UGC (user-generated content) creators get asked the same question every week: "what should I charge for one video?" The answers online are mostly vibes. I wanted numbers, so I built a small benchmark from what creators actually say in public, and I want to show the method as much as the result, because the method is where most rate guides go wrong.
The data: 84 points from 48 threads
I read 48 public Reddit threads from r/UGCcreators, r/UGCconnect, r/UGCForBrands, r/UGCForTech and r/influencermarketing (2024–2026) and logged every explicit price. Only figures stated literally; nothing inferred. Unknown fields stay null.
Why Reddit? Because people there talk about specific deals ("brand offered me $20 for 3 videos") instead of marketing ranges. Why by hand? Reddit returns 403 to anonymous automated access, and at 48 threads careful reading beats a fragile scraper anyway.
Each point records experience level, platform, deliverable, number of videos, min/max price in USD, usage rights, whitelisting, niche and, most importantly, what kind of number it is:
| Type | Meaning | Points |
|---|---|---|
trato_real |
A closed or paid deal | 21 |
tarifa_declarada |
What a creator says they charge or quoted | 21 |
oferta_marca |
What a brand or platform offered | 17 |
rango_guia |
Advice ranges between creators, not a deal | 25 |
(The field names are Spanish because the dataset was built for a Spanish team; the values are the same in any language.)
Rule 1: never mix paid, asked, offered and advised
This is the main design decision. If you average a creator's asking price with a brand's lowball offer and a "you should charge $150" comment, you get a number nobody ever paid. So:
- Per-video medians use only
trato_real+tarifa_declarada, single-video points. - Brand offers are summarized separately.
- Advice ranges are used only for consensus rules (usage rights, whitelisting), never for medians.
Rule 2: medians, not means
Rates are heavily skewed: one full-time creator quoting $1,450 drags a mean far more than ten $100 deals. Ranges ("$150–250") are reduced to their midpoint, then I take the median per group.
What survived
| Group | Median per video | Typical range | n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | $108 | $45–200 | 19 |
| Intermediate | $270 | $171–318 | 5 |
| Experienced | $750 | $250–1,450 | 5 |
| Monthly retainer (per video) | $102 | $75–180 | 5 |
| Brand lowball offers | $20 | $3–50 | 14 |
Two things stand out:
- The gap between what brands offer and what creators close is ~5x at the beginner level ($20 vs $108). Many "UGC is $25 a video" claims come from the offer side.
- Retainers price like beginner rates. Volume discounts pull even experienced creators down to roughly $75–180 per video.
The most repeated rule in the advice data: usage rights cost 20–30% of the base rate per 30 days, per platform, cited in at least 5 independent threads. Whitelisting (running ads from the creator's account) is usually +25–30% per month while the ad runs.
Known biases (read before quoting these numbers)
- Self-reported. People round up, and people with good deals post more.
- Mostly US / USD. EUR and GBP figures were converted at a fixed average rate (1 EUR = 1.08 USD, 1 GBP = 1.27 USD); the original value is kept in the data.
- One community. Reddit is not Fiverr, not agencies, not TikTok Creator Marketplace.
- Small n above beginner level. 5 points for intermediate and experienced is a hint, not a statistic. I'd rather publish n next to every number than hide it.
- Mixed dates. 2024–2026 threads together; there aren't enough points to show a trend.
What I'd do differently with more time
- Re-collect quarterly and keep the thread URL as the primary key so points can be deduplicated and refreshed.
- Ask creators directly with a structured form (type of number, rights, platform as required fields) instead of parsing free text.
- Report percentiles (p25/p75) once each group has 20+ points.
Full table and sources
The full benchmark, with usage-rights, whitelisting and add-on rules plus all 48 source threads, is here: UGC Rates 2026: what creators actually charge.
If you want to turn those rules into a quote, there's a free rate calculator on the same site, and a paid UGC Deal Kit with rate card and contract templates.
If you've closed UGC deals and want to add a data point, or think a bias above is understated, tell me in the comments.
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