The Instagram Money Calculator allows you to calculate your estimated earnings from your Instagram account if you are an influencer based on your engagement and number of followers. Below are some stats relating to engagement on Instagram, followed by the Instagram Influencer Earnings Calculator.
Instagram Money & Engagement Calculator:
The tools below are not official Instagram tools and are not in any way associated with or endorsed by Instagram. This tool was developed to provide earning potential guidelines to influencers.
Instagram Influencer Earnings Calculator
Fitness
Fashion
Beauty
Travel
Gaming
Other
Followers
100k-500k
Average Likes / Post
60k
Estimated Earnings Per Post
$20,000 - $30,000
Note:
Unlike with YouTube, where you sell space on your videos and channel page for advertising at a rate decided by Google, Instagram does not compensate its users for running ads on their posted photos. Facebook owns Instagram, so it seeds Facebook ads on people's posts. As such, Instagram influencers and brands don’t have an intermediary or set rates if they choose to work together. Brands themselves make deals with influencers, and rates can vary markedly depending on the circumstances. However, one thing is consistent in nearly all cases - Influencers get paid more if they have both a high engagement rate and a high number of followers. Brands have learned that you can easily buy followers of no practical value to anybody. Hence, they are far more interested in you having genuine followers - those who truly interact with your posts.
Compared to other social media channels, Instagram accounts have relatively high interaction levels. For instance, the average Facebook or Twitter user has an engagement rate of only 0.5 - 1.0%. The average Instagram account, though, has an engagement rate of 3%. Any engagement rate above that, combined with a high number of followers, suggests that you are an influencer amongst your peers. Our Instagram Earnings Estimator takes these factors into account. We look at the average engagement rates of your Instagram posts (engagement being likes and comments on your posts). Example: If your engagement rate is less than 8% and you have less than 1000 followers, you can expect to receive less payment from brands than those influencers who exceed the average engagement rates on their posts. Also see the average engagement rates by amount of followers in the above graph.
From a brand’s point of view, the niche makes a difference too. For instance, fashion firms are far more likely to work with high-profile name influencers than firms selling bathroom fittings and businesses set their budgets accordingly.
Average Engagement Rates by Network
Growing your Instagram Account [Free Instagram Hashtag Generator]
Instagram does not have a standard way of making money, unlike YouTube and its Google Ads. Therefore, as an influencer, it is up to you to find brands willing to pay you directly.
One caveat is if you are large enough to be accepted into one of the influencer marketing platforms. In this situation, you can register your interest, and if they accept you as being influential enough, they will include you in their databases, and suitable brands may come to you if you meet the profile of the type of influencer they are looking for. We highlight the main Influencer Marketing Platforms here.
Any Instagrammer wishing to earn money needs to make building up a strong and loyal following their priority task. You can help improve your standing here by:
- Perfecting your bio so it is very clear who you are and whom you want to follow you
- Posting regularly. Like most social media, Instagram likes to see evidence of regular posting - not sudden splurges when you feel you have some spare time
- Post high-quality original photos. Try and take pictures using a decent camera rather than simply using the one in your cellphone. You need to be known for producing seriously good content (which, in the case of Instagram, is high-quality pictures)
- Use relevant hashtags so people in your niche will find you by your tagged images
- Engage with your followers - comment on and like their images, and they are more likely to do the same in return to yours. Also, see this article
- Use Hashtags - use the Instagram Hashtag Generator to generate hashtags from your images using Artificial Intelligence.
Sponsored Posts
The most common form of cooperation between brands and Instagram influencers is through sponsored posts. Our calculator above is designed to show estimated earnings from sponsored posts. In this situation, a brand normally reaches out to somebody it considers an influencer and offer to pay them to push out a sponsored image to their followers.
Of course, to be effective, a sponsored post has to sit well with the influencer’s audience and appear like a genuine recommendation from the influencer. The FTC has gotten involved in recent years, and it is now a requirement that sponsored posts are clearly marked as such. If the product fits well with the Instagrammers audience, it should not matter if a post is marked #sponsored or #ad.
The ideal sponsored post shows how the brand’s product fits perfectly into the Instagrammer’s life and how it can just as easily fit into the lives of his or her followers. It is not unheard of for those with more than 100,000 followers to earn $700-$900 per photo. Those with 500,000 followers can command $2,000 to $3,000 per sponsored photo posted.
Then, of course, there are the superstars. Kim Kardashian can command up to $850,000 for a post across all of her social media platforms. Of course, her 364 million Instagram followers do put her in a class of her own! A typical post by any of the Kardashian / Jenners clan usually earns at least $200,000. Often, Instagrammers create the content, and the brand then has the rights to reuse that content in their marketing and on their website.
