Influencer Pricing: How Much Do Influencers Really Cost in 2025?

According to the 2025 Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmarking Report, 63.8% of businesses plan to work with influencers this year. This should come as no surprise when 69% of consumers are more likely to trust influencer recommendations over information coming directly from a brand.

Not only that, but influencer marketing is a $32 billion industry. This figure has more than tripled since 2020.

If that’s not a sign that influencer partnerships are going nowhere, I don’t know what is. With that in mind, you’re probably looking to create a budget for your own influencer marketing strategy. This is one of the major benefits of influencer marketing overall. You have the flexibility to choose services that fit your budget. To successfully do that, you need to know what influencers charge.

Throughout this article, we’re going to introduce you to influencer pricing across various factors like platform, follower count, package models, and more. Read on to gather all the data you need to create your influencer marketing budget.

 

Key Factors That Determine Influencer Rates

No two influencers price their services alike. This is because there are a number of factors at play when creators set their rates, so even if you see similar follower counts, that doesn’t necessarily mean their pricing is in the same range.

Learn more about what can impact an influencer’s rates.

Follower Count and Engagement Rate

Many brands put an emphasis on follower count when looking at which influencers to work with, and they think all influencers with that follower count (e.g., 50,000 followers) should have just about the same rate.

But an influencer’s following is only one piece of the puzzle. And in fact, an influencer can have 100,000 followers, but not be able to charge as much as an influencer with half that follower count due to how engaged their audience is.

So yes, follower count is a factor. But engagement rate also plays a big part. You don’t just want to project your business to a large group of people. You want to project it to a large group of engaged people.

Based on our agency’s experience the more expert and narrow related blog the influencer has the less his pricing is influenced by followers count.

— Michael M, Head of Influencer Marketing at Ninja Promo

Look at it like this. 

Influencer A has 100,000 followers, but only about 5,000 of them consistently interact with their content, watching their stories and commenting on their videos.

Influencer B only has 50,000 followers, but 25,000 of them are dedicated followers who like every post and read every word the influencer has to say.

Even though it may look like Influencer A would be the more valuable partnership, Influencer B’s loyal followers are going to be much more interested in posts about your business. Influencer B knows this, and charges accordingly.

Most influencer discovery platforms provide analytics like reach and engagement rate for each influencer’s average post so that you can look at more data than just followers before choosing who to partner with.

Platform-Specific Pricing (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.)

Different platforms are also going to yield different rates due to the difference in content creation. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok focus on short-form videos. But YouTube prioritizes long-form video content. So Instagram and TikTok creators are likely to have lower rates than a YouTube creator, simply due to the time, effort, and resources required to produce the content.

Check out the next section to discover pricing estimates for each platform so you can plan accordingly as you define an influencer budget.

Content Type (Stories, Posts, Reels, Videos)

Another major factor in price variations is the type of content you want to have created for your digital marketing campaign. It’s going to take a lot more time to put together an entire video than it will for a simple photograph of your product—and influencer pricing will reflect this.

And like we just mentioned, a quick video like an Instagram Reel or TikTok video will also cost less than a longer YouTube video. Part of what you’re paying for is the influencer’s time in creating promotional content, so content types that take longer to produce will naturally cost more.

Consider how you want your product or service to be received by the influencer’s audience. If a simple image will work well for your campaign, you can opt for the lower rate. But if the optimal content format for your product or service is video, you’ll want to invest accordingly.

Niche and Industry-Specific Influencer Rates

Influencers from different industries also charge different rates.

Lifestyle influencers are the most common type of influencer as they appeal to a larger audience and can promote nearly any type of product or service. This means it’s easier for them to build an engaged audience and there’s a lot of competition for brand partnerships, so their rates are on the lower end.

However, if your business is in finance, healthcare, or B2B, the influencers you’d want to partner with will likely have much higher rates. This is because they have to work a lot harder to attract an audience, their topic is much more specialized, and there’s less competition driving rates down.

