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How many followers you need on Instagram to get paid

By Sydney Bradley and Shriya Bhattacharya
Tess Barclay
Tess Barclay is a nano influencer based in Canada who posts lifestyle content. Tess Barclay
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With a few thousand followers on Instagram these days, it's easy to ask yourself: When can I start making money?

The good news is, there's no strict minimum.

Many Instagram influencers get paid with less than 10,000 followers. Seven influencers Insider previously interviewed, all with under that amount, said they got made money from brands to post to their small audiences.

For instance, Tess Barclay, a Toronto-based nano influencer who creates lifestyle content, started earning money with a few thousand Instagram followers. She told Insider that she charges brands upwards of $154 for an in-feed Instagram post.

"I always thought you needed a million followers, or a hundred thousand followers, to make money on social media," Barclay told Insider. "But that's really not true. There are so many ways that you can make it a business, even if it is part-time."

Read more about how how Barclay makes money as a nano influencer and the media kit she uses

Instagram is also directly paying some influencers through incentive programs like "Bonuses" for Reels. Some Instagram monetization features like "Badges," Instagram's tipping tool for IG Live, require that creators have at least 10,000 followers. Many of these programs also are limited to certain countries, have an age minimum of 18, and require accounts to be registered as business or creator accounts on the app. 

While the doors have opened for many more creators on Instagram to start making a living, often they don't start making full-time incomes immediately (although a fair number of micro influencers with under 100,000 followers work full-time as influencers). 

Read how 19 content creators turned their social-media side hustles into full-time jobs

Meanwhile, may other influencers start making money by earning a commission from sales via affiliate marketing. 

Check out 7 top brands that work with micro influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and more

Today, Instagram influencers no longer need hundreds of thousands of followers to start earning cash.

Here are a few reasons why:

  1. "Nano" and "micro" influencers (who typically have followings of up to 100,000) are being hired by many brands across industries. These smaller influencers have demonstrated the power of niche and engaged communities on Instagram, where fake followers and disproportional engagement have flooded the platform. Influencers can earn hundreds to thousands of dollars from these deals. 
  2. Meta-owned Instagram opened its multibillion-dollar wallet and paid influencers, which it announced in 2021 with a flashy $1 billion investment into content creators through last year. The platform also introduced a creator-brand marketplace for sponsorships in 2022.
  3. Affiliate links are easier than ever to share now that Instagram widely rolled out the link sticker in 2021. Some affiliate programs do have their own requirements, however, such as LTK or ShopStyle.

So, how much money are these influencers making on Instagram?

Insider interviewed over two dozen Instagrammers about how much money they make, with follower counts from 2,000 to over 250,000.

Here's a full breakdown of our coverage:

From brand deals:

From Meta Platforms, including Instagram:

Read more: Instagram is shutting down its native affiliate-marketing program after more than a year of testing

A popular strategy that many influencers employ to land lucrative paid opportunities with brands is to create a media kit, which is a document showcasing the potential value an influencer can bring to a company. This usually includes a short biography, social-media engagement analytics, past collaborations, and any other relevant information. Most influencers have a template they use, which they customize according to the brand they're reaching out to.

Here are media kits influencers on Instagram have used to successfully land brand deals:

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Sydney Bradley brown hair denim vest slightly smiles
Sydney Bradley
Sydney Bradley has been covering media and tech for Business Insider since 2020. She breaks news and writes extensively about Instagram and Facebook, as well as new social media startups, dating apps, the creator economy, venture capital, and tech culture.She regularly contributes to BI's "After Hours" series, where our reporters dive into the social scenes shaping tech, media, and finance.Sydney's reporting on Instagram was nominated as a finalist for the 2021 Los Angeles Press Club National Entertainment Journalism Awards.She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in American Studies. You can follow Sydney's work on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram at @sydneykbradley.Have a tip? You can also contact her via encrypted messaging app Signal (@sydneykbradley.123), encrypted email (sydneykbradley@proton.me), or standard email (sbradley@bjinnox.com). Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
Shriya Bhattacharya
Shriya Bhattacharya
Shriya Bhattacharya was formerly a journalist at Business Insider reporting on the creator economy from a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. She wrote about how the biggest social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat can be more inclusive, and regularly profiled BIPOC influencers and startup founders on how they're building lucrative businesses. You can follow her work on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Threads. Shriya wrote dozens of articles for publications like Teen Vogue, Prism, and Ms. Magazine. Before pursuing journalism, she worked for the United Nations Foundation's global sexual and reproductive health initiative in Washington D.C.Shriya graduated magna cum laude from Agnes Scott College with a B.A. in international relations and dance. Currently based in New York City, she's also lived in India and Belgium and has traveled to 19 other countries.Prominent stories: