Statistics · Lorenne Calder · 11 November 2026
Influencer earnings
Half the people in one large survey did not clear $15,000. The celebrity number in a search box is not the profession.
50.71% of the creators in one survey earned $15,000 or less.1
In 2023, 48% were under that same line.1
Brands spent $202 on the average collaboration on one marketplace.2
Men were paid $83 more per collaboration than women.2
| When | What they wrote | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 survey | Earned $15,000 or less | 50.71% |
| 2023 | Under that line | 48% |
The survey asked more than 3,000 creators. The 2025 line is “or less.” The 2023 line, as written, is under it. I am not going to sand those into one phrase, and I am not going to turn the person who cleared the line into the profession. The search is usually asking what the work pays. For half of that sample, a year paid $15,000 or less.1
The same survey puts a U.S. living wage at $44,000, and nearly 57% of the full-time creators earned less than that from content alone. “Nearly 57%” is their phrase. I will not sharpen it into a decimal they did not print. A full-time creator under that line is the shape of the answers, not a bargain and not a moral failure.1
A year and a job are different units. The $202 average is down from $214, across 15,000-plus collaborations. The page that prints $202 also says the marketplace data ran from 1 January 2024 through 15 December 2024, and it labels the figure as 2025 spend. I will not decide which calendar the dollar belongs to. Both sentences are on the page I opened. I will not divide $15,000 by $202 and call the quotient a career. That division would be mine, and the samples are not the same people.12
The same marketplace says men were paid $83 more per collaboration than women, and it describes that gap as 40%, in a comparison heavy on micro creators. A 40% gap on this average is not a 40% gap on a celebrity fee. I will not spread it across shelves I did not measure.2
If you are a brand, do not walk in assuming the person across from you is living on a podium rate. If you are a creator, do not price your year off the one screenshot that made a roundup. The middle of this survey is under $15,000. That is a fact about the people who answered. It is not a cap I am allowed to put on your fee. The directory can show the room. It cannot show the tax return. I do not take a cut, I do not hold the money, and nothing on this page books the year.
A marker is a reference on the sources page. The publisher, the year, and the address live there. None of these figures is a fee for a person in the directory, and nothing on this page books the work.