YouTube sponsorships are priced on views, not subscribers. Sponsorship CPMs frequently sit between $15 and $30 per 1,000 views. By channel size, Influencer Marketing Hub puts a sponsored video at $200 to $1,000+ on channels with 10K to 100K subscribers and $20,000 to $50,000+ on channels above 1M. Finance and tech audiences cost more, gaming less. Usage rights and exclusivity are extras. Want a number for your case? Use the YouTube sponsorship calculator.
How YouTubers price a sponsorship
Almost every creator and agency starts from the same formula: expected views ÷ 1,000 × CPM. CPM is the price per 1,000 views. If a channel’s recent long videos get a median of 50,000 views and the agreed CPM is $25, the base price of one integration is about $1,250. Then come the extras: usage rights, exclusivity, extra deliverables.
The key word is expected. A channel with 1 million subscribers that now gets 30,000 views per video is a 30,000-view channel. Use the median of the last 10 long videos, not the average, which one viral outlier can inflate.
Rates by channel size
Subscriber tiers are a rough shortcut, useful for a first budget. They are not how the final price is set.
Price per sponsored video, by channel size (log scale)
IMH = Influencer Marketing Hub. Sources, dates and how to read them in the table below.
See the table with sources
| Channel size | Price per sponsored video | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Videos with 1K-10K views | From ~$60 | HypeAuditor, 2025 (2024 data) |
| Nano, 1K-10K subscribers | $20-$200+ | Influencer Marketing Hub, Aug 2026 |
| Micro, 10K-100K subscribers | $200-$1,000+ | Influencer Marketing Hub, Aug 2026 |
| Micro, 15K-75K followers | $2,500-$9,000 | impact.com, 2025 |
| Mid-tier, 100K-500K subscribers | $1,000-$10,000+ | Influencer Marketing Hub, Aug 2026 |
| Macro, 500K-1M subscribers | $10,000-$20,000+ | Influencer Marketing Hub, Aug 2026 |
| Mega, 1M+ subscribers | $20,000-$50,000+ | Influencer Marketing Hub, Aug 2026 |
How to read this: the two micro rows disagree by almost ten times, and that is the point. Influencer Marketing Hub says its table reflects 2025 and early 2026 prices from benchmark surveys and data aggregators it does not name. impact.com sells partnership software and bases its figures on its own programs team’s rate cards. HypeAuditor’s figure comes from its State of Influencer Marketing 2025 report and uses 2024 data. Subscriber tiers hide huge differences in views, so treat them as a starting point only.
Rates by CPM and by niche
CPM is the fairer way to compare channels of different sizes. It also shows why two channels with the same views can charge very different prices: what an audience buys matters more than how big it is.
See the table with sources
| What | CPM (per 1,000 views) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube sponsorships in general | Frequently $15-$30 | Influencer Marketing Hub, Aug 2026 |
| Gaming | $4-$12 | Creators Agency, May 2026 |
| Beauty and lifestyle | $10-$30 | Creators Agency, May 2026 |
| Tech and software | $20-$60 | Creators Agency, May 2026 |
| Finance, mid-roll integration | $50-$200 | Creators Agency, May 2026 |
How to read this: Creators Agency is an agency that represents finance creators. It cites an index of 200,000+ sponsored videos from 12,000+ channels but does not explain how each range was calculated, so read these as its working ranges, not as a study. We found no independent public study of YouTube sponsorship CPMs with a published method.
Get a number for your channel shortlist. Our YouTube sponsorship calculator turns views, niche and format into a budget range in seconds.
$750 to $1,500
Estimated creator fee for one video at the general YouTube sponsorship CPM of $15 to $30 per 1,000 views (Influencer Marketing Hub, Aug 2026), with a $60 minimum. Niche, market and format change it.
Open the full calculatorWhat pushes the price up
- Niche. Audiences that buy expensive products (finance, software, VPN, B2B) cost more per view than entertainment or gaming.
- Market and language. The country and language of the audience change the price: a view from a market where your customers spend more is worth more to you, and creators know it.
- Format. A 60- to 90-second integration, a short pre-roll mention, a full dedicated video and a Short are four different prices. See integration vs dedicated video.
- Usage rights. Running the creator’s clip in your own ads adds to the fee. ValueYourNetwork puts three months of paid social rights at +25-50% on the base fee (source, Aug 2026).
- Exclusivity. Blocking competitors for a period costs the creator deals, so it costs you money. The longer the period, the higher the price.
- Deliverables and timing. Extra Shorts, pinned comments, community posts, rush dates and extra rounds of edits all add up.
Flat fee, CPM or performance?
Most YouTube deals are a flat fee per video, calculated from expected views. Some brands negotiate a view guarantee: if the video falls short after 30 days, the creator adds a mention or a Short. Pure pay-per-sale deals are rare with established creators, but a flat fee plus a commission works well: impact.com cites a flat fee plus 10-20% of sales as a common structure (source, 2025).
Whatever the model, keep one thing in mind: a YouTube video keeps getting views for months. Agentio, a sponsorship platform, found that across 10,000+ integrations on its platform about 40% of views arrive 30 days or more after the video goes live (source, Mar 2026). A fair price looks at the full life of the video, not the first week.
How to negotiate without overpaying
- Ask for real numbers. Median views of the last 10 long videos, audience by country and age, and screenshots from YouTube Studio. Not a media kit from last year.
- Translate every quote into CPM. It is the only way to compare a 40,000-view channel with a 400,000-view one.
- Pay for what you will use. If you will not run the clip in ads, do not buy usage rights. If competitors are not active in that niche, keep exclusivity short.
- Offer repetition instead of squeezing price. A creator who gets several videos in a row is more motivated, and their audience hears your name more than once.
- Agree on tracking up front. Link, code and placement in the brief, so nobody argues about results later.
The cheapest creator is rarely the best deal. The best deal is the creator whose audience buys your product, at a CPM that pays back. That is the deal worth negotiating for. See how we run YouTube sponsorship campaigns.
To judge a price against results, read our guide to measuring YouTube sponsorship ROI.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a YouTube sponsorship cost?
It depends on the views the channel really gets. Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2026 rate guide puts a sponsored video at $200 to $1,000+ for channels with 10K to 100K subscribers and $20,000 to $50,000+ for channels above 1M subscribers, with sponsorship CPMs frequently between $15 and $30.
What is a normal CPM for a YouTube integration?
Influencer Marketing Hub says YouTube sponsorship CPMs frequently fall between $15 and $30. Niche moves it a lot: the agency Creators Agency quotes $4 to $12 for gaming, $10 to $30 for beauty and lifestyle, $20 to $60 for tech and $50 to $200 for finance mid-roll integrations.
Should I pay by subscribers or by views?
By views. Subscriber count includes people who stopped watching years ago. Take the median views of the last 10 long videos, excluding outliers, divide it by 1,000 and multiply the result by the CPM you agree on.
Is a dedicated video more expensive than an integration?
Yes. A dedicated video takes the whole video and the creator’s full attention, so it costs more. Creators Agency advises finance creators to price dedicated videos at 2 to 4 times their mid-roll rate. There is no universal multiplier.
What makes a YouTube sponsorship more expensive?
Niche and buying power of the audience, the market and language, the format and length of the mention, usage rights for ads, exclusivity against competitors, extra deliverables and tight deadlines.
