StreamElements

StreamElements is a free toolkit for live streamers: overlays and alert widgets you drop into your broadcasting software as browser sources, a chatbot, tipping pages and — through its SE.Live plugin — unlimited multistreaming from inside OBS. It's been one of the two default choices for stream alerts and overlays since 2016, and the company says its tools have been used by more than 23 million streamers.

The pricing story is unusual: everything creators touch is free. StreamElements never took a cut of tips and sells no premium tier — it makes money through a sponsorships marketplace that connects brands with streamers for paid campaigns. You never pay it; it pays you, if you're eligible for sponsor offers.

Worth knowing for honesty's sake: the company went through visible financial trouble, and in mid-2026 Razer agreed to acquire StreamElements' assets. The platform continues as a standalone service under a Razer subsidiary, and the company's FAQ says all core tools — overlays, alerts, chatbot, tipping pages, SE.Live and sponsorships — carry on without interruption. Its own SEPay tipping balance is being wound down: balances can be withdrawn until 31 December 2026, with tipping continuing via PayPal.

How StreamElements works

A typical setup looks like this:

1. Create a free account and connect your platform — Twitch, YouTube, Kick or X.
2. Build or pick an overlay in the web editor, add alert widgets for follows, subs, tips and raids, and copy the browser-source URL.
3. Paste the URL into a browser source in OBS, Streamlabs Desktop or any encoder that supports web sources.
4. Switch on the chatbot for commands, timers, spam protection and loyalty.
5. Set up a tipping page — StreamElements takes 0% and tips arrive via PayPal.
6. Optionally install SE.Live, its OBS plugin, to multistream to unlimited platforms free with a unified chat.

Key capabilities

Overlays and alerts — A free overlay editor and theme gallery with widgets for every common alert, dropped in as a single browser source.

Chatbot — Commands, timers, moderation, spam filters and loyalty features across connected platforms.

Tipping pages — Free tipping pages with 0% platform cut; tips arrive via PayPal (processor's own fees apply).

SE.Live plugin — Turns OBS into a multistreaming rig: unlimited free destinations, native platform logins, unlimited horizontal and vertical canvases, unified multi-chat, a combined activity feed, and per-platform audio track selection so music can go to streams but not VODs.

Sponsorships — A marketplace where eligible streamers get offered paid brand campaigns — how StreamElements itself earns.

Multi-platform — Works across Twitch, YouTube, Kick and X, with custom RTMP on SE.Live extending to TikTok and more.

StreamElements pricing explained

StreamElements is free. There's no paid tier, no subscription and no premium upsell — the overlay editor, theme gallery, alerts, chatbot, tipping pages and SE.Live multistreaming are all $0.

The revenue model is the other side of the marketplace: brands pay StreamElements to run sponsorship campaigns with streamers, and streamers get paid to run them. If you're offered a campaign, StreamElements is paying you, not the reverse.

On fees: tipping carries a 0% platform cut — PayPal's own processing fees apply, as they would anywhere. One wrinkle from the Razer transition: the company's own SEPay wallet is being wound down, with balances withdrawable until 31 December 2026, so connect PayPal for tips going forward.

The honest caveat is continuity. StreamElements had a rough financial period before the Razer deal — layoffs and acquisition talks were public — but Razer says the platform, team and tools continue standalone, and the feature set hasn't been gated behind any paywall.

The StreamElements and OBS combination

For most streamers the practical stack is OBS doing the broadcasting with StreamElements supplying the graphics layer. The overlay editor publishes everything as a browser-source URL, so alerts, goals, chat boxes and tip tickers live in one source you can toggle per scene. SE.Live goes further — it installs inside OBS itself and adds the things OBS doesn't do natively, like multistreaming and a merged chat. Between the two, you can assemble what paid suites charge for at zero cost, which is exactly why so many starter-stream guides have recommended this pairing for years.

Who StreamElements is for

OBS users wanting overlays — drop in a browser source, done.

Budget streamers — every feature is free, including unlimited multistreaming.

Twitch, YouTube, Kick and multi-platform streamers — one alert setup covers them all.

Streamers wanting sponsorship income — the marketplace is where brand offers land.

Who should look elsewhere

If you want overlays baked into the broadcasting app itself rather than browser sources, Streamlabs Desktop integrates them natively (with its own free tier). If you're nervous about long-term stability after a company transition, keeping an exported copy of your overlay setups is sensible whichever tool you use.

Getting the most out of StreamElements

One overlay URL covers everything — put alerts and widgets in a single browser source rather than stacking many.

SE.Live's per-platform audio is the quiet killer feature: send music to the live stream but keep it out of VOD channels to avoid copyright claims.

Connect PayPal for tips — the old SEPay wallet is being wound down.

Check the sponsorships dashboard periodically — offers are invite-based and easy to miss.