How Much Does Instagram Pay For 10k Followers in 2025?

Followers are followers. Instagram knows that an account with 10k+ followers is starting to become popular, and this may have some influence on the algorithm leading to your post getting more attention and engagement.

Your reach will naturally increase with your higher followers, too.

But how much does Instagram pay for 10k followers? $0. Instagram – or any platform for that matter – will not pay you for followers.

But you can use your following to make money because, at this range, you’re in the micro-influencer category and can demand money for your posts.

Getting Paid for Posts on Instagram With 10k Followers

Search Engine Journal reports that accounts with 10,000 – 50,000 followers can earn $1,105 per post, which is a lot. Most micro-influencers will not make this type of money simply because their reach isn’t high enough.

But if you have a very high engagement rate, it’s possible.

What we’re going to do is run the numbers on accounts selling shoutouts to help you better understand the wide range of money you can make per post:

But if you sell directly, you can earn $100 or more a post for 10k followers. Your niche will play a major role in how much you get paid per post.

So, if you can sell posts privately, there’s no reason you can’t earn $50 – $100 per post. In some niches, you might be able to post daily and be paid $1,500 – $3,000 per month, which is a great income for a smaller influencer.

1. Affiliate Marketing on Instagram

As an affiliate, the idea is simple: you promote a brand’s products and receive a commission when someone purchases them. You’ve seen people do this when trying to sell weight loss products or beauty products.

The person will create a reel or post showing how they look after using a product or how much weight they’ve lost.

And when their followers click the link in their bio to the product, they’ll receive a small commission that can be either a certain percentage of the sale price or a flat rate. For example, you may earn 8% per sale or $30 a sale, depending on the offer.

Of course, these percentages and figures will vary based on the affiliate program.

If you want to become an affiliate, ask companies that you support if they have an affiliate program. Most will.

But if you want to sign up for platforms that connect affiliates with brands, you can use:

If you can find high-ticket items that your followers want and sell them on them, you can make a substantial amount of money from affiliate marketing.

2. Digital Product Sales 💻

“Real money,” meaning making a substantial amount of money off of 10k followers, is possible. You would be surprised to know that some people make tens of thousands of dollars or more on Instagram by doing one simple thing – selling their own products.

People sell cookbooks, consulting services, fitness programs and dozens of other things.

And when you sell them yourself, you get all the revenue and profits from the product instead of getting a small commission. What you’ll need to do is the following:

Genuine products that help people solve problems almost sell themselves. If you can, integrate visual storytelling into your posts and bring followers on the journey of how you went from start to finish with the product.

Fitness gurus do this all the time and earn so much money from their audiences because they know how to sell them on the dream of being fit.

Imagine that you have the following:

You could sell products to just 100 people and earn between $2,000 and $10,000. Create a few products throughout the year and it’s clear how you could make some serious money on IG.

3. Instagram Features That Can Help You Get Paid

Instagram doesn’t pay you directly just for having followers, but the platform does have a few monetization features that will help you make money. Some of these features are not available to everyone in every country, so be sure to do your due diligence here.

With that said, this is how people get paid through Instagram features:

A. Creator Marketplace

Marketplace connects creators with brands, but it’s only available in select countries. You must meet eligibility requirements, which you can see on Instagram’s official page. You can connect with brands that are willing to pay you hundreds or thousands of dollars to promote their brand or product.

Larger followings are better, but micro-influencers also get a lot of attention from brands because they have such niche followings.

B. Badges

If you go Live often, Instagram will help you make money through badges. Viewers who are watching you on Live will send badges in support that cost money, and you’ll receive this money for each badge sent.

Badges cost either:

When people purchase badges, you want to be sure to thank them while on Live to show your appreciation. A small “thank you” can go a long way in encouraging others to also buy badges and earn you money.

C. Gifts

Fans can purchase virtual gifts to show their love for your account. And these gifts are paid out to you. Similar to badges, be sure to thank anyone who does send you a gift and use this motivation to continue creating great content.

D. Subscriptions

Subscriptions are a way for you to build a deeper connection with your followers, and they work very well if you put in the time and effort. Through subscriptions, you earn recurring revenue and have the opportunity to offer your fans:

Instagram also makes it possible to create subscriber-only content, such as lives, stories and chats. Exclusive posts and reels are also available, which are enticing enough for true fans to subscribe.

And the best part?

You’ll unlock these features once you hit the 10k follower mark.

E. Bonuses

Instagram is testing “bonuses,” which are paid out to certain creators for the performance of their images, carousels, reels and photos. We don’t know for sure how much these bonuses pay or if anyone is earning a substantial amount of money from them because most people only say they’re not.

Redditors have a lot to say about bonuses lately:

But at the end of the day, all of the money you make adds up and will be an additional incentive to continue on your path of being a creator.

Now that you know how much you can get paid for 10k followers on IG, it’s time to leverage your following to make even more money.

How Can You Earn More with 10K Followers?🤔

Earning more from your followers is all about appealing to an audience and brands wanting to market their products. Imagine an account with 100k followers who all follow the person because they’re a model.

And then imagine a 10k account that follows a person because they teach them about cooking.

You might think that the 100k account earns more, but it’s really the 10k account that will earn more because they have a viable niche that is narrow and easily defined. Food brands and publishers will pay the account with 10k followers more because they know the exact interests of the followers.

Aside from niching down, you’ll also want to go to your account Insights and start focusing on your engagement rate. Imagine two cooking accounts, one with 20k followers and another with 10k followers.

Advertisers will happily pay the creator of the 10k account more because the followers are more engaged. If you notice you have low engagement, start studying the content that you post and analyze what makes one post popular and another less popular.

You might find that carousels perform best for you or when you talk about making Indian or Italian dishes, your engagement is much higher than if you talk about French cuisine.

If you keep all of these points in mind, you’ll pinpoint the exact type of content your followers prefer and can create more of it to keep them engaged.

And while Instagram might not pay for 10k followers, you can use all of the revenue sources we mentioned to earn money as a creator. Some people are making thousands of dollars per month by just teaching the world about what they know.