How much do influencers charge? In 4,560 creator deals agreed in Kolect-managed campaigns between August 2025 and October 2026, the median fee was $500 per collaboration, and half of all deals landed between $300 and $9001. Most influencer pricing guides publish wide ranges with no method behind them. This one reports what creators actually accepted for a defined package, by platform, follower tier, country and niche, with the number of deals next to every figure.
Two things to know before reading the tables. The numbers are creator-side fees: what the creator is paid, not what an agency charges a brand. And they come from campaigns for 68 brands, concentrated in consumer tech, home, DIY and lifestyle products, with creators mostly in the US and Europe1. The Methodology section has every definition.
Influencer rates by platform and follower count (2026)
The median influencer fee rises from $250 for nano creators to $1,500 for creators with a million or more followers, and YouTube is the most expensive platform at every tier1. Each cell shows the median agreed fee per collaboration, the middle half of deals (25th to 75th percentile) in brackets, and the number of deals.
| Followers | TikTok | YouTube | All platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | $138 ($50–$250) n=66 | $250 ($168–$386) n=122 | $300 ($150–$500) n=106 | $250 ($125–$400) n=313 |
| Micro (10K–100K) | $300 ($175–$500) n=281 | $400 ($250–$504) n=1,257 | $500 ($300–$800) n=532 | $400 ($250–$600) n=2,156 |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | $500 ($300–$700) n=351 | $600 ($400–$1,120) n=884 | $800 ($488–$1,430) n=328 | $600 ($400–$1,100) n=1,590 |
| Macro (500K–1M) | $550 ($375–$1,450) n=99 | $1,095 ($512–$2,557) n=82 | $1,100 ($633–$1,994) n=83 | $850 ($450–$1,750) n=265 |
| Mega (1M+) | $1,000 ($500–$1,800) n=97 | $1,599 ($750–$2,900) n=71 | $1,800 ($1,175–$4,000) n=68 | $1,500 ($738–$2,800) n=236 |
| All tiers | $450 ($250–$800) n=894 | $450 ($300–$800) n=2,416 | $600 ($336–$1,120) n=1,117 | $500 ($300–$900) n=4,560 |
Agreed creator fee per collaboration in USD; one collaboration is one creator in one campaign1. The all-platforms column also includes 133 X (Twitter) deals, which had a median of $250 and rest on only 13 brands, so treat X as indicative.
Three patterns are worth knowing before you set a budget:
- Followers raise the fee far less than they raise audience size. At the median, a mega creator costs six times as much as a nano creator ($1,500 vs $250) while having at least a hundred times the followers1.
- The tier label alone won't price a creator. On Instagram, the middle half of macro deals ran from $512 to $2,5571. Views, niche, market and the deliverable explain more of the price than the follower band.
- TikTok is cheaper than Instagram at every tier, yet both have a $450 median overall. More than half of the Instagram deals (1,257 of 2,416) were with micro creators, while six in ten TikTok deals (547 of 894) were with creators above 100K followers1. Compare platforms within a tier, not across the overall medians.
How much do influencers charge per post?
For a single post, the median was also $500, across 3,619 deals whose written terms describe one post, video or Reel; bundles such as "2 videos" or "a Reel plus a Story" are excluded1.
| Followers | TikTok | YouTube | All platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | $150 (n=56) | $250 (n=114) | $300 (n=84) | $250 ($150–$400) n=264 |
| Micro (10K–100K) | $290 (n=240) | $400 (n=1,005) | $500 (n=372) | $400 ($250–$650) n=1,653 |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | $500 (n=302) | $650 (n=758) | $750 (n=231) | $600 ($400–$1,100) n=1,297 |
| Macro (500K–1M) | $625 (n=76) | $1,000 (n=75) | $1,100 (n=67) | $875 ($500–$1,738) n=218 |
| Mega (1M+) | $1,000 (n=69) | $1,848 (n=61) | $1,800 (n=57) | $1,500 ($775–$3,000) n=187 |
| All tiers | $450 (n=743) | $500 (n=2,013) | $600 (n=811) | $500 ($300–$900) n=3,619 |
Median agreed fee for a single post in USD, with the middle half for all platforms in brackets1. Single-post prices sit close to the per-collaboration medians because about 86% of deals with written terms were single posts.
