How Much Do Influencers Charge in the UK?
Rate ranges for nano, micro and macro creators, and the five things that move a quote up or down.
UK creator rates run from around £20 to £8,000 per post. Nano creators with under 10,000 followers charge roughly £20 to £150. Micro creators charge £80 to £1,500. Macro creators start around £4,000 and climb from there. Where a creator sits inside those ranges has less to do with audience size than most brands expect.
Those spreads are wide enough to be close to useless on their own. A micro creator quoting £80 and a micro creator quoting £1,500 are both quoting normal rates. The difference is what you're asking them to do.
Why two creators of the same size quote very differently
Follower count is the weakest predictor of price in the whole category. Five things move a quote more than audience size does.
Engagement comes first. A creator with 40,000 followers and a live comment section can charge more than one with 90,000 and a flat one, because the second audience isn't paying attention. Niche matters almost as much. Finance, parenting and interiors creators often price above general lifestyle creators of the same size, because their audiences are harder for you to reach any other way.
Then there's format. A single static post is cheap. A scripted video with a hook, a demonstration and a call to action takes a day to shoot and edit, and the price reflects the work rather than the reach.
Usage rights and exclusivity make up the rest, and they're where most budgets come unstuck.
What a creator fee actually covers
A standard fee buys you content made to your brief, posted on the creator's own channels, and left up for an agreed period. That's it. It doesn't buy you the right to put that content anywhere else.
Your proposal should separate creator fees from everything around them, so you can see what goes to the creator and what covers sourcing, negotiation, contracts and reporting. Our FAQ page sets out what a campaign cost includes, including product and shipping, paid amplification and management.
Usage rights are a separate purchase
If you want to run a creator's video as a paid ad, put it on your product page or send it in an email, you need a licence. That licence is priced by channel and by duration, and paid social is usually the most expensive.
Buy it at the start. Once a piece of content has performed well, the creator knows it has, and the price goes up. Agreeing a six month paid social licence upfront costs a fraction of what you'll pay to add it after a video has done 400,000 views.
The same applies to whitelisting, where ads run through the creator's own handle rather than yours. It needs the creator's permission, a defined period and contract terms. We've covered how whitelisting and Spark Ads work in more detail.
Exclusivity costs more than people expect
Exclusivity means the creator agrees not to work with your competitors for a set window. It protects what you've paid for, and it's priced on how long the window runs and how broadly you define a competitor.
Ask for twelve months across a whole category and you're asking a creator to turn down a year of work. Expect the fee to reflect that. Most campaigns only need direct competitors covered, for the few weeks either side of posting.
Platform changes the number
TikTok rates tend to sit below Instagram at the same follower count, because TikTok distributes to non-followers and audience size means less there. YouTube costs more again, because a dedicated segment inside a long video takes real production time and keeps earning views for months.
Choose the platform by what you need it to do rather than by price. TikTok reaches people who've never heard of you. Instagram holds an audience you've already built. YouTube supports someone researching before they buy. Our FAQ covers which platform suits which objective.
What your budget actually buys
There's no minimum spend, and the right number depends on what you want back rather than on a rate card.
Around £5,000 funds a focused campaign with a small group of micro creators on one platform, with limited usage. At £15,000 you can run a wider group, add a larger creator for reach and buy paid social rights on the content that performs. Past £50,000 you're into multi platform campaigns, bigger names and longer licences.
A common mistake is spending the whole budget on fees and leaving nothing for amplification. The content you've paid for reaches the creator's audience once. Putting media behind the two or three pieces that performed will usually beat booking two more creators.
When gifting works instead
Gifting can work well with nano and some micro creators, particularly when your product has real value to them and you're not demanding a guaranteed post. You pay for product and shipping, and you get genuine reactions from people who chose to feature you.
The trade off is certainty. Without a fee, nothing is promised. The moment you ask for a specific post, a date, a hashtag or approval rights, you've bought advertising and it has to be labelled as such. Our FAQ explains when gifting counts as an ad.
Why a quote can look wrong and still be right
Brands often come to us with a rate that feels high and a suspicion they're being tested. Sometimes they are. More often the quote includes six months of paid usage and category exclusivity that nobody mentioned in the email thread.
Ask for a breakdown before you negotiate. Separate the posting fee, the usage licence and the exclusivity window, and you'll usually find the number is reasonable and one of the three is bigger than it needs to be.
Get a real number for your brief
Ranges only take you so far. Tell us what you're launching, who you need to reach and roughly what you have to spend, and we'll come back with a shortlist of creators, their actual rates and what those rates include. Our proposals separate creator fees from our management fee, so you can see exactly where the money goes.
Book a free 30 minute discovery call and you'll have a proposal straight after.