A brand emails you. They want a sponsored reel, a few stories, and "possibly some usage rights." They ask for your rate.
You feel that familiar knot...
"Am I really worth that much?"
"Am I charging too much?"
"What if they ghost me?"
You run some mental math. You ask a friend. You look at a rate card from 2022 that doesn't account for your platform, your niche, or anything specific about this deal. You send a number that feels like a guess, and you hope for the best.
This guide explains how to price a brand deal properly. You'll learn all the variables that move the number, how they interact, and how to arrive at a rate you can actually defend.
Quick answer: For a mid-tier creator (50K–500K followers), a single sponsored Reel typically runs $1,000–$5,000 before add-ons. Add usage rights, exclusivity, and platform fees — line items most brands bundle into vague language like "some usage" — and the real number is often $1,500–$8,000+ on the same deal. The rest of this guide shows you how to get to a specific, defensible number for yours.
Rate Ranges by Follower Tier
Before diving into the variables, here's a directional baseline. These are typical ranges for common deliverables in the US market — a starting point before engagement rate, niche, and add-ons are factored in.
| Creator Tier | Followers | IG Reel | IG Stories (3-pack) | TikTok Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano | 1K–10K | $100–$300 | $50–$100 | $100–$250 |
| Micro | 10K–50K | $300–$1,000 | $100–$300 | $250–$750 |
| Mid-tier | 50K–200K | $1,000–$5,000 | $300–$1,000 | $750–$3,000 |
| Macro | 200K–1M | $5,000–$20,000 | $1,000–$4,000 | $3,000–$15,000 |
| Mega | 1M+ | $20,000+ | $4,000+ | $15,000+ |
These are floors and ceilings, not fixed prices. A mid-tier creator in personal finance or B2B will typically land at the higher end of their tier. A nano creator with 8% engagement and a highly targeted niche can often justify rates above the ceiling. A macro creator in a saturated vertical may see more resistance at the top end.
Add-ons are not included in this table. Usage rights, exclusivity, whitelisting, and other line items are priced separately on top of the deliverable base — and they frequently add 50–150% to the total.
See what these numbers look like for your specific deal →
What Goes Into the Price
Every brand deal price is built from two layers: deliverables and add-ons.
Deliverables are the content you're creating. Each has a base rate:
- Instagram Reel: your highest-value Instagram deliverable
- Instagram Stories (3-pack): typically 25–40% of your Reel rate
- TikTok Video: comparable to a Reel, sometimes higher depending on your TikTok audience
- YouTube Integration (60-second mid-roll): often 3–5× your Reel rate
- UGC (usage-only, no posting): 50–70% of your Reel rate, since you're not deploying your audience
Add-ons are what most creators forget to charge for. They attach to deliverables and can meaningfully change the total:
- Usage rights — permission to run your content in ads or on brand channels
- Exclusivity — agreeing not to work with competitors for a set period
- Whitelisting — permission to run paid ads directly from your account
- Rush turnaround — standard is 2–3 weeks; faster costs more
- Link in bio — a dedicated slot in your bio for the brand's link
Each of these is a separate line item. Most brands bundle them into a vague "usage" clause that, if you accept without pricing it, means you've given them significant value for free.
Speaking with brand owners, many of them will admit that things like usage rights and ad boosting are immensely valuable to them. But because they are often pitched as an afterthought, content creators underprice themselves heavily.
Here's the secret: brands know this. Agencies know this. Many of them know that the real value is in the usage rights, and that content creators — especially those without an agent — often don't know how much value they're giving away.
Platform Rates: Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
Not all platforms price the same, and the differences matter more than most creators realize.
Instagram remains the benchmark. Reels are the premium deliverable. Stories are sold as a bundle (typically 3–5 slides) at 25–40% of your Reel rate. Feed posts have declined in brand budget priority versus Reels, but still command 70–90% of your Reel rate for polished static content. If a brand asks for both a Reel and a feed post, price them as separate line items.
TikTok is roughly equivalent to Instagram Reels for most mid-tier creators — sometimes higher if your TikTok audience is particularly engaged or skews younger. The critical difference is Spark Code access. When a brand asks for a Spark Code, they're requesting the ability to run your TikTok as a paid ad from their ad account. That's whitelisting, and it should be priced as a separate add-on on top of the video rate.
When a brand asks for both a TikTok video and an Instagram Reel, the default assumption is one piece of content cross-posted — not two original productions. Price the higher-value platform at full rate and the second as a cross-post at roughly 50%. Only price both at full rate if the brand explicitly asks for separate creative.
YouTube commands significantly higher rates than short-form platforms. A 60-second mid-roll integration typically runs 3–5× your Instagram Reel rate — YouTube's longer content lifespan and search discoverability are part of what the brand is paying for. YouTube Shorts are priced comparably to Reels.
The Variables Creators Miss
Engagement rate
Your follower count is the headline. It gets your foot in the door. Your engagement rate is what actually sells the deal. A creator with 80K followers and a 6% engagement rate will often command higher rates than one with 200K followers and a 1.2% rate — because brands know the difference.
Calculate yours: add up your average likes and comments over your last 12 posts, divide by follower count, multiply by 100. If you're above 3% on Instagram, you have pricing power. Above 5%, use it.
Brand size and budget signals
A DTC skincare startup has a different budget than a Fortune 500 beauty brand. A wellness supplement company operates with different margins than a luxury fashion house. These differences are real and should absolutely affect your rate — you're not arbitrarily charging more, you're pricing relative to the value your audience delivers to their specific budget and objective.
