How Much Should You Charge for a Sponsored Post? A First Rate Card
Short answer: Price a sponsored post from your average views, not your follower count: multiply typical views per post by a per-view rate in the range brands commonly pay (a few cents per expected view for broad audiences, more for valuable niches), then sanity-check the result against your engagement rate — calculated with the standard formula — and adjust for usage rights, exclusivity and deliverables. Small creators typically land between $50 and $500 per post; the method matters more than the number, because a defensible method survives negotiation. The Influencer Pricing Calculator runs the arithmetic; this guide supplies the judgment around it.
The first sponsorship offer scrambles every creator's brain: accept too little and you have priced yourself for a year; ask too much and the silence feels like a verdict. The calm truth is that brands price sponsorships with formulas, not vibes — and once you know the formulas, you can build a rate card that sounds like what it is: a business document, not a guess with a dollar sign.
Start from average views, never followers
Followers are a vanity denominator: inactive, algorithm-starved, or from your viral outlier era. Brands with any experience ask for — and pay on — average views over your last 10–20 posts (median beats mean; one outlier inflates dishonestly). Multiply that by a per-view rate. Broad entertainment audiences transact at the low end (think cents per view in the low single digits); finance, software, B2B and other high-value audiences command several times more, because one converted viewer is worth more. The Cost Per View Calculator shows the brand's side of this math — the same number they compute about you — and the Sponsorship Rate Calculator builds the full estimate from your inputs.
The engagement multiplier
Two creators with equal views are not equal buys. An audience that comments, shares and saves is an audience that trusts, and trust is what converts. Brands therefore treat engagement rate as a quality adjuster on the per-view base: strong engagement (relative to your platform and size, per the context in What Is a Good Engagement Rate?) justifies the top of your range and sometimes a premium; weak engagement argues for the bottom, whatever the view count says. This is also why buying followers is commercial self-harm — the denominator grows, the rate craters, and experienced media buyers see it in one glance at the ratio.
Price the whole deliverable, not the post
A "post" is rarely just a post. Itemize what the fee covers, because each addition has a market value: usage rights (the brand running your content as their ad — commonly a significant uplift per month of use), exclusivity (you refusing competitor deals for a period — priced scarcity, never free), whitelisting (ads run through your handle), extra formats (a Story set, a pinned comment, a link in bio for a week), revisions, and rush timelines. Presenting a small menu — post only / post + stories / post + usage — converts a yes/no negotiation into a choice among yeses, and it is how professionals quote. For platform-specific starting points, the dedicated calculators adjust the base by surface: Instagram, TikTok.
A first rate card, assembled
Pull your last 15 posts' views and engagements. Compute the median views and your engagement rate. Run the pricing calculator at your niche's per-view band; take the middle result as your anchor rate for a standard post. Add 25–50% for a month of usage rights, a meaningful premium for category exclusivity, and a story/add-on line. Write it as a one-page card with your audience demographics (country mix matters enormously — the same audience arithmetic as YouTube's RPM factors), two or three past results if you have them, and your contact. Then — hardest part — quote it without apologizing. Brands negotiate against weakness, not against numbers; a method-backed rate can flex 15% and stay respectable, while a made-up one collapses at the first pushback. Finally, track every deal's effective cost-per-view and ROI for the brand with the ROI Calculator: nothing renews a sponsorship like a creator who reports the brand's return for them.
When they say "there's no budget"
It will happen: a brand wants the post, admires the rate card, and pleads poverty. Three responses, in order of preference. Reduce scope, not price: one Story instead of a post, no usage rights, shorter exclusivity — the rate survives, the package shrinks. Trade for measurable value: their product plus a performance bonus per sale via your affiliate link, quantified with the Cost Per Engagement Calculator after the fact. Walk away politely, leaving the card and the door open — "no budget" brands frequently return with one next quarter, and they return to the creator who priced like a business. What never works twice is discounting the identical deliverable: you have not won a client, you have published a lower price list.
Sources and further reading
The platform rules and program details in this guide can be checked against the primary sources: YouTube Help: paid product placements and endorsements and TikTok Creator Portal. Platform policies change over time — if a detail here ever disagrees with an official page, the official page wins.
Frequently asked questions
Should I post my rates publicly?
Opinions split. A public card filters out lowballers and saves everyone time; a private card preserves negotiating room as you grow. A workable middle: publish a "partnerships start at" figure and quote specifics per brief.
A brand offers free product instead of money — ever worth it?
Only when the product genuinely replaces spending, the audience fit is real, and you are at the stage where the portfolio piece is worth more than the fee — a stage shorter than brands hope. Product has no rate card value; it does not compound, and it cannot be quoted to the next brand. Decline politely with your card attached.
How often should I raise my rates?
Recompute whenever your average views move materially — roughly quarterly for growing channels, and always after a format or niche change. Rates are a snapshot of an audience; let them expire like one.