How much do TikTok influencers charge?
TikTok creators had a median agreed fee of $450 per collaboration across 894 deals, from $138 under 10K followers to $1,000 above 1M1. On TikTok, as on YouTube, follower count says little about what you are buying, because an account's typical views are a small and shrinking share of its followers as it grows.
| Followers | Median fee (middle half) | Price per 1,000 followers | Price per 1,000 average views (middle half) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | $138 ($50–$250) | $24.57 | $196.50 ($79.23–$511.03) |
| Micro (10K–100K) | $300 ($175–$500) | $8.36 | $52.36 ($13.74–$197.66) |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | $500 ($300–$700) | $2.24 | $16.34 ($6.40–$51.51) |
| Macro (500K–1M) | $550 ($375–$1,450) | $0.87 | $13.02 ($3.92–$35.22) |
| Mega (1M+) | $1,000 ($500–$1,800) | $0.48 | $6.85 ($2.49–$24.26) |
| All tiers | $450 ($250–$800) | $3.14 | $23.11 ($6.79–$92.36) |
TikTok agreed fees in USD; unit prices are medians of each deal's own ratio1.
What moves TikTok rates:
- Views per follower fall fast with size. Across Kolect's creator index, the median TikTok account under 10K followers gets views equal to 31.59% of its followers per video; above 1M followers it is 5.14%2. Quote-by-follower rate cards therefore overstate what a large TikTok account delivers per follower and understate a small one.
- Small accounts are an expensive way to buy views. The median nano deal cost $196.50 per 1,000 average views, the median mega deal $6.851. Use nano and micro TikTok creators for content and testing angles, and larger ones when views are the goal.
- Market. US TikTok creators had a median of $450 (578 deals), UK and Irish creators $500 (37), Canadian creators $600 (29) and Latin American creators $350 (76)1.
- Niche. Lifestyle TikTok creators had a median of $450 (244 deals), beauty $400 (140), parenting and family $500 (54) and health and fitness $250 (41)1.
- Spark Ads rights. Most TikTok single-post deals in the data (612 of 743) included ad-code or paid-usage rights1. Spark Ads is TikTok's format for running an organic post as an ad, and an advertiser can use another creator's post only with that creator's authorization12.
How much do Instagram influencers charge?
Instagram creators had a median agreed fee of $450 per collaboration across 2,416 deals, the largest sample in the data: $250 for nano, $400 for micro, $600 for mid-tier, $1,095 for macro and $1,599 for mega creators1.
| Followers | Median fee (middle half) | Price per 1,000 followers | Price per 1,000 average views (middle half) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | $250 ($168–$386) | $48.36 | $33.88 ($9.08–$83.43) |
| Micro (10K–100K) | $400 ($250–$504) | $11.06 | $21.69 ($7.57–$51.07) |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | $600 ($400–$1,120) | $3.44 | $8.91 ($3.44–$22.83) |
| Macro (500K–1M) | $1,095 ($512–$2,557) | $1.54 | $5.87 ($3.03–$14.51) |
| Mega (1M+) | $1,599 ($750–$2,900) | $0.98 | $3.70 ($1.40–$13.90) |
| All tiers | $450 ($300–$800) | $6.80 | $14.69 ($4.70–$39.92) |
Instagram agreed fees in USD; unit prices are medians of each deal's own ratio1.
What moves Instagram rates:
- Micro creators set the market. The middle half of 1,257 micro deals sat in a tight $250–$504 band, so a micro creator quoting $1,000 for one post is far outside what this market accepted1.
