You have played the games. Now you want to build one that pays. The real rules for cashing out Robux, selling UGC items, and the odds nobody tells you.
This in-depth guide covers everything you need to know about make money on roblox: devex, ugc and real odds. Based on verified income data and real-world case studies from our database of 138 side hustle tactics.
You make real money on Roblox in one official way: you earn Robux from people who play your game or buy your avatar items, then cash those Earned Robux out through the Developer Exchange (DevEx). As of 2026, DevEx needs you to be at least 13, hold at least 30,000 Earned Robux, and pays a standard rate of $0.0038 per Earned Robux, which is about $114 for those first 30,000. Most creators earn little, so treat it as a skill you are building, with money as a possible bonus.
Why so many teens want this
You already know Roblox from the inside. You know which games feel good and which feel like a cash grab. Have you ever looked at a game with millions of visits and thought, "I could make something better than this"? Some people your age have.
And the money is real. Roblox says creators earned over $1 billion through DevEx from March 2024 to March 2025. Picture your game in the Discover page, a server full of strangers playing something you built in your bedroom, and a payout landing in your own bank account. That feeling, of making something people choose to spend their time in, is worth chasing.
But you deserve the honest version too. Most of that billion goes to a small group at the top. Before you spend your summer in Roblox Studio, would you want to know the real odds? Good. Here they are, along with every rule you need.
How money moves on Roblox
There are two kinds of Robux, and the difference matters.
- Purchased Robux are what players buy with real money. You cannot cash these out.
- Earned Robux are what you receive when someone spends Robux on something you made. Only these count for DevEx.
Roblox's own terms are clear that Robux have no equivalent value in real currency outside the official program. The DevEx page itself describes the program as the way eligible creators can exchange their Earned Robux for real money.
So the chain is: a player buys Robux, spends them in your game or on your item, Roblox keeps its share, you get Earned Robux, they sit on hold for a while, and then you cash out through DevEx once you clear the minimum.
The DevEx rules as of 2026
Here is what the official Developer Exchange page lists. To cash out you need to:
- Be at least 13 years old.
- Have at least 30,000 Earned Robux.
- Have a Roblox-verified email address.
- Have a valid DevEx portal account.
- Have a tax form on file: a W-9 if you are a US taxpayer, a W-8 if you are not.
- Be in good standing with the Terms of Use and Community Standards.
The rate. The standard rate is 0.0038 USD per Earned Robux, so 30,000 Earned Robux is about $114. Roblox raised it from 0.0035 on September 5, 2025. There is also a higher rate of 0.0054 on some Earned Robux from eligible games, but only for purchases by US players verified as 18 or older. If your players are mostly kids, that higher rate will rarely apply to you.
Timing. You can complete one cash-out request per calendar month. Roblox estimates about 10 business days for a first-time request and about 5 for returning creators.
If you are under 18. Roblox's Terms of Use say a minor must create their account together with a parent or legal guardian, DevEx also needs a tax form and a payment account. In plain terms: you can build and earn from 13, but expect your parent or guardian to be part of the payout and tax paperwork. Plan for that conversation early. It is much easier than finding out when 30,000 Robux is sitting there.
Ask yourself honestly: how many players would need to spend Robux in your game before you reach that first $114?
Route one: making games (experiences)
This is the main road. You build in Roblox Studio, which is free, and you script in Luau, Roblox's version of the Lua language. Then you earn in a few ways. Roblox lists them on its monetization overview:
- Passes. A one-time purchase for a permanent perk, like a VIP area or a double-speed item.
- Developer Products. Things players can buy again and again, like in-game coins or a revive.
- Subscriptions. A monthly fee for ongoing benefits.
- Paid access. Players pay once to enter.
- Private servers. A monthly Robux fee for a server just for a group of friends.
- Immersive ads. Roblox places advertisers' ad units in your game.
- Commissions on avatar items. When players buy avatar items inside your game, you as the game owner get a cut. More on that below.
