If you are looking for a donation ticker in Streamlabs, the current widget name to look for is Tip Ticker. You can add it directly as a source in Streamlabs Desktop, or use its widget URL as a Browser Source in OBS or compatible broadcasting software.
The ticker displays recent tips; it does not process them. Configure its message and appearance in Streamlabs, then check the result in your own scene preview. A ticker that fits the settings page can still be too small, too fast or too close to another overlay at stream resolution.
Donation Ticker or Tip Ticker?
“Donation ticker” is a familiar way to describe a scrolling display of recent contributions. Streamlabs’ current interface and support material call this widget the Tip Ticker. Streamlabs describes it as a way to display recent tippers in a scrolling ticker. Use that label when following the setup steps, because searching the source list for “Donation Ticker” may not match the current menu.
The distinction matters: a ticker is an on-screen display, not the payment or tip-processing system itself. If you are setting up tips for the first time, check the relevant Streamlabs account and payment settings separately, and confirm what is available to your account and audience. This guide covers adding and styling the display, not eligibility, payment methods, fees or whether a particular contribution will be recorded.
The two common routes are a direct Tip Ticker source in Streamlabs Desktop and a Browser Source in OBS or another application that supports browser overlays. The first avoids manually copying a widget URL. The second gives you a URL-based source, while ticker content and styling remain managed through Streamlabs. Neither route should be assumed to behave identically across every broadcasting application.
If your scene also includes alerts or other recent activity, decide which elements belong together before adding another moving line. Our guide to showing recent events on a YouTube livestream can help you think through how on-screen activity is presented without letting several overlays compete for attention.
Add a Tip Ticker in Streamlabs Desktop
Open Streamlabs Desktop and find the Sources panel for the scene where the ticker should appear. Select +, choose Tip Ticker from the available widgets, give the source a useful name, and select Add Source. A name such as “Tip ticker – main scene” is easier to recognise later than a generic duplicate label if you have several scenes.
Review the ticker in the preview and open its settings. The controls available in the guide include the message format, how many tips to display, scrolling, typography and colours. Make an initial pass, close the settings to save, and then resize and position the source on the canvas. Check the result in the actual preview rather than assuming the configuration panel shows its final scale in the scene.
You can also edit the same general kinds of settings in the Streamlabs dashboard, according to Streamlabs’ setup guidance. That can be useful if you want to make content or styling changes without rebuilding the source in your scene. Keep track of which scene contains the source and confirm that you are previewing that scene before judging the change.
A direct Desktop source is a sensible choice when Streamlabs Desktop is already the application you use to compose the broadcast. If you use OBS Studio instead, do not look for the same direct-source workflow: use the dashboard’s widget URL and add a Browser Source, as described below. For context on how canvas dimensions affect what viewers see, see our guide to setting OBS output resolution separately from the base canvas.
Adjust Ticker Settings
Start with the message format. Streamlabs’ documented placeholders include {name} for the tipper’s name and {amount} for the tip amount. A compact message such as “Thank you, {name} — {amount}” gives viewers the important information without requiring a long sentence to scroll across the screen. Check how the format appears in your preview; placeholder examples describe the fields, but your own result depends on the content shown by your widget.
The maximum number of tips controls how many entries are displayed at once, and Streamlabs’ guide says this value must be greater than zero. More entries can mean more text competing for space. If the overlay sits in a narrow band, a smaller number may be easier to read. If you use scrolling, test whether viewers can comfortably follow one entry before another moves into the same area.
Scrolling can be switched on or off, and its speed setting runs from 1, the slowest, through 10, the fastest, in Streamlabs’ documented controls. Treat those values as settings, not a guarantee of how fast the ticker will feel at every output size. Preview it at the resolution and scale you plan to use. If names and amounts are long, the viewer needs enough time to read them; faster movement may make that harder.
Typography and contrast deserve the same attention as movement. The available controls include font, size, weight, general text colour, name colour and amount colour. A decorative font or several bright colours may fit a particular brand, but keep names and amounts distinguishable against the actual background. Make the text large enough to read in the stream preview, not just while the settings panel is open.
