How to Make Money on Instagram in 2025: 13 Ideas for Creators and Small Businesses
From subscriptions to UGC to merch — discover 13 ways to monetize your Instagram following, even if you don’t have a large following.
Let’s start by busting a common misconception: You don’t need millions of followers or superstar status to make money on Instagram.
Micro and even nano-influencers on Instagram are supplementing — or even replacing — their income with content creation on the social platform.
In 2025, there are dozens of routes to monetizing, too. And chances are, one of them fits your style.
Most creators make money on Instagram in one (or more!) of these three ways:
- Making money via the Instagram app: This means earning money using Instagram features like subscriptions, gifts, and badges.
- Making money via collaboration with brands: Some creators make money on Instagram by promoting other brands on their account or creating content that companies can repurpose (like ads).
- Making money by promoting your small business: The last way to monetize on Instagram is less direct — using it as a promotion tool for your own business. This could be an online store, a service, a course, memberships, a community, etc.
In this article, I’ll share 13 ways you can start making money on Instagram using the three camps above. Whether you’re just starting on Instagram or already have a sizable following, there are options here for everyone.
Jump to a section:
- 1. Earn money by offering exclusive content via subscriptions
- 2. Earn money by getting gifts from fans
- 3. Earn money by going live using badges
- 4. Earn money by earning bonuses
- 5. Earn money via influencer marketing
- 6. Earn money by creating user-generated content
- 7. Earn money via affiliate marketing
- 8. Earn money by creating an Instagram shop and shoppable posts
- 9. Earn money by promoting your products or services
- 10. Earn money by offering courses or membership programs
- 11. Earn money by running Instagram ads
- 12. Earn money by designing merch
- 13. Earn money by selling your used products
1. Earn money by offering exclusive content via subscriptions
Subscriptions are a way to share exclusive content with your community on the platform — you charge a monthly fee for that content.
Think of subscriptions as the Patreon of the Instagram app. Superfans can become paid subscribers of their favorite creator and receive exclusive content in return.
With an Instagram Subscription, you can share exclusive posts, reels, lives, stories, and chats with your subscribers. Subscribers can find the content easily on your Instagram feed in a new tab using the crown icon.
Subscriptions are an excellent way to earn monthly recurring revenue using Instagram. Choose a fee that’s high enough for the value of your content, but still accessible for your Instagram followers.
To enable subscriptions on your Instagram account, you must:
- Be at least 18 years old
- Have a professional Instagram account with at least 10,000 followers
- Reside in the country where it’s available (here’s a list for your reference)
- Have an Instagram profile that meets Instagram’s Content Monetization and Partner Monetization policies
2. Earn money by getting gifts from fans
If subscriptions are like Patreon, gifts are like Buy Me a Coffee. Your followers can show appreciation on your Instagram Reels by giving you a gift (aka, money).
How do users buy you a gift? They purchase ‘stars’ using their Instagram app and share these virtual gifts with you using their stars. You receive $.01 USD for every star someone spends on you. In simple terms, 100 stars = $1. You can take out this money when your total balance reaches $25 USD.
Instagram offers gifts only to creators with a professional Instagram account and at least 500 followers. It’s also available in selected countries only — you can find the eligible countries here.
3. Earn money by going live using badges
When you go live on the Instagram app, people watching can purchase badges for you as a sign of support and appreciation. You’ll see a heart next to the usernames of users who have purchased a badge.
You can earn badges in increments of $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99 increments (all USD). To make the most of badges, remind users that they’re enabled at the beginning of your live and/or when new people join in.
Badges are only available to Instagram creators in the United States who are 18+ and have at least 10,000 followers. Instagram is rolling out badges to countries like the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, Australia, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico on an invitation-only basis, so expect this feature to roll out to other countries soon!
4. Earn money by earning bonuses
Right now, bonuses are the only way Instagram pays money to you as a platform, with no audience involved. You get these bonuses paid on 31 December, New Year’s Eve — and they are available for reels, carousels, and single-image posts.
Instagram Bonuses are currently invite-only for creators in South Korea and the US. If you receive the invitation, you’ll see it on your dashboard.
Once you complete the onboarding flow, the platform will count up to 150 pieces of content shared from the week that you activate until the end of the bonus opportunity. The more views and/or plays (replays not included) your content receives, the more money you earn.
To receive the invitation for bonuses, you should have a minimum of five million views across reels shared within the last three months.
Right now, making money on Instagram solely using your Instagram content isn’t the wisest strategy, unless you already have a large Instagram creator account with strong personal branding.
Adam Mosseri says so himself: “If you have a few thousand followers, it doesn’t make sense to focus on trying to monetize that audience,” he says. “You should instead focus on growing that audience or using Instagram in other ways.”
