To join Instagram's creator marketplace, which Meta now calls Meta Creator Marketplace, open your professional dashboard, tap Branded content, then Join creator marketplace, and accept the terms. Instagram's eligibility page says you must be at least 18, have a professional, public account with a minimum of 1,000 followers and agree to the Partner Monetization Policies, and that the marketplace runs wherever Meta advertising operates except Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Russia.
Joining takes minutes. Sorting the messages that follow is the real work. This guide covers what brands can see once you are in, how to build a portfolio and pick preferred partners, how projects and partnership messages work, and a triage table for screening offers before you reply. Pricing a deal is left to our rate card and media kit guides, which are linked where they help.
Eligibility, and where Meta's pages differ
| Requirement | What Meta says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Age | At least 18 years old | Instagram eligibility page |
| Account | A professional, public Instagram account | Instagram eligibility page |
| Followers | A minimum of 1,000 followers | Instagram eligibility page |
| Policies | Agree to the Partner Monetization Policies; Meta's business version adds the Branded Content Policies, Community Standards and Content Monetization Policies | Meta Business eligibility page |
| Countries | Everywhere Meta advertising operates, except Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Russia | Instagram eligibility page |
| Account type for projects | Browsing brand projects is described as available only to creator accounts | Find branded content projects |
That last row is where Meta's pages pull apart. The Instagram eligibility page opens by saying the marketplace is available to business and creator accounts, while the page on finding projects says that feature is only available to creator accounts. If browsing and answering projects is the reason you are joining, a creator account is the safer choice. Our comparison of a creator vs business account sets out what else changes when you switch.
Meta also keeps a separate eligibility page in its Business Help Center, written with Facebook in mind. It asks you to manage a Facebook Page or a profile in professional mode, and it says creators can check their eligibility in the professional dashboard below Monetization. Most help pages for the marketplace also carry a note that the feature may not be available to you yet, so the dashboard is the final check.
Joining, and what brands can see
There are two ways in. Instagram's onboarding page says eligible creators are invited, and you accept by tapping Accept invite at the top of your profile or in your feed, then Next, then Join now. If you dismissed the invitation, the getting-started page gives the manual route: Professional dashboard, then Branded content, then Join creator marketplace, then Accept, Accept changes and finally the terms. If the join option is missing, the feature has not reached your account.
Read the Accept screen properly, because it is a privacy decision. It makes information about you and your insights visible to brands and lets them message you in a new Partnership messages folder. Once you join, the getting-started page says brands can see the content you have posted, view insights such as your average reach and number of followers, and contact you directly. Meta's business eligibility page adds that joining makes you discoverable by brands and agencies in tools such as its Creator Marketplace API.
On the other side, brands work in Creator Marketing Hub inside Meta Business Suite or Ads Manager. The Creator Marketing Hub page says brands use it to get personalised creator recommendations, send and receive partnership requests, check permission statuses and manage campaigns, and that a brand's staff need specific business permissions to send prioritised partnership messages. You can leave at any time: Professional dashboard, then Branded content, then Partner discovery settings, then the three dots and Opt out of creator marketplace. You can also rejoin later.
Building your portfolio and preferred brand list
The creator portfolio page describes the portfolio as a way to show brands what makes you different. Meta adds badges for your responsiveness and partnership-ads experience and shows your active ads, and you add the rest: a cover image plus sections of text, selected posts and reels, and the profiles of people and brands you have worked with. Portfolios are visible only to you until you tap Change visibility.
Preferred brand partners work the other way round. Instagram's page on adding preferred partners lets you pick up to ten participating brands, and when those brands search the marketplace they see you on a suggested list of interested creators. You cannot add a brand that does not take part in the programme.
Eligibility and profile-setup checklist:
- Confirm the account is professional and public, and that you meet the age and follower requirements in the table.
- Clear any open monetisation or policy issues in the professional dashboard first.
- Switch to a creator account if you want projects, given the conflicting account-type wording.
- Join through the invitation or the Branded content screen, reading the Accept screen before you agree.
