We ran our two published rate models over the 26,791 UGC creators in our index (snapshot 7 October 2026). The median creator has 1,680 followers, so the typical modelled fee is $150 per 15 to 30 second video ($100 to $250). Averaged across each niche, fees run from $158 in mental health to $243 in gaming. These are modelled rates, not observed quotes.
- Creators priced
- 26,791snapshot 7 October 2026
- Under 5,000 followers
- 78%20,920 creators, nano tier
- Typical 15-30s video
- $150$100 to $250
- Average across the index
- $176per 15-30s video, modelled
Most UGC rate guides quote a range somebody saw on a rate card. This report starts from the other end: the follower counts of 26,791 creators who present as UGC creators on Instagram and TikTok, run through the same two models as our UGC rate calculator and influencer rate calculator. The result shows what the market's supply would cost under those models, niche by niche, and where the models stop being able to tell niches apart.
Key findings for Q4 2026
- Most UGC creators price as nano. 78% of the index has under 5,000 followers, the production model's nano tier, so the typical fee is $150 per 15 to 30 second video. Averaged over all 26,791 creators it is $176.
- Niche moves the fee less than creator size does. Leaving out gaming, every niche averages between $158 and $188 per video. Gaming tops the list at $243 because 60% of its creators have 5,000 or more followers, against 22% index-wide.
- Niche premiums only show on posted rates, and only above the floor. At the median follower count, 18 of 19 niches hit the posted-rate floor ($60 for a TikTok video, $90 for a Reel), so the niche factor changes nothing. At 10,000 followers a TikTok video prices at $140 in Finance & B2B and $120 in Tech & gaming, against $100 at the baseline.
- Professional inboxes cluster in advice niches. 46% of mental health creators and 25% of trading creators use an email on their own domain, against 5% in beauty. Portfolios are most common in coffee and drinks (66%), education (65%) and arts and crafts (65%).
- Brand programs hire at both ends of the size range. 53% of the 1,109 accounts in the 11 programs we measure have under 1,000 followers and 9% have 100,000 or more, against 32% and 0.4% of the index. 73% of program accounts are on TikTok; the index is 7% TikTok.
- Program demand sits where indexed supply is thin. Four study-app programs count 402 creator accounts; the index holds 109 education creators. Beauty has 5,512 indexed creators and one measured program. Public reporting puts base pay at Cal AI and Anara at about $25 per video, a quarter of the production model's lowest nano figure.
What these numbers are, and are not
Every dollar figure on this page is modelled. None of it is a quote we collected from a creator, a survey answer or an invoice. Two models produce the figures:
- Production fee (the UGC rate model): what a finished UGC asset costs when the brand posts it. It prices by follower tier only: nano under 5,000 followers, micro 5,000 to 25,000, mid 25,000 to 100,000 and established above that, each with a low, typical and high figure built from public rate cards. It has no niche, platform, country or season input.
- Posted rate (the influencer engine): what a sponsored post on the creator's own account costs. It scales with followers and applies a platform base, a format factor and a niche factor (Finance & B2B 1.35x, Tech & gaming 1.2x, Beauty & fashion 1.1x and Fitness & wellness 1.05x; everything else 1x), with a $60 platform floor. We run it at platform-typical engagement, organic use, no exclusivity and the US, UK, Canada and Australia market tier.
The follower counts are real: each comes from a creator in our index. So the figures answer "what would this niche's creators cost under these models", which is useful for planning a budget and checking a quote, not "what did they charge". The same models price every page under UGC rates, and the script behind this report recomputes 3,064 figures printed on those pages before it writes a number, so the two cannot disagree.
"Q4 2026" is the edition, not a seasonal claim. Neither model has a seasonal input, so nothing here says Q4 rates rise for holiday demand. The next edition reruns both models on a fresh snapshot of the index.
UGC rates by niche
19 niches have at least 40 creators in the index, the same threshold the rate pages and the creator directory use. A creator can carry more than one niche, and 12,035 creators carry none because their bio and content give no clear category, so the niche counts do not sum to the index.
- Gaming60% at 5,000+ followers$243
- Tech25% at 5,000+ followers$188
- Arts and crafts33% at 5,000+ followers$188
- Travel28% at 5,000+ followers$187
- Finance23% at 5,000+ followers$182
- Coffee and drinks29% at 5,000+ followers$182
- Food28% at 5,000+ followers$180
- Sports31% at 5,000+ followers$179
- Fashion24% at 5,000+ followers$178
- Trading22% at 5,000+ followers$177
- Education20% at 5,000+ followers$176
- Fitness24% at 5,000+ followers$175
- Lifestyle22% at 5,000+ followers$174
- Productivity17% at 5,000+ followers$169
- Parenting16% at 5,000+ followers$168
- Beauty17% at 5,000+ followers$167
- Home15% at 5,000+ followers$167
- Pets10% at 5,000+ followers$162
- Mental health7% at 5,000+ followers$158
The production fee for each creator's tier, averaged over the niche. It differs between niches only because their follower mix differs. Full table below and as a CSV download.
| Niche | Creators | Median followers | 5,000+ followers | Avg 15-30s video | Video at median | TikTok video, posted | Reel, posted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty | 5,512 | 1,440 | 17% | $167 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Fitness | 3,697 | 1,914 | 24% | $175 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Parenting | 2,551 | 1,435 | 16% | $168 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Lifestyle | 2,252 | 1,599 | 22% | $174 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Fashion | 1,831 | 1,783 | 24% | $178 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Travel | 1,791 | 1,810 | 28% | $187 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Home | 1,478 | 1,226 | 15% | $167 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Tech | 1,211 | 1,328 | 25% | $188 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Food | 1,162 | 2,166 | 28% | $180 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Finance | 474 | 1,374 | 23% | $182 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Mental health | 378 | 986 | 7% | $158 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Trading | 334 | 1,589 | 22% | $177 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Gaming | 218 | 9,531 | 60% | $243 | $225 $150 to $350 | $135 | $170 |
| Pets | 164 | 1,053 | 10% | $162 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Productivity | 124 | 1,155 | 17% | $169 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Education | 109 | 1,536 | 20% | $176 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Sports | 80 | 2,896 | 31% | $179 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Coffee and drinks | 56 | 1,869 | 29% | $182 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
| Arts and crafts | 43 | 2,303 | 33% | $188 | $150 $100 to $250 | $60 | $90 |
Read the table in two halves. The production columns move only with follower mix: gaming averages $243 because its median creator has 9,531 followers, enough for the micro tier, while mental health averages $158 because only 7% of its creators reach 5,000 followers. At the median, 18 of 19 niches sit in the nano tier, which is why the "video at median" column reads $150 almost everywhere.
The posted columns are where the niche factor lives, and at the median they mostly do not show it. 18 niches hit the engine's floor at their median creator, so a sponsored TikTok video prices at $60 and a Reel at $90 whether the creator posts about finance or parenting. Only gaming, with a median of 9,531 followers, clears it. For a typical UGC creator, the asset is worth more than the audience: the production fee is higher than the posted rate in every niche at the median.
Rates by niche, tier and platform
Split each niche by platform and follower tier and the posted rate starts to separate. Each cell below is the posted rate at that cell's median follower count, with the number of creators in the cell in small type. Cells with fewer than 10 creators say "too few" rather than show a rate: a median of a handful of accounts is noise. The production fee for every cell is the tier figure in the rate card, the same in every niche.
Instagram Reel, posted
| Niche | Nano (under 5,000) | Micro (5,000 to 25,000) | Mid (25,000 to 100,000) | Established (100,000 and over) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty | $90 4,139 | $125 702 | $560 97 | $1,510 13 |
| Fitness | $90 2,599 | $125 672 | $590 136 | too few (7) |
| Parenting | $90 2,022 | $120 289 | $530 68 | $1,390 13 |
| Lifestyle | $90 1,577 | $125 351 | $550 93 | too few (7) |
| Fashion | $90 1,237 | $135 319 | $680 81 | too few (9) |
| Travel | $90 1,127 | $120 329 | $560 113 | $1,370 27 |
| Home | $90 1,198 | $120 169 | $485 34 | too few (7) |
| Tech | $90 779 | $165 178 | $760 79 | $1,610 22 |