That said, you can still try this approach to:
- Become an early adopter of Instagram’s monetizing features
- Supplement your income from other sources (which includes the other ways to earn on Instagram, below)
5. Earn money via influencer marketing
The most common way to partner with brands is via influencer marketing: You create sponsored posts on your Instagram page for a brand in exchange for a fee. This partnership between creator Jade Beason and Adobe Express is the perfect example:
Sponsored content usually includes a “paid partnership” tag or an #ad hashtag. Brands pay Instagram influencers (like you!) for a spot in their feed because they can build brand awareness and earn money by reaching the creator’s audience.
How much can you earn via sponsored posts? It depends on your niche, location, content quality, follower count, engagement rate, luck, and sales skills.
Influencer Marketing Hub’s study found nano-influencers (Instagram influencers with 1,000 – 10,000 followers) earn between $10 and $100 per post — it only goes up from there.
- Nano-influencers (1K–10K followers): $10-$100 per post
- Micro-influencers (10K–50K followers): $100-$500 per post
- Mid-tier influencers (50K–500K followers): followers per post
- Macro-influencers (500K–1M): $5,000-$10,000 per post
- Mega-influencers (1M+ followers): $10,000+ per post
- Celebrities: Cost varies, but can earn $1 million+ per post
It’s worth noting that the numbers vary a lot — sometimes, with little changes in the scope of work. For example, a brand will pay more to get usage rights for your sponsored posts.
Modash’s recent research also had numbers for the charges of Instagram Stories, which vary slightly from the Influencer Marketing Hub data:
- Micro-influencers: $500-$3,000 per story
- Mid-tier influencers: $2,000-$10,000 per story
- Macro-influencers: $5,000-$30,000 per story
- Mega-influencers: $30,000+ per story
Here's how much they found influencers charge for Instagram Reels:
- Micro-influencers: $750-$5,000 per reel
- Mid-tierinfluencers: $5,000-$20,000 per reel
- Macro-influencers: $10,000-$50,000 per reel
- Mega-influencers: $50,000+ per reel
Partnering with your favorite brands to create content about how you use their product sounds like a dream! But how do you find these brands? And how do you initiate a collaboration?
Many brands — those that actively practice influencer marketing — might reach out to you proactively when they notice you have an engaged social media community that overlaps with their target audience.
They might use third-party tools (like influencer discovery software) for this, but you can also grab their attention by tagging them in your posts whenever you create content about them. This can also be an excellent way to showcase your content creation abilities.
If you are in eligible countries, it’s also worth joining Instagram’s creator marketplace. It’s a hub for helping brands connect with the right Instagram influencers for their customers.
Lastly, it’s also worth directly reaching out to the influencer marketers of your favorite brands or even popping them a DM.
A word to the wise, though: Don’t overload your feed with brand-related posts. It can come across as salesy.
Annie-Mai Hodge, founder of Girl Power Marketing, says an overload of brand collabs (especially inauthentic ones) can be harmful to growing your Instagram following and engagement long term.
“If your feed starts to feel like a media kit, people stop engaging, and that hurts your chances of monetizing in the long run,” she says.
“Brands want creators who have influence, not just reach. That means your content should always be designed to serve, entertain, or connect with your audience first.”
6. Earn money by creating user-generated content
Brand partnerships today extend beyond sponsored content. User-generated content (UGC) is when you create branded content, but don’t post it on your Instagram page. Brands might post your content on their own account or use it for Instagram advertising.
For example, hair care brand Fix My Curls often reshares videos by creators (that mention their products) and credits them in post captions.
Creating user-generated content is an excellent way to earn money without giving away a spot on your feed to a brand partnership. Plus, you don’t need a large follower count to create UGC — all you need are solid content creation skills.
7. Earn money via affiliate marketing
Brands are often willing to pay creators a cut of every sale they bring in via their content. This is called affiliate marketing.
Companies will share promo codes or a trackable link (with a UTM code) to calculate how many sales you bring in. These links or promo codes often contain discounts you can share with your followers. Buffer has a free UTM builder that can help you create these unique links in a few steps.
This post by creator Hitika Sachdev is a perfect example of an affiliate partnership. The brand can use the code “Hitika94” to track every sale coming via her.
What if you have promo codes? Use a link in bio tool like Buffer’s Start Page where you can customize the text associated with the link — add your discount code in the text and link to the brand’s website.
Many times, affiliate relationships arise from influencer-brand partnerships. A brand might collaborate with you a few times for sponsored content and then offer a performance-based incentive to transition to affiliate marketing.
But you can also find affiliate programs that are open to all creators. For example, Pura Vida has an affiliate program offering a 15% commission on each sale you bring in. All you have to do is sign up using their form, and they’ll let you in if you’re eligible.
