To make money on Facebook you need a Facebook Page or a profile with professional mode turned on, and then at least one of Meta's own earning tools: Content Monetization, an invitation-only program that pays for the performance of public reels, photos, stories and text posts; Stars, which fans buy and send to you; monthly fan Subscriptions; Creator Fast Track, a three-month program for established creators who are new to Facebook or returning to it; and paid brand partnerships posted with the branded content tool. All of them sit behind Meta's Partner Monetization Policies, so passing those comes first.
This page is the map for our Facebook series. Each tool gets a short summary here and a full guide of its own. Thresholds and country lists are collected in our Facebook monetization requirements guide, and the comparison with other apps lives in social media monetization requirements by platform.
The rules every Facebook earning tool shares
Meta's Partner Monetization Policies cover every Page, professional-mode profile, event and group, and they decide whether you can use any earning tool at all. Read them as one set, because a problem with any single rule can switch off every tool at once:
- Your posts, profile picture and profile description all have to meet the Community Standards and the stricter Content Monetization Policies.
- Only a natural, authentic audience can be monetized, so paid or coordinated sharing is out, and a following padded with fake likes, follows or views can cost you access.
- Content has to be something you created, helped create or appear in; reposts without meaningful additions such as commentary, parody or creative editing cannot earn.
- Posts flagged as misinformation, and a habit of clickbait or sensationalism, can make an account ineligible.
- You must live where the tool is offered, and any financial account connected to you has to be located in an eligible country as well.
- Pages, profiles in professional mode, Events and Groups are eligible surfaces; an ordinary profile outside professional mode is not.
- The account needs an established presence, which the policy sets at a minimum of 30 days before every monetization feature opens.
Age is set elsewhere: Meta's article on professional mode says Facebook users under 18 aren't eligible for monetization, a rule the individual programs repeat. Elected officials, political candidates, parties and government agencies are excluded from monetization entirely.
Earning-path fit matrix
The matrix sets each tool against the questions that decide whether it suits you now: who pays, what gate stands in front of it, which formats it covers and where you start. Each row comes from the Meta page in its source column, as that page read on October 1, 2026.
| Tool | Who pays you | Eligibility gate | Formats it covers | Where to start | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content Monetization | Meta, according to how your eligible public posts perform | An invitation from Meta; the interest form is explicitly not an application | Reels of at least 10 seconds, stories of at least 5 seconds, photos and text posts | Professional dashboard, then Monetize, then Content monetization; or Monetization in Meta Business Suite | Meta: content monetization for creators |
| Stars | Fans buy Stars from Meta, and Meta pays you US$0.01 for each Star you receive | 500 followers held for 30 consecutive days, age 18 or over, a Stars country and the Stars terms | Live video, reels, on-demand video, photos and text posts | Tools to try, then Stars, in the Professional dashboard | Stars eligibility and mobile setup |
| Subscriptions | Fans, every month, at a price you set | For Pages: 10,000 followers or 250 return viewers, plus 50,000 post engagements or 180,000 watch minutes in the last 60 days | Subscriber-only posts and lives, a private group and a subscriber badge | Monetization, then Overview, then View Page eligibility, in Meta Business Suite | Facebook for Creators: Subscriptions |
| Creator Fast Track | Meta, as a set monthly payment for three months | An application: based in the US, Canada, the UK or Australia, 18 or over, no Facebook reel in the past six months, and 20,000 followers plus 30,000 video views in 60 days on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube | Reels: at least 15 eligible reels a month, uploaded on 10 separate days | The apply link in Meta's help article, opened on a phone with the Facebook app | How to apply and program terms |
| Branded content | The brand, on whatever terms you negotiate | The Branded Content Policies and Partner Monetization Policies, on a Page or a profile in professional mode | Posts carrying the Paid partnership label, which a brand can also run as partnership ads | The branded content tool in the post composer, and Creator Marketplace below Monetization | Earn from brands and Marketplace rules |
Two patterns stand out. The tools fans pay for, Stars and Subscriptions, publish thresholds you can track week by week, while Content Monetization, the tool most people mean when they ask how Facebook pays creators, publishes none at all because it runs on invitations. And Fast Track is the only route built for creators whose audience currently lives on another app.
Content Monetization: Meta's performance pay
Content Monetization replaced Facebook's older ad and bonus programs. Meta's creator help page says In-stream ads, Ads on Reels and the Performance bonus ended on August 31, 2025, and that eligible creators are invited into the single program that took their place. Pay follows performance, and Meta lists qualified views and the watch time of your eligible public content among the factors it weighs, with the amount solely determined by Meta.
You cannot sign yourself up. Meta sends invitations through its own channels, and if none has reached you, an interest form lets you register that you would like one, which Meta stresses is not an application. Onboarding for Pages and professional-mode profiles, the formats that earn and the full list of views Meta excludes are in our Facebook Content Monetization guide. Once money is coming in, the earnings-rate worksheet shows what a view is worth on your own account.