- Large accounts vary the most. Macro and mega deals had the widest spreads ($512–$2,557 and $750–$2,900), which is where pricing on views and deliverables matters most1.
- Market. US Instagram creators had a median of $450 (1,448 deals), Western and Northern European creators $672 (148), UK and Irish $662 (74), Southern European $480 (222), Latin American $400 (149) and East Asian $400 (125)1.
- Niche. Business creators had a median of $672 (57 deals), travel $625 (54) and DIY and crafts $555 (182); gaming creators on Instagram were among the cheapest at $280 (34)1.
- Partnership ads. Instagram's branded content ads are now called partnership ads; a creator can share an ad code that lets the brand boost that post as an ad featuring both accounts13.
How much do YouTubers charge for sponsorships?
YouTube sponsorship rates were the highest of any platform: a median of $600 per sponsored collaboration across 1,117 deals, from $300 for channels under 10K subscribers to $1,800 for channels over 1M1.
| Subscribers | Median fee (middle half) | Price per 1,000 subscribers | Price per 1,000 average views (middle half) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | $300 ($150–$500) | $74.55 | $105.01 ($39.86–$297.63) |
| Micro (10K–100K) | $500 ($300–$800) | $13.91 | $47.40 ($21.44–$99.94) |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | $800 ($488–$1,430) | $3.89 | $39.02 ($20.98–$82.30) |
| Macro (500K–1M) | $1,100 ($633–$1,994) | $1.57 | $33.33 ($19.77–$57.60) |
| Mega (1M+) | $1,800 ($1,175–$4,000) | $1.15 | $31.32 ($15.57–$64.95) |
| All tiers | $600 ($336–$1,120) | $8.19 | $44.54 ($21.86–$100.63) |
YouTube agreed fees in USD; unit prices are medians of each deal's own ratio1.
What moves YouTube rates:
- Big channels are not a discount on views. From micro to mega, the median price per 1,000 average views only fell from $47.40 to $31.32, while on TikTok it fell from $52.36 to $6.851. On YouTube you pay for the channel's views at a fairly stable rate whatever its size.
- Niche. Finance channels had a median of $1,000 (20 deals), gaming $820 (60), home and living $650 (109), education $600 (230) and tech $500 (189)1.
- Market. US channels had a median of $650 (582 deals), Western and Northern European $728 (89), UK and Irish $616 (79), Southern European $500 (129) and East Asian $505 (71)1.
- Ad rights are a separate question. Google Ads lets advertisers promote YouTube creator videos in campaigns ("creator partnerships boost"), but Google says the advertiser is responsible for securing sufficient rights to use the video as an ad, which may need a separate agreement with the creator14.
Influencer rates by country and niche
Median fees vary less between countries than most people expect: most countries in the table sit between $400 and $700 per collaboration, while the price per 1,000 views varies far more1. Creator country is the country of the account handed to the brand.
| Creator country | Median fee (middle half) | Price per 1,000 average views | Deals (brands) |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $500 ($300–$900) | $27.45 | 2,633 (54) |
| United Kingdom | $600 ($300–$1,127) | $26.72 | 189 (25) |
| Germany | $700 ($448–$1,372) | $25.20 | 135 (16) |
| France | $560 ($336–$842) | $21.54 | 136 (15) |
| Spain | $500 ($280–$1,064) | $18.51 | 300 (18) |
| Italy | $429 ($258–$612) | $17.43 | 82 (10) |
| Canada | $575 ($312–$1,000) | $32.69 | 112 (21) |
| Australia | $419 ($200–$750) | $24.39 | 27 (11) |
| Japan | $505 ($341–$837) | $22.11 | 76 (11) |
| South Korea | $400 ($224–$700) | $13.63 | 128 (8) |
| Brazil | $400 ($250–$800) | $6.12 | 167 (7) |
| Mexico † | $500 ($275–$1,050) | $15.59 | 31 (4) |
| India | $300 ($190–$500) | $19.95 | 65 (10) |
| Indonesia | $350 ($185–$688) | $20.31 | 46 (7) |
| Türkiye | $400 ($250–$700) | $8.92 | 89 (7) |
Agreed fee per collaboration in USD, all platforms; † rests on only 4 brands1. Brazilian and Turkish creators cost a little less per deal than American ones ($400 against $500) but cost far less per view ($6.12 and $8.92 per 1,000 average views against $27.45).