In open-ended programs like these, the affiliate relationships aren't 1:1. You’ll probably have a dashboard that will calculate all your earnings, and you’ll have to buy the brand’s products on your own. But it’s still a great addition to earn a little extra money using your content — especially if it resonates with your audience.
The best part about creating branded content is that you don’t need a large follower count or a product/service of your own to get started. And still, there are plenty of options to collaborate with brands!
8. Earn money by creating an Instagram shop and shoppable posts
Instagram Shop is a way to sell your products directly via the Instagram app. You can post a picture or a reel of your product with a tappable link that goes directly to your product catalog.
When users click this link, they’ll see all the info about the product, including prices.
Instagram Shop is available in select countries, and only users with an Instagram business account are eligible to use this feature.
If you don’t want to use (or don’t have access to) the Instagram Shop but love its features, Buffer’s Shop Grid could be a great alternative.
Anyone who taps on the link in your bio will see the custom links you add. These can be to your website’s homepage, your bestsellers — whatever makes the most sense for you!
Bonus: You’ll be able to track how many links each product or post gets.
9. Earn money by promoting your products or services
The Instagram app can be an excellent place to build awareness about your own products or services. You can do this by creating a brand account and forming an Instagram strategy. You might not sell products right away, but you will educate people about your brand and its products.
For example, one of my favorite brand accounts on the platform is tl;dv (an AI meeting recorder). Their posts get great engagement because the characters are relatable, the scripts are funny, and the content isn’t salesy.
Plus, the brand often collaborates with others to boost their reach — and double down on their unique humor.
If you’re a creator, you can also sell products or services using your creator account by following similar practices. Create high-quality content, partner with other creators, educate people about your offering, and don’t be too ‘in the face’ with your sales strategy.
For example, travel creator Aakanksha Monga often shares videos about her digital products that might help her audience travel smarter.
10. Earn money by offering courses or membership programs
If you’re a creator, you can also earn money by sharing an online course or a membership program that teaches your audience to do something you’re an expert in.
Adriana Blanc often promotes her fitness membership program using her Instagram account.
Promoting courses, memberships, or exclusive communities is not much different from selling products or services. Focus on highlighting the value prop of your offer and hitting the pain points of your target audience.
11. Earn money by running Instagram ads
Sometimes, you may have to spend money to make money. Enter: Instagram advertising.
Running Instagram ads means boosting some content on your feed, so it reaches a broader audience. Ideally, this boosted content helps you sell products and earn more money than you are spending.
Advertising can help you reach new users and build your audience — in turn, helping you sell more products — but that doesn’t mean hitting ‘boost’ and hoping for the best.
I recommend you check out our guide to getting started with Instagram ads to learn the best practices and build a simple strategy to give you the highest return on investment (ROI).
12. Earn money by designing merch
Creators who have built a strong personal brand on the Instagram app can monetize it by designing merchandise unique to their brand.
For example, Ankita Chawla shared stories about the ‘wake up juice club’ for many months before she realized she had built a whole community around it. Soon, she started selling ‘wake up juice club’ merch — bags, caps, candles, water bottles, and t-shirts.
If you also find your community latching onto some concept or phrase you introduced — something that ties you and your audience together — consider selling merch that can take your relationship with your followers to the next level.
13. Earn money by selling your used products
If you’re a creator who often has unused or barely used products — like clothes, home decor items, PR packages — you can sell those on Instagram.
For example, fashion creator Kinnari Jain runs a clothing thrift shop where she sells clothes from her closet that she doesn’t use anymore.
The Instagram app has quite the market for used items — I’ve purchased a few items from Instagram thrift shops myself. You’ll do your pocket, the environment, and your audience good by selling products you no longer need.
Convert your posts to paychecks
This guide outlines several ideas to help you make money on Instagram. You can take your pick based on whether you like content creation, collaborating with brands, or building your own business — and don’t be afraid to experiment.
Regardless of your choice, one thing remains non-negotiable to earn money via Instagram: Consistently creating high-quality content for your audience. And as your followers add up, the admin work only increases — you have to respond to comments, juggle DMs, analyze performance, and much more. It can quickly become overwhelming.
Enter: Buffer. It takes the admin tasks off your plate so you can focus on what really matters. Whether you need help scheduling posts, understanding your analytics, engaging with your audience, or creating a customizable URL in your bio — it’s got you covered. Start for free today.
More Instagram resources:
- The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2025: We Analyzed 2 Million+ Posts to Find Out
- How to Schedule Instagram Stories in 2025 (2 Easy Methods + Tips)
- Instagram Image Size Guide 2025: Post, Story, and Reels Dimensions
- 13 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram in 2025
- How to Use Instagram Close Friends (and Pair With Broadcast Channels and Unlockable Reels)
- 26 Free Instagram Tools to Help Grow Your Account in 2025
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