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What creators actually get paid.
The bands, the calculator and the PDF. None of it behind a call.
Everything free, in one place
Start with whichever question brought you here.
The 2026 bands by follower count, the multipliers, and what usage adds on top. For when a brand has asked your rate and you have no idea what to say back.
The same maths, done for you: a range to quote and a floor to hold. Nothing saved, no email.
The brand’s side of a creator booking. What happens to your email, in what order, and how fast, from six years of being the person who opened them.
What gets a media kit read and what gets a pitch answered, from six years of opening them and forwarding very few. For when you have a rate and need a reply.
An offer is already on the table. You get the band that work sits in, how the offer compares, and the reply to send back.
Rates, answered
The questions creators send me most.
How much should I charge as a micro influencer?
At 10K to 50K followers, the cross-category band for a single Instagram feed post is roughly $350 to $1,400 in 2026, and a Reel runs about 1.35 times that. That is what the market supports, not a guarantee of what any brand will pay you.
“My last ten Reels averaged 90K views against 30K followers” is a reason to quote the top of the band. “That’s my rate” is not.
Is a gifted collaboration ever worth taking?
Sometimes. Early on, a gifted campaign with a name brand can be worth doing. Once you have three or four of those, the argument stops working.
Gifted is still work, so agree deliverables and usage in writing. In most countries the value of the product is taxable income. Check that with an accountant, not with me.
What are usage rights, and why do they matter so much?
Usage rights are the brand’s permission to use your content somewhere other than your own grid: paid ads, their website, email, in-store, print. It is a second thing you are selling, priced separately.
Watch for “perpetual, worldwide, all media, in all formats now known or hereafter devised.” Ask for a term instead, and price it.
Should I put my rates on my media kit?
Yes. “Rates on request” costs you an email and signals that you are working it out on the spot. Whoever names the first number sets the frame.
Put a starting-from figure by deliverable and add a line saying rates vary with usage and exclusivity.
A brand offered less than my rate. Do I take it?
What is the usage, and is there more work behind it? A lower fee for organic-only with a real prospect of a retainer can beat a higher one-off with perpetual rights attached.
If you come down, get something for it: fewer deliverables, shorter usage, a credit, an introduction.
How often should I put my rates up?
When the evidence changes, not on a schedule: a jump in average views, a campaign that measurably converted, a shift into a category that pays better.
Recalculate after every third campaign. Most creators are quoting a number they set eighteen months and forty thousand followers ago.
The list
What brands are actually paying.
Rate breakdowns, pitch teardowns, and when a brand comes to me looking for creators, that goes out here first. The free guide arrives the moment you sign up.
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