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How influencers get paid and make money on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube

How influencers get paid and make money on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube

Amanda Perelli,Nathan McAlone

Influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube get paid many ways, from sponsorships to ad revenue.
How much creators earn depends on factors like following size, engagement, and content category.

Influencers earn money a number of ways, from sponsorships to selling merchandise.

How much creators get paid on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube depends on a variety of factors, from content category to what platform the influencer is prominent on.

For many influencers, the best way to get paid is through brand deals.

TikToker Naomi Melanie Leanage, for example, earned nearly $200,000 in a year from brand collaborations with about 500,000 followers. She said she gets paid a minimum of $6,000 for a TikTok post.

Check out how Lenage built her business and how she makes money on TikTok

Besides brand deals, influencers can also get paid directly by the platforms. YouTube has the most developed program for this, called its Partner Program. Eight YouTubers who make long-form videos shared how much YouTube paid them per 1,000 views, and their answers ranged from $1.61 to $29.30.

TikTok pays influencers directly through its Creator Fund and Creativity Program, and through Pulse, its ad-revenue-sharing program.

Influencers have said the programs often leave much to be desired as far as payouts. Six influencers shared what TikTok paid them through its Creator Fund in a day. It ranged from $0.05 to $189.

TikTok's Pulse program recently launched and is similar to YouTube's Partner Program. Influencers said that how much TikTok paid per 1,000 views ranged from pennies to $17.

The company is currently testing a new fund, dubbed its Creativity Program, where it pays creators "higher average gross revenue" tied to views for making videos that are longer than one minute. Influencers can only participate in either the creator fund or the creativity program, not both, a spokesperson told Insider.

Insider has spoken with dozens of other influencers on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok about how much each of them makes from videos, sponsorships, and other revenue streams.

Here's a breakdown of our coverage:

How do you get paid on TikTok?

To earn money directly from TikTok's Creator Fund or its Creativity Program, users must be 18 years or older, meet a baseline of 10,000 followers, and have accrued at least 100,000 video views in the last 30 days. To be a part of TikTok Pulse, creators need at least 100,000 followers.

Read more about how much TikTok creators make from the Creator Fund:

How much influencers earn from brand deals

Many influencers rely on sponsored content — from a set of Instagram posts and Stories to a dedicated YouTube video promoting a company — to earn money.

Rates for these types of brand deals vary based on an influencer's engagement rate, platform, and other factors like usage rights.

Here's a breakdown of our coverage of how much influencers make for brand deals and sponsorships.

Many sponsorship opportunities come from the brand emailing the influencer or their management company directly.

Creators on YouTube promote brands a few different ways, from an entire video dedicated to speaking about the company or product to a 30-second mention. The length of the mention can play a role in how much the creator charges, some influencers said.

Here's how much 4 YouTubers make from brand deals:

Instagram has launched more than 10 money-making tools for creators since 2020. Aside from being paid directly from the platform, one of the main ways many influencers earn money on Instagram is by promoting brands through sponsored in-feed posts, stories, and reels.

Here's how much 21 Instagram influencers make from brand deals:

Many brands have increased their spending on TikTok, but it has been hard for some influencers native to the platform to build a stable business.

Although the app's short video format has taken over social media, some creators say they are struggling to form a lasting bond with fans and scale their businesses. Still, brand deals have provided lucrative revenue stream for many TikTok creators.

Here's how much 20 TikTokers make from brand deals:

How much influencers make promoting songs, especially on TikTok

One of the most popular ways to earn money as a TikToker is by promoting songs in videos. Music marketers and record labels regularly pay TikTok users to post on the app in an attempt to make a new track go viral.

Read more about how TikTok creators make money from song promotions:

How much influencers earn from affiliate links

Some influencers use platforms like LiketoKnow.it and Collective Voice (formerly ShopStyle) to generate affiliate links, or discount codes provided by brands, to earn a percentage of sales. (Read more about the top 9 affiliate platforms for influencers.)

Read more about how much influencers make from affiliates:

How to get paid on Instagram

In 2020, Instagram announced "Badges," which allow fans to tip creators who livestream on the app. Two years later, Instagram added "Gifts" on Instagram reels, which let fans send influencers "gifts" via the Instagram app using its own internal currency called Stars.

Instagram has also rolled out a paid-content feature called Subscriptions. Subscriptions allow creators to share gated content, from exclusive stories to livestreams, in a fashion similar to that of Patreon or OnlyFans.

Meta, which owns Instagram, does not plan to take a cut from these transactions until 2024.

Read more:

How to get paid by YouTube

Many YouTube creators earn money off the ads that play in their videos and receive a monthly payout.

Creators who are part of the Partner Program can monetize their videos with Google-placed ads.

Creators must have at least YouTube 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year to apply for the Partner Program and get paid. Google then pays creators 55% of the revenue their channels earn from the ads that run on them.

Creators also recently became able to earn money from YouTube shorts. Creators who reach 10 million views in 90 days on shorts, as well as 1,000 subscribers, are able to apply to join the Partner Program.

Here's a breakdown of how much money YouTubers make in a month from the Partner Program:

YouTube's central creator monetization metric is called revenue per mille (RPM). That rate shows how much revenue a creator earns per every 1,000 video views (after YouTube's 45% cut). No creator consistently makes the same rate, which depends on factors like the viewers and advertisers the video attracts.

Here's a breakdown of how much money some YouTubers have made for 1,000 views (RPM), for 100,000 views, 1 million views, and the most they've made from a single video: