Many of these creators experience fleeting moments of fame that never turn into long-term careers. But some, like Charli D'Amelio or Addison "Rae" Easterling, have built lasting, lucrative business empires from the platform.
For creators who are starting to gain traction on TikTok, the question often is: Can I make money from this app?
The good news is that even having a small audience on TikTok can open the door to some earnings.
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TikTok users with any size following can start getting paid right away by joining sponsored video challenges on third-party platforms like Pearpop or Preffy, for example. Those platforms ask users to make videos that feature a particular brand or song, rewarding them with payouts if their posts generate "likes" and views. TikTok also offers its own version of challenges that it calls "branded missions," though creators must have at least 1,000 followers to participate.
Outside of branded missions, TikTok offers a variety of other in-app monetization features for creators, though most have minimum follower-count or video-view requirements that limit which users can make money.
The company's Creator Rewards Program, which pays users who post videos longer than one minute, is only available to users that have at least 10,000 followers, for example.
Read a detailed breakdown of how to make money from TikTok's Creator Rewards Program
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Here are the many ways a TikTok user can get paid and how many followers you need to qualify:
How to make money with 0 to 1,000 TikTok followers
Marketing challenges: Participating in brand challenges on third-party platforms like Pearpop is a simple way for creators with small followings to get paid. Most marketing contests are open to all users, regardless of audience size.
These contests pay creators for making videos that feature a product, song, or brand message. Earnings aren't guaranteed but are instead doled out based on video performance. Getting more "likes" or views can mean bigger payouts. If a creator's video happens to land on TikTok's "For You" page, they could earn a couple hundred dollars from a single post.
"The initial way influencer marketing would work would be you would go and pay a few people with big followings, but it would be like throwing a few big logs onto a nonexistent fire," Pearpop's cofounder Cole Mason previously told Business Insider. "With challenges, there's a way to actually start the fire."
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TikTok's Effect Creator Rewards program: TikTok offers a specific payment program for creators who make custom augmented-reality effects for its platform. The requirements to participate in the program are not based on followers, but rather on how many videos a creator's AR effect appears in. To start earning, a creator's effect must show up in at least 100,000 videos. AR creators can earn up to $50,000 in a month if one of their effects goes viral. AR creators can also earn money by making custom effects for brands.
How to make money with 1,000 to 10,000 TikTok followers
Creators with over 1,000 followers who are 18 years or older can join TikTok's own version of marketing challenges, dubbed "branded missions." As nano influencers, they can also join self-serve influencer-marketing platforms designed to connect brands with creators that have under 10,000 fans.
Other options for this cohort of creators include:
Music marketing campaigns: One common way for TikTok creators to make money is by promoting songs in videos. Music marketers and record labels pay TikTok creators to include tracks in posts in an effort to make a song take off on the app. Some marketers are even hiring music producers to create sped up, slowed down, or remixed versions of tracks to boost their popularity on TikTok. There are no minimum follower-count requirements to join song campaigns, and music marketers are increasingly turning to micro influencers over big stars to promote tracks. Users with fewer than 1,000 followers aren't going to be as attractive to marketing agencies, but can still join song promotional contests on platforms like Preffy. A TikTok spokesperson told BI in December that the company was testing its own music-marketing service for creators called Work With Artists.
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Livestreaming: Going live on TikTok can be another path for creators with just over 1,000 followers to make money. Some creators with fewer than 1,000 followers may also be able to start livestreams as the company has different requirements by location, a spokesperson told BI. In all instances, a creator must be at least 18 years old to use the feature.
TikToker Jakey Boehm earned $34,000 in a single month from TikTok Live by receiving virtual "gifts" from followers, according to screenshots of his earnings dashboard viewed by BI.
ASMR creator Lucy Davis similarly used TikTok Live to make money on TikTok.
TikTok also offers a subscription tool for livestream creators where their followers can pay to gain access to subscriber-only features like badges and chats. A creator must be 18 years or older and have a minimum of 1,000 followers to make money from live subscriptions.
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TikTok Shop affiliate program: TikTok users can also make money by creating shoppable videos as part of the company's Shop affiliate program. By tagging products in videos or livestreams, users can earn a commission based on the number of sales they help drive.
Follower requirements for the Shop affiliate program differ by country. In the US, creators must have at least 5,000 followers, per TikTok's website. In the UK, creators need to have 1,000 followers and at least 50 video views in the past 28 days, according to the company's website.
How to make money with 10,000 to 100,000 TikTok followers
TikTok Creator Rewards Program: Once a creator who is at least 18 years old hits 10,000 followers and has a minimum of 100,000 views in the previous 30 days, they can join the company's creator rewards program.
