Sooner or later a brand asks for your rates, or a friend asks whether you could live off Instagram. Put in your numbers, tick the ways you earn (or want to), and change any assumption you know better.
Every default has its source further down. None of it is a promise.
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What could your audience earn?
Results update as you type. Untick what you don’t do.
The calculator needs JavaScript. Here’s what it works out with its starting assumptions: a fitness creator with 25,000 followers and a 3% engagement rate.
| Income stream | Month | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Brand deals2 posts × €180 | €360 | €4,320 |
| Affiliate commissions500 clicks × 1% × €45 × 4% | €9 | €108 |
| Subscriptions1,250 on your list × 2% × €5 | €125 | €1,500 |
| Digital products5 buyers × €25 | €125 | €1,500 |
| TotalCoaching not included: 4 sessions × €100 would add €400 | €619 | €7,428 |
Every assumption and its source is under How the numbers work.
How the numbers work
Each stream multiplies a few assumptions to get a month. A year is that month times 12.
Where a published benchmark exists, the default comes from it. Where none does, I say it’s my assumption. I checked every source in October 2026.
Brand deals
Sponsored posts per month × rate per post.
Two posts a month is my assumption for a creator who pitches brands regularly. I couldn’t find a survey that counts deals per month.
Until you type your own rate, the calculator suggests one:
Rate per post = base rate for your follower count × niche multiplier × engagement factor.
The base rate
| Followers | Base rate per post | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $10 | Bottom of the nano tier ($10 to $100) |
| 10,000 | $100 | Bottom of the micro tier ($100 to $500) |
| 100,000 | $500 | Top of the micro tier, bottom of mid-tier ($500 to $5,000) |
| 500,000 | $5,000 | Top of mid-tier, bottom of macro ($5,000 to $10,000) |
| 1,000,000 | $10,000 | Bottom of mega ($10,000 and up) |
The ranges are Influencer Marketing Hub’s tiers for Instagram. It doesn’t give its mid tier a follower range, so I put it at 100,000 to 500,000.
Between those points the rate grows smoothly. At 25,000 followers that’s about $190 a post.
Two cross-checks say that’s on the careful side. Collabstr’s 2026 report (opens in new tab), based on more than 21,000 collaborations on its marketplace in 2025, puts the average Instagram deal at $193. And the rule of thumb on Influencer Marketing Hub’s micro-influencer page (opens in new tab), $10 to $20 per 1,000 followers, would give a 25,000-follower account $250 to $500.
The niche multiplier
Collabstr publishes the average fee in its five most expensive and five most affordable niches. I divided each by $260, the middle of that range, and rounded to the nearest 0.05. Niches on neither list count as 1.
| Niche in the calculator | Collabstr’s average fee | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Skilled trades | $309 | 1.2 |
| Education and how-to | $307 | 1.2 |
| Business, finance and tech (Collabstr: entrepreneur and business) | $295 | 1.15 |
| Comedy and entertainment | $292 | 1.1 |
| Travel and outdoors (Collabstr: adventure and outdoors) | $274 | 1.05 |
| Fitness, food, lifestyle, parenting, pets | On neither list | 1 |
| Sports | $233 | 0.9 |
| Fashion | $217 | 0.85 |
| Gaming | $214 | 0.8 |
| Beauty and skincare | $210 | 0.8 |
The sources disagree on beauty and fashion. Influencer Marketing Hub lists them among the niches that charge more, while Collabstr’s deals make them the cheapest, probably because so many creators compete there. I went with the lower numbers.
Influencer Marketing Hub also says finance, B2B tech and software creators can charge more, which is why they share business’s multiplier.
The engagement factor
Your engagement rate divided by a typical rate for your size, kept between 0.5 and 1.5. Double the typical engagement gets you one and a half times the base rate, never more.
The typical rates are the middle of HypeAuditor’s ranges (opens in new tab) (updated August 7, 2026):
- 4.5% at 2,000 followers (its range for 1,000 to 5,000 is 4 to 5%)
- 3% at 15,000 (2.5 to 3.5% for 5,000 to 50,000)
- 2.25% at 150,000 (2 to 2.5% for 50,000 to 500,000)
- 1.5% from 1.5 million (1 to 2% above 500,000)
In between, the calculator blends them, so nothing jumps at a tier border. Engagement benchmarks vary a lot from source to source, mostly because some divide by followers and others by views.