It’s important to partner with an influencer that makes sense for your industry. If your business is in the financial sector, you’re going to get much better results working with an influencer who specializes in your industry and has a targeted audience that will be much more interested in your product or service than a lifestyle influencer—even if their rates are lower.

Location and Audience Demographics

Location and audience demographics also play a part in influencer pricing. For example, influencers with U.S. and European audiences tend to charge higher rates than influencers in developing markets.

Don’t be tempted by the lowest rate available if the influencer doesn’t actually have followers in your target audience. Pay attention to each potential partner’s audience demographics so you can find creators who align with your own target customer.

Influencer Pricing Breakdown by Platform

As we briefly mentioned, influencer rates can vary significantly across different social media platforms. Some factors impacting this include:

• How easy it is to build an engaged following on that platform
• The competition of influencers on that platform
• The production level of the content that goes on that platform
• The popularity of that platform in influencer marketing strategies

Below, we’re going to dig into influencer pricing by platform. Find each platform’s average rate, as well as how pricing can range based on follower count on each social media platform.

Instagram Influencer Pricing

Instagram is the top platform for influencer marketing with 57.1% of brands preferring that channel. 

Its pricing sits right around the mid-range of all platforms, which makes sense given both the demand for Instagram influencer partnerships and the saturation of the market.

Instagram influencer marketing pricing varies based on audience size and content type, with brands seeing cost differences for posts, stories, and reels. But the average Instagram influencer rate is $10 per post per 1,000 followers.

Keep in mind that those are the going rates for a standard Instagram post. Stories and reels have different values, with the cost of influencer marketing from lowest to highest going:

1. Stories (lowest)
2. Posts (middle)
3. Reels (highest)

Different creators use different formulas for setting their prices for each different content type. Some examples we found include:

• One Reddit user states a good rule of thumb is for influencers to price a story at 50–70% of their post rate
• Another Reddit user uses the following formula for pricing: stories = X, posts = 1.3–1.5X, and reels = 1.5–2X
• Later’s Creator Rates Report found that many creators price reels at 1.5–2x their post rate

The Creator Rates Report also found that reels appear to be the most expensive type of content across the board, with nearly half (44%) of influencers charging at least $200 per reel.

Here’s a great example of an Instagram Reel used to share a brand collaboration:

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ashley DeMato-Cooney (@ashley_dcooney)

It’s a 75-second Reel, which means it probably cost somewhere on the upper end of the influencer’s content creation rates. Longer content tends to bring in a higher rate as it takes more time and effort to create.

The brand is added as a collaborator onto the post so that it appears on both the influencer and brand profiles, but the brand is also tagged within the caption to make it easy to find them no matter where the viewer is looking.

TikTok Influencer Pricing

With over 1 billion users, brands have a wide potential audience to reach on TikTok. More than that, 16,000 TikTok videos are uploaded each minute and over 5 billion total minutes will be spent on the app each day (the most of any platform).

So it makes sense that TikTok is the second most popular platform for influencer marketing, with 51.6% of marketers flocking to the site. However, because TikTok is still a newer platform, its influencer marketing rates aren’t quite as established or standardized.

As it stands, the average rate for a TikTok influencer is around $5–10 per 1,000 followers. Some influencers might make a much lower rate than they would on platforms like Instagram, while others make a lot more. 

For example, while 44% of Instagram influencers charge $200 or more per reel, only 28% of TikTokers can charge the same for essentially the same piece of content.

However, there are also a lot of TikTokers with millions of followers who have garnered their own level of celebrity without actually being celebrities, and many of them will rake in $10,000+ per video.

Let’s take a look at a TikTok influencer campaign. Fast fashion brand SHEIN partnered with this TikTok influencer to showcase different cozy outfits perfect for moms:

@thearndtfamilyThis year I decided to treat myself for Mother’s Day and got myself some new outfits from SHEIN! I went with cozy and comfy outfits that would be perfect for any Mother! You can shop SHEIN by searching QSCL5 and use Arndt15 for up to 15% off! #MomandMe #2025SHEIN #saveinstyle #SHEINforall #ad #SHEIN @SHEIN @SHEINUS♬ Ok I Like It – Milky Chance

The caption includes branded hashtags, a 15% off discount code, and tags to two different SHEIN TikTok accounts to make it easy for followers to find the brand and start making a purchase. 