By niche, finance, travel and business creators were the most expensive, and art, health and fitness, and parenting creators among the least expensive1. Niche here is the creator's main content category from Kolect's content analysis, not the brand's category.
| Creator niche | Median fee (middle half) | Price per 1,000 average views | Deals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance | $800 ($500–$1,400) | $36.53 | 29 |
| Travel | $775 ($400–$1,500) | $24.35 | 82 |
| Business | $625 ($350–$1,205) | $31.89 | 140 |
| Auto | $612 ($239–$922) | $47.90 | 48 |
| Gaming | $560 ($275–$1,200) | $25.93 | 113 |
| DIY & crafts | $560 ($300–$1,000) | $28.63 | 290 |
| Education | $500 ($300–$1,000) | $24.17 | 496 |
| Beauty | $500 ($250–$1,000) | $20.47 | 269 |
| Fashion | $500 ($300–$1,000) | $22.58 | 208 |
| Home & living | $500 ($333–$1,008) | $26.63 | 272 |
| Lifestyle | $450 ($300–$820) | $17.91 | 955 |
| Tech | $450 ($250–$788) | $26.41 | 436 |
| Parenting & family | $424 ($300–$679) | $21.96 | 160 |
| Health & fitness | $400 ($250–$590) | $27.69 | 174 |
| Art & creative | $400 ($250–$600) | $13.25 | 125 |
Agreed fee per collaboration in USD, all platforms1.
Price per 1,000 views: the better way to compare
Price per 1,000 views (CPM) is the creator's fee divided by the views the post gets, in thousands; it lets you compare a $300 TikTok creator with a $1,800 YouTube channel on the same scale. Kolect's data gives two versions: the price per 1,000 of the creator's average views before the deal, with a median of $22.83 across 4,431 deals, and the realized CPM of published sponsored posts, with a median of $15.46 across 884 collaborations whose posts were measured1.
| Platform | Before the deal: price per 1,000 average views | After posting: realized CPM, first ~30 days |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | $23.11 ($6.79–$92.36) n=889 | $6.73 ($2.04–$27.15) n=212 |
| $14.69 ($4.70–$39.92) n=2,375 | $17.96 ($4.51–$59.61) n=347 | |
| YouTube | $44.54 ($21.86–$100.63) n=1,104 | $74.24 ($27.08–$184.75) n=135 |
| All platforms | $22.83 ($7.38–$62.89) n=4,431 | $15.46 ($4.41–$62.28) n=884 |
Medians with the middle half in brackets1. The two columns cover different sets of deals, so read them as two benchmarks rather than a before-and-after. To check one creator, the free influencer rate calculator shows the typical fee for their platform and size and what it would cost per 1,000 of their average views. Realized views were captured for about 30 days after posting, which understates YouTube, where videos keep collecting views for months.
Views per follower explains why follower-based prices mislead. The median account's views per post as a share of its followers falls with size on every platform2:
| Followers | TikTok | YouTube | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | 31.59% | 74.71% | 34.14% |
| Micro (10K–100K) | 17.47% | 29.44% | 19.23% |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | 10.89% | 20.80% | 9.73% |
| Macro (500K–1M) | 7.89% | 19.89% | 6.59% |
| Mega (1M+) | 5.14% | 15.44% | 4.59% |
Median views per post divided by followers, across 780,000+ creator accounts with view data2.
To check any quote on views:
- Collect the creator's views on their last 12 posts or videos and drop the highest and lowest before averaging; Kolect's benchmark trims 10% from each end in the same spirit1.