| Food | $90 743 | $115 241 | $540 51 | too few (5) |
| Finance | $90 319 | $175 68 | $640 15 | too few (9) |
| Mental health | $90 332 | $110 20 | too few (2) | too few (2) |
| Trading | $90 251 | $160 50 | $500 11 | too few (3) |
| Gaming | $90 83 | $195 67 | $730 44 | too few (4) |
| Pets | $90 128 | too few (8) | too few (4) | none |
| Productivity | $90 93 | $130 15 | too few (5) | none |
| Education | $90 81 | $125 16 | too few (2) | too few (2) |
| Sports | $90 48 | $145 18 | too few (2) | none |
| Coffee and drinks | $90 38 | too few (8) | too few (4) | none |
| Arts and crafts | $90 26 | too few (9) | too few (4) | none |
TikTok video, posted
| Niche | Nano (under 5,000) | Micro (5,000 to 25,000) | Mid (25,000 to 100,000) | Established (100,000 and over) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty | $60 456 | $110 89 | $385 16 | none |
| Fitness | $60 217 | $95 55 | $590 11 | none |
| Parenting | $60 130 | $80 27 | too few (2) | none |
| Lifestyle | $60 183 | $100 37 | too few (4) | none |
| Fashion | $60 148 | $95 30 | too few (7) | none |
| Travel | $60 171 | $115 19 | too few (5) | none |
| Home | $60 60 | too few (9) | too few (1) | none |
| Tech | $60 127 | $135 17 | too few (7) | too few (2) |
| Food | $60 98 | $115 21 | too few (3) | none |
| Finance | $60 46 | $115 14 | too few (2) | too few (1) |
| Mental health | $60 20 | too few (2) | none | none |
| Trading | $60 10 | too few (7) | too few (1) | too few (1) |
| Pets | $60 19 | too few (4) | too few (1) | none |
| Productivity | $60 10 | too few (1) | none | none |
Three patterns hold across both platforms. Nano cells sit on the floor in every niche, so a nano creator's posted rate is a platform minimum, not a niche price. Micro cells are the first where the niche factor shows: Finance & B2B and Tech & gaming creators price above lifestyle creators at similar follower counts. Mid-tier cells spread widest, because the engine scales with followers and the cell medians differ by tens of thousands of followers between niches. Established creators (100,000 and over) are 0.4% of the index; most of their cells are too small to quote, and the CSV lists them all.
The rate card behind every figure
For reference, this is the production model in full for the line items brands ask about most: typical figure in bold, low to high range beneath. Usage, whitelisting and add-ons are priced as a share of the video fee, so they scale with tier too. It is the same card the UGC rate card page and the calculator use.
| Line item | Nano | Micro | Mid | Established |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UGC video, 15 to 30s | $150 $100 to $250 | $225 $150 to $350 | $375 $250 to $600 | $650 $400 to $1,000 |
| UGC video, 30 to 60s | $195 $130 to $325 | $295 $195 to $455 | $490 $325 to $780 | $845 $520 to $1,300 |
| Photo set (5 photos) | $175 $100 to $250 | $225 $125 to $350 | $350 $200 to $550 | $550 $300 to $900 |
| Raw footage add-on | $50 $50 to $75 | $70 $50 to $105 | $115 $75 to $180 | $195 $120 to $300 |
| Extra hook variation | $30 $25 to $50 | $45 $30 to $70 | $75 $50 to $120 | $130 $80 to $200 |
| Paid usage, 3 months | $40 $25 to $65 | $55 $40 to $90 | $95 $65 to $150 | $165 $100 to $250 |
| Paid usage, 12 months | $150 $100 to $250 | $225 $150 to $350 | $375 $250 to $600 | $650 $400 to $1,000 |
| Whitelisting | $45 $30 to $75 | $70 $45 to $105 | $115 $75 to $180 | $195 $120 to $300 |
A worked example from this card: a micro-tier creator making three 15 to 30 second videos with 3 months of paid usage prices at $840 typical. The same brief with a nano creator is $570. For any other mix, the calculator builds an itemised quote.
TikTok or Instagram: where the supply is
93% of indexed creators are on Instagram and 7% on TikTok. That split says more about contact data than about where creators work: the index keeps only creators with a contact email, and Instagram profiles expose one far more often than TikTok profiles. Within the index, the two platforms look alike: median followers of 1,686 on Instagram and 1,642 on TikTok, and the same average production fee ($176 and $171).
- Sports12 on TikTok15.0%
- Pets24 on TikTok14.6%
- Finance63 on TikTok13.3%
- Tech153 on TikTok12.6%
- Travel195 on TikTok10.9%
- Coffee and drinks6 on TikTok10.7%
- Food122 on TikTok10.5%
- Beauty561 on TikTok10.2%
- Fashion185 on TikTok10.1%
- Lifestyle224 on TikTok10.0%
- Arts and crafts4 on TikTok9.3%
- Gaming20 on TikTok9.2%
- Productivity11 on TikTok8.9%
- Fitness283 on TikTok7.6%
- Education8 on TikTok7.3%
- Parenting159 on TikTok6.2%
- Mental health22 on TikTok5.8%
- Trading19 on TikTok5.7%
- Home70 on TikTok4.7%
The index average is 6.9%.
