LinkedIn has quietly become a major platform for content teams, especially for those of us who work at Buffer. It makes sense: we post consistently, we practice on work-adjacent topics, and we already spend time there daily. Along the way, several of us built sizable audiences. Kirsti Lang has 16K followers, Sabreen Haziq has just over 36K, and I have just over 25K. Add Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to the mix, and you get three creators who have been taking brand deals since 2025 across multiple channels.<\/p>\n
When Hailley Griffis, Director of Communications and Content at Buffer, got her first inbound sponsorship request, she asked in Slack what to charge. The rest of us who had been navigating brand deals for a while had plenty to share. That conversation turned into this article. How do you price a sponsored post, really? None of us call ourselves influencers, yet between us we have worked with more than 50 brands, and each of us calculates rates in vastly different ways.<\/p>\n
As of October 2026, the three of us charge $500 to $1,000 for a sponsored LinkedIn text or single-image post. A short video costs $900 to $4,000, depending on production effort. These are baseline rates, not rigid rules, and they reflect our experience in SaaS and tech, niches that historically pay well. But the principles apply to creators in any vertical.<\/p>\n
Follower count is a poor pricing formula. At $10 per 1,000 followers, my 25K LinkedIn audience would yield a $250 post. I start at $650. Format drives price more than anything else. Brands mostly ask for video, and video takes longer to produce. Kirsti\u2019s short videos take about 11 hours each, which works out to roughly $80 to $110 per hour.<\/p>\n
Here are our rates in US dollars. Kirsti: 16K LinkedIn, 13K Instagram, 5.6K TikTok. Sabreen: 36K LinkedIn, 15.6K Instagram, 1.2K YouTube. Tami: 25K LinkedIn, 3K Instagram. For text or single image, Kirsti charges $500 to $700, Sabreen $600 to $1,000, and Tami $650 to $750. Carousels run $700 to $900 from Kirsti, from $1,300 from Sabreen, and $1,000 from Tami. Short video: $900 to $1,200 for Kirsti, $1,500 to $4,000 for Sabreen, $1,250 to $1,500 for Tami. Long-form video: $1,500 from Kirsti, $4,500 for a branded YouTube video from Sabreen, not offered by Tami. Story or repost: $200 from Kirsti, $300 to $700 from Sabreen, $200 to $300 from Tami. Multi-platform packages range from $1,200 to $1,600 for Kirsti (plus $500 to add Instagram), and $1,500 to $2,000 per video from Tami for LinkedIn and Instagram. Sabreen\u2019s biggest single deal was about $7,000, Kirsti\u2019s about $2,400, and Tami\u2019s $2,000.<\/p>\n
These numbers are not set in stone. I am personally looking for bigger deals every time. But they provide a useful baseline for thinking about your own pricing.<\/p>\n
Kirsti makes content about home office setups and productivity tools. She landed her first LinkedIn brand partnership in 2025 and has worked with around 10 brands since. Most requests come through Passionfroot, a creator storefront, but her best-fit partnerships usually happen directly. Lately she has been reaching out to brands she loves, and she has been surprised by how well that works. \u201cI\u2019m becoming more selective about who I work with now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She is clear about what she prices: \u201cMy time, for sure. I\u2019m a mom, and I only have 4-5 hours a week to spend on content creation.\u201d That constraint forces discipline. When a brand asks for a video, she knows it will take roughly 11 hours, so the quote has to reflect that reality. It is not about vanity metrics; it is about capacity and opportunity cost.<\/p>\n
Sabreen takes a production-first approach. She looks at the script, the shoot, the editing, and the revisions. A short video with multiple scenes and on-screen text demands more resources than a talking-head clip. Her rates reflect that range, from $1,500 to $4,000 for short video. She also charges separately for usage rights, exclusivity, and extra revisions.<\/p>\n
That separation matters. Between the four of us, letting a brand run your post as an ad adds about 30% to 60% to the base rate. Exclusivity, where you agree not to work with competitors for a period, also commands a premium. Think of it like renting an apartment: the base rent covers the space, but parking, storage, and utilities cost extra. Sponsorship pricing works the same way.<\/p>\n
I started at $150 for my first sponsored post. It was a learning experience, and I underpriced myself. Over time, I raised my rates as I gathered proof: strong engagement on early posts, brands returning to book me again, and performance data from the brands themselves. Now I mostly take agency rates, which start at $650 for text posts and go up to $1,500 for short video.<\/p>\n
That progression is common. Most creators do a lot of trial and error before they land on a sustainable rate card. The generosity of other creators sharing their numbers helped me, and that is why we wrote this article.<\/p>\n
A text post is not the same as a video. A carousel is not the same as a story. Price the work, not the audience size alone. Follower count can inform your leverage, but it should not be the formula.<\/p>\n
If a brand wants to run your post as an ad, that is extra. If they want exclusivity, that is extra too. Do not bundle these into the base rate unless you are comfortable leaving money on the table.<\/p>\n
Some creators publish their top price to anchor high. Others publish a starting price to invite negotiation. Neither is wrong, but be consistent. Your rate card is a communication tool, not a binding contract.<\/p>\n
Discounts make sense when they save you admin and negotiation time across multiple posts. They do not make sense for a one-off deal in the hope of more work. Hope is not a pricing strategy.<\/p>\n
Proof beats intuition. A brand\u2019s own performance data, strong engagement on your first posts, or repeat bookings are all signals that you can charge more. Raise your rates when you have evidence, not when you feel bold.<\/p>\n
Before you quote, ask which platforms the brand wants, whether they will run the post as an ad, what exclusivity they need, and the timeline, deliverables, and budget flexibility. These questions protect you from scope creep and help you price accurately.<\/p>\n
Hailley used our shared numbers as a starting point. She set a base rate for a LinkedIn text post, added a premium for video, and included line items for usage rights and exclusivity. She also asked the brand about their timeline and budget flexibility before sending a number. That is the playbook: know your costs, price the format, charge for extras, and ask questions before you commit.<\/p>\n
The creator economy is maturing, and pricing transparency is becoming a competitive advantage. As more brands treat creators as media partners rather than one-off vendors, the creators who can articulate their value and justify their rates will win better deals. The numbers in this article are a snapshot, not a permanent standard, but the principles behind them are durable. Price your time, price your format, and price the extras. Your future self will thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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