How to make a creator rate card (and when to share it)

A brand emails you asking "what are your rates?" and you freeze. You don't want to go too high and scare them off, or too low and regret it for the next year. So you spend three days drafting a reply.

A rate card fixes that. It's a single page, private or shared, that lists what you make and what it costs. Once you have one, answering a rate question takes thirty seconds, your pricing stays consistent from brand to brand, and you stop quietly giving away the expensive extras.

Here's how to build one, and when to actually send it.

What a rate card is (and isn't)

A rate card is a menu of your standard deliverables and their prices, plus the add-ons that change the price.

It isn't:

• A final quote. Every deal still gets a specific quote based on the actual brief.
• Your creator profile. Your profile (sometimes called a media kit) shows who your audience is and how your content performs. The rate card shows prices. Many creators keep them as two separate documents, for reasons covered below.
• A promise to accept every deal at those prices. You can always decline, or quote higher for a brand or a brief that's more work than usual.

What goes on it

Keep it to one page. A good rate card includes:

1. Your name, handle and main platforms
2. A short line about your audience (who they are, not just how many)
3. Individual deliverables and prices, grouped by platform
4. Bundles or packages
5. Add-ons: usage rights, paid amplification, exclusivity, rush, extra revisions
6. What's included by default (revision rounds, organic usage period)
7. Your standard payment terms (for example, 50% upfront)
8. A "valid until" date, so an old version can't come back to bite you
9. Contact details

Step 1: work out your base rate

Your base rate is the price of your simplest standard deliverable on your main platform, usually one in-feed post, Reel, TikTok or short video. Everything else on the card is priced relative to it.

A few ways to anchor it:

The follower rule of thumb. The oldest starting point is roughly $100 per 10,000 followers for a single post. It's a sanity check, not a price, because it ignores engagement, niche and actual views.

Median views. A more honest anchor is your median views on that platform. List the views on your last 10 to 20 posts, sort them, and take the middle one. Brands increasingly price on what you'll realistically deliver, and median views are that number. Your best post isn't.

CPM (cost per thousand views). Some creators price as a rate per thousand median views. Rates vary widely by niche and platform, so pick a CPM you're comfortable defending and multiply. Say your median is 20,000 views and you work with a CPM of 25 USD: that's a base of 500 USD for one video.

What you've been paid before. If you've done deals, your past rates are real market data for you specifically. If they were happily accepted without negotiation, you were probably underpriced.

Then adjust for:

• Niche: finance, software, health and B2B audiences tend to command more per view than general lifestyle ones.
• Engagement quality: strong saves, shares and real comments justify a higher price.
• Production effort: a heavily produced piece takes longer and should cost more than a quick talking-to-camera clip.

Step 2: price each deliverable

Once you have a base, price the rest relative to it. Here's a common way to think about the different formats. The multipliers are rough starting points, so adjust them based on your own numbers and how long each one takes you.

Deliverable	How to think about the price
Short video (Reel, TikTok, Short)	Often your base rate
In-feed photo or carousel	Often a bit lower than a video, unless carousels are your strongest format
Story set (3 to 5 frames)	A fraction of your base, since stories disappear and reach is usually lower
Long-form YouTube integration (60 to 90 seconds)	Priced on your long-form median views, often well above short-form
Dedicated long-form video	Several times an integration, since the whole video is about the product
Newsletter mention	Priced on subscribers and open rates
Livestream appearance	Priced by time and audience, with prep time included
Cross-post to a second platform	Less than the original, but never free

Price each platform on its own numbers. If your TikToks get a median of 40,000 views and your Instagram Reels get 8,000, they shouldn't cost the same.

Step 3: build bundles

Bundles make it easy for a brand to say yes, and they're usually better for you than a pile of separate posts, because they turn a one-off into a small campaign.

A few common shapes:

• Starter bundle: one short video plus a story set
• Multi-platform bundle: the same short video posted on two or three platforms
• Campaign bundle: several videos over a month or two, with stories in between
• Launch bundle: a teaser, a main post and a follow-up

Give bundles a modest discount compared with buying each piece separately, a common starting point being somewhere around 10% to 15%. That rewards the brand for committing to more without undercutting your single-post price.

Step 4: list your add-ons

This is where most creators leave money on the table. The base price should cover the content and a short organic usage window. Anything beyond that is an add-on.

Add-on	What it covers	A common way to price it
Usage rights (organic)	Brand reposts your content on their channels, website or emails	Often 25% to 50% of the deliverable for a set period, more for longer
Paid usage or whitelisting	Brand runs your content as an ad, from their account or yours	Typically more than organic usage, priced per month
Exclusivity	You don't work with competitors for a set period	Priced by the deals it stops you taking
Rush fee	Turnaround under about a week	Often 20% to 30% on top
Extra revisions	Beyond the included rounds	A flat fee per round
Raw footage	Unedited files for the brand to cut themselves	A separate fee, since it lets them make new ads from your work
Link in bio or pinned post	Keeps the link or post prominent for longer	Priced per week or month

On the card, you can list add-ons as percentages ("usage rights: from 30% per 3 months") rather than fixed numbers, since they depend on the deliverable.