It’s a clever video as well, because it’s not only showcasing the products on the website, but also how they look on a real person, helping potential buyers feel more confident in making their own purchases.

YouTube Influencer Pricing

Although platforms like TikTok may have a much higher engagement rate than YouTube, you’ll still see higher influencer marketing rates on this platform simply due to the level of production that goes into content creation. And it ranks third in influencer marketing popularity, with 36.7% of brands looking to YouTube creators as their partners.

Because YouTube focuses on high-quality, long-form video content, the average rate for a YouTube influencer is around $20 per 1,000 followers.

However, there are several different types of YouTube partnerships that can make this more or less expensive. For example, a product “haul” or “unboxing” (where influencers open multiple media packages from different brands in a single video) can be much more affordable than a dedicated sponsored video.

Here’s an example of an unboxing video that likely didn’t cost each brand much more than free product or a small fee:

X/Twitter Influencer Pricing

X/Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that has long been known for its small character limit. While basic users only get 280 characters per post, paid premium users do now get access to a full 25,000 characters.

Even so, X/Twitter is well known for its bite-sized pieces of content. An influencer’s X/Twitter post may be a text-only post, a multi-post thread, an image, or a video, though it’s best suited for short promotional messages.

Due to the nature of the X/Twitter feed, posts don’t have a long lifespan, so engagement tends to be much lower than other platforms. We can see in this data from Sprout Social Influencer Marketing that engagement rates are well below 1%, but that video content actually drastically outperforms other content types on the platform:

Influencer rates are much lower in response to this. In fact, the average rate for an X/Twitter influencer is around $2 per 1,000 followers. However, even on this platform, you should expect to pay more for a video post.

Here’s an example of what influencer content could look like on X/Twitter:

If your dog struggles with allergies too, WagWell’s Allergy and Itch Chews are packed with natural ingredients to help support a healthy immune system. (And yes, we made sure Cashew got some 😊) Use code WeRate20 for 20% off below! #adhttps://t.co/7NPr8mEpdD pic.twitter.com/X0WqswiiNF

— WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) May 6, 2025

Catered perfectly to its audience of dog people, this post includes a cute dog photo, a link to a relevant product, and a discount code to save money on their purchase.

Facebook Influencer Pricing

Although Facebook isn’t often used in influencer marketing (it’s reported just over 1 in 4 marketers prefer it), it can be harder to build an engaged audience, making it more valuable.

Because of this, the average rate for a Facebook influencer is around $20–25 per 1,000 followers.

Another reason that Facebook pricing may be one of the highest of the platforms is because Facebook influencers often use both pages and groups to promote their sponsored posts, helping to generate even more reach for their brand partners.

In addition, Facebook influencers cater to a more niche audience, similar to LinkedIn (which we cover next). Narrowing down your target audience is going to make the partnership cost leap up in value.

Here’s a great example of what a Facebook influencer campaign could look like:

The caption includes a direct link to the product website plus a promo code for the influencer’s followers to use for a small discount if they make a purchase. The influencer also tagged the brand directly, making it easier for viewers to find and follow them as well.

However, we can also see that engagement is low. While 40 reactions for a Facebook post is pretty good in general, it’s not much compared to her 737K followers—and just two comments leaves something to be desired.

But Facebook is a difficult platform to build an engaged audience on, so these results aren’t too far off the mark.

LinkedIn Influencer Pricing

LinkedIn influencers charge one of the highest rates on our list due to the nature of this partnership. B2B conversions tend to be worth more than B2C conversions, so the exposure and sales generated from B2B influencer marketing are much more valuable.

