Roblox Studio is free to download, and publishing a game on Roblox is free. You can build and ship a complete experience without paying Roblox anything upfront. The real costs start when you commission a developer to build the game for you: roughly €500 to €5,000 for a simple obby or casual experience, €20,000 to €55,000 for a mid-scale multiplayer or simulation game, and €70,000+ for a live-service or brand activation. Roblox also takes a revenue share on in-game purchases: the standard DevEx rate gives creators an effective 26.6% of qualifying spend, with an effective 37.8% payout for qualifying 18+ games on R15 from June 8, 2026.
This guide covers both paths in order: what is actually free if you build the game yourself, what Roblox takes from your game revenue when you monetize, and what it costs to commission a studio to build the game for you.
Is it free to make a Roblox game?
Yes, with caveats. If you build the game yourself in Roblox Studio, the platform charges you nothing upfront. Specifically:
- Roblox Studio: free to download and use on Windows and macOS.
- Publishing a game: free. You can publish any number of experiences from one account at no cost to Roblox.
- Roblox-provided assets in the toolbox (basic models, textures, scripts): free to use.
- Account: free. A standard Roblox account costs nothing to create.
The few places you do pay Roblox during creation:
- Group creation: 100 Robux as a one-time fee. Groups let you publish under a brand name and split revenue. Roblox removed the 25-Robux role-creation fee on March 17, 2026, so adding additional roles to a group is now free. The cash equivalent of 100 Robux is roughly €1, depending on where the Robux are purchased.
- Roblox Premium subscription: optional, not required to publish a game. Premium unlocks Premium Payouts (a share of subscription revenue), the ability to sell items on the marketplace, and a monthly Robux allowance. Premium tiers are paid monthly; check current pricing on Roblox.
- Sponsored ads inside Roblox: optional. Used to promote a finished game to other Roblox players. Minimum budget and pricing are set by Roblox's ad system.
- Premium assets, scripts, or plugins from the Creator Store: optional. Many creators sell finished assets in Robux; you can ignore the marketplace and use free assets exclusively.
If you build, script, art, and test the game yourself using free assets, the total cash cost to make and publish a Roblox game can genuinely be zero. The 100 Robux for a group is the only required spend, and only if you want to publish under a group instead of your personal account.
What Roblox takes from your game revenue
Roblox does not charge you to publish, but it takes a share of every Robux you earn. Creators generally receive 70% of the Robux from items sold inside their experience, while Roblox keeps the remaining 30%. When earned Robux are later converted to fiat through the Developer Exchange (DevEx), the standard DevEx cash-out rate is $0.0038 per 1 Earned Robux, which makes the effective creator payout approximately 26.6% of the original buyer spend.
Starting June 8, 2026, Roblox will increase the DevEx rate by 42% for eligible in-game spend generated by age-checked U.S. players aged 18 and older in eligible R15 games. This higher rate applies to spend on game passes, Robux subscriptions, select in-game items, and private servers.
Sources: Roblox Developer Exchange Help and Information Page and Roblox Newsroom announcement from April 2026.
Other Roblox-side revenue sources for creators include Premium Payouts (a share of Roblox Premium subscription revenue distributed based on engagement), and UGC item sales (creators design avatar items and earn a share of each sale). Premium Payouts and UGC use separate payment calculations from in-game purchases.
For planning purposes, treat Roblox as a distribution and monetization platform that keeps a meaningful share of your revenue in exchange for the audience, infrastructure, and tooling. The platform fee is not 'cost to make a game'; it is the cost of selling on Roblox.
How much does it cost to commission a Roblox game?
If you hire a developer or studio to build the game for you, the cost depends on scope, complexity, and post-launch support. Industry-wide ranges:
- Simple obby, casual, or single-mode experience: €500 to €5,000. Often built by a freelance scripter and an artist over a few weeks.
- Mid-scale experience: €20,000 to €55,000. Typically a small team for 2-4 months.
- Live-service experience or brand activation: €70,000+. Includes content updates, live ops, analytics, marketing setup, and a longer engagement.
Sources: Roblox developer rate benchmarks, freelance developer rate data, and Roblox game cost guidance. USD-based ranges have been converted to € and rounded for readability.
Game-Ace's published starting figure for Roblox engagements is €30,000 for a scoped project, with brand activations and ed-tech experiences scoped individually after a technical review.
What drives the cost of a commissioned Roblox game
Five variables move the budget most:
- Scope: single mode vs multiple game modes; one map vs procedurally generated content; static vs live-service updates.
- Multiplayer architecture: matchmaking, party systems, anti-cheat, social features, and server-side validation add scripting complexity.
- Custom 3D art and animation: characters, environments, UI, and VFX scale the art budget. Reusing Creator Store assets reduces this; custom art increases it.
- Luau scripting depth: simple gameplay loops are cheap; complex systems (economy, inventory, save-data, leaderboards, season passes) cost more.
- Post-launch live ops: content updates, balance tuning, community moderation, and event production are recurring costs, not one-off.
Hidden costs in Roblox game development
The build budget is rarely the full cost. Plan for:
- Marketing and user acquisition: Roblox sponsored ads, influencer integrations, cross-promotion. Many otherwise good games never reach scale because they were not promoted.
- Premium asset purchases: high-quality models, scripts, animations from the Creator Store can save development time but add cash cost.
- Roblox Premium for the publisher account (optional, but useful for marketplace and Premium Payouts mechanics).
- Compliance and age-verification handling for 18+ games or experiences that require additional moderation.
- Continuous content updates: a launched game is the start of the budget, not the end.
How long does it take to make a Roblox game?
Solo developer building a simple game: a few weeks to a few months, depending on time available and existing skill. Many published Roblox experiences are built by individuals over months alongside school or work.
Commissioned simple game: typically 3 to 8 weeks from approved game design to a release-ready build.
Commissioned mid-scale game: 2 to 4 months end to end, including art, scripting, QA, and launch preparation.
Live-service brand activation: 3 to 6 months for the initial launch, then an ongoing live-ops engagement with new content drops.
DIY vs commission: which path is right for you?
Use DIY (build it yourself in Roblox Studio) when:
- You or your team have Luau scripting and Roblox Studio experience.
- You are a solo creator or student building a portfolio.
- Time is more available than budget.
- The project is exploratory and you are willing to iterate as you learn the platform.
Commission a studio when:
- You need predictable timeline, scope, and quality.
- The project is a brand activation or ed-tech experience with launch dates and KPIs.
- The game requires Luau scripting depth that is beyond your team.
- You want a live-service experience and you need an art and engineering team that can support post-launch.
About Game-Ace
Game-Ace is a custom game development studio operating since 2005 from Cyprus as part of Program-Ace. Among our services, we build Roblox experiences for brands, studios, and ed-tech projects, with Luau scripting, 3D modelling and animation, UI / UX, monetisation setup, and post-launch live operations. If you are commissioning a Roblox project rather than building one yourself, see Roblox Game Development, Hire Roblox Developers, or contact our team. All work runs under NDA, and the client owns approved source files and assets on acceptance.
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