Step 5: state what's included

Put the defaults in writing so scope can't quietly expand:

• Revisions: for example, one round of revisions included
• Organic usage: for example, 30 days of organic reposting on the brand's own channels
• Deliverable timing: for example, content goes live within 3 weeks of brief approval
• Payment terms: for example, 50% upfront and balance on delivery

A sample rate card

Here's a hypothetical example for a creator with around 40,000 followers, strongest on TikTok, with a median of about 25,000 TikTok views and 10,000 Instagram Reel views. The numbers are illustrative only. Yours should come from your own audience and results.

Sam Rivers, @samcooksquick Quick weeknight recipes for busy people in their twenties and thirties. TikTok and Instagram.

Deliverable	Rate
TikTok video (30 to 60 seconds)	700 USD
Instagram Reel	400 USD
Instagram story set (3 frames, link sticker)	200 USD
Instagram carousel (up to 8 slides)	350 USD
Cross-post of a TikTok to Instagram Reels	200 USD

Bundle	Rate
TikTok plus story set	800 USD
TikTok plus Reel plus story set	1,100 USD
Monthly: 3 TikToks, 1 Reel, 2 story sets	2,700 USD

Add-on	Rate
Organic usage beyond 30 days	from 30% of the deliverable per 3 months
Paid usage or whitelisting	from 40% of the deliverable per month
Category exclusivity	quoted per deal
Rush (under 7 days)	plus 25%
Extra revision round	75 USD
Raw footage	quoted per deal

Included: one round of revisions, 30 days of organic usage on the brand's channels. Terms: 50% on signing, balance on delivery, payable within 15 days. Valid until: 31 December 2026.

Notice the bundles are cheaper than the parts but not dramatically, the add-ons are clearly separated, and the Reel is priced lower than the TikTok because the numbers behind it are lower.

When to send it, and when to keep it private

This is the part creators disagree on most. There's no single right answer, but here's a practical way to decide.

Send it when

• A brand asks for your rates directly and hasn't shared a budget or brief yet
• The brand is small or new to creator work, and a clear menu helps them understand what's possible
• You want to anchor the conversation on your prices rather than their budget
• The deal is simple and the brief matches something on your card

Keep it private when

• The brand has a clear brief that doesn't match your standard deliverables. Quote the brief specifically instead.
• The brand has shared a budget. Build a package around what they've got, instead of showing prices that may be above or below it.
• It's a large or complex campaign, where bundling, usage and exclusivity will all be negotiated.
• You suspect the brand would pay more. A published card caps you. A big brand might happily have paid double your listed rate.

Many creators use a hybrid: keep the full rate card private as their own pricing reference, and send a shorter "starting from" version or a custom quote. That way you're always consistent, but never locked into a public number.

Why keep your profile and rate card separate

Your creator profile is something you want circulating: it shows your audience and results. Your rate card is something you want to control. Keeping them separate means you can share your profile freely and only send prices once you know what a brand actually needs.

Keep it up to date

A rate card that's a year old is probably underpricing you. Review it:

• Every few months, when you check your median views
• After a big jump in audience or engagement
• When brands accept your quotes instantly without negotiating, which is a sign you're too cheap
• When your content format changes, for example if you move from short videos to long-form

Keeping a record of what you've actually charged, and what was included, makes each update easier. Vantr includes a rate card that suggests prices from your real median views, which is a useful starting point if you'd rather not work out the maths by hand.

Mistakes to avoid

Pricing everything off follower count. Views and engagement matter far more, and brands know it.

One price for every platform. Price each on its own results.

Bundling in usage rights for free. If your base rate quietly includes six months of paid usage, you've given away the most valuable part of the deal.

No expiry date. An old card with old prices will come back. Date every version.

Treating the card as non-negotiable. It's a starting point. Brands will negotiate, and you should expect it.

Leading with your lowest number. Your card should leave room to move. If your honest floor for a TikTok is 600 USD, list 700 USD.

Frequently asked questions

Should I put my rates on my website or in my bio?

Usually not. A public price caps you and invites every brand to start from that number. Most creators share rates privately, once they know what the brand wants.

What if I've never done a paid deal?

Use the median views and CPM approach to set a reasonable starting point, then adjust after your first few deals. Your early rates will change quickly as you learn what brands will pay.

Should my rate card include gifted collaborations?

You can add a line saying you consider gifted collaborations for products you'd genuinely use, with no guaranteed deliverables. Keep it clearly separate from paid work.

Do I need a different rate card for agencies?

Not necessarily, but agencies often need a margin, so they may push harder on price. Your card stays the same, and you decide deal by deal how much room you have.

The short version

Work out a base rate from your median views, price every deliverable and platform on its own numbers, add a few bundles with a modest discount, and list usage, paid amplification, exclusivity and rush as separate add-ons. Write down what's included and your payment terms, and date it. Then keep it as your private reference and send it when a clear menu helps, not by default. Update it every few months, and you'll never have to spend three days answering "what are your rates?" again.