How to Make Money on Instagram :

If working hard and making money is the American dream, not working hard and making money is the Instagram dream. But making serious income using social media requires some serious strategy  . Whether you’re a creator or a business, you’ll find the most success making money on Instagram if you do your research.

Keep reading to get inspired by examples from creators and brands, and find tips for making money on Instagram that apply to everyone.

You can also grab the popcorn and watch this video from Hootsuite Labs.

Can you make money on Instagram?

Hell yeah. In fact, helping creators make a living on the platform is a top priority for Instagram, especially as competition heats up from TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.

“Our goal is to be the best platform for creators like you to make a living,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s first-ever Creator Week in June 2021.

In 2021, Instagram was the  in the world. It’s thesecond-most downloaded app  globally, the, and has4th most-used social media platform 1.22 billion users  every month. All of which is to say: that’s a massive potential audience. With an enormous and diverse pool of people who could potentially be exposed to your content, there’s plenty of opportunities to earn money.

(If you’re looking for more Instagram stats—you know, to rattle off at parties and impress your friends—you can find 35).

How much money can you make on Instagram?

Numbers are tricky, because creators and brands are notoriously private about how much money they’re making. On top of that, calculating income from Instagram is complicated—if you sing a song on a Reel, the sound goes viral and you get a record deal from that internet fame, then tens of thousands of people buy tickets to your concert, does that count as making money on Instagram? What if you post food videos, then provide a link to your recipe blog, and host ads on your blog that make you money?

It sounds bizarre, but that’s the way most successful creators’ journeys go. How much money you can make on Instagram depends on your credentials, audience size, engagement, strategy, hustle, and a dash of dumb luck.

Here’s how much some creators and celebs have reportedly cashed in:

$901: The average amount of money an Instagram influencer with 1,000 to 10,000 followers can make per post, according to 

$100 to $1,500: How much a creator can be paid Business Insider  for a swipe-up advertisement on their Instagram stories according Brian Hanly, CEO of Bullish Studio (a talent agency for influencers)

$983,100: The amount Kylie Jenner reportedly makes per ad or sponsored content post

$1,604,000: The amount Cristiano Ronaldo  per post

In 2021, Hype Auditor surveyed almost 2 thousand influencers (most based in the U.S.) about how much money they make. Here’s what they found:

• The average influencer makes $2,970 per month. “Average” numbers aren’t the best to go by, since there’s so much differentiation between the highs and lows—as is referenced in the next stat!
• Micro-influencers (accounts with one thousand to ten thousand followers earn on average $1,420 per month, and mega-influencers (accounts with over one million followers) earn about $15,356 per month.

Source: Hypeauditor

How to make money on Instagram as a creator

Even if you don’t have a “business” in the conventional sense, there’s lots of ways you can use Instagram to make money as an individual. With a and clear niche, you have influence—and can be an influencer.

Partner with brands

Partnering with brands is likely the most well-known way that creators can make money on Instagram. Find a small or big brand that aligns with your values (that part is important—partnering with a brand that has nothing to do with your regular content, or even directly contradicts your regular content, will make you seem inauthentic).

Partnerships with brands can take many forms: you might be paid to make an Instagram post that features a specific product, or be offered free products in exchange for content. To get started, try making a few posts that feature some of your favourite things—restaurants, skincare, whatever feels true to you—for free. You can then point to those posts as examples when you’re reaching out to brands.

Lots of makeup and beauty influencers participate in these kinds of brand deals. Here’s an example of a paid partnership post from creator @mexicanbutjapanese for Nordstrom.

Hint: when you’re participating in a paid partnership or sponsored post, be transparent. Use hashtags, mark the post as sponsored, and be clear about the partnership in your captions. Not following Instagram’s can result in posts being removed—plus, it’s sketchy.

Join an affiliate program

This is related to brand partnerships, as joining an still requires you to connect yourself to a business that sells specific products or experiences. Affiliate programs essentially pay you to market other people’s products (so again, you want to make sure that the products you’re highlighting align with your values). If your followers buy something from the brand through you—usually using a specific link or discount code—you get paid.

 is an affiliate marketer for a nail polish brand—when followers use her discount code to buy the nail polish, the creator makes money.

Enable Live Badges

For creators in the U.S., Instagram’s  is a method of making money directly through the app. During a live video, viewers can purchase the badges (which cost between $0.99 and $4.99) to show their support.

To turn on Live Badges, go to your Profile and tap Professional Dashboard. Then, enable monetization. Once you’ve been approved, you’ll see a button called Set Up Badges. Tap that, and you’re good to go!