How much should I charge for an Instagram post?
Start with the fee for comparable completed collaborations, then review what the new brief includes: content format, deliverables, usage rights, exclusivity and paid promotion. Use that comparison to prepare your quote. Follower count alone does not describe the work or permissions you are agreeing to provide.
This guide helps you assemble a quote from your own experience and the actual brief. It does not provide a universal rate card or claim that a brand will accept a particular price.
1. Get the full brief before naming a price
Before answering “What is your rate?”, ask the brand to confirm:
- Content: a single photo, carousel, Reel, Stories or a package, including how many deliverables are required.
- Production: the concept, filming or photography, editing, approvals and requested revisions.
- Timing: delivery deadlines and publication dates.
- Brand usage: whether the brand wants to reuse your content, on which channels, in which territories and for how long.
- Paid promotion: whether boosting or other paid-media use is requested and its agreed period.
- Exclusivity: the explicitly named categories or competitor brands and restriction dates.
- Payment: who pays, the currency, invoicing process and agreed payment deadline.
If the brief changes after you quote, review the scope and confirm any revised fee before accepting the additional work.
2. Find your closest completed collaboration
Look for previous paid work with a similar format, number of deliverables, production effort and permissions. Note the agreed fee and what it covered. A one-photo post with creator publication only is a different reference from a video package that includes brand reuse and paid promotion.
If you have several comparable deals, review them together rather than relying on one unusual project. Keep currencies consistent when comparing figures and make the treatment of expenses clear in your quote.
3. Separate creating the content from the permissions
Write down the work you will deliver and the permissions the brand is requesting. Keep exclusivity separate from usage rights and boosting: each describes a different part of the agreement.
A previous fee can be a starting point, but it does not automatically cover a longer usage period, more content or a new restriction. Ask the brand to clarify unclear terms before treating two briefs as comparable. Read the guide to exclusivity, usage rights and boosting for details to record.
A worked comparison using an illustrative fee
Suppose you previously agreed £300 for one Instagram photo post, published on your own account, with no additional brand reuse, boosting or exclusivity recorded. That is an invented example for explaining the comparison, not a market rate or recommended fee.
A new brief asks for a carousel, a round of revisions, three months of brand reuse, a paid promotion period and a category restriction. Before reusing the £300 quote, list what has changed:
- Does the carousel require more production work than the previous photo?
- Which revisions are included, and how will extra requests be handled?
- Where may the brand reuse the content, and when does that permission end?
- What paid promotion is requested, and what are its dates?
- Which future collaborations would the explicitly agreed restriction cover?
The example cannot produce a justified new price without your inputs. Its purpose is to show why the old headline fee alone is an incomplete comparison. Decide what the additional scope means for your quote and confirm it with the brand.
What if this is my first paid Instagram post?
Without completed paid work, you do not yet have a personal pricing history to compare. Start by listing the production tasks, time, any direct costs and requested permissions. Prepare a clearly scoped proposal with a fee you are willing to accept, and discuss the brand’s budget and requirements.
Record the agreed fee and final terms when the collaboration is completed. That record becomes a reference for future opportunities. Paclara’s Price a Deal needs at least two completed collaborations before it can suggest a price.
Can I calculate my price from follower count?
Follower count can describe audience size, but it does not capture the deliverables, production effort or usage scope. A follower-based calculation alone leaves those questions unanswered. Keep relevant audience information available for the brand while building your quote around the complete brief.
How Paclara helps you prepare the next quote
Paclara is a local-first iPhone app for creators. Once you have recorded at least two completed collaborations, Price a Deal uses your own completed history and new-deal terms with Paclara’s deterministic pricing model to suggest a price and range. It does not pool other creators’ rates or generate quotes through an AI service.
The result supports your decision; it does not guarantee an accepted fee. Learn how Paclara’s creator pricing support works, or use the brand deal tracker to keep completed work and agreed terms together.
A quote checklist you can reuse
Before sending your fee, check that your proposal identifies the deliverables, delivery and publication dates, included revisions, usage permissions, separate boosting and exclusivity terms, fee, currency and payment deadline. Confirm the agreed scope in writing.
After completing the work, keep the fee and payment status up to date. The payment tracker guide includes a practical follow-up routine.