Streamlabs also documents prebuilt widget themes and optional custom HTML/CSS for more advanced styling. A theme can be a quicker starting point; custom code gives you more control but also creates more opportunities for a styling choice to become difficult to maintain. Streamlabs’ Widget Themes guidance explains that theme widget URLs can be used manually as browser sources even if that theme is not active, while a theme must be active to use it as a Streamlabs Desktop source or with the Streamlabs for OBS Plugin. Check the current instructions before relying on a particular theme workflow.
Make one adjustment at a time, then look again in the preview. For example, if a ticker feels crowded, first reduce the number of visible entries or simplify the message; changing the font, colours and speed all at once makes it harder to tell which change improved readability. The advice is practical rather than a tested result: verify it in your own scene, with your own overlay and likely message lengths.
Add the Ticker to OBS or Other Software
For OBS Studio or another application that offers a compatible browser-based source, open the Tip Ticker settings in the Streamlabs dashboard and copy the widget URL shown there. In your broadcasting software, add a Browser Source or the application’s equivalent, paste the URL, and set the source width and height. Then place and resize it in the scene preview.
Streamlabs’ general widget URL instructions also describe copying a widget URL into an OBS Browser Source and adjusting dimensions, with FPS where needed. Follow the controls in your own software: labels and browser-source options can differ, and you should not assume every application supports the source in the same way. The Tip Ticker’s text, colours and other widget settings are managed in the Streamlabs dashboard; source size and placement are managed in your broadcasting software.
Treat the widget URL as private account-linked configuration. Copy it into the source field in your own software, but do not show it in a screen capture, public tutorial or stream. If you need to share a scene, remove or protect account-linked configuration rather than exposing the URL. If the source does not appear, check that the URL was copied completely and that the source is visible in the scene before changing unrelated settings.
This route is useful when you already build scenes in OBS or another programme and want to keep the rest of your layout there. If you are still choosing how to run a long-running playlist broadcast, our article on streaming a Punjabi music playlist to YouTube with FFmpeg on a VPS covers a different production workflow; it is not a requirement for adding a browser widget.
Resize and Position the Ticker
A correctly added source can still be poorly placed. First choose an area that is not covered by the main video, captions, a logo or other scene elements. Leave enough space around the ticker that its text does not appear pressed against the edge of the output. Consider where YouTube’s own player controls or other viewing contexts might obscure a corner, and check your composition rather than relying on a generic placement rule.
For a Browser Source, set width and height in the source properties, then resize and position it on the canvas. In Streamlabs Desktop, use the source handles or available transform controls to fit it into your layout. If text looks unexpectedly small after resizing, revisit the widget font size and source dimensions together. Stretching a narrow source over a large area can distort the composition without making the lettering comfortable to read.
Give the ticker enough width for the longest names and amounts you reasonably expect to display. That is a practical allowance, not a measured limit. A short test name can make a narrow ticker look fine, while a longer entry may run out of room or dominate the scene. If the ticker scrolls, judge the amount of text visible at once and whether the end of one entry is distinguishable from the beginning of the next.
The canvas and output relationship also affects the final result. A source positioned at the edge of a base canvas may appear differently if your output is scaled or cropped. Check the finished stream composition at the intended output dimensions, particularly if you use separate base and output resolutions. Our OBS resolution guide explains that distinction in more detail.
Preview and Test Before Going Live
Use the broadcasting application’s preview to inspect the ticker with the rest of the scene active. Check it at the output resolution where viewers will see it, not only in a large editor window. A source can look readable when enlarged on your monitor and become too small after the final scene is scaled down. Likewise, colours that look distinct against a blank preview may blend into a moving video or dark background.
Check the message, text hierarchy, scrolling and boundaries. Can you identify the name and amount without stopping to study them? Does a longer line remain inside the intended area? Does movement distract from the programme? If the answers are unclear, simplify the message, increase legibility or move the ticker to a quieter part of the layout, then preview again.
Where possible, use the widget’s preview or test options in your account to see a representative entry. Do not assume that a static screenshot proves scrolling is comfortable or that a sample entry covers every possible name length. If you cannot test a realistic example before broadcasting, leave extra room and choose conservative styling so the layout has some tolerance for variation.
Confirm the source is enabled in the scene you will actually use. A ticker added to one scene will not necessarily appear in another. If you switch scenes during a programme, inspect each relevant scene separately and make sure duplicate ticker sources are not stacked on top of each other. Then check the preview once more after any last-minute changes.