However, while LinkedIn influencer rates start high, they plateau earlier, with larger influencers charging roughly the same rate as they would on other platforms.

So with that in mind, the average rate for a LinkedIn influencer may range from $20–50 per 1,000 followers, with lower-level influencers charging closer to the higher end of that range, and bigger influencers charging closer to the lower end of that range.

Here’s a great example of influencer marketing on LinkedIn:

This post is so obviously catered to a professional audience, and the goal is simple: to increase downloads of the brand’s latest social media report. Which is a really easy ask of LinkedIn users.

Typically, the majority of clients interested in LinkedIn advertising are B2B brands with a focus on performance metrics such as sales, registrations or downloads. That’s why we consider this channel to be one of the most expensive, but also one of the most conversion-driven.

— Michael M, Head of Influencer Marketing at Ninja Promo

The above example shows that the featured brand knows exactly what a LinkedIn audience wants to see and how to use influencer marketing to increase reach to an even wider audience on the platform.

How Much Do Influencers Cost Based on Follower Count?

Influencer pricing scales based on an influencer’s follower count. Nano-influencers with just a couple thousand followers are going to have vastly lower prices than a celebrity-level creator.

However, just because someone has a million followers doesn’t necessarily mean that paying the big bucks to partner with them will get you the same ROI that working with a smaller influencer will. Sure, you’re probably going to generate bigger results working with a bigger account, but the cost of influencer marketing might not be worth it.

Let’s talk about the different levels of influencers across the board, what their pricing looks like, and what it might be like to work with each one.

Nano-Influencer Pricing (1K–10K Followers)

Nano-influencers are obviously going to be the most budget-friendly option. Most platforms average $10–20 per 1,000 followers, so nano-influencers average around $10–200 per post. Meaning you’re going to pay around $200 or less for each promoted nano-influencer post. Sounds pretty good for influencer rates, right?

Plus, as an added bonus, nano-influencers with smaller following tend to have a much more engaged audience. There might only be a few thousand followers, but a large percentage of those might actually be viewing and engaging with the influencer’s content. This means you’re going to see a high ROI with this type of partnership.

Nano-influencer rates also vary across platforms. Breakdown across the different social networks may be:

Micro-Influencer Pricing (10K–100K Followers)

Micro-influencers are the next tier of creator, with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. With micro-influencers, brands often get the best of both worlds—the ability to reach a wider audience while still hitting an engaged audience.

Another perk of micro-influencers is that they often accept free product as a part of their fee, making the monetary cost lower or even free. Otherwise, you can expect to see an average rate of $100–2,000 per post.

Broken down by platform, rates might look like:

Mid-Tier Influencer Pricing (100K–500K Followers)

Mid-tier influencers are where you’re going to start paying more, but you might see a little less engagement with your posts. However, this level of influencer provides a good mix of reach, to the tune of nearly half a million, as well as trustworthiness because they’re extremely well known in their niche.

The average rate for mid-tier influencers is $1,000–$10,000 per post. Broken down by platform, your influencer marketing costs will look a little like:

Macro-Influencer Pricing (500K–1M Followers)

Partnering with macro-influencers is a strategy that big brands who already have a large audience but want to reach even more new people should be chasing. This is because working with this type of influencer requires significant influencer marketing spend, but can provide significant results as well.

The average rate for macro-influencers ranges from $5,000–20,000. This spans across the different social media platforms like:

Celebrity & Mega-Influencer Pricing (1M+ Followers)

Finally, celebrity and mega-influencers give you access to millions of potential customers. But it costs tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach them. And, while reach might be massive, engagement rates tend to be lower.

Big brands who simply want to build brand awareness and stay top of mind should consider celebrity partnerships. These are less likely to offer immediate revenue ROI, but can help your brand start to become more of a household name.

The average rate for celebrity or mega-influencers is around $10,000–20,000+. Across social media platforms, this can look like:

Influencer Pricing Models: How Are Rates Calculated?