- Divide the quoted fee by that average, in thousands of views.
- Compare the result with the median and middle half for that platform and tier in the TikTok, Instagram and YouTube tables above; the middle half is the normal zone.
- If the quote is above the 75th percentile, counter with the views-based number or move on to a similar creator.
A worked example, with a hypothetical creator: a TikTok creator with 250K followers averages 40,000 views and quotes $1,200. That is $30 per 1,000 views, inside the TikTok mid-tier middle half ($6.40–$51.51) but nearly twice the median of $16.34, and above the tier's 75th-percentile fee of $7001. At the median ratio the fee would be about $654 ($16.34 × 40), which is a defensible counter. In Kolect Creator Search each result shows the creator's median views and the matching videos with their view counts, so you can run this check before you write.
Asking price vs what creators accept
Creators ask for much more than brands end up paying: across 36,324 creator quotes the median asking price was $1,060, against a median agreed fee of $500, and the gap widens with follower count1.
| Followers | Median asking price (middle half) | Median agreed fee | Ask ÷ agreed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | $300 ($150–$700) n=2,624 | $250 | 1.2× |
| Micro (10K–100K) | $600 ($300–$1,500) n=13,353 | $400 | 1.5× |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | $1,680 ($600–$4,479) n=14,008 | $600 | 2.8× |
| Macro (500K–1M) | $3,012 ($1,000–$7,952) n=3,308 | $850 | 3.5× |
| Mega (1M+) | $5,000 ($1,792–$12,000) n=3,031 | $1,500 | 3.3× |
| All tiers | $1,060 ($400–$3,500) n=36,324 | $500 | 2.1× |
Asking price is each creator's latest quote per platform, including negotiations that never closed; the last column is the ratio of the two medians1.
This gap is mostly selection, not a discount. The asking-price set contains every quote, and the expensive ones are largely the deals that never closed1. So the lesson is not "every creator will take a third of their first number". It is that above 100K followers most first quotes sit well outside what brands accept, and you should plan to contact more creators per slot and close the ones whose quote fits. Collabstr reports the same pattern on its marketplace: Twitch creators' packages averaged $398 against an average payout of $127, and YouTube packages $311 against $2553.
The brand's own approval step also trims cost: deals that went on to brand approval and production (1,462 of them) had a median of $450, slightly below the $500 for all agreed deals1.
How to negotiate influencer rates without burning the relationship:
- Describe the whole package before asking for a price. Number of posts, format, posting window, number of revisions, usage rights and their duration, exclusivity. In Kolect's data 80% of single-post deals included paid-usage or ad-code rights1, so put rights in the first message instead of adding them after the price is set.
- Show your arithmetic. A counter framed as "your last 12 videos average 40,000 views, and the median at your size is about $16 per 1,000 views" reads as fair; a bare "can you do $600?" reads as haggling1.
- Make one counter inside the tier's middle half. If the creator will not come into that range, thank them and move on; the tables above show where most deals closed.
- Trade terms, not just price. A flexible posting date, fewer revision rounds, a shorter paid-usage window or no exclusivity all cost the creator less and are easier to give than a lower fee.
- Price bundles from the single-post rate. 14.5% of deals with written terms were multi-post bundles (614 of 4,233)1; agree the single-post fee first so you can see what the bundle saves.
- Keep alternatives ready. When a quote is out of range, a creator of the same size and niche is the cheapest negotiating tool. Kolect Creator Search has a similar-creator search for this, and shows public contact emails of search results at no extra cost.
Usage rights, whitelisting, Spark Ads and exclusivity
Usage rights are the brand's permission to reuse a creator's content beyond the creator's own post, for example in ads, on a product page or in email. Whitelisting (also called creator licensing) means the brand runs ads through the creator's own handle. Exclusivity is a promise not to work with the brand's competitors for a set period.