The cap is my choice. Brands look at more than one number, and I’d rather undersell you than oversell you.
Affiliate commissions
Followers × followers who click a link each month × clicks that end in a sale × average order × commission.
- 2% click a link each month: my assumption, for a few Stories with a link sticker plus the link in your bio. I found no public benchmark for creators.
- 1% of clicks end in a sale: the low end of the 1 to 3% usually quoted for affiliate links. No network publishes an average I could check.
- €45 average order: impact.com’s 2025 benchmark (opens in new tab) of 2,368 North American retail brands found an average item of $49 and an average order of $123. A creator’s link usually sells one thing, so I used the item.
- 4% commission: Amazon’s US Associates program (opens in new tab) pays between 1 and 10% on most categories, and 4% on anything not on its list.
That’s why the default looks so small. At 4%, €225 of sales earns you €9.
If you promote something with a 20 or 30% commission, change that one number and watch what happens.
Newsletter or paid subscriptions
Followers × share on your email list × subscribers who pay × price per month.
- 5% of followers on your list: my assumption. Moving people from Instagram to email takes time.
- 2% of the list pays: Substack once told writers to expect about 10% of free subscribers to pay. Casey Newton, one of its best-known writers, said his rate was closer to 5% (Simon Owens, 2021 (opens in new tab)). A creator starting a paid tier won’t have Newton’s readers, so I start at 2%.
- €5 a month: my assumption, a low entry price for a paid newsletter or membership.
Digital products
Followers × followers who buy each month × price.
- 0.02% buy each month: one in 5,000 followers, my assumption. At 25,000 followers that’s 60 sales a year.
- €25: my assumption, for a template pack or a short guide.
I couldn’t find a benchmark for either that I’d trust. Change both as soon as you’ve sold something.
1-1 coaching or consulting
Sessions per month × price per session. It’s off by default, because not every creator coaches.
- 4 sessions a month: my assumption, one a week.
- €100 a session: the ICF’s 2023 Global Coaching Study (opens in new tab) found an average of $244 per one-hour session worldwide ($277 in Western Europe, $138 in Eastern Europe). Most of those coaches are certified and coach managers and executives, so I start lower.
Euros and dollars
Most benchmarks are in US dollars. The calculator converts them at the European Central Bank’s reference rate (opens in new tab) of 15 October 2026: €1 = $1.1208.
Switch to dollars and every amount converts at that rate, including the ones you typed.
These are estimates. Your mileage will vary.
The calculator multiplies averages, and nobody is average. Your niche, your country and your audience can move any of these numbers a lot.
Real income also comes in waves: three brand deals one month, none the next, a launch that sells a quarter’s worth in a week.
And it’s all before platform fees, payment processing and taxes. Use it to see which streams could matter for you, then swap my numbers for your own.
Questions about the calculator
How much do micro-influencers make per post?
There’s no standard rate. Influencer Marketing Hub’s rate guide puts micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers) at $100 to $500 per Instagram post, and Collabstr’s average Instagram deal in 2025 was $193 (both checked October 2026).
Your niche, your engagement and what the brand asks for decide where you land.
How do I work out my engagement rate?
Add up the likes, comments, saves and shares on a typical post, divide by your followers and multiply by 100. Instagram’s Insights shows the interactions for each post.
A post with 300 interactions on an account with 12,000 followers is 2.5%.
Why is my affiliate income so low?
Because commissions on everyday products are small. At Amazon’s 4% default, €225 of sales earns you €9.
The number moves when you promote things with a bigger commission or a higher price, or when more of your followers click. Change those inputs and see.
Does the estimate include taxes and fees?
No. It’s what you’d bill or sell before platform fees, payment processing and taxes.
Can I share my result?
Yes. Your numbers go into the page address as you type, and “Copy my result link” copies it. Whoever opens the link sees your scenario and can change it.
Does the calculator save my numbers?
No. The calculator doesn’t store or send anything. Your numbers only live in the page address.
Like any address you visit, that address can show up in the site’s analytics when you open or share it.
Where to go from here
Still growing toward your first deals? Start with how to become a micro-influencer: picking a niche, a media kit, pitching brands and disclosing paid posts.
Want more ways to earn than this calculator covers? How to make money on Instagram compares seven of them.
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