When you start a conversation with a new influencer about a potential partnership, you might find that each creator has their own pricing model that they use to calculate their rates.

For example, some might have fixed rates while others work on performance-based structures. Some might let you pay for each individual post while others offer packages with multiple post options.

Learn more about the different pricing models you might be faced with so you can decide what the best option for your brand would be.

Pay Per Post Model

The pay per post model is one of the most standard pricing models for influencers as it’s an easy way for them to quote partnerships and gauge steady income. The pricing we’ve covered across platforms and follower count are based on a pay per post pricing model.

If an influencer charges for each post they create, you’re typically looking at an average rate of $10–20 for each 1,000 followers for each post. So a promoted post from an influencer with 20,000 followers would cost an average of $200–400. Of course, this will also vary on the platform and type of post.

Cost Per Engagement (CPE) Model

With the cost per engagement (CPE) model, brands pay for each like, comment, or share that their promoted post receives. This provides a more flexible pricing structure that also helps you feel like you’re getting more bang for your buck. By only paying for results, you can get a clearer picture of the partnership’s ROI.

Some influencers might still have a base fee for content creation, then charge a certain amount for each different engagement their post generates.

Affiliate and Commission-Based Pricing

Affiliate or commission-based pricing means your influencer partner earns a percentage of each sale they bring in for your business. Your brand can set this up by providing each influencer with their own personalized tracking link. Then, you can set a percentage they earn from each sale, like 10% or 25%.

Again, influencers might set a base fee for promoting your brand, but you can lower this by increasing the commission they’d receive from each purchase made through their link. This model reduces risk for your brand, ensuring you’re only paying influencers when your business is generating revenue.

CPM (Cost Per Mille) and CPC (Cost Per Click)

CPM (referring to the cost per one thousand impressions) and CPC are two additional performance-based pricing models. With CPM, your brand would pay a set rate for each 1,000 impressions your post receives. With CPC, your brand would pay a set rate for each click.

Platforms like Instagram and TikTok could use a CPM pricing model, but because there are no links directly from posts, a CPC campaign wouldn’t make sense. But, you might choose a CPC model for platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook.

Package-Based Pricing

If you’re looking for more than just a single promotional post, the influencer you partner with may offer packages that make multiple posts a bit cheaper than a standard pay-per-post option.

For example, if you’re partnering with an influencer on Instagram that has 15,000 followers, their standard per post pricing might be $75 per story, $200 per post, and $500 per reel.

But if you’re interested in getting three stories, two posts, and one reel as part of your partnership, they might offer a package deal for $1,000 or so, rather than the $1,125 that everything adds up to, making the partnership more appealing.

Flat Rate vs. Performance-Based Pricing

So when should you be looking for a flat rate, like pay per post or package-based pricing versus performance-based models like CPC, CPM, or CPE?

Obviously, you’re always going to be looking for the most affordable option with the highest return, but it’s hard to know which one that will be before your promoted post gets published.

However, we tend to see that lower-tiered influencers have higher engagement rates. So working on a flat rate with smaller influencers may be the better option, while looking for performance-based rates from creators with a larger following can help you make sure you’re only paying for results.

When entering new markets, small brands should consider bartering with small influencers to reduce marketing costs and increase product awareness.

— Michael M, Head of Influencer Marketing at Ninja Promo

Long-Term Brand Partnerships and Retainer Deals

Sometimes it can be beneficial to create a long-term brand partnership—essentially creating brand ambassadors, or influencers who are the face of your product. For example, if you find a creator whose audience aligns perfectly with yours, it can make sense to create an ongoing collaboration.

In this instance, you’d likely operate on a retainer pricing model, where you’d set a monthly rate for a certain number of deliverables from the creator. Like $5,000 per month for 10 shoutouts and promotional pieces of content across the influencer’s social media platforms.

This can create a win-win situation for both parties. Because the influencer has a recurring monthly retainer they can count on, they’re more likely to offer a lower rate than their standard per-post or performance-based pricing.