In Kolect's deals these rights were usually part of the base fee rather than a surcharge: 80.4% of single-post agreed deals (2,908 of 3,619) included paid-usage, whitelisting or ad-code rights, and their median fee was $500 (middle half $300–$968)1. Only 63 deals were explicitly organic-only, too few to measure a price difference reliably; their median was also $500. Aspire's 2026 report, based on its platform data and nearly 900 marketers and creators, finds the same practice: 67% of brands bake content usage rights into the creator's initial contract or rate9.
When rights are priced separately, published figures point to a real premium:
| Right | What the brand can do | How it is granted | Pricing reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid usage through the creator's handle (TikTok Spark Ads, Instagram partnership ads) | Run the creator's post as an ad from the creator's account | The creator authorizes the post or shares an ad code12 13 | Included in 80% of Kolect single-post deals at the same $500 median1; 20–30% of the creator's base rate per month of ad spend, per Influencer Marketing Hub10 |
| Content usage rights (brand's own ads, site, email) | Reuse the video in the brand's own channels | A written licence with channels and duration | Collabstr measured an average of $307 with usage rights vs $221 without in its 2024 marketplace data, a 39% difference4 |
| YouTube creator video as an ad | Promote the creator's video through Google Ads | The creator links the video; the advertiser must secure the rights14 | Negotiated per deal |
| Category exclusivity | Keep the creator from promoting direct competitors | A contract clause with category and duration | A 15–30% premium on total fees, per Influencer Marketing Hub10 |
Third-party figures are from the sources named; Kolect's own figure is the share of single-post deals with these rights and their median fee1.
Write these five things into every agreement, whatever the price: the platforms where paid usage may run, the start date and duration, whether the brand may edit or cut the video, whether the content may appear outside social (site, email, retail), and the exclusivity scope. A Spark Ads or partnership ad code that expires before your ad flight is a common and avoidable problem.
How much do UGC creators charge?
UGC (user-generated content) creators are paid to make videos or photos that the brand posts or runs as ads, without publishing them to the creator's own audience. Kolect's deal data covers creators posting to their audiences, so it does not price UGC-only work; the figures below come from marketplaces that do.
- Collabstr reports that UGC packages on its marketplace asked an average of $180 in 2025 and paid an average of $154 per collaboration; UGC made up 35% of campaigns there, up from 15% the year before3.
- Insense states that UGC campaigns start at $100 per video, with a 10% marketplace fee on its Brand plan, and that creators grant brands full digital rights once content is approved and paid11.
UGC is priced on production rather than audience: the number of videos, length, hooks and variations, raw footage, and how long and where you may use the content. Because no audience comes with it, compare UGC quotes with what the same video would cost to produce in-house, not with influencer rates.
How to budget an influencer campaign
Budget from the tables, not from rate cards: pick the platform and tier mix, price each creator at the tier median, and use the 25th and 75th percentiles as your planning range1.
- Set the goal in views or posts, not followers. Followers say little about reach on TikTok and YouTube (see views per follower above).
- Choose the platform and tier mix for the goal: micro Instagram creators for volume of content, mid-tier TikTok for views, YouTube for long-form demonstration.
- Price each slot at the tier median, and the range at the 25th and 75th percentiles.
- Check each real quote on price per 1,000 views before you accept it.
- Add the costs outside the creator fee: product and shipping, platform or agency fees, the ad budget if you will run Spark Ads or partnership ads, and a reserve for creators who drop out.
A worked example, clearly hypothetical: a home-gadget brand launching in the US plans 18 creators.
| Slot | Creators | Median fee | Budget at the median | Planning range (25th–75th percentile) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram micro (10K–100K) | 10 | $400 | $4,000 | $2,500–$5,040 |
| TikTok mid-tier (100K–500K) | 6 | $500 | $3,000 | $1,800–$4,200 |
| YouTube mid-tier (100K–500K) | 2 | $800 | $1,600 | $976–$2,860 |
| Total creator fees | 18 | $8,600 | $5,276–$12,100 |
Fees and percentiles from the platform-and-tier table; the totals are simple sums1. The range is a planning band (every creator at the low or high quartile), not a statistical interval. US creators' median fee was the same $500 as the full data set, so the all-market tier medians are a fair basis for a US plan1.
