What an influencer manager takes is set by your contract, not by any official rate, and the headline percentage tells you less than four other terms: the base the percentage is applied to, which deals and income streams it covers, how expenses come off, and how long commission keeps running after the relationship ends. The few fee limits written into law apply to regulated agents rather than every manager. New South Wales caps agent fees for film, television and electronic media work at ten per cent, and New York caps licensed theatrical employment agencies at ten per cent for most single engagements. Run your real deals through the worksheet below before agreeing to any number.
Why this page quotes no market rate
Search for manager commission and you will find confident ranges on agency blogs and law firm posts. We could not trace any of them to a public dataset, and most never say what the percentage is taken from or what work it pays for. A rate quoted without its base cannot be compared with another rate, so this guide deliberately gives no benchmark figure. It shows you how the fee is built so you can compare real offers line by line.
The structure itself is well documented. The federal arts body's Creative Workplaces guide to performers and agents notes that agents are usually paid a commission calculated as a percentage of the fee a performer earns for the work. The FTC's consumer advice on modeling scams describes the same pattern from the other side: real agencies get paid when you get paid, they pay you after the client pays them, and the contract should state the percentage they take.
Whether your representative is legally a manager or an agent affects which limits apply, a question covered in our guide to influencer managers versus talent agents. OnlyFans management fees work differently again, and have their own guide to OnlyFans agency commission rates.
Where the law caps or shapes the fee
| Place | What the official source says about fees | Source |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Agents may charge up to ten per cent for film, television or electronic media work, with a stepped cap for live performance; no joining, audition or retention fees; managers may exceed the caps only for additional services under a signed managerial agreement. | NSW Government performer representative rules |
| New York | A licensed agency's gross fee for a single theatrical engagement may not exceed ten per cent of compensation, or twenty per cent for orchestras, opera and concert work; deposits and advance fees are banned. | General Business Law section 185 |
| California | No percentage in the sections we read, but a licensed talent agency must file its fee schedule with the Labor Commissioner, post it, and wait seven days before a new fee takes effect. | Labor Code section 1700.24 |
| Great Britain | For listed entertainment and modelling occupations, an agency's fee may consist only of commission out of earnings from work it found, apart from some promotional listing fees, and that permission falls away if it also charges the hirer for the introduction. | Conduct Regulations 2003, regulation 26 |
These limits bind regulated agents and representatives. A consultant who sits outside those categories can charge whatever the contract says, which is why the rest of this guide focuses on the terms that decide the real cost.
The commission base: write it as a formula
“Gross” and “net” mean nothing until the contract says gross or net of what. A brand payment can pass through several hands before it reaches you: a brand-side agency may keep a cut, production costs may be paid out of the budget, a payment platform may take a processing fee, and the invoice may carry GST, VAT or sales tax. Each of those can sit inside or outside the base, and each choice changes the commission on every deal.
The NSW rules give a useful model of a carefully defined base. The total amount due to a performer, which the cap is measured against, leaves out travelling and meal allowances, holiday pay, long service leave, superannuation, overtime or penalty payments and rehearsal awards. Your contract can follow the same habit by naming what is excluded instead of leaving it to argument.
Ask for the base as a sentence you could calculate from an invoice, such as: commission is the stated rate applied to the fee the brand pays for your services, excluding tax collected on the invoice and pre-approved production costs passed through at cost. Ask your accountant whether commission should be calculated before or after tax in your country, because getting it wrong is a recurring cost.
Sourced, inbound and renewal deals
A sourced deal is one the manager found and closed. An inbound deal is one where the brand came to you, often through the contact address on your profile, and the manager handled negotiation and paperwork. A renewal is a repeat booking from a brand you already worked with. A single rate for all three is easy to accept without noticing that the work behind each is different.
In Great Britain the regulations already tie a regulated agency's permitted fee to work it found for the work-seeker, which shows how the line can be drawn. Elsewhere you negotiate it. Options include a lower rate for inbound deals the manager only papers, a schedule of brands you worked with before signing that stays commission-free or reduced, and a shared log of introductions so nobody argues later about who brought a deal in.
Decide too which income streams sit inside the agreement at all. Platform payouts, ad revenue shares, subscriptions, affiliate commissions and products you sell yourself are not brand deals, and a contract that commissions all income should explain what the manager does to earn a share of each.