Stars and Subscriptions: money that comes from fans
Stars have the lowest bar of the fan-paid tools. Meta's eligibility page asks for 500 followers held for at least 30 consecutive days, an age of at least 18, residence in a country where Stars is offered and acceptance of the Stars terms, and it shuts out accounts that mainly post content focused on children. Fans can send Stars on lives, reels, on-demand videos, photos and text posts, and Meta's Stars page says you earn 1 cent from Meta for every Star. Our Facebook Stars guide has a converter and an enable checklist for each content type.
Subscriptions demand an established, engaged Page. The Subscriptions requirements call for 10,000 followers or 250 return viewers and, in the last 60 days, either 50,000 post engagements or 180,000 watch minutes, and they apply in a named list of markets with invitation-only access elsewhere. Subscribers pay a monthly price you choose and get benefits such as exclusive posts, subscriber-only lives, a private group and a badge. For profiles in professional mode, Meta's mobile setup article says the feature is still being tested with selected creators. Pricing, benefits and the launch steps are in our Facebook Subscriptions guide.
Creator Fast Track and Facebook's other bonuses
Creator Fast Track is Facebook's current onboarding bonus. Meta's program article describes three monthly payments for accepted creators who post at least 15 eligible reels a month on at least 10 separate days, with the amount set by follower count on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, and acceptance also opens Content Monetization straight away. The application article names four countries as of October 1, 2026: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. When the program launched in March 2026, the BBC reported it was open only to creators in the US and Canada, so check the list on the day you apply.
A separate Breakthrough bonus page is also still live for creators based in the United States, offering up to US$5,000 in bonuses over the first 90 days after joining Content Monetization. The old Performance bonus is gone for good. The Creator Fast Track guide sets out a dated timeline of these programs, an eligibility self-check and a monthly posting tracker.
Brand deals on Facebook
Brand money never passes through Meta, but Meta sets the rules for posting it. The Branded Content Policies define branded content as posts that feature or are influenced by a business partner in exchange for something of value, such as payment or free gifts, and require you to tag that partner with the branded content tool, with their prior permission. The tag adds a Paid partnership label, and Meta's page on earning from brands notes that a partner can then put ad spend behind the same post as a partnership ad, which is worth pricing separately because it widens how the brand uses your work.
Some products cannot be promoted as branded content at all, including tobacco and vapes, weapons, multi-level marketing, payday loans and adult products other than family planning and contraception, while categories such as alcohol carry age and country restrictions. Brands can find you through Meta Creator Marketplace if you run a Page or a professional-mode profile that follows these policies. For finding and pricing the work itself, use our brand deal pipeline and the creator rates worksheet; advertising law applies on top of Meta's label, and our FTC disclosure guide covers the US rules.
Pick-your-first-tool checklist
Work down the list and stop at the first line that describes you. Each answer points to the tool most likely to pay first, given the gates Meta publishes.
- Still on an ordinary personal profile? Turn on professional mode or create a Page before anything else, because nothing can be monetized from a profile outside professional mode.
- Big audience on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, no Facebook reels lately and living in one of the countries on Meta's Fast Track list? Apply to Creator Fast Track first, since acceptance brings Content Monetization with it.
- Already above the Stars follower bar and going live or posting reels regularly? Set up Stars and a payout account now; of the fan-paid tools, it has the lowest published bar.
- Running an engaged Page close to the Subscriptions bar? Plan a benefit you can deliver every month, then submit Subscriptions for review.
- Posting public, original content but not yet invited to Content Monetization? Register interest, keep reposts and engagement bait off your Page, and watch the Monetization tab for a genuine invitation.
- Brands already asking to work with you? Agree terms in writing, tag them with the branded content tool and price any partnership-ad usage on top of the post.
- Whichever tool comes first, finish your payout account and tax details the same week so earnings are not paused.
Getting paid: one payout account for every tool
Content Monetization, Stars and Subscriptions all pay into the payout account in your Facebook payout settings. Meta's payout setup article says that without one you can earn up to US$500 per tool and US$1,500 across three tools, that earning stops if the account is still incomplete after five months, and that after six months you forfeit the money. Meta's payouts page says payouts are released around the 21st of each month for the previous month's earnings once you pass a minimum balance that depends on your country and payout method.
Setup asks for tax information as well as bank, PayPal or card details, and the name tied to your tax ID must match the name you gave during onboarding or payouts cannot be finalized. This is general information rather than tax advice; a registered tax agent or accountant can tell you how Facebook income is treated where you live.
Limitations of this guide
Everything here reflects Meta's public help pages, program pages and terms as they read on October 1, 2026, and Meta revises them often; the Fast Track country list has already changed once since launch. The pages describe eligibility to apply or be considered, not acceptance: Content Monetization runs on invitations with no published criteria, and Meta keeps discretion over Fast Track. Nothing here predicts what you will earn, and Meta's Creator Content Monetization Terms make no promise about how much, or whether, you will be paid.
Several Meta pages also contradict each other or still carry dates that have passed, and each guide in this series flags the ones that affect its tool. Where your Professional dashboard shows something different from a help page, the dashboard reflects your own account and is the better guide. Meta's Instagram tools work differently even where the names overlap, so see how to make money on Instagram for that side of the business.