You can make money on Instagram with under 10,000 followers, but rarely from Instagram itself. For small accounts the money usually comes from four places: brands paying for posts, affiliate commissions, selling your own products or services from your link in bio, and making UGC videos for brands. Instagram's own tools (gifts, subscriptions, the creator marketplace) help at the edges, and each one has a follower minimum. This guide goes through each path with the real rules and numbers I could verify, and no promises.
How to make money on Instagram: the honest picture
A small account has one big advantage: a specific audience that trusts you. It has one big weakness: not much reach. So the paths that work best are the ones where trust matters more than volume.
| Path | Follower minimum | When money arrives | Depends on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored posts | None official | Per deal | Audience fit, engagement, pitching |
| Affiliate links | None (depends on the programme) | Per sale, often weeks later | Trust, clicks, the programme's rules |
| Your own products, services or tips | None | Per sale | Having something worth buying |
| UGC for brands | None | Per video | Content quality, a portfolio |
| Instagram gifts | 500 | Monthly | Reels viewers sending Stars |
| Creator marketplace | 1,000 | Per deal | Brands finding you |
| Instagram subscriptions | 10,000 | Monthly | Paying fans |
If you only remember one thing: the first four don't wait for a follower count. Start there.
1. Sponsored posts (brand deals)
A brand pays you, in money or in product, to feature it in a Reel, a post or Stories. With a small account this is usually local businesses, small online shops and brands that want a very specific audience.
How pricing is usually estimated
There is no official price list. What exists are rules of thumb, and they are only a starting point:
- Influencer Marketing Hub's Instagram money calculator page mentions that some influencers charge $100 per 10,000 followers per post, and puts accounts under 10,000 followers at roughly $10 to $100 per post.
- Its guide to nano influencer rates (1,000 to 10,000 followers, updated August 2026) gives $10 to $50 for a static feed post, $20 to $100 for a Reel and $5 to $25 per Story frame.
Treat these as US-dollar rules of thumb, not a tariff. Engagement, niche, the work involved, usage rights (can the brand run your video as an ad?) and exclusivity all change the price, and brands in Portugal or Brazil usually pay less than in the US. Our earnings calculator applies the same per-thousand-followers logic and adjusts for engagement, niche and market, so you get a range to negotiate from instead of a guess.
Free toolInstagram & TikTok Money Calculator →What to charge brands per Reel, post, story or TikTok video, with a rate card to send.How to get deals
- Make a one-page media kit with your audience, engagement, past partnerships and rates. Our free generator does this in a few minutes and exports a PNG or PDF.
- Pitch brands you already use. A short email with one idea for them, not "let me know if you want to work together".
- Join Meta's creator marketplace once you qualify. Instagram's Help Center says you need to be at least 18, have a public professional account and at least 1,000 followers, and that it is available in every country where Meta advertising operates (with a few exceptions such as Russia and Cuba).
2. Affiliate links
You recommend a product with a personal link, and you get a commission when someone buys through it. Many online shops, software companies and marketplaces run affiliate programmes; the commission and the cookie window depend entirely on each programme, so read its terms before you promote it.
What works for small accounts:
- Recommend things you actually use. "The pan I use in every Reel" converts better than a list of 40 products.
- Put the links in one place. Your bio link is where people go when a post says "link in bio", so a "Things I use" section there does the job. Label the links clearly.
- Disclose. An affiliate link is a financial relationship. The FTC guide above covers it, and so do the rules in most countries.
Affiliate income for small accounts is usually small and slow. It adds up when it sits next to content people save and come back to (recipes, tutorials, setups).
3. Sell your own products, services or tips from your link in bio
This is where a small, trusting audience matters most. You don't need thousands of buyers; you need a few people who want what you know.
Ideas that fit a small account:
- Digital products: a recipe e-book, Lightroom presets, a Notion template, a training plan, a printable guide.
- Services: a one-hour consultation, a portfolio review, a personal training session, a styling call.
- Tips: a "buy me a coffee" style button for people who like what you do.