To start earning in the program, an influencer's video must be at least one minute long, a length requirement that TikTok previously tested in a Creativity Beta program.
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The company has other criteria that determine how much a creator will earn. It assigns a "search value" to videos to determine if they are related to popular search topics on the app. TikTok also factors in a video's originality, watch time, and how much it's shared, liked, or commented on, to determine a creator's payout.
Before rolling out its creator rewards program, TikTok offered a dedicated creator fund that didn't have video length requirements. The company sunset the program in December 2023 in all countries except Italy and Spain.
TikTok's creator marketplace: TikTok offers its own match-making tool for influencers and brands, dubbed the Creator Marketplace. Eligibility requirements to join the marketplace are tied to age, followers, content, and engagement, according to the company's website. A BI review of the app in the US suggested that a creator needed at least 10,000 followers and 1,000 video views in the previous 30 days to participate.
TikTok creative challenges: Similar to its "branded missions" feature, TikTok offers a program called Creative Challenges," where users can submit video ads to brands based on campaign briefs and receive payments tied to the performance of their video. Unlike branded missions, creative challenges are only available to TikTok creators who have at least 50,000 followers.
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Series: In some regions, TikTok creators with at least 10,000 followers can post a collection of videos, dubbed a "series," behind a paywall, similar to how users of Patreon restrict some video or podcast access to paying subscribers. A series can feature up to 80 videos that are up to 20 minutes in length each.
Brand deals: TikTok creators with any size audience can score deals with brands, though having a minimum of 10,000 followers is a good starting point for getting larger paychecks. These micro influencers can score brand deals by working with influencer-marketing platforms or agencies that help creators with just a few thousand followers connect with marketers.
Jalyn Baiden, an Instagram and TikTok influencer with around 25,000 followers on TikTok, told BI she earned over $26,000 in less than a year from sponsorships, commissioned content for brands, and affiliate marketing.
Read more about how TikTok creators with under 100,000 followers make money from brand deals:
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- Comedy creator Pooja Tripathi (about 58,000 followers) shares how much she makes from sponsored posts
- Salha Aziz (about 23,oo0 followers) charges brands around $160 for a single post
- Jalyn Baiden (about 25,000 followers) charges around $1,000 for a sponsored post
How to make money with 100,000 or more TikTok followers
Some monetization features on TikTok are reserved for users that have at least 100,000 followers. These include:
TikTok Pulse: TikTok offers an ad-revenue sharing program with some qualifying creators called Pulse. Only US-based creators with at least 100,000 followers qualify for the program.
Tipping: To receive "tips" from fans on a creator's profile page, they must be at least 18 years old and have at least 100,000 followers.
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Receiving virtual gifts on videos: While creators with just 1,000 followers can receive gifts on livestreams, a user must have at least 100,000 followers to receive a gift in the comments section of a standard TikTok video.
Brand deals: Having at least 100,000 followers on TikTok can open the door to more lucrative sponsorship deals from brands.
Alex Ojeda, a TikTok creator with millions of fans on the app, told BI in 2022 that his starting rate for a single TikTok sponsored post was $20,000.
Here's how much TikTok creators with at least 100,000 followers have earned from brand deals:
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- Water-park creator Alex Ojeda (about 8.5 million followers) shares his sponsored content rates
- TikTok family The McFarlands (about 4.3 million followers) on how much they earn from brands
- Dana Hasson (around 2 .9 million followers), a recipe and lifestyle creator, shares her earnings from sponsored content
- College football player Jon Seaton (1.8 million followers) shares his brand deal earnings over an 18-month period
- Deanna Giulietti (around 1.8 million followers) earned over $500,000 from brand deals across TikTok and Instagram in 2021
- Harry Raftus (about 1.3 million followers) shared his earnings for song promos and brand deals
- Basketball creators Brandon (about 1.4 million followers) and Jayden Beloti (1.3 million followers) share their monthly earnings from the Creator Fund and brand deals
- Fashion creator Carolina Freixa (around 763,000 followers) on how much she makes from brand campaigns
- Tejas Hullur (around 582,000 followers) said his rate for sponsored content starts at $3,000
- Software engineer and creator Matt Upham (about 513,000 followers) shares his brand deal revenue
- Naomi Melanie Leanage (about 510,000 followers) shares her sponsored content rates and earnings
- Personal finance influencer Erin Confortini (around 294,000 followers) discusses her earnings from brand deals, UGC, and affiliates
- Symphony Clarke (about 206,000 followers), who makes videos about thrift shopping, shares her earnings for sponsored content
