YouTuber DanTDM is worth a reported £25 million. Twitch legend TommyInnit casually talks of having “25, 30 mill.” Instagram queen Molly-Mae Hague’s sponsored posts went from £25 in 2015 to £20,000 in 2025. These are eye-catching numbers, but anyone wondering how influencers make money will also question how the average UK content creator salary measures up.
Glassdoor estimates an annual salary of between £22,000 and £35,000, with an average of £28,000. Given “content creator” is such a broad term, though, let’s take a closer look at how the UK’s YouTubers, TikTokers, Instagrammers, and Twitch streamers earn their daily bread (and then some).
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YouTube content creators contributed £2.2 billion to the UK economy in 2024, but how much did they get to keep?
Noting that most make their money from advertising, Glassdoor estimates that YouTubers earn an average salary of about £33,700 per year. For some, that’s enough to be a full-time job.
Influencer Marketing Hub’s YouTube Money Calculator provides a handy way to estimate that income based on views and engagement (how viewers actually interact with content), giving an average ad revenue income of $18 (£13.44) for every 1,000 views.
Aside from ads, YouTubers can also earn money from YouTube Premium, channel memberships, Super Chats, Super Stickers, and sponsored content.
Some YouTubers are happy to open up about their finances. Chidera Peters (62,000 subscribers) makes money from ads, digital products, and affiliate links from content that “ranges from personal finance to marriage and lifestyle.” Her 2024 income totalled about £14,500, but her monthly income fluctuated from a low of about £384 in September to a high of about £5,300 in December.
Not all profiteering YouTubers earn in the thousands though. Side Hustle Simon (2,300 subscribers) made £166 for 10,000 views.
At the higher end of the scale, Jade Beason (287,000 subscribers) totalled £166,400 from when her channel was first monetised in April 2021 to August 2025, including about £1,650 from channel memberships and £2,300 from Premium accounts. Her CPM (cost per mille, or how much advertisers spend to show ads) came in at about £23.50 per 1,000 views.
How about a digital creator salary for TikTok? It’s relatively new compared to YouTube, but research from Exploding Topics indicates an average content creator salary on TikTok falls between £12,000 and £20,000.
That’s probably not enough to live on – at least not independently – but attracting more viewers than your average UK TikToker can bring in significantly higher sums. Rank Tracker estimates TikTokers earn £0.015 to £0.035 per 1,000 views, while those in TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program reportedly earn between £0.30 and £0.75 per 1,000 views.
Influencer Marketing Hub has a calculator to estimate earnings. Aside from ads, TikTokers can earn through subscriptions, live gifts, and shopping. Limelight Digital reports that TikTokers with over 100,000 followers can make between roughly £100 and £750 for sponsored posts.
Here’s how those numbers work in the wild:
- @charli0191 (82,000 followers) made £3,000 for one video that went viral with 20.7 million views.
- @rhia.official (16.2 million followers) reportedly earned over £12,000 per sponsored post in 2023
- @tombirchy (538,000 followers) says he earned “about £7,000” from 50 million views in one month
- @RoxanneFreeman (54,000 followers) has talked of earning up to £5,000 a month
Having cancelled its Reels Play bonus program in 2023, Instagram doesn’t offer its creators a way to earn directly from their content. Instagrammers can, however, make money from features such as subscriptions, Badges, Gifts, and, most importantly, sponsored content through collaborations with brands.
Influencer Marketing Hub’s money calculator for Instagram projects earnings based purely on sponsored posts, and Instagram’s Creator Marketplace offers a built-in network for eligible users to connect with interested brands.
Limelight Digital estimates UK micro-influencers (10,000 to 50,000 followers) typically make £100 to £500 per post, while those with over a million can rake in over £10,000 per post.
Here’s how Shopify breaks things down:
- 1,000 to 10,000 followers: $10 (£7.40) to $100 (£75) per post
- 10,001 to 100,000 followers: $100 (£75) to $500 (£374) per post
- 100,001 to 500,000 followers: $500 (£374) to $5,000 (£3,700) per post
- 501,000 to 1 million followers: $5,000 (£3,700) to $10,000 (£7,500) per post
- 1 million or more followers: Over $10,000 (£7,500) per post
As for annual income, Maddyness estimates that Instagram influencers with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers earn an average of just over £1,000 per month, while those with more than 1 million followers average about £11,000 per month.
For real-world context, Sophie “Mrs. Hinch” Hinchliffe (4.8 million followers) made an estimated £4.4 million last year.
Credit: Sandu Herta/Shutterstock
Twitch is still the king of streaming. Ads bring in cash, but earning on Twitch revolves around cheering with Bits and attracting subscribers. UK subscription tier prices currently stand at:
- Tier 1: £4.99 per month
- Tier 2: £9.99 per month
- Tier 3: £24.99 per month
Glassdoor estimates that Twitch streamers earn an average of about £36,000 per year, but they add that “some professionals have reported earning up to roughly £113,383.” Evolve Accountancy used a report from Streamer Facts to estimate average monthly earnings based on viewer numbers:
- 5 to 10 viewers per stream: about £43 to £170 per month
- 50 viewers per stream: about £170 to £650 per month
- 100 viewers per stream: about £860 to £1,300 per month
- 1,000 viewers per stream: about £4,300 per month
- 5,000 viewers per stream: about £11,200 per month
- 10,000 viewers per stream: about £25,900 per month
Metrics such as followers, subscribers, and views naturally have a major impact on your earning potential as a UK content creator. As a rule, income grows as your audience does. Several other factors, however, can impact the salary UK creators should expect.
Engagement
Most people view content passively, but some will comment, like, or share. Those interactions, divided by your follower count and multiplied by 100, provide your engagement rate. A higher engagement rate tends to equal higher earnings.
Niche
The value brands place on being associated with your content depends largely on the niche you choose. Some profitable niches on particular social platforms include making money online for YouTube, travel for Instagram, and finance and business for TikTok.
Platform
Exactly where you post impacts how much you make. YouTube is estimated to be the most lucrative thanks to its huge reach and diverse monetisation options.
Revenue streams
Your monthly earnings should increase if you start producing user-generated content (UGC), apply for UGC jobs, use a crowdfunding platform like Patreon, sell your own products, or add any further income streams.