The average influencer CPM in Kolect-managed campaigns was $15.46 per 1,000 views, measured on what sponsored posts actually collected in roughly their first 30 days, and the middle half of collaborations ran from $4.41 to $62.281. This report gives that figure by platform, by follower tier and by country, explains why published CPM benchmarks disagree, and shows how to check a creator’s quote against them.
Every figure comes from creator-side fees in collaborations agreed between August 2025 and October 2026 in campaigns for brands concentrated in consumer tech, home, DIY and lifestyle products, with creators mostly in the US and Europe1. The methodology has every definition.
What CPM means in influencer marketing
CPM (cost per mille) is the price of 1,000 views or impressions: the creator’s fee divided by the views the content gets, times a thousand.
This report uses two versions, because they answer different questions:
| Measure | Formula | Answers |
|---|---|---|
| Realized CPM | Fee ÷ views the sponsored posts collected in about 30 days × 1,000 | What did 1,000 views actually cost? |
| Price per 1,000 average views | Fee ÷ the creator’s typical views before the deal × 1,000 | Is this quote fair for this creator? |
Both use views, not impressions1. Many published benchmarks use impressions; Modash, for example, defines CPM as cost per 1,000 impressions3. A video can be shown more times than it is counted as viewed, so impression-based and view-based CPMs are not directly comparable.
Average influencer CPM by platform
TikTok was the cheapest platform per view after posting and YouTube the most expensive over the first 30 days1.
| Platform | Realized CPM, median (middle half) | Median views per sponsored post (middle half) | Views ÷ creator’s followers | Likes and comments per view |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | $6.73 ($2.04–$27.15) | 52,903 (10,660–190,858) | 26.1% | 1.51% |
| X (Twitter) | $8.04 ($3.73–$15.82) | 31,438 (10,956–73,062) | 69.7% | not measured |
| Multi-platform collaborations | $13.44 ($4.23–$45.51) | 38,695 (10,097–120,858) | 32.8% | 1.26% |
| $17.96 ($4.51–$59.61) | 25,281 (7,454–129,559) | 28.2% | 1.38% | |
| YouTube | $74.24 ($27.08–$184.75) | 6,126 (2,133–16,351) | 7.6% | not measured |
| All platforms | $15.46 ($4.41–$62.28) | 27,880 (6,743–112,385) | 25.8% | 1.21% |
Medians across collaborations with at least one published post and a measured view count; views captured for about 30 days after posting; X rests on few brands, so treat it as indicative1.
Three things to read from the table:
- A single average CPM is not a useful target. The all-platform middle half spans $4.41 to $62.28, a 14-fold range1. Set a CPM target per platform and tier.
- YouTube’s 30-day CPM overstates the lifetime cost. Agentio, analysing 10,000+ YouTube integrations, found 38% of views land after day 30 and 27% after day 902. Long-form YouTube buys views that arrive over months.
- Sponsored posts reach about a quarter of followers. The median sponsored post collected views equal to 25.8% of the creator’s followers in its first month1, so a follower count overstates reach about fourfold. Our influencer marketing statistics report has the wider set of fee, view and engagement benchmarks.
Influencer CPM by follower tier
Priced on the creator’s usual views before the deal, the cost of 1,000 views falls steeply with size on TikTok and Instagram and only gently on YouTube1.
| Followers | TikTok | YouTube | All platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (under 10K) | $196.50 | $33.88 | $105.01 | $78.76 |
| Micro (10K–100K) | $52.36 | $21.69 | $47.40 | $30.32 |
| Mid-tier (100K–500K) | $16.34 | $8.91 | $39.02 | $15.68 |
| Macro (500K–1M) | $13.02 | $5.87 | $33.33 | $16.31 |
| Mega (1M+) | $6.85 | $3.70 | $31.32 | $10.75 |
| All tiers | $23.11 | $14.69 | $44.54 | $22.83 |
Median agreed fee per 1,000 of the creator’s trimmed-mean views over their latest 12 videos, USD; all-platforms column includes X1.
Small creators are the expensive way to buy views: a nano TikTok creator cost $196.50 per 1,000 average views against $6.85 for a TikTok creator with over 1M followers1. They earn their place through content you can reuse and niche credibility, not reach. On YouTube the price per view barely changes between micro ($47.40) and mega ($31.32) channels, so channel size there is mostly a question of how many views you need1.