Expenses, deductions and payments from both sides
Expenses are where a modest rate turns into a large deduction. Separate the manager's overheads, such as staff, software and their own travel, which commission is meant to cover, from costs incurred for a specific deal at your request, such as a shoot location or an editor. Ask for deal costs to need your written approval above a level you set, to be passed through at cost with receipts, and to appear on the statement for that deal.
Watch for money flowing to the manager from the brand side as well. British regulations remove an agency's permission to charge work-seekers where it also charges the hirer for introducing them. California goes further for licensed talent agencies: Labor Code section 1700.40 bans registration fees, requires fees and expenses collected for work that never materialised or never got paid to be repaid on demand, and bars agencies from steering you to photographers or other services they profit from. Even where no rule applies, a clause requiring disclosure of every payment the manager receives in connection with your work costs nothing to ask for.
Post-term commission: how long the tail runs
Post-term commission, often called a sunset or tail clause, lets a former manager keep earning on work connected to their time with you. A fair version is narrow: it covers deals signed during the term, it says whether renewals and extensions count, it has a fixed end date, and it may step down over that period. An unfair version pays the manager on anything you earn from any brand they ever spoke to, with no end.
Pin down the trigger words. “Substantially negotiated during the term” needs a definition, ideally a written offer or signed contract dated before termination. Our influencer management contract checklist covers how the tail interacts with termination, and if commission is already being withheld from you, see recovering unpaid fees from an influencer agency.
Commission scenario worksheet
Copy these lines into a spreadsheet and run three real or likely deals through them: one the manager would source, one inbound renewal, and one non-brand payout the contract might commission. Use the contract's exact wording for each line, not your memory of the call.
| Line | What to enter | Formula or check |
|---|---|---|
| A. Deal value | The fee the brand pays for your services, before tax | Take it from the brand contract or purchase order, not the pitch email |
| B. Tax on the invoice | GST, VAT or sales tax shown on the invoice | Keep it out of the base unless the contract says otherwise, and ask your accountant |
| C. Deductions before commission | Only items the contract says come off first, such as approved production costs | Every item needs a receipt and an approval you can point to |
| D. Commission base | The amount the rate applies to | A minus C, unless your base formula reads differently |
| E. Rate for this deal type | Sourced, inbound, renewal or other income rate | Check the deal type against the introduction log |
| F. Commission | What the manager keeps | D multiplied by E |
| G. Expenses after commission | Costs charged to you on top of commission | Should be zero unless you approved them in writing |
| H. Net to you | What should land in your account | A minus C minus F minus G, then compare with the statement |
| I. Payout date | When the money must reach you | Days after the brand pays, as the contract or local rules require |
| J. Tail exposure | Whether this deal would still pay commission after termination | Note the clause number and the end date of the tail |
If two offers produce different figures on line H for the same deal, that difference is the real price gap between them. Pricing the deal itself is a separate job, covered by our UGC creator rates worksheet.
Fee-clause checklist
- A rate stated separately for sourced deals, inbound deals, renewals and any non-brand income the contract covers.
- A base formula that names what is excluded, including tax on invoices and pass-through costs.
- A list of brands and income streams you had before signing, with the rate that applies to each.
- Expense approval in writing above a threshold you choose, at cost, with receipts on every statement.
- No fee of any kind before you are paid, and no requirement to buy photos, courses or services from the manager's contacts.
- Disclosure of any payment the manager receives from a brand, platform or agency in connection with your work.
- A payout deadline after the brand pays, with a statement showing who paid, when, for what, and every deduction.
- A tail limited to deals signed during the term, with renewals addressed and a fixed end date.
- A right to see the brand contract and payment records behind any commission you are charged.
Limitations of this fee guide
This guide explains fee mechanics and the limits we found in official sources; it does not tell you what a fair percentage is, because no verifiable public figure exists. The legal caps above apply to particular regulated roles and work types, and none was drafted with social media brand deals in mind, so they may not reach your arrangement at all. Tax treatment of commission differs by country and business structure, so confirm it with a registered tax agent or accountant, and have a lawyer review any agreement that commissions all your income or runs a long tail. For OnlyFans income specifically, the worked examples in gross versus net OnlyFans agency fees fit better than this page.