If the budget is fixed instead, divide it the other way: $5,000 at a $400 median buys about 12 micro Instagram creators, or 10 at $500 if you want room to say yes to stronger creators1.
How other influencer rate benchmarks compare
Measured data from three other businesses broadly agrees with Kolect's: typical micro and mid-tier creators are paid in the low hundreds of dollars per deal. Published rate ranges that do not disclose a method run well above every measured median, often several times higher at the same tier5 6 7 8.
Measured sources (prices quoted or paid, with a disclosed sample):
| Source | What it measures | Sample | Nano | Micro | Mid-tier | Macro | Mega |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kolect (this guide) | Median agreed fee per collaboration | 4,560 deals, 68 brands, Aug 2025–Oct 2026 | $250 | $400 | $600 | $850 | $1,500 |
| Upfluence, Q1 2026 | Median creator ask on marketplace applications | 47,515 applications, 730 brands, Jan–Mar 2026 | $200 | $300 | $400 | $500 | $500 |
| OpenSponsorship, July 2026 | Median cash fee per completed deliverable | 1,527 deliverables, Jan 2025–Jun 2026 | $134 | $150 (10K–50K) | $417 (50K–250K) | $517 (250K–1M) | $2,727 (53 campaigns) |
Tiers are Kolect's (under 10K, 10K–100K, 100K–500K, 500K–1M, 1M+) unless a range is shown1 5 6. Collabstr's 2026 report gives platform averages rather than tiers: an average payout of $255 per collaboration on YouTube, $193 on Instagram and $186 on TikTok, across 21,000+ collaborations, with 80% of collaborations costing under $3003.
Published planning ranges (no method disclosed):
| Source | Instagram micro | TikTok micro | YouTube micro | Instagram macro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Influencer Marketing Hub (updated 6 Oct 2026) | $100–$500+ | $200–$800 | $200–$1,000+ | $5,000–$10,000+ (100K–1M) |
| Hootsuite (16 Mar 2026) | $200–$2,000 (10K–50K) | $500–$2,000 (10K–50K) | $500–$5,000 (10K–50K) | $5,000–$15,000 (500K–1M) |
Influencer Marketing Hub calls its figures "planning benchmarks, not fixed rate cards"; Hootsuite describes its ranges as industry benchmarks without naming a source or sample7 8.
Why the numbers differ:
- Ranges are not measurements. Influencer Marketing Hub's Instagram macro range of $5,000–$10,000+ is close to what Instagram macro creators asked in Kolect's negotiations (median $4,000), not what they accepted (median $1,095)7 1. Treat published ranges as the top of a negotiation, not as a budget.
- Asks vs agreed fees. Upfluence measures what creators ask when they apply to a brand's marketplace campaign, a self-selected group with varying deliverables5. Kolect's asking prices come from creators approached for a specific brand and are higher (micro median $600), while its agreed fees ($400) sit closer to Upfluence's asks1.
- Averages vs medians. Upfluence's mega-tier median ask was $500 but its average was $3,860, because a few very large quotes pull the average up5. Collabstr reports averages; Kolect, Upfluence and OpenSponsorship report medians3.
- Who is in the sample. On Collabstr's self-serve marketplace 80% of collaborations cost under $300 and US creators account for 66% of collaborations3. Kolect's deals come from managed campaigns for consumer tech, home, DIY and lifestyle brands, with rights usually included1. The top tier is where measured sources disagree most (mega medians of $500, $1,500 and $2,727), and each has its smallest sample there5 1 6.
- Tier definitions. "Micro" means 10K–50K at OpenSponsorship and Hootsuite but 10K–100K here and at Influencer Marketing Hub; "macro" starts at 100K at Influencer Marketing Hub and at 500K here6 8 7. Compare tiers by follower range, not by name.