For a channel that runs around the clock, the ticker is one part of a wider operating arrangement. A desktop source depends on the broadcast application and the computer running the scene; a URL-based widget still has to be present in a functioning broadcast scene. If your main concern is keeping a video live while your own computer is switched off, StreamNeo addresses that specific operating burden by running an uploaded video as a YouTube live stream without leaving your computer on. It is YouTube-only, and the ticker setup described here remains a separate Streamlabs display configuration.
Troubleshoot Visibility and Readability
If the ticker is missing, work from the source outward. Confirm you added Tip Ticker, that it is enabled and visible in the intended scene, and that the scene is the one shown in the preview. For Browser Source use, confirm that the source contains the widget URL from the Streamlabs dashboard and that its dimensions are not set so small that the content is difficult to see. Consult current Streamlabs and broadcasting-software help if the controls differ from these steps.
If the source appears but contains no readable text, inspect its settings and message format. Check that the intended placeholders are present and that the source has enough room for them. If the ticker is scrolling too quickly to follow, reduce the speed setting and preview again. If the colour blends into the video, adjust the text or name and amount colours against the actual scene rather than choosing from memory.
If the text is clipped, increase the available source width or simplify the message. Check both the widget’s settings and the source bounds in your broadcasting application; the clipping may come from either. If a theme or custom HTML/CSS is involved, temporarily compare with a simpler styling choice to narrow down whether the issue lies in layout or in the source itself. Make a copy of your existing configuration before changing custom code you may want to keep.
If a theme behaves differently between a dashboard URL and a Desktop source, confirm whether the theme is active and which route you are using. The documented theme rules distinguish manual browser-source use from a Streamlabs Desktop source or Streamlabs for OBS Plugin workflow. Do not assume a theme is applied identically everywhere. For software-specific behaviour, use the relevant current support page rather than treating another application’s instructions as interchangeable.
If the overlay looks fine in the editor but not to viewers, check the scene at the final output size and review any scaling or cropping between canvas and output. A small adjustment to source position may solve edge clipping; a larger font may solve legibility, but can also require more space. Change one cause at a time and verify the result in preview, so you know what fixed the problem.
Make the Setup Fit Your Channel
A tip ticker is most useful when it supports the content rather than becoming the content. A devotional stream may favour a restrained line that leaves the lyrics and deity image unobstructed; a local news loop may need to preserve room for headlines and lower thirds. For a study or ambience channel, a continuously moving display may be more noticeable than the rest of the scene, so consider whether scrolling should be enabled at all.
Keep your chosen wording and colours consistent with the rest of the overlay. If you use different scenes for a playlist, discussion or announcements, decide whether the ticker belongs in all of them or only where audience activity is relevant. Avoid adding several redundant labels that repeat the same information. A tidy scene is easier to review when something changes and easier for viewers to scan.
The choice between Desktop and Browser Source is mainly about where you assemble the scene and how you prefer to manage sources. Streamlabs Desktop offers the direct widget-source route. OBS and other compatible applications use the URL-based route, with source dimensions and placement controlled there and ticker styling managed in Streamlabs. Choose the route that matches your actual broadcasting software rather than trying to make the instructions for one application fit another.
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FAQ
Is the Streamlabs donation ticker still called a Donation Ticker?
Streamlabs’ current widget label is Tip Ticker, even if you search for or refer to it as a donation ticker. Look for Tip Ticker in Streamlabs Desktop or its dashboard settings. Interface labels can change, so check the current Streamlabs help page if the option is not where expected.
Can I add the Tip Ticker to OBS Studio?
The documented route is to copy the widget URL from Streamlabs and add it as a Browser Source in OBS, then set its dimensions and position. Manage ticker content and styling in Streamlabs, and source placement in OBS. Browser-source support and controls may vary in other broadcasting applications.
Does the ticker itself process tips?
No. It is an on-screen display of recent tips, not the payment system. Check Streamlabs’ current account guidance for the separate setup and availability of tip processing.
How do I make the ticker easier to read?
Use a concise message, allow room for longer names and amounts, and choose text colours that contrast with the actual scene. Preview it at the intended output size and adjust the scroll speed or typography if the text is hard to follow. Verify the result in your own scene before going live.