Pay attention to: Is this a global brand or a local one? Is it a product launch or an always-on campaign? Do they mention "usage" or "repurposing" anywhere in their first email? That almost always means they want ad rights, whether or not they say so directly.
Usage rights duration
This is the most common undercharge in brand deals. Usage rights let the brand repurpose your content in their own paid advertising. That's not included in your content creation fee — it's a separate license.
Standard brackets: 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months. Pricing scales nonlinearly — 3 months is not three times your 1-month rate. A common structure:
- 1 month: 1× your monthly usage rate
- 3 months: ~1.3×
- 6 months: ~1.75×
- 12 months: ~2.25×
A Real Example Breakdown
Say you're a lifestyle creator with 100K Instagram followers, 4.2% engagement, and a base Reel rate of $1,500.
A brand emails asking for:
- 1 sponsored Reel
- 3 Instagram Stories
- 30-day usage rights for paid social
- 14-day exclusivity in the wellness category
Here's how that prices out:
| Line Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Instagram Reel (1×) | $1,500 |
| Instagram Stories (3×) | $500 |
| Usage rights (30 days, paid social) | $750 |
| Exclusivity (14 days, category) | $300 |
| Total | $3,050 |
Without the add-ons, you'd have quoted $2,000. You just left $1,050 on the table — for deliverables you were going to give them anyway.
This is why having a system matters. Every add-on has a legitimate value. Brands expect to negotiate line items — but they can only push back on things you've named. If you don't name them, you don't get paid for them.
Get a full breakdown for your deal in 2 minutes →
How to Calculate Your Base Rate
The math above is doable by hand, but it requires you to hold a lot of variables simultaneously — and it's easy to miss something or miscalculate an add-on. Here are the three methods creators most commonly use.
The percentage-of-followers method. Take your follower count, divide by 1,000, and multiply by $10–$30. This gives a rough starting floor for your base Reel rate. It's a quick sanity check, not a final number — it doesn't account for engagement, niche, or add-ons.
The CPM method. Take your typical impressions per post, divide by 1,000, and multiply by your CPM. Mid-tier Instagram creators typically see $15–$50 CPM depending on niche and engagement. This works well when a brand asks for performance-based justification.
The rate-card method. Set a fixed base rate for each deliverable type, then price add-ons as a percentage of the base. This is the most consistent and defensible approach — it's what professional creators and agents use, and it's the approach Selah is built around. You set your rates once, and they apply to every deal without starting from scratch.
Selah takes this method further by automatically parsing the brand's email, detecting usage rights language, applying your saved base rates, and returning a total with a bullet-point breakdown you can paste straight into your reply. Under two minutes. The output is specific enough to defend, not a range you have to justify.
How to Negotiate After You Quote
Quoting confidently is half the job. The other half is knowing how to respond when a brand comes back under your number.
The most important thing: a brand asking you to come down is not a rejection. It's an opening move. Counter-offers are expected — agencies often have internal processes that require them to negotiate regardless of whether they intend to pay full rate.
A strong counter names the specific line item the brand is objecting to, explains the value briefly, and offers a trade rather than a straight discount. Drop the exclusivity window before you drop the usage rights. Reduce the deliverable count before you reduce the ad boosting access. The line items that protect your content's ongoing commercial value are the last ones you should flex on.
For scripts and full strategy, see the negotiation playbook →
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should I charge for my first brand deal?
Use your follower count and engagement rate as anchors. A nano creator (1K–10K) with solid engagement typically starts at $100–$300 for a sponsored post. A micro creator (10K–50K) can often command $300–$1,000. Don't price at zero or accept gifted-only deals as a rule — your content has value from your first post. A first deal with a real rate is worth more for your long-term positioning than free product with no paper trail.
How do I know if a brand's offer is too low?
Compare it to your deliverable baseline plus any add-ons they've mentioned or implied. Brands frequently omit usage rights from their opening number, hoping you won't price them separately. If the email includes phrases like "some usage," "for our channels," "repurposing," or "for ads," those are add-ons that belong on the invoice. If a brand's flat offer doesn't account for those line items, the offer is almost certainly underpriced — even if the number sounds reasonable on its face.
Should I charge different rates for different brands?
Yes. Brand size, market presence, and campaign type should all affect your rate. A global brand running an always-on paid media campaign is not the same client as a small DTC startup on their first influencer test. You're not arbitrarily charging more — you're pricing relative to the value your audience delivers to their specific objective. A well-funded brand with an explicit paid ads strategy gets significantly more value from your usage rights than a small brand posting organically. Price accordingly.
What percentage should I charge for usage rights?
Paid usage rights — where the brand runs ads using your content from their own account — typically run 50–100% of your primary deliverable rate per month. Whitelisting, where the brand runs ads directly from your account, typically runs 75–125% per month. Organic usage (reposts, website, newsletters) runs 15–30% per month. These are applied as a monthly rate and then discounted for longer brackets — 3 months is roughly 1.3× the monthly rate, not 3×. For the full breakdown, see the usage rights pricing guide.
How long does it take to price a brand deal accurately?
By hand, accounting for deliverables, engagement rate, brand tier, usage rights, exclusivity, and platform mix, it typically takes 20–40 minutes the first few times. With a saved rate card and a calculator, under 5 minutes. With Selah, under 2 minutes — paste the brand's email, get a complete line-item breakdown with bullet points you can paste directly into your reply.
The best deal you'll ever negotiate is the one where you already know your number before the brand does. Stop guessing. Set your rates once. Use them every time.