Sports (15%), pets (15%) and finance (13%) have the largest TikTok share; trading (5.7%) and home (4.7%) the smallest. Where both platforms have enough creators to compare, TikTok creators are larger in parenting (a median of 1,804 followers against 1,399 on Instagram) and smaller in food (1,511 against 2,272). If you brief on TikTok, expect a smaller pool to choose from in every niche, not a different price.
| Niche | TikTok | TikTok share | Median followers, Instagram | Median followers, TikTok | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sports | 68 | 12 | 15.0% | 2,643 | 3,262 |
| Pets | 140 | 24 | 14.6% | 998 | 1,368 |
| Finance | 411 | 63 | 13.3% | 1,312 | 1,673 |
| Tech | 1,058 | 153 | 12.6% | 1,376 | 1,108 |
| Travel | 1,596 | 195 | 10.9% | 1,924 | 1,438 |
| Coffee and drinks | 50 | 6 | 10.7% | 1,795 | - 6 creators |
| Food | 1,040 | 122 | 10.5% | 2,272 | 1,511 |
| Beauty | 4,951 | 561 | 10.2% | 1,404 | 1,702 |
| Fashion | 1,646 | 185 | 10.1% | 1,802 | 1,571 |
| Lifestyle | 2,028 | 224 | 10.0% | 1,593 | 1,701 |
| Arts and crafts | 39 | 4 | 9.3% | 2,303 | - 4 creators |
| Gaming | 198 | 20 | 9.2% | 8,311 | 21,400 |
| Productivity | 113 | 11 | 8.9% | 1,167 | 1,094 |
| Fitness | 3,414 | 283 | 7.6% | 1,936 | 1,702 |
| Education | 101 | 8 | 7.3% | 1,536 | - 8 creators |
| Parenting | 2,392 | 159 | 6.2% | 1,399 | 1,804 |
| Mental health | 356 | 22 | 5.8% | 959 | 1,451 |
| Trading | 315 | 19 | 5.7% | 1,487 | 3,617 |
| Home | 1,408 | 70 | 4.7% | 1,216 | 1,347 |
Where portfolios and professional inboxes cluster
Two signals help when you are judging a quote before you have seen work: does the creator have a portfolio site, and do they use a personal inbox or one on their own domain. 34% of indexed creators have a portfolio. Creators with one are slightly larger (a median of 1,973 followers against 1,550), and 84% of them still use a personal inbox.
| Tier | Creators | Share | Median followers | On TikTok | Portfolio | Own-domain email | Agency email |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano under 5,000 | 20,920 | 78% | 1,210 | 7% | 33% | 16% | 0.5% |
| Micro 5,000 to 25,000 | 4,447 | 17% | 8,219 | 7% | 39% | 11% | 0.5% |
| Mid 25,000 to 100,000 | 1,311 | 5% | 42,481 | 5% | 35% | 10% | 1.8% |
| Established 100,000 and over | 113 | 0.4% | 133,544 | 4% | 47% | 21% | 4.4% |
By tier, portfolio share runs 33% (nano), 39% (micro), 35% (mid) and 47% (established), so portfolios are common at every size, not only among large creators. Agency addresses are rare at every size, 0.6% of the index, rising to 4.4% among established creators: you can nearly always reach a UGC creator directly.
- Mental health32% have a portfolio46%
- Trading32% have a portfolio25%
- Finance41% have a portfolio21%
- Productivity52% have a portfolio21%
- Tech44% have a portfolio19%
- Home37% have a portfolio18%
- Travel46% have a portfolio14%
- Food41% have a portfolio13%
- Fitness40% have a portfolio12%
- Gaming55% have a portfolio11%
- Parenting51% have a portfolio11%
- Education65% have a portfolio11%
- Arts and crafts65% have a portfolio9%
- Coffee and drinks66% have a portfolio9%
- Sports53% have a portfolio8%
- Lifestyle47% have a portfolio7%
- Pets62% have a portfolio6%
- Fashion39% have a portfolio6%
- Beauty43% have a portfolio5%
The own-domain chart sorts niches into two groups. Advice niches (mental health, trading, finance and productivity) look more like small businesses: their contact addresses sit on their own domains far more often. Consumer niches such as pets, fashion and beauty are almost entirely personal inboxes. Portfolio share follows a different line: highest in coffee and drinks (66%), education (65%) and arts and crafts (65%), lowest in mental health (32%) and trading (32%).