Influencer CPM by country and niche
Country moves CPM far more than it moves fees: most countries’ median fee sits between $400 and $700 per collaboration, while the price per 1,000 average views ranges from $6.12 to $32.691. Our guide to finding influencers by location covers searching by country.
| Creator country or region | Median fee | Price per 1,000 average views (middle half) |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | $575 | $32.69 ($11.06–$77.35) |
| United States | $500 | $27.45 ($8.73–$78.30) |
| United Kingdom | $600 | $26.72 ($10.96–$63.46) |
| Germany | $700 | $25.20 ($9.51–$68.88) |
| Australia | $419 | $24.39 ($12.68–$63.31) |
| Japan | $505 | $22.11 ($12.24–$43.31) |
| France | $560 | $21.54 ($6.82–$80.10) |
| Indonesia | $350 | $20.31 ($5.86–$42.93) |
| India | $300 | $19.95 ($7.75–$42.53) |
| Spain | $500 | $18.51 ($8.61–$40.77) |
| Italy | $429 | $17.43 ($6.54–$49.65) |
| Mexico † | $500 | $15.59 ($4.86–$51.25) |
| South Korea | $400 | $13.63 ($3.65–$38.15) |
| Türkiye | $400 | $8.92 ($3.37–$21.39) |
| Brazil | $400 | $6.12 ($2.19–$19.74) |
Agreed fee per collaboration, all platforms, USD; † rests on only a few brands1.
Grouped by niche (each creator’s main content category), art and creative ($13.25) and entertainment ($12.04) creators were the cheapest per 1,000 average views, and auto ($47.90) and shopping and deals ($54.57) creators the most expensive; lifestyle sat at $17.91, beauty at $20.47 and tech at $26.411.
Why published CPM benchmarks disagree
Published influencer CPM benchmarks are mostly planning estimates, not measured deals, and they differ in what they divide by.
| Source | What it publishes | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Kolect (this report) | Realized median $15.46; TikTok $6.73, Instagram $17.96, YouTube $74.24 (30 days) | Measured fees and views from managed campaigns1 |
| IQFluence (31 Aug 2026) | “Roughly $10–$50” across platforms; TikTok $4–$12 for nano rising to $40–$95 for mega | Its own “indicative planning ranges”; defines CPM on impressions by default4 |
| Modash | Instagram Reels $15–$45, Stories $20–$50, TikTok $7–$25, YouTube integrations $15–$35, dedicated videos $50–$75+ | “Not based on a large quantitative study”, per 1,000 impressions3 |
The biggest disagreement is direction. IQFluence’s planning table has CPM rising with creator size on every platform4; in Kolect’s measured data the cost of 1,000 views falls with size on TikTok and Instagram1. A planning range that assumes mega creators are the costliest per view will steer budgets toward small creators for the wrong reason. The ranges agree with measured data in one place: TikTok sits at the cheap end and YouTube dedicated videos at the expensive end3 1.
Other reasons figures differ: the capture window (30 days here; YouTube keeps adding views2), averages against medians, and whether rights to run the post as an ad are inside the fee.
How to use CPM to price a creator
- Average the creator’s views over their last 12 posts, dropping the highest and lowest; Kolect’s benchmark trims 10% from each end1.
- Divide the quoted fee by that average, in thousands.
- Compare with the platform-and-tier figure above.
- If the quote is well above it, counter with the benchmark price (benchmark × average views ÷ 1,000) or choose a similar creator.
A hypothetical example: an Instagram creator with 80,000 followers averages 20,000 views per Reel and quotes $600. That is $30 per 1,000 average views, above the Instagram micro median of $21.69; at the median the fee would be about $434 ($21.69 × 20)1. The free influencer rate calculator runs this check from follower count and average views, and the engagement rate calculator checks the engagement side.
Influencer CPM and paid-social CPM measure different things. An ad CPM buys impressions in an auction; a creator fee also buys the video, which you can usually run as a Spark Ad or partnership ad afterward, so compare the two on the total cost of the views and the reusable creative together. Our ROI guide covers measuring results beyond views, and fees by platform and tier are in the influencer rates guide and the TikTok influencer rates guide.
To find creators whose views justify their fee, Kolect Creator Search refreshes each result’s followers and views before showing it and lists the creator’s matching videos, so you can compute CPM before you reach out.
Methodology
Source. Kolect’s managed-service operations database, which records each creator negotiation in Kolect-run campaigns, the accepted fee, the account handed to the brand, and the published posts with their metrics. Extracted read-only as aggregates on 15 October 2026; no brand, creator or single collaboration is published1.
Realized CPM. Creator fee × 1,000 ÷ views of the collaboration’s published posts, using the latest capture with views. Capture stops about 30 days after a post link is added, so this approximates first-month views and understates the lifetime views of long-form YouTube videos. Likes and comments per view are reported for TikTok and Instagram only1.
Price per 1,000 average views. Agreed fee × 1,000 ÷ the trimmed mean views of the creator’s latest 12 stored videos (10% trimmed from each end), reported as the median of per-collaboration ratios, not a ratio of medians1.
Window, tiers and currency. Partnerships created 19 August 2025 to 15 October 2026, over 95% of them in 2026, so no trend is claimed. Tiers use the account’s follower count as of September–October 2026. Non-USD fees converted at the ECB reference rate of 15 October 20261.
Cleaning and suppression. Test campaigns, test creators and fees under $20 or over $250,000 removed. Cells with fewer than 20 collaborations or fewer than 3 brands are not shown; † marks cells built on 3–4 brands1.
Limits. The brand mix is concentrated in consumer tech, home, DIY and lifestyle, and creators mostly in the US and Europe. Fees are what creators are paid, not what an agency charges a brand1.