Which of these fits the game you want to make? A tycoon suits passes, a battle game suits developer products, a hangout game suits private servers.
Creator Rewards: getting paid for engagement
In July 2025 Roblox replaced its old Premium payouts with Creator Rewards. Two parts matter.
Daily Engagement. You earn 5 Robux each day when your game is one of the first three an "Active Spender" plays that day, for 10 minutes or more. An Active Spender is someone who has made at least $9.99 in qualifying purchases in the past 60 days. No sign-up needed.
Audience Expansion. When you bring a new or returning player to Roblox through your share link, and they play for 10 minutes, you can earn a 35% revenue share on their first $100 of qualifying purchases across the platform for 60 days. This one requires an ID-verified account, a valid DevEx account, and a game that averages 100 or more daily users.
Creator Rewards land as Earned Robux with a 60-day holding period. Roblox also warns that bots, alt accounts and other tricks to fake engagement can get rewards taken back or your account banned.
What the work actually looks like
Making a game people return to is hard. You need a fun core loop, levels or progression, a thumbnail and icon that make someone click, updates every week or two, and the patience to read what players say and fix it. Most solo developers start by cloning a simple genre they love (an obby, a tycoon, a simulator) to learn, then build something with a twist.
The deeper money mechanics, hold periods, takedown risk and costs are all in our Roblox game development guide. Read it before you plan your pricing.
Route two: UGC avatar items
UGC means user-generated content: hats, hair, shirts, accessories and bodies that players wear. Do you sketch outfits in class or mess around in Blender for fun? If you lean toward 3D art over coding, this is your route.
The requirements
The Marketplace policy sets out what you need, as of 2026:
- ID verification or a linked parental account to upload, publish and keep items on sale. Roblox's privacy policy says its identity verification feature is only available to users who are 13 or over.
- 2-step verification turned on to publish.
- Roblox Plus or Premium 1000/2200 for the creator or group owner, to publish items and keep them on sale.
The fees
From Roblox's fees and commissions page:
- An upload fee of 80 Robux per submission (500 Robux for items with an emissive glow). Upload fees are generally not refunded if moderation rejects the item.
- A publishing advance when you put an item on sale. For example, 1,500 Robux for a non-limited hat, 2,500 for a non-limited body, and 600 for a non-limited t-shirt. Limited items cost much more, such as 13,000 Robux for a paid limited hat. You earn the advance back out of your commissions as the item sells.
The split
When someone buys your item in the Marketplace at the price floor, you get 30% of the sale. Price it higher and your share grows: 50% at twice the floor, 62% at three times, and 70% at eight times or more. When someone buys your item inside a game, you get 30% and the game owner gets 40%. Every sale sits in a 30-day escrow hold before it is yours.
Run that through slowly. If you pay 1,500 Robux to publish a hat, how many sales do you need just to earn the advance back? Plan around that number.
If you like modelling, the same skills also sell outside Roblox. Our guide to selling 3D assets covers the Unity Asset Store and Fab.
Roblox lets you sell plugins and models on the Creator Store for US dollars. The minimum prices are $4.99 for plugins and $2.99 for models, and each sale has a 30-day escrow hold. Are you the one in your friend group who writes the scripts everyone else copies? Then this is worth a look.
The honest odds
Here is the part most videos skip.
Roblox says that, of the millions of creators who monetize, over 29,000 are in the DevEx program. The median DevEx creator received $1,440 during the 12 months ended June 30, 2025. That is the middle of the group who already cleared 30,000 Earned Robux at least once. Everyone below that line, which is most creators, earned less or nothing.
At the top, it looks very different. In 2024 the top 1,000 developers earned an average of $820,000, the top 100 averaged $6 million, and the top 10 averaged $33.9 million. Those are teams and studios, often with years of updates behind them.
The audience is huge. Roblox averaged 151.5 million daily active users in the third quarter of 2025. That is why it is possible. It is also why it is crowded: you are competing with every other game for those players' first ten minutes.
