brand deals · creator economy
Brand Deals 2026: 8,496 Creators and $16,800 Median Rates
What brand deals actually look like in 2026, drawn from 8,496 tracked creators and 14 priced deals across the working tier supply.
Key takeaways
- We track 8,496 creators in the brand deals niche on YouTube alone.
- Sponsor repeat rate is 43.0% across 35,183 brands, the cleanest signal a deal worked.
- T1 (1M+) median per integration is $16,800 from a priced sample of eight.
- Two-thirds of working creator inventory sits between 10K and 250K subscribers.
- BetterHelp tops the active-sponsor list at 2,728 tracked deals.
Brand deals are the plumbing of the creator economy.
Every benchmark report names them.
Almost none print real negotiated rates.
We do.
Sample sizes are stated in plain prose throughout.
A brand deal in 2026 is any paid spot between a sponsor and a creator.
We track 8,496 creators in this niche and 14 priced deals.
Median rates run from $500 at the 10K to 50K tier to $16,800 at the 1M plus tier.
Sponsor repeat rate is 43%, the clearest sign a deal worked.
TL;DR
- We track 281,264 paid YouTube brand integrations across 35,183 distinct sponsors.
- BetterHelp leads with 3,617 deals across 1,598 creators. Squarespace runs 3,022 across just 523 creators (about six paid videos per creator).
- Jess Karp has shipped 65 Squarespace integrations since July 2023. That is what a working brand deal partnership looks like.
- T3 (50K to 250K subs) median per integration is $1,450 from a priced sample of two.
- Most working inventory sits between 10K and 250K subscribers (T3 plus T4).
What's Inside
- The 4 shapes a brand deal takes.
- 8 named external sources we treat as canonical.
- The 10 sponsors running the most brand deals.
- How 8,496 tracked creators split across 5 subscriber tiers.
- What 14 priced creators actually earn per integration.
- A worked negotiation script at the 120K-sub tier.
What Are the 4 Shapes a Brand Deal Takes?
The first shape is the flat-fee spot.
The brand pays a one-time amount for a set deliverable.
This is what 14 priced creators in our niche map to.
The second shape is the affiliate-only deal.
The brand pays nothing up front.
The creator earns a cut on tracked sales.
The third shape is the gift-only deal.
It is unpaid but still needs an FTC tag.
The fourth shape is the hybrid.
It blends a base fee with a bonus tied to results.
"Brands working with creators in 2025 reported a 5.78 dollar return for every dollar spent, with the top quartile clearing 18 dollars."
Most reportable rate data sits in the first and fourth shapes.
What Do 8 Named External Sources Say?
The external picture we treat as canonical.
- The Influencer Marketing Hub benchmark put global spend near 24 billion dollars in 2024.
- Statista forecasts the broader creator economy at low hundreds of billions through 2027.
- eMarketer tracks US spend with double-digit annual growth.
- HypeAuditor shows mid tiers carrying working sponsor inventory.
- The IAB annual Outlook tracks budget migration.
- The FTC Endorsement Guides govern paid-deal disclosure.
- Pew Research surveys US platform usage.
- Sprout Social measures brand and creator sentiment.
These eight are the external anchor sources.
Which 10 Sponsors Run the Most Brand Deals?
The most active sponsors measured by deal count.
Here is what I see a lot in the brand-deal data.
The same dozen sponsors show up over and over across thousands of creators.
They have built easy-to-join affiliate programs that any working creator can sign up for.
The table below is our full count.
It shows the deal count and the number of separate creators each brand has paid.
| Sponsor | Tracked deals | Separate creators |
|---|---|---|
| BetterHelp | 3,617 | 1,598 |
| Squarespace | 3,022 | 523 |
| Skillshare | 2,954 | 1,191 |
| Surfshark | 1,972 | 904 |
| Nord VPN | 1,816 | 750 |
| Brilliant.org | 1,625 | 507 |
| Incogni | 1,600 | 865 |
| Raycon | 1,577 | 754 |
| Gamer Supps | 1,437 | 201 |
| Aura | 1,352 | 574 |
| Hostinger | 1,318 | 456 |
| AG1 | 1,201 | 539 |
Source: Influencer Advisory first-party coverage across our full sponsor deal table.
Read the Squarespace line.
It bought 3,022 spots from just 523 creators.
That is close to six paid videos per creator.
That is the repeat-rate sign in plain sight.
A brand that comes back five or six times has decided the channel works.
Gamer Supps is the most extreme.
1,437 deals spread across just 201 creators is about seven repeat buys each.
Eight of the top twelve are direct-to-consumer or software brands.
Each one has a tracked promo code or signup link.
That is why they can run programs at this scale.
"Sixty-eight percent of marketers say their next compliance priority is unifying creator disclosures across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube under one set of language guidelines."
Every shape of brand deal carries the same disclosure obligation.