In Linktotem, product, service and tip blocks sit on your link-in-bio page and are paid through your own Stripe account. We take 0% commission: the buyer pays you, and Stripe charges its own processing fee (in Portugal, Stripe lists 1.5% + €0.25 for standard European cards, more for UK and international cards). A digital product is delivered by a download link sent to the buyer; a service can ask the buyer to fill in a form; a tip can offer suggested amounts and a message.
To be clear about our cost: building and publishing your page is free. Selling from it is part of Starter (€5 a month or €50 a year; US$5 or US$50), after a 14-day free trial, and we still take 0% commission. The pricing page has the details.
The creators template already has the pieces laid out: latest content, favourite products, a media kit link, a "Work with me" button and a newsletter sign-up.
TemplateCreators →Latest video, your favourite things, media kit and a newsletter.If you're comparing tools built around selling from the bio, we have an honest side-by-side with Stan Store.
ComparisonLinktotem vs Stan Store →A serious selling tool at $29 a month, with no free plan, no own domain and no Portuguese.4. UGC (user-generated content) for brands
UGC means you make photos or videos that the brand posts on its own channels or uses in its ads. The brand pays for the content, not for your audience, so your follower count matters much less than your ability to film a clear, natural video.
How to start:
- Make three or four sample videos with products you own: an unboxing, a "how I use it", a before and after.
- Put them in a simple portfolio and link it from your bio.
- Pitch brands whose ads you see in your own feed. They are already buying this kind of content.
Agree on usage rights in writing: where the brand can use the video, and for how long. Using it in paid ads is worth more than an organic post.
5. Instagram's own monetisation features
Instagram has several built-in ways to earn, all managed from the Professional dashboard. Each has its own rules, and Instagram notes on every one of them that a feature may not be available to you yet even if you qualify. This is what its Help Center says today:
| Feature | Requirements | Portugal | Brazil |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gifts on Reels | Professional account, 18+, at least 500 followers, monetisation policies | Available | Available |
| Subscriptions | Professional account, 18+, at least 10,000 followers | Available | Available |
| Badges in Live | Professional account, 18+, monetisation policies | Not listed on the page | Not listed on the page |
| Bonuses | Invite-only tests in selected countries | By invitation | By invitation |
| Creator marketplace | Public professional account, 18+, at least 1,000 followers | Available | Available |
A few details that matter for small accounts:
- Gifts are the most reachable. Viewers buy Stars and send them on your Reels, and Instagram pays you $0.01 per Star received, monthly, once you set up a payout account. Collaborative posts and accounts that mainly post content aimed at children can't receive gifts.
- Subscriptions need 10,000 followers, so they are out of reach for most accounts this guide is about. Worth knowing for later.
- Badges let fans pay during your Lives. Instagram says its revenue share is currently 0%, while Apple and Google charge 30% on in-app purchases. The page doesn't list countries, so check your dashboard.
- Bonuses are tests Instagram offers by invitation, for a limited time. You can't apply; you can only check whether you've been invited.
To see which tools you have: open your profile and tap Professional dashboard; gifts, for example, appear under Your tools once you have them. To check for policy problems that block monetisation, Instagram's page on monetization status points to Settings, then Creator tools and controls (or Business tools and controls), then Monetization status.
What doesn't work
- Buying followers. Brands look at engagement and audience location, and bought followers wreck both.
- Waiting for a follower number. The paths that pay small accounts (your own products, UGC, local brand deals) are open now.
- Courses that promise passive income from Instagram. If the main thing someone sells is a course about making money on Instagram, that is their business model, not yours.
A realistic plan for the next 90 days
- Switch to a professional account if you haven't, so you can see insights and use the monetisation tools.
- Pick one thing to sell or offer: a service, a small digital product or UGC. Just one.
- Set up your link in bio with that offer at the top, your media kit and a way to contact you.
- Measure your engagement and make your media kit with real numbers.
- Pitch five brands a month that already fit your audience, with a specific idea.
- Turn on gifts once you pass 500 followers, if they are available to you.
- Review after 90 days: what sold, what brands replied, what content drove clicks to your bio. Do more of that.
None of this makes you rich in three months. It does give a small account a few real sources of income, built on the audience you already have.