So what does a realistic goal look like? For most teens, the win is a first game that a few hundred strangers play, a first item that sells, and a first DevEx payout. Along the way you learn scripting, 3D, game design and how to read player data. Those skills transfer to real jobs and other side hustles, like vibe coding and indie apps or freelance video editing for other creators.
Would you still build if the first year paid you nothing but skills? If yes, you are the kind of person who tends to stick with it long enough to get good.
Other ways gamers earn
Roblox is one door. If you are good at playing more than building, look at game coaching, live streaming or running a gaming community. Each platform sets its own minimum age, and many payout programs need you to be 18 or to use a parent's account. Check each platform's own terms before you start.
What to avoid
Has anyone in your DMs offered you free Robux yet? They will.
"Free Robux" anything. Roblox's help centre says any offer of free Robux, subscriptions or valuable items is a scam aimed at taking your account. Generators do not exist.
Selling Robux, items or accounts for real money. Using outside services to buy, sell or trade Robux breaks Roblox's Community Standards, and Roblox cannot get your items back when an off-platform deal goes wrong. DevEx is the only approved way to turn Robux into money.
Faking engagement. Bots, alt accounts and "join my game for Robux" schemes can cost you your Creator Rewards and your account.
Copying other people's work or brands. Using characters, logos or music you do not own can get your game or item removed. The game dev guide covers copyright and takedowns in more detail.
Gambling-style mechanics. Paid loot boxes and random rewards for real-money currency face strict rules on Roblox and in many countries. Read Roblox's current policy before you add any random paid reward.
Scams that target young creators. Watch for:
If a deal feels urgent or secret, stop and show it to a parent or guardian. Report it with Roblox's Report Abuse button.
Tax: yes, it applies to you
A DevEx payout is income. The tax form you file with Roblox is there because Roblox reports payments. In the US, the IRS says you generally owe self-employment tax if your net self-employment earnings are $400 or more in a year, and that applies to teens too. Rules differ in other countries. Our side hustle tax guide walks through thresholds for the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Sit down with a parent and keep a simple record of what you cash out.
A note on US labour law
US child labour rules mostly cover working for an employer. If you take a paid job on someone else's Roblox team while you are 14 or 15, federal law limits your hours to, for example, no more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week. Your state may be stricter, and other countries have their own rules. Building your own game on your own schedule is a different situation, but the same common sense applies: school first, sleep second.
For parents
If your child wants to make money on Roblox, here is what helps.
Set up the account properly. Roblox's terms expect under-18s to have their account set up with a parent or guardian. Roblox has a help page written for you, Guiding Your Up-and-Coming Roblox Developer.
Expect to help with payouts. DevEx needs a tax form and a payment account, and for a minor that paperwork usually runs through you. A joint bank account in your name and theirs is a common way to receive it.
Know where the money goes before it arrives. Agree on how much is saved and how much is spent. A first payout is a great moment to talk about tax and savings.
Watch for spending to earn. UGC needs a paid membership and Robux for fees and advances. That is a real cost. Agree on a budget and a stop point.
Talk about scams and strangers. Teens building games get messages from "investors", "studios" and "testers". Any request for money, passwords, gift cards or a meet-up in person should come to you first.
Celebrate the skill. A teen who ships a game has learned scripting, design, testing and customer feedback. That is a portfolio, whatever it earns.
Your first step today
Download Roblox Studio and open one of the starter templates. Change one thing (the jump height, a colour, a sound) and play-test it. Then write down one game you love and one thing you would do differently.
That is all for today. Tomorrow, follow one official tutorial on the Creator Hub. In a week, publish a tiny game and send the link to three friends. Did they come back the next day? That is the question every successful developer keeps asking.
If you want more ways to earn while you are still in school, read our guide to side hustles for students and the seven-day plan for your first online dollar. And when you want the hard numbers on what side hustles really pay, the side hustle reality check is there.
Somewhere in your head there is a game you wish existed. What is it? You are allowed to build it.