive-looking quote you turned down.
A ready-made model instead: $20 to $200
Marketplaces sell finished, pre-rigged models you can download and use tonight. nizima and BOOTH are the two that most English speakers end up on. The cheap end is genuinely cheap, and the work is often good.
The trade-off is that the character is not exclusively yours. Regular viewers occasionally recognise a popular model on sight, and you cannot change much about it.
This is the right first purchase for almost everyone. It costs less than a night out, it answers the only question that matters at the start, which is whether you enjoy doing this, and it means your eventual commission is a decision rather than a guess.
A microphone: $35 to $100
The one piece of gear worth spending real money on before anything else.
Viewers will forgive a plain model. They will not sit through hum, echo, or a microphone that clips every time you laugh. Bad audio is the most common reason someone closes a stream in the first thirty seconds, and it is the one problem a good model cannot compensate for.
A dedicated USB microphone at $35 is a large upgrade on a headset or a laptop. Above about $100 you are paying for things that matter in a studio and not on a stream.
Tracking and streaming software: free
This surprises people, so it is worth saying plainly. The software you need to be a VTuber costs nothing.
VTube Studio and nizima LIVE both have free tiers that are enough to stream on. OBS Studio, which is what most people use to actually broadcast, is free and always has been. If you own an iPhone, it doubles as a face tracker and is better at it than most webcams.
There are paid upgrades and some of them are worth it later. None of them are worth it before your first stream.
A webcam, if you have no iPhone: $20 to $50
Only needed for PC-based face tracking. Any webcam that does 30 frames a second in reasonable light will track a face well enough. This is not a line worth optimising.
Skip it entirely if you have a phone you can prop up beside the screen.
A PC that can keep up: $650 to $1,300
This is only a cost if the computer you own cannot cope, and far fewer machines cannot cope than people assume.
Try it before you assume. Run your tracking software and OBS together, play the game you plan to stream, and record ten minutes. If the recording is smooth and the fans are not screaming, you have a streaming PC and you have just saved yourself four figures.
If it genuinely cannot manage, the cheap fix is usually streaming something less demanding rather than buying a new machine. Chatting, art, music and older games all run on almost anything.
Where the money actually goes wrong
Almost nobody regrets the total. They regret the order.
Buying the commissioned model first is the expensive mistake, because it happens before you know whether you like the job. A model bought in month one and abandoned in month two costs the same as one that runs for three years.
Ordering expressions you never use is the quiet one. People order twenty and reliably use four. Every unused expression was drawn and rigged and paid for.
Paying in full up front to someone with no visible track record is the avoidable one. Staged payments are normal and fair to both sides, and any established artist will already have terms ready.
Buying gear for a problem you do not have is the common one. A second monitor, a stream deck, a capture card and a ring light are all reasonable purchases eventually and none of them are reasons your first stream went badly.
Why these are ranges and not prices
Most of the artists and riggers doing this work are in Japan and quote in yen. The dollar figures above move with the exchange rate, which over the last few years has moved a long way. A commission that cost an American $1,200 in one year has cost $800 in another for exactly the same work.
If you are quoted in yen, convert it on the day rather than trusting a number you read in a guide, including this one.
What to do next
Set a budget for the first month that is under $100, and hold to it. A ready-made model and a microphone will get you on air.
Stream four times before you spend anything else. That is the point where you will know whether this is a hobby you want.
When you are ready to commission, read the model guide before you ask anyone for a quote, so you know what you are buying and what to agree in writing.
And if you have a quote in front of you and you are not sure whether it is fair, send it over. I read these most weeks and I will tell you plainly if something looks off. It costs nothing and there is nothing to buy afterwards.