- Set up branded content tools and the paid partnership label, so you can accept work without delay.
- Build the portfolio: a cover image, a short text section, posts that show work you would happily repeat for a brand, and past partners.
- Name a past partner only if the original deal allows you to, and check for confidentiality terms first.
- Switch the portfolio's visibility on once it is finished.
- Choose preferred brand partners that genuinely fit your content, not simply the biggest names on the list.
- Keep partnership message notifications on, as Instagram recommends, so offers are not missed.
- Have a current media kit and a rate card worksheet ready before the first message arrives.
Projects and partnership messages
Projects are briefs that brands publish for creators. The projects page says you find them under Professional dashboard, then Branded content, then View available projects, and each one shows a description, the number of reels, posts or stories the brand wants, the date to post and the offered payment. Each detail is marked negotiable, meaning the brand may customise it or you can request changes, or fixed, meaning you can discuss it but the content and earnings will not change.
Tapping I'm interested puts you on the brand's list of interested creators. If the brand wants to go ahead, it invites you through Partnership messages and the project status changes to You're invited; projects that close show as No longer available, and I'm no longer interested withdraws you.
Instagram's page on partnership messages explains that the folder appears after your first message from a brand and holds conversations about project timelines and the content wanted. The page on managing them shows the folder sitting beside General and Requests, and lets you turn its notifications off under Notifications, then Direct messages. None of this sets the commercial terms: Instagram's branded content guide says it is up to you to agree payment, content and posting dates with the brand.
Incoming-offer triage table
Run every offer through these checks before you reply with a price. Anything in the red-flag column means you should pause, ask questions or decline.
| Check | What to confirm | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Sender | The offer arrived in Partnership messages or as a project, from a handle that matches the brand's website | An ordinary DM or comment claiming to come from the marketplace, or a handle one character off the real brand |
| Scope | How many reels, posts or stories, the posting date, the brief, and how many rounds of changes | Open-ended deliverables, no date, or unlimited revisions |
| Payment terms | The offered payment, whether it is negotiable or fixed, the currency, when you are paid and by whom | A fee you must pay to join, payment promised only after the campaign ends with no date, or product in place of agreed cash |
| Usage rights | Whether the brand wants to boost your post, which permission it needs, for how long and on which placements | Ongoing account-level access with no end date, or any request for your password |
| Disclosure | The post will carry the paid partnership label and the brand will approve your tag | A request to skip the label or bury the disclosure |
| Product category | The product is allowed as branded content, and any restricted category has the audience limits it needs | A category Meta prohibits, or one that needs Meta's written authorisation the brand does not have |
| Authenticity | You will create the content and appear in it | A request to post someone else's content, which Meta's policy does not allow you to accept payment for |
| Data | What insights the brand will receive, which Instagram already shares on tagged branded content | Requests for screenshots of unrelated account data or for access to your dashboard |
The category and authenticity rows come from Meta's Branded Content Policies, which list prohibited products, restricted categories and the business types that need Meta's pre-authorisation, and which bar creators from accepting anything of value to post content that does not feature them or that they were not involved in creating. Usage rights deserve the slowest read of any row; our guide to the paid partnership label and ad permissions explains what each permission lets a brand do.
When an offer clears the table, reply in the same Partnership messages thread so the brief, your questions and the brand's answers stay together. Ask about anything the project screen left vague, such as who approves drafts, how many rounds of changes are included and how long any boosting will run, and get the answers in writing before you film. If the brand moves the conversation to email or another app, restate the agreed points in your first message there, so nothing relies on memory.
Limitations of this guide
This guide describes Meta's help pages as they read on 1 October 2026. The marketplace is still not available to every eligible account, Meta's own pages disagree on which account types can use parts of it, and the brands and projects you see depend on your country and audience. Nothing here estimates how many offers you will receive or what they will pay.
The triage table has limits as well: it is a screening tool, not legal advice, and it cannot catch every bad offer. For a contract with exclusivity, long usage periods or large sums, ask a lawyer who handles creator or advertising agreements to review it, and check the advertising disclosure rules that apply where you and your audience live.