How many Instagram followers you need to start making money (2024)

• A couple thousand followers on Instagram qualifies some users as "influencers."
• But at what point — and with how many followers — can an influencer start making money?
• Insider has talked with dozens of influencers about when they started making money, how, and how much.

With a few thousand followers on Instagram these days, it's easy to ask yourself: When can I start making money doing this?

The good news is, there's no strict minimum.

Five influencers Insider interviewed — all with under 6,000 Instagram followers — said they got paid by brands to post to their small audiences.

For instance, Tess Barclay, a Toronto-based nano influencer who creates lifestyle content, started earning money with a few thousand Instagram followers in 2021. She makes money by working with brands and charges upwards of $154 for an in-feed Instagram post, she told Insider in May.

"I always thought you needed a million followers, or a hundred thousand followers, to make money on social media," Barclay told Insider. "But that's really not true. There are so many ways that you can make it a business, even if it is part-time."

Meanwhile, may other influencers start making money by earning a commission from sales via affiliate marketing.

Check out: 7 top brands that work with micro influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and more

Instagram is also directly paying some influencers through incentive programs like "Bonuses" for Reels. Some Instagram monetization features like "Badges," Instagram's tipping tool for IG Live, require that creators have at least 10,000 followers. Many of these programs also are limited to certain countries, have an age minimum of 18, and require accounts to be registered as business or creator accounts on the app.

While the doors have opened for many more creators on Instagram to start making a living, often they don't start making full-time incomes immediately (although a fair number of micro influencers with under 100,000 followers work full-time as influencers).

Read more: 19 content creators share how they turned their social-media side hustles into full-time jobs

Today, Instagram influencers no longer need hundreds of thousands of followers to start earning cash.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. "Nano" and "micro" influencers (typically accounts with fewer than 100,000 followers) are being hired by many brands across industries. These smaller influencers have demonstrated the power of niche and engaged communities on Instagram, where fake followers and disproportional engagement have flooded the platform. Influencers can earn hundreds to thousands of dollars from these deals.
2. Meta-owned Instagram is opening its multibillion-dollar wallet and paying some influencers, which it announced last year with a flashy $1 billion investment into content creators through 2022. The platform also introduced a creator-brand marketplace for sponsorships in 2022.
3. Affiliate links are easier than ever to share now that Instagram widely rolled out the link sticker in 2021. Some affiliate programs do have their own requirements, however, such as LTK or ShopStyle.

So, how much money are these influencers making on Instagram?

Insider interviewed over two dozen Instagrammers about how much money they make, with follower counts between 2,000 and just over 100,000.

Here's a full breakdown of our coverage:

From brand deals:

• Natasha Greene, a food and lifestyle creator with 137,000 Instagram followers
• Jehava Brown, a travel and lifestyle influencer with 70,000 followers
• Kara Harms, a full-time lifestyle blogger and influencer with 77,000 Instagram followers
• Jon Seaton, a college football star and creator with 58,000 Instagram followers
• Tomi Obebe, a lifestyle influencer with 40,000 followers
• Emma Cortes, a lifestyle influencer and podcast host with 47,000 followers
• Aisha Beau Frisbey, a lifestyle creator with 34,000 followers
• Manasi Arya, a Gen-Z artist with 19,000 followers
• Alexa Curtis, a lifestyle influencer and entrepreneur with 20,000 followers
• Mary Margaret Boudreaux, a fashion and lifestyle influencer with 20,000 followers
• Reni Odetoyinbo, a personal-finance and lifestyle creator with 14,000 followers
• Gigi Kovach, a part-time lifestyle blogger and mom of two with 13,500 followers
• Tejas Hullur, a personal-finance creator and entrepreneur with 12,000 followers
• Tyler Chanel, a sustainability influencer with 12,000 followers
• Jour'dan Haynes, a lifestyle creator with 5,900 Instagram followers
• Tess Barclay, a lifestyle blogger with 5,600 followers
• Laur DeMartino, a nano influencer and full-time college student with 5,200 followers
• Jalyn Baiden, a skincare influencer with 4,000 followers
• Jen Lauren, a part-time lifestyle influencer with 2,900 followers
  
• Kayla Compton, a lifestyle nano influencer with about 2,000 Instagram followers

From Meta Platforms, including Instagram:

• Kelly Anne Smith, a personal-finance influencer with 12,000 Instagram followers shares how much she earned from Bonuses in a month
• Jackson Weimer, a meme creator who got paid more than $6,000 for views on his Reels
• Several influencers reveal the different 'bonus' payments Instagram is offering, with some stretching up to $35,000

From affiliate links:

• Bethany Everett-Ratcliffe, a lifestyle micro influencer with 16,000 followers
• Vi Lai, a skincare influencer, uses Instagram and TikTok to make thousands of dollars per month using affiliate marketing

Read more: Instagram is shutting down its native affiliate-marketing program after more than a year of testing