Quick answer: The fee is 1,000 Robux, one-time, per game, and refundable. It does not buy a faster review — it buys your experience a place in the Roblox Kids and Select catalogs, which is where under-16 players actually browse. Roblox refunds it 90 days after your game becomes eligible, and if the game never becomes eligible it is still refunded 90 days after you paid. The only stated exception is a game permanently removed for severe Community Standards violations. In other words it behaves like a deposit, not a purchase — which changes the decision completely.
What you are actually buying
Every new experience launches at "Ages 16+ and trusted friends." Under-16 accounts browse the Kids (5–8) and Select (9–15) catalogs, and a new game is in neither. The fee is listed in the Creator Hub as the "Kids & Select publishing fee," and that name is the whole explanation: it is placement, not priority.
Developers routinely read it as paying to skip a queue and reject it on principle. That reading is wrong. If your audience is children, the catalog is not a nice-to-have — it is the only shelf they look at.
The free route, and the definition that ruins it
There is a no-fee path based on highly engaged players. Roblox's developer announcement states that existing games with at least 500 highly engaged players in the last 60 days become available to Kids and Select accounts without a fee. The Creator Hub shows some experiences a 250 target instead, so check the number your own dashboard gives you rather than trusting a figure from an article — including this one.
Now the part that catches people. A "highly engaged player" is not someone who played a lot. Roblox defines it as a user who has met a minimum purchase amount anywhere on Roblox in the last 60 days. The minimum is not published.
Read that twice if you build for children. The free route is not counting enthusiasm, it is counting spending Roblox users who found your game — and the players you are building for are gated out of finding it. That is a closed loop, and for a brand-new experience it does not open on its own.
There is also an ongoing condition: a game can lose Kids/Select eligibility if it falls below 100 highly engaged players over 60 days.
The other ways past the fee
- A Plus or Premium subscription held for 2 consecutive months.
- Six months of free Roblox Plus for eligible existing creators.
- 500 highly engaged players in 60 days for an existing game, as above.
Note that only the game owner or group owner can pay the fee.
The refund terms, stated plainly
- Refunded 90 days after the game becomes eligible for Kids or Select accounts.
- If it never becomes eligible, still refunded 90 days after the payment date.
- The one exception is permanent removal from Roblox for severe Community Standards violations.
This is the fact that should drive the decision, and it is the one least often repeated. Under the stated terms the 1,000 Robux comes back either way. The real cost of paying is 90 days of having that Robux tied up. The real cost of not paying, for a children's game, is that the audience never arrives at all.
The rest of the publishing checklist
The fee is one line on a longer list. A creator also has to meet the publishing eligibility criteria, complete the content maturity questionnaire, pass the evaluation process, and satisfy ID verification — and creators under 17 without a government ID can link a parental account instead. Trusted-friend access also requires the completed content maturity questionnaire.
The rules took effect on 19 May 2026, rolling out first in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Australia and Indonesia, with the global rollout planned for early June 2026.
A worked example of the cost of waiting
A quiet decorating game built by a 10-year-old developer went public on 11 October 2026. Nineteen days later the Creator Hub read: Public, "Ages 16+ and trusted friends," 2 visits, 0 of 250 highly engaged players, every engagement metric showing "--". A post about it then reached 5,039 people in 44 hours and the visit counter did not move once.
Nothing in those numbers describes the game. They describe a shelf the game is not on. The useful lesson is not "pay the fee" — it is to decide how you reach the Kids and Select catalogs before you build, because after launch there is no free lever left to pull.
Related: why your friends cannot play your Roblox game · Roblox Kids vs Select vs full accounts · how a parent can allow one 16+ game.