{"id":17125,"date":"2023-07-31T01:01:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T07:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/?p=17125"},"modified":"2026-05-25T01:51:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:51:59","slug":"how-much-do-instagram-models-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/how-much-do-instagram-models-make","title":{"rendered":"How Much Do Instagram Models Make in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Working as an Instagram model can be a rewarding and even lucrative career. Many models have the opportunity to travel the world and partner with brands they love. If you\u2019re pursuing this career path, you may be wondering: how much do Instagram models make?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s find out.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"color: #5339d3;\">How Much<\/span> Do Instagram Models Make?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram models can earn anywhere from $100 to $1 million+ per post. Your follower count play a big role in how much you earn, but that\u2019s not the only factor (more on that soon).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For now, let\u2019s look at how much models earn, on average, based on their following.<div class=\"su-list\" style=\"margin-left:0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <b>Less than 10,000 Followers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if you\u2019re just starting to build a following, you can still earn money as an Instagram model. Once you\u2019ve accumulated 6,000+ followers, you can expect to get paid about $80-$100 per post.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <b>10,000+ to 100,000 Followers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Models with 10,000 or more followers are more attractive to brands because they have more options. With this many followers, you can link directly to products and use the \u201cSwipe Up\u201d feature on Instagram Stories. Brands may even seek <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">out for opportunities. It\u2019s not uncommon for models with this follower level to earn $200 per post.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <b>100,000 to 1 Million Followers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019re in the big leagues now, and your influence can command more money per post. Models with 500,000+ followers can earn up to $700 or more per post.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <b>Over 1 Million Followers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Celebrity models with this level of following can command as much as $1 million per post.<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Instagram models, it\u2019s all about your level of influence. The greater your influence, the more you can earn.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What <span style=\"color: #5339d3;\">Factors Affect an Instagram Model\u2019s Earnings?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are several factors that affect an <a href=\"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/highest-earning-instagram-influencers\">Instagram model\u2019s earnings<\/a>, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>1. Follower Count<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A model\u2019s follower count will play the biggest role in their earnings. The more followers you have, the more money you can command because you have such a large audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>2. Niche<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follower count is important, but it\u2019s not the only thing that will influence your earnings. Your niche will also be a factor. Your style, network and interests will all impact how much you earn as a model.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High-fashion models, for example, are more likely to be compensated with higher contracts or more valuable items.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other niches may have lower payouts, but if the competition is minimal, you could make just as much or more than high-fashion models.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re new to modeling, you may need to do your research and experiment with different niches to see which ones you\u2019re most comfortable in.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>3. Level of Influence<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A model\u2019s influence level will also affect their earnings. The greater your influence, the greater the compensation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While follower count certainly plays a role here, it\u2019s not the only factor. If you have a very loyal follower base and connect and engage with them on a deeper level, brands will recognize the power of your influence and compensate you more as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you know how much models can make and the factors that influence their earnings, you may be wondering: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">do they make their money? Instagram models can make money in a variety of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>How <span style=\"color: #5339d3;\">Instagram Models Make Their Money?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram models are more than pretty faces and perfect bodies: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they make a lot of money<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">too<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Models can earn from the relationships they build, but the most common ways to make money include:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>1. Sponsored Posts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/sponsored-posts\">Sponsorships<\/a> are a golden opportunity to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">make money. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The model promotes a product and they\u2019re paid for it. The more followers you have, the more money you can command. Every influencer is different, but you\u2019ll find ranges from:<div class=\"su-list\" style=\"margin-left:0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$15,000 a post for Jen Selter<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vogue.com.au\/fashion\/news\/kendall-jenner-and-gigi-hadid-can-make-up-to-us300000-for-an-instagram-post\/news-story\/12bd017867d355752483cdd6405b92a7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$300,000 &#8211; $400,000<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for Gigi Hadi<\/div><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>2. Selling Posts or Shoutouts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Selling posts is similar to sponsorships, but they don\u2019t need to promote a brand. Instead, people will pay to have models mention them or promote their profiles. You can use a service like Shoutcart to connect to influencers to <a href=\"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/instagram-shoutouts\">buy shoutouts<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prices Can Range From:<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><div class=\"su-list\" style=\"margin-left:0px\"><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$50 for an influencer with 7,800 followers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$1,200 for a model with 705,000 followers<\/div><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>3. Affiliates<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram models also dabble in <a href=\"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/instagram-affiliate-marketing\">affiliate marketing<\/a>. How does this work? They add a link to their bio or post, and when someone clicks it and buys a product, they earn a:<div class=\"su-list\" style=\"margin-left:0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certain percentage of the sale, or<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flat rate fee for the sale<\/div><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creators can use their own affiliate links, but Instagram also has its own affiliate platform (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/creators.instagram.com\/earn-money\/affiliate?locale=en_GB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">more info here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Earnings can range from a few dollars a month to thousands of dollars, depending on your audience, engagement and how many followers make purchases.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>4. Brand Ambassador<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brand ambassadors get a lot of neat perks:<div class=\"su-list\" style=\"margin-left:0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their own affiliate links<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Product previews<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Influencer insights<\/div><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ambassadors can make between $500 and $10,000+ per month.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>5. Classic Modeling Gigs<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram models also earn money through classic modeling gigs. Their online presence and large following make it easier to attract the attention of modeling agencies and brands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many Instagram models further their careers with more lucrative offline modeling gigs, which can pay between $25-$175 per hour or more.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>6. Personal Businesses<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Models, and influencers of any kind, can make a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ton<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of money by running their own businesses. If you\u2019re a model who wants to maximize their earnings, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">create something<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Prime examples of models that have decided that they want to run their own businesses include:<div class=\"su-list\" style=\"margin-left:0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alexisren\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alexis Ren<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> went from model to actress to the cover of magazines. She started a business with her friend selling subscriptions to her fitness and yoga platform during COVID and promoted it to her 17.9 million followers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"sui sui-location-arrow\" style=\"color:#5339D3\"><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jenselter\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jen Selter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> followed a similar path with her 14 million followers. She joined the FitPlan app, which she earns money from on top of her other business ventures.<\/div><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You&#8217;ll find many Instagram models with their own clothing lines, makeup lines and fitness plans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>So, How Much Do Instagram Models Make?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can make $0 with a small following or millions of dollars with a mix of revenue from sponsored posts, sponsorships, affiliate programs and even your own business.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you an Instagram model and want to begin earning money from your following? Discover how some models make millions of dollars from their followers and command thousands per post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":17236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76,153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instagram","category-monetization"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"John","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17125"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38327,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17125\/revisions\/38327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}