How much should you charge for a sponsored post?

If you've ever stared at a brand's "what's your rate?" email with no idea what to type back, you're not alone. Pricing is the part of being a creator nobody teaches you, and getting it wrong costs real money in both directions: quote too low and you've set a number that follows you into every future deal, quote too high with nothing to back it up and you never hear from them again.

Here's how to actually think about it, from the baseline everyone starts with to the parts that matter far more.

Start with the follower baseline, then stop trusting it

The oldest rule of thumb is $100 per 10,000 followers for a single in-feed post, roughly one cent per follower:

Followers	Rough baseline
5,000	$50 to $100
25,000	$250
100,000	$1,000
500,000	$5,000

Use it as a sanity check and nothing more. It's a floor for a basic in-feed post, and it ignores almost everything that actually makes you valuable to a brand. Plenty of creators with 8,000 engaged followers out-earn creators with 80,000 passive ones.

The reason the rule survives is that it gives both sides a starting point. The reason it's wrong is that brands aren't buying followers. They're buying outcomes.

The four things that move your rate more than follower count

Engagement, and specifically the right kind

A creator with 10,000 followers and 8% engagement is worth more than one with 50,000 and 1%. But not all engagement is equal, and this is where a lot of creators undersell themselves.

Likes are the weakest signal. Saves and shares are the strongest, because a save means someone intends to act later and a share means they'll put their own reputation behind it. Comments sit in between, and a comment that's a real sentence is worth more than an emoji.

If your saves and shares are strong, say so explicitly in the pitch. Most creators only quote followers and engagement rate, so a number nobody else is offering makes you easier to say yes to.

Your niche, because the audience behind the follow has a value

A finance, B2B, software or health audience is worth substantially more per follower than a general lifestyle one, because the customers behind those follows are worth more to advertisers. A software company might pay hundreds of dollars to acquire one customer. A snack brand might pay two.

You're not being greedy by charging more in an expensive niche. You're pricing in line with what your audience is worth to the person buying.

Median views, not your best post

This is the number most worth knowing about yourself, and most creators can't say it.

Your best-performing post is not representative, and a brand that's seen it will be disappointed by what they actually get. Your median views across your recent posts is what you can honestly promise, and it's the number a sophisticated brand will ask for.

Work it out: list the view counts of your last 10 to 20 posts on the platform in question, sort them, take the middle one. That's your number. Quoting it, rather than your best, is how you build the reputation that gets you repeat work.

What they're actually asking for

"One TikTok" and "one TikTok, three stories, usage rights for six months, and exclusivity in your category" are completely different jobs. Price each piece separately or you'll accidentally give away the expensive parts for free.

The add-ons, and roughly what they're worth

These are the line items creators most often forget to charge for.

Usage rights. The brand wants to reuse your content on their own channels. Commonly adds 25% to 50% depending on how long and where. Perpetual rights, meaning forever, should cost considerably more, because you're selling something you can never get back.

Paid amplification or whitelisting. They want to run your content as an ad from their account or yours. This is a bigger deal than usage rights and typically commands more, because your face is now in a paid campaign at a scale you don't control.

Exclusivity. You agree not to work with competitors for a set period. Price this by what it costs you: if you'd normally do three deals in that category over six months, exclusivity for six months costs you two of them.

Extra platforms. Cross-posting the same asset is cheap for you but valuable to them. Charge for it, just less than the original.

Rush timelines. Anything under a week disrupts everything else you had planned. A rush fee of 20% to 30% is normal and brands expect it.

Revisions. Include one or two rounds, then charge. Without a cap, "one more small change" becomes six weeks.

Put it together

Base rate (from median views and engagement, adjusted for niche) + usage rights + exclusivity + extra deliverables + rush = your quote

Then round up. Brands expect to negotiate down, so never lead with your rock-bottom number. If your honest floor is $800, quote $1,000 and you have somewhere to move.

What to actually say in the email

Don't apologise, don't over-explain, and don't lead with a discount nobody asked for.

Thanks for reaching out, this sounds like a good fit.

For one in-feed Reel plus two stories, my rate is $1,200. That includes one round of revisions and 30 days of organic usage on your channels.

If you'd like paid usage or a longer licence, I can put together a quote for that too. My recent Reels average around 42,000 views with a 6.4% engagement rate.

Happy to jump on a call if that's easier.

Three things that email does: it gives a specific number, it says exactly what's included so scope can't quietly expand, and it backs the price with a real figure. That's the whole job.

The mistakes that cost the most

Quoting before you know the deliverables. Always ask what they need first. A number given before you know the scope is a number you'll regret.

Forgetting usage rights. This is the single most commonly given-away asset in creator deals. If they're running it as an ad, that's not the post you quoted for.

Charging per post instead of per campaign. Brands often prefer a campaign rate, and it usually works out better for you because it bundles the parts you'd otherwise underprice.

Not writing it down. A rate agreed in a DM is not a contract. Get the scope, the fee, the usage terms and the payment timeline in writing before you shoot anything.

Dropping your rate to win one deal. Whatever you charge this brand is what they'll expect next time, and what they'll tell other brands you cost.

Working out your own number

If you want to do this properly rather than guessing, three things make it much easier:

1. Know your median views per platform, updated every couple of months.
2. Keep a record of what you've charged and what was included, so you're not reinventing your rate every time.
3. Have a rate card, even a private one, so the answer to "what's your rate?" takes thirty seconds rather than three days of anxiety.

Vantr works out your median views from your connected accounts and builds a rate card from them, and it keeps the deals, the deliverables and the invoices attached to each brand so your history is actually somewhere you can find it. It's free to start if that's useful. If you'd rather do it in a spreadsheet, do it in a spreadsheet. The number matters far more than where you keep it.