Affiliate Marketing
Just as a blogger can promote an affiliate product on his or her blog, an Instagrammer can promote an affiliate product in his or her posts. You could work with a site like Shareasale to find suitable products to promote.
Of course, like all influencer marketing, this will only be effective if the product you are promoting fits nicely with your followers. If it looks like an ad for an unconnected product, your followers will be unimpressed and won't follow the link. They may even unfollow you in protest.
One technical hurdle with affiliate marketing on Instagram is that you share photos - not links. One way around this is to include the affiliate link (which you should put through a link shortener first) in your photo captions.
Use Your Instagram Account to Market Your Own Business
Of course, if you are a successful Instagrammer, large enough to be considered an influencer, you can promote your own products. Even the big names, such as Justin Bieber, use their Instagram accounts for this purpose. These are similar to sponsored posts, except this time, the images are of your own products.
These may be images of merchandise you have created especially because of your fame, for instance, a t-shirt promoting your Instagram feed, or they may refer to some business or product you are involved with. For instance, pop star Delta Goodrem used her Instagram account to launch a new fragrance line a few years back.
Your aim, as an Instagrammer, is to build up both your following and your engagement. If you are successful in building both to high levels, you definitely have the opportunity to make money through your Instagram account.
Interesting Read: YouTube Money Estimator
Interesting Read: TikTok Influencer Engagement and Earnings Calculator
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can you make on Instagram?
You can use your Instagram account to make money in various ways. Some of the most common methods include:
- Sponsored posts – our calendar above shows your estimated earnings from sponsored posts. A brand will reach out to an influencer, offering to pay them to share a sponsored image
- Affiliate marketing – an Instagrammer can promote an affiliate product in their posts
- Using your Instagram account to market your business – if you are a successful Instagrammer, you can promote your own products or merchandise
Can you make money with 1000 followers on Instagram?
You can potentially make money if you have 1000 followers on Instagram – particularly if you are a nano-influencer, who typically makes posts on some highly niche topic. The key to making money with relatively small followings on Instagram is engagement. Brands realize that somebody with 1000 highly engaged followers holds more value to them than somebody with 10,000 inactive followers or 100,000 fake followers. You can still operate in a popular niche, such as beauty, but initially focus on one narrow topic.
Who is the highest-paid Instagrammer?
While our Instagram Influencer Earnings Calculator will reasonably estimate your potential Instagram earnings, those making substantial Instagram money are generally already famous offline. Instagram earnings can only be guessed, as Instagram influencers and brands don't have an intermediary or set rates when working together. Our best guesses of the highest-paid Instagrammers are:
- Christiano Ronaldo – potentially up to $2.3 million (Estimated Average Price Per Post)
- Kylie Jenner – potentially up to $1.8 million per post
- Lionel Messi – potentially up to $1.7 million per post
- Selena Gomez – potentially up to $1.7 million per post
How do you get 10K followers on Instagram?
The thing you definitely don't want to do is buy Instagram followers. There are better, legitimate ways to build a following on Instagram. Begin by establishing a clear voice on Instagram – you want to become known as someone who shares valuable content about a specific niche. Be consistent with your posts – you are trying to build an interested audience. Be active and engage with potential followers' content. But don't come across as spammy. Don't brag too much with your posts – be real and honest.
Should I buy Instagram followers?
Never buy Instagram followers. Doing so will quickly ruin all credibility for your account. For a start, most of your newly bought followers will be bots or inactive accounts. At best, they will be accounts belonging to people in a low-wage country who will have accepted payment in return for following you. They probably don't even speak English and have no interest in your content. These followers distort your metrics and make your account stand out as suspicious.
What's the average engagement rate on Instagram?
You will find a table in this post that shows the average engagement rates on both Instagram and Twitter. There is a clear trend – the fewer followers you have, the higher their level of engagement. For example, Instagram accounts with fewer than 1,000 followers average 8% engagement. This drops down to 5.7% when you look at accounts with <5,000 followers. Engagement continues to drop as follower numbers rise: 4% for <10,000 followers, 2.4% for <100,000 followers, and 1.7% for 100,000+ followers.
About the Author
Writer
With over 15 years in content marketing, Werner founded Influencer Marketing Hub in 2016. He successfully grew the platform to attract 5 million monthly visitors, making it a key site for brand marketers globally. His efforts led to the company's acquisition in 2020. Additionally, Werner's expertise has been recognized by major marketing and tech publications, including Forbes, TechCrunch, BBC and Wired.
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