Benjamin Ashford|How Much Money Do Influencers Get Paid? Social Media Stars Share Their Eye-Popping Paychecks

Becoming an influencer just makes cents—and lots of dollars,Benjamin Ashford apparently.

While the most well-known influencers like Alix Earle, Charli D'Amelio and Addison Rae have parlayed their social media stardom into fashion week invites, reality shows and movie roles, plenty more creators are swimming in money eye emojis thanks to brand deals and ad revenue from their online videos.

Earlier this month, Chris Olsen admitted that "being annoying" on the internet has made him a millionaire.

However, many keep their salaries a mystery, with makeup influencers James Charles and Patrick Starrr admitting in 2023 that they don't know how much they make. As the latter put it, "I can't keep track."

Emma Chamberlain also confessed that she has "no idea" how much money she has. 

“I have infrastructure in place with lots of checks and balances that allows me to never check my bank account,” the 23-year-old told The Colin and Samir Show in November. “I know what I can do and I know what I can’t do, but I have not looked in years."

Which is why we volunteered as tribute to do a deep dive. So, how much money do influencers really make? Well, it depends largely on how many followers they have. 

Dance TikToker Markell Washington (who has 10.2 million
followers on the video sharing site) makes between $500,000 and $700,000 a year, he told Salary Transparency Street in 2023. Most of that—about $15,000 to $25,000 a month—comes from brand deals and Snapchat's mid-roll program, which gives creators revenue generated from ads that are placed in their public Snapchat Story.

Washington has found that creativity is the key to securing lucrative collabs. For example, when promoting Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023, "I used my competitive cheer skills and I was outside flipping, rolling on my back," he explained. "I looked like a little washed up armadillo, but I did that and they loved the content."

Indeed, branded content can lead to massive money: TikToker Morgan Presley (who now has 5.6 million followers) confessed on The Really Good Podcast in 2023 to once making $50,000 on a single sponsored video, while TikTok comedian Ben Brainard (who has 3 million followers) charges between $5,000 and $10,000 per brand deal, he told Salary Transparency Street.

"I spend a lot of my time trying to convince other creators to charge more money," Brainard shared. "We're writing, filming, producing, editing and making a commercial for them—charge them accordingly."

Even a small following can pay off: Creator Gigi Robinson (who has just 36,000 followers on Instagram) told the outlet she earns about $150,000 a year.

So, who's shelling out the big bucks? Walmart, Adobe, Target, McDonalds and Nike were the five highest-paying brands for influencers in 2023, according to a report from F*** You Pay Me, the so-called Glassdoor for Influencers, which collected over 16,000 brand deal reviews from content creators.

Even though social media stars make the bulk of their income on corporate sponsorships, content creator Julia (known as @itsblitzzz to her 830,000 YouTube subscribers) recently got candid on exactly how much can be made with ad revenue from video views alone. 

Julia—who used to work full-time at a corporate job in New York making $26,000 a year, supplementing her income with social media, dancing and bartending gigs—quit five years ago and became a full-time ASMR and lifestyle influencer in Los Angeles.

Over the course of her entire online career from April 2009 to December 2023, Julia earned $610,464.83 on ad revenue from a total of 224,637,887 YouTube video views, she shared in a January vlog.

"At the peak of my channel, like when I was posting a lot, I could be getting like 4 million views in a month," she explained. "My revenue at its peak could be $20,000 in a month."

Julia—who shares daughter Honor, 21 months, with Blink-182 music collaborator Nick Long—now posts less frequently, yet she still makes about $56,400 a year on ad revenue from her old videos, without creating new content.

Although the paycheck doesn't stretch as far in such an "expensive city," the 36-year-old noted it's a "tremendous amount of money" to rake in passively.

"If you add in a sponsorship or two every month, I mean, we can really be talking about an entire yearly salary that you can make in a month," she said. "This has been like a very livable income for me. Basically, on average, alone I'm making six figures just from ad revenue on YouTube."

Of course, there are more dollars to be made for reality stars with a built-in fanbase who then pivot to social media. Take Love Is Blind alums Deepti Vempati and Natalie Lee, who revealed they have each earned $500,000 working as influencers since their season aired on Netflix in 2022. Meanwhile, Summer House star Carl Radke said on an April episode that he's made over $70,000 on paid social media posts this year, while Lindsay Hubbard has banked $150,000.

Read on to compare how much different influencers make online.

The TikToker revealed he has a net worth of over seven figures.

"You guys can keep calling me annoying," he quipped in a July 2024 video. "Being annoying has made me a millionaire."

Markell—known for his dance videos—told Salary Transparency Street in 2023 that he earns between $500,000 and $700,000 a year, mostly from brand deals and Snapchat's mid-roll program.

After appearing on Netflix's dating show Love Is Blind in 2022, the pair pivoted to social media stardom and said they each made $500,000 in less than two years as influencers.

The ASMR influencer—known as @itsblitzzz on YouTube —admitted in January 2024 that she scores about $56,400 a year on ad revenue from old videos, without creating new content.

She's made over $610,000 in 14 years on the platform in ad revenue alone, with less than a million subscribers.

The Minnesota YouTuber made over $193,000 on the adult platform OnlyFans from January 2020 to December 2022, she shared in a Medium article.

As explained on The Really Good Podcast in 2023, the content creator has scored $50,000 on a single sponsored video.

The chronic illness advocate told Salary Transparency Street in 2023 that she earns about $150,000 a year with less than 40,000 Instagram followers.

The comedian charges between $5,000 and $10,000 for a sponsored video, he told Salary Transparency Street.

The YouTuber shared that she made $4,746.94 from monetization on the platform from August 2023 to January 2024 (from a total of 923,700 video views), with under 30,000 subscribers.