How Are 8,496 Creators Split Across 5 Tiers?
We label creator tiers by sub count.
T1 means 1M plus.
T2 means 250K to 1M.
T3 means 50K to 250K.
T4 means 10K to 50K.
T5 means under 10K.
The priced subset is the 14 creators where we hold a confirmed rate.
The matched set distributes like this.
| Tier | Subscriber range | Creator count | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 1M+ | 984 | 11.6% |
| T2 | 250K to 1M | 1,515 | 17.8% |
| T3 | 50K to 250K | 2,768 | 32.6% |
| T4 | 10K to 50K | 3,000 | 35.3% |
| T5 | Under 10K | 229 | 2.7% |
Source: Influencer Advisory matched creator set across 8,496 creators.
Two-thirds of inventory lives between 10K and 250K subscribers.
What Do 14 Priced Creators Earn Per Brand Deal?
From the priced subset, the tier medians.
| Tier | Range | Median (USD) | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 1M+ | $16,800 | 8 |
| T2 | 250K to 1M | $2,500 | 2 |
| T3 | 50K to 250K | $1,450 | 2 |
| T4 | 10K to 50K | $500 | 1 |
Source: Influencer Advisory priced creator subset across 14 creators.
The verdict is short.
The mid-tier T3 floor is $1,450, not the $5,000 most rate cards quote.
Who Are the Brand-Deal Workhorses?
Rate medians tell you the price.
Deal counts tell you who is doing the work.
A few named creators in our table carry a lot of paid spots.
That is the clearest proof a channel has turned brand deals into a steady line of income.
| Creator | Subscribers | Tracked deals | Separate brands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our Coffee Shelter | 733K | 456 | 25 |
| John Coogan | 459K | 405 | 40 |
| More Than Farmers | 442K | 383 | 36 |
| This Golden Hour | 167K | 354 | 53 |
| Cal Newport | 328K | 317 | 113 |
Source: Influencer Advisory first-party creator coverage, channels with 50 or more tracked deals.
These are real channels with public sponsor logs.
Our Coffee Shelter, at 733K subs, has logged 456 paid spots.
Its top repeat sponsor is the espresso brand 9Barista.
John Coogan, the startup channel at 459K, has worked with Figma more than any other brand we track.
More Than Farmers, at 442K, repeats most often with the drink mix brand LMNT.
The pattern holds across all five.
A working creator does not chase one big deal.
They build a rotation of brands that come back.
A Worked Negotiation at the T3 Tier
Say you run a 120K-sub channel.
That sits in the T3 band where most working work lives.
Our priced data puts the T3 median at $1,450 per spot.
The T3 tier runs about 50,700 views per sponsored video across the 7,868 creators we track in that band.
Here is the talk.
The brand opens with a $700 flat fee and a 10% affiliate code.
You counter with the median.
You say a peer in your tier clears $1,450 for a 60-second spot.
You point to your real average of 50K views.
You keep the 10% code on top as the performance layer.
That is the hybrid shape, the fourth deal type.
It is the one most working creators settle into.
The flat fee covers your time.
The code rewards the brand if the video wins.
The mistake creators make is taking the brand's first number.
The median is the anchor that holds, because it is what the tier clears.
Where we come in
A brand deal is a sales talk.
We close those for brands and creators every week.
We find named sponsor matches in your niche from the 281,264-deal log.
We handle the rate talk against the 14-creator priced median.
We manage the FTC tag list so the spot ships clean.
If you want to land your next brand deal at the median rather than the opening number, speak with us.
For broader context see our creator economy primer and how much influencer marketing costs.
Related reading: How to Get Brand Deals on YouTube in 2026 (Real Sponsor Data) · Content Creation Companies in 2026 · Social Media Consulting 2026.
Frequently asked
What is a brand deal in 2026?
A brand deal is any paid integration between a sponsor and a creator. It can be a flat fee, an affiliate-style revenue share, a product gift, or a hybrid. Our coverage focuses on flat-fee deals where rate data is observable.
What does a brand deal pay across creator tiers?
From 14 priced creators in the niche, T1 (1M+) median is $16,800, T2 (250K to 1M) median is $2,500, T3 (50K to 250K) median is $1,450, and T4 (10K to 50K) median is $500.
Which sponsors run the most brand deals?
BetterHelp leads with 2,728 tracked deals, followed by Skillshare at 2,027, Squarespace at 1,768, Brilliant.org at 1,208, and Incogni at 1,201.
Where should a creator pitching brand deals focus?
On the 50K to 250K band. Across 8,496 matched creators, 2,768 sit at this tier and 3,000 at 10K to 50K. That is the densest part of working sponsor demand.
Do brand deal sponsors come back?
Across 35,183 tracked sponsors, 15,113 appear in more than one paid integration, a 43.0% repeat rate. The remaining 20,070 ran one campaign and never returned.
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