| Niche | Creators | Portfolio | Personal inbox | Own domain | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mental health | 378 | 32% | 45% | 46% | 0.8% |
| Trading | 334 | 32% | 49% | 25% | 0.6% |
| Finance | 474 | 41% | 59% | 21% | 0.8% |
| Productivity | 124 | 52% | 72% | 21% | 1.6% |
| Tech | 1,211 | 44% | 73% | 19% | 0.8% |
| Home | 1,478 | 37% | 69% | 18% | 0.3% |
| Travel | 1,791 | 46% | 81% | 14% | 0.6% |
| Food | 1,162 | 41% | 82% | 13% | 0.3% |
| Fitness | 3,697 | 40% | 83% | 12% | 0.4% |
| Gaming | 218 | 55% | 83% | 11% | 0.9% |
| Parenting | 2,551 | 51% | 83% | 11% | 0.3% |
| Education | 109 | 65% | 86% | 11% | 0% |
| Arts and crafts | 43 | 65% | 86% | 9% | 0% |
| Coffee and drinks | 56 | 66% | 88% | 9% | 0% |
| Sports | 80 | 53% | 89% | 8% | 1.3% |
| Lifestyle | 2,252 | 47% | 88% | 7% | 0.4% |
| Pets | 164 | 62% | 91% | 6% | 0% |
| Fashion | 1,831 | 39% | 90% | 6% | 0.4% |
| Beauty | 5,512 | 43% | 93% | 5% | 0.2% |
Supply versus program demand
The index shows who is available. The UGC Brands dataset shows who is hiring: 11 brand UGC programs we measure on TikTok and Instagram, 1,109 creator accounts attributed to them (confirmed and likely accounts only). Set side by side, the two describe different creators.
Programs hire at both ends. 53% of program accounts have under 1,000 followers, many of them new accounts opened for the program, and 9% have 100,000 or more. The index is concentrated in the middle: 58% of indexed creators have 1,000 to 10,000 followers. Platform splits the same way: 73% of program accounts are on TikTok, against 7% of the index.
| Niche of the product | Programs | Program accounts | Active 30d | Indexed creators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education | StudyFetch, Anara, Turbo AI, Jenni AI | 402 | 184 | 109 |
| Coffee and drinks | Poppi, Celsius | 295 | 248 | 56 |
| Productivity | Wispr Flow | 161 | 74 | 124 |
| No index niche (social apps) | Cantina, Locket | 151 | 101 | - |
| Fitness | Cal AI | 59 | 32 | 3,697 |
| Beauty | Glow Recipe | 41 | 23 | 5,512 |
By product category the mismatch is sharper. The four study-app programs (StudyFetch, Anara, Turbo AI, Jenni AI) count 402 accounts, more than three times the 109 education creators in the index; the two drinks programs count 295 against 56 coffee and drinks creators. Beauty is the reverse: 5,512 indexed creators and one measured program with 41 accounts. App programs lean on small accounts, many opened for the program (the September programs report has the detail), rather than on the existing UGC pool. That is how they reach volume in a niche with little ready supply.
That also explains the gap between modelled and reported pay. Public reporting puts the base rate at Cal AI and Anara at about $25 per video before bonuses. The production model's nano tier starts at $100. The model prices a one-off brief to a freelance UGC creator; a program paying a dedicated account to post often from a script is a different job at a different price.
Country and market
The production model has no country input: a nano video prices at $150 in Mexico and in the United States alike, so production figures are not adjusted for local prices. The posted-rate engine applies a market factor, shown below on the index median and at 10,000 followers. Country is known for 15,672 creators (59%), from an explicit location in the bio or profile; the creator counts below use only those.
| Market tier | Engine factor | Indexed creators | At the index median | At 10,000 followers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US/UK/CA/AU | 1x | 11,207 | $60 | $100 |
| Western Europe, Japan, Gulf | 0.85x | 1,566 | $50 | $85 |
| LATAM, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa | 0.55x | 2,703 | $35 | $55 |
Per-country figures, with each country's own follower mix, are on the United States, United Kingdom and other country rate pages. They carry the same caveat: production figures are not adjusted for local prices.
Open a niche in the UGC Database
Each link opens the UGC Database already filtered to that niche, so you can see the creators these numbers come from and compare their work before you agree a rate.