- The follower rule of thumb fits one tier. Hootsuite's "$100 per 10,000 followers" is $10 per 1,000 followers8. Kolect's micro median was $11.11 per 1,000 followers, but nano creators cost $47.76 and mid-tier creators $3.14, so the rule underprices small creators and overprices large ones1.
Find creators who fit your budget
Once you know the fee range you can afford, the slow part is finding enough creators inside it. Kolect Creator Search lets you describe the creators you want in one sentence and turns it into filters you can edit, including country, platform, follower range, niche and engagement, so you can search one tier at a time. You can start free, and the paid plans are on the pricing page. If you would rather hand over outreach, rate negotiation, contracts and payment, the Kolect team runs managed creator campaigns where the brand approves the creators and the content. More on budgets and negotiation is in the pricing topic.
Methodology
Source. Kolect's managed-service operations database, which records every creator negotiation in Kolect-run influencer campaigns: the creator's quotes, counters and accepted fee, the deliverable terms, the social account handed to the brand, and published posts with their metrics1. Data was extracted read-only on 15 October 2026 as aggregates; no brand, creator or individual deal is published.
Definitions.
- Fee: the creator-side fee for one creator in one campaign, meaning what the creator is paid. Kolect's own brand-facing prices and margins are excluded.
- Agreed fee: the fee on partnerships where the creator accepted a firm rate and the full deliverable package, including all later stages (brand approval, scripting, drafts, publishing, payment). 4,560 deals with 4,160 creators for 68 brands1.
- Closed fee: the subset the brand also approved and that moved into production or delivery; 1,462 deals1.
- Single-post fee: agreed fees whose written deliverable describes one post; deals with no deliverable text or with multi-post bundles removed; 3,619 deals1.
- Asking price: each creator's latest quote per platform across all negotiations, including those that never closed; 36,324 creator-platform quotes1.
- Follower tier: from the follower count of the exact account handed to the brand, as of September–October 2026 rather than at deal time: nano under 10K, micro 10K–100K, mid-tier 100K–500K, macro 500K–1M, mega 1M+1.
- Price per 1,000 followers and per 1,000 average views: the fee divided by followers, or by the trimmed mean views of the creator's latest 12 stored videos (10% trimmed from each end), in thousands; reported as the median of each deal's own ratio, not a ratio of medians1.
- Realized CPM: the fee divided by the views the collaboration's published posts collected, captured for about 30 days after each link was added; 884 collaborations with a measured view count, out of 1,049 with published-post metrics across 43 brands1.
- Views per follower: a creator account's median views per post divided by followers, across the accounts in Kolect's creator index with view data (251,098 TikTok, 345,368 Instagram and 183,878 YouTube accounts)2.
Window and currency. Partnerships created between 19 August 2025 and 15 October 2026; more than 95% of agreed deals were created in 2026, so the data cannot show a price trend and none is claimed. 85.4% of agreed deals were in US dollars and 10.1% in euros; all fees were converted at one ECB reference-rate snapshot dated 15 October 20261.
Cleaning. Test and demo campaigns, test creators, merged duplicates and QA fixture accounts were removed. Fees below $20 (placeholders) or above $250,000 were dropped. Platform is the account handed to the brand, resolved for 98% of priced partnerships; multi-platform bundles are attributed to that account1.
Suppression. Any cell with fewer than 20 deals, or built on fewer than 3 brands, is not shown; cells built on 3–4 brands are marked †1.
Limits. The brands are concentrated in consumer tech, home, DIY and lifestyle, and creators are mostly in the US and Europe, so categories such as finance or luxury are thinly covered. Follower tiers use current counts, so a creator who grew after the deal is counted in the higher tier. X (Twitter) cells rest on 4–13 brands and only since mid-2026. Realized YouTube CPM covers about 30 days of views and overstates the lifetime cost of long-form videos1.