Additional Costs in Influencer Marketing

With an influencer marketing partnership, you’ll need to budget for more than base collaboration fees. There may be additional expenses for other pieces of the partnership, like content creation, licensing fees, ads, and more.

Here are a few influencer marketing costs to keep in mind as you plan your overall budget.

Content Creation and Editing Fees

While some influencers might build content creation into their partnership fees, others will have this as an extra or require that your brand provide some assets to help boost their content’s quality. You’ll need to account for those additional production costs.

Usage Rights and Licensing Fees

Usage rights refer to how your brand is allowed to use the influencer-made content once the influencer marketing campaign is complete. Some influencers give you complete access to the content so you can repost it on your own social channels while others require you to pay additional licensing fees.

Negotiate content usage rights ahead of time so you know what you’re able to do with the content. Outline parameters like:

• What channels your brand can share the content on
• How long your brand can use the content
• How your brand can talk about the content
• Who actually owns the content (your brand or the influencer)

Working with influencers that require you to license the content can cause a big jump in price, so this may be something to look out for as you start the conversation with potential creators.

Paid Promotion and Boosting Fees

While influencer marketing can be a big way to boost reach in itself, promoting influencer posts can get your brand seen by even more people. Consider if paid ads will be a part of your strategy and how much you’ll need to budget for those.

However, sometimes it makes sense to work with lower-tier and more affordable influencers so that you can set some of your marketing budget aside for paid promotion of those influencer posts.

Agency and Influencer Management Fees

If you work with an influencer marketing agency or software platform to help you find and manage influencer relationships, there are going to be additional fees baked in. While taking the time to discover influencer partners you can work with directly is certainly cheaper, you have to consider the time it takes and the expertise that agencies can provide when deciding which route is better for your team.

For example, if you have an influencer marketing strategist on staff, cutting out the middleman (in this case, the agency or software) is likely always going to be the best option. But if you have a small team that doesn’t have the time or expertise to find the right creators, partnering with an agency can provide a better ROI, even with the additional upfront costs.

How to Calculate ROI in Influencer Marketing

To calculate your influencer marketing ROI, you first need to understand what your goals are when you collaborate with influencers. Do you want to boost brand awareness, increase engagement and conversation around your brand, or generate sales and revenue?

There are different metrics to track depending on what your overall goals are. You can use built-in analytics or third-party social media analytics tools to monitor these KPIs.

For example, if you’re looking to boost brand awareness or other brand marketing metrics you’ll want to track metrics like:

• Reach and impressions
• Follower count/growth
• Brand mentions on social media
• Website traffic

If increasing engagement is your goal, look to KPIs like:

• Likes, comments, and shares
• Post saves/bookmarks
• Cost per engagement

And if you’re hoping to generate sales through your influencer partnerships, pay attention to metrics like:

• Clicks
• Cost per click
• Add-to-carts
• Leads
• Sales

Sales of course already have a monetary value, making it easy to calculate your ROI if you’re looking at revenue generated. Otherwise, you’ll need to assign a value to what reach and engagement means for your brand as you measure influencer marketing results.

Then, you can use the following formula to calculate your influencer ROI:

ROI = (Total Revenue – Total Costs) / Total Costs x 100

So let’s say your influencer partnership cost $5,000. Through your influencer’s direct link you were able to recognize that they generated 200 sales of a $100 product, totalling $20,000 in sales.

Using the above formula, you calculate ($20,000 – $5,000) / $5,000 x 100 = an ROI of 300%, or generating $3 for every $1 spent. A Tomoson study found that on average, brands generate an average of $6.50 on every $1 spent on influencer marketing, so the ROI tends to be extremely positive.

Optimal Influencer Selection for Your Brand and Budget with Ninja Promo

Want to find the best influencers that can provide top ROI for your brand? Ninja Promo can help your brand discover the right creators based on your business goals. By looking at niche, audience, and budget, we’re able to offer the most effective influencer solutions for your business, no matter the size.