- Beauty UGC creators5,512 creators, median 1,440 followers, 43% with a portfolio
- Fitness UGC creators3,697 creators, median 1,914 followers, 40% with a portfolio
- Parenting UGC creators2,551 creators, median 1,435 followers, 51% with a portfolio
- Lifestyle UGC creators2,252 creators, median 1,599 followers, 47% with a portfolio
- Fashion UGC creators1,831 creators, median 1,783 followers, 39% with a portfolio
- Travel UGC creators1,791 creators, median 1,810 followers, 46% with a portfolio
Method and limits
Creator index
The index is the set of creators UGC Agent has found and qualified while running searches for its users, snapshot 7 October 2026. It counts Instagram and TikTok accounts the app qualified as UGC creators (26,791 of 28,374 rows), minus removal requests, with the same rules as the creator directory. Niche comes from the app's niche labels (a creator can carry several), follower counts from the profile at the time it was indexed, country from an explicit location.
Rates
Each creator's follower count goes through the production model by its tier and, for posted rates, through the influencer engine directly, using the niche's engine category (the same mapping as the rate methodology; lifestyle, pets, productivity, education, sports and arts and crafts use the 1x baseline). "Average" figures are the mean of the production fee over a niche's creators. "At median" figures run the model once at the median follower count. Medians and quartiles use the same definitions as the directory, and the build fails if any niche's count or quartiles drift from it.
Program demand
Program figures come from the UGC Brands method: accounts attributed to a program from public program evidence, confirmed and likely only, measured on 5 October 2026 and 9 October 2026. Each program is mapped by hand to the index niche its product sits in: StudyFetch, Anara, Turbo AI and Jenni AI to education; Poppi and Celsius to coffee and drinks; Wispr Flow to productivity; Cal AI to fitness; Glow Recipe to beauty; Cantina and Locket fit no index niche. Reported pay is from public reporting listed on each brand's page and is not verified by us.
Limits
- The figures are modelled, not observed. Real quotes vary with the brief, the creator's experience, usage terms and negotiation, none of which the models see.
- Engagement is not an input: only 155 indexed creators have measured engagement data, so the engine runs at platform-typical engagement for everyone.
- The index reflects what UGC Agent users searched for, so it over-represents the niches and markets they hire in, and it keeps only creators with a reachable email. That is why it is 93% Instagram.
- 45% of creators have no niche label and appear only in index-wide figures. Country is unknown for 42%.
- The 11 programs are the ones in the UGC Brands dataset, not a sample of every brand running UGC, and their niche mapping is a judgement. Treat the demand comparison as direction, not size.
- Cells under 10 creators are not quoted. Niches under 40 creators are left out.
Questions about this report
How much do UGC creators charge per video in Q4 2026?
Under our production model, a 15 to 30 second UGC video from the median creator in our index (1,680 followers) prices at $150, in a range of $100 to $250. Averaged over all 26,791 creators the typical figure is $176. Usage rights and whitelisting are added on top as a share of the fee.
Which niche has the highest UGC rates?
On production fees, gaming, at $243 on average, because its creators are the largest. On posted rates the engine puts Finance & B2B highest at a 1.35x factor, but that premium only shows once a creator is large enough to clear the platform floor.
Do TikTok UGC creators charge more than Instagram creators?
Not under these models for a finished UGC asset: the production fee depends on follower tier only. Posted rates differ by platform base and format. In our index the two platforms have similar median followers (1,686 on Instagram, 1,642 on TikTok), so the difference is the size of the pool, not the price.
Are these real creator quotes?
No. They are our published rate models applied to real follower counts from 26,791 creators. They are planning estimates for budgeting and checking quotes. The few observed pay figures we have, such as about $25 per video reported for Cal AI and Anara, are cited as public reporting.
Can I use these numbers?
Yes. Quote them with a link to this page and the snapshot date, and call them modelled rates. The niche, tier and platform aggregates are available as a CSV download, and the citation format is below.
Cite and reuse this data
Cite this report: UGC Agent, "UGC rates by niche, Q4 2026" (modelled rates, index snapshot 7 October 2026), UGC Agent research, published 10 October 2026, https://ugcagent.app/research/ugc-rates-by-niche-q4-2026/
Download the aggregates as a CSV file (171 rows: one per niche plus one per niche, platform and tier; aggregates only, no creator data). Charts on this page are plain HTML; to embed a figure, copy the snippet below, which links back to the source.
Next edition: Q1 2027, published in January 2027 on a fresh index snapshot. All reports are listed on the research hub, and the monthly UGC creator programs report covers the brand side in depth.