UGC creator rates hold up best when you quote them as separate lines instead of one flat fee: a production fee for making the content, then distinct charges for extra edits and variations, for the brand's right to use the content and for how long, for ads run under your name, for revision rounds beyond those included, for exclusivity and for rush delivery. This worksheet shows how to price each line from your own time, costs and risk, so every number you send is one you can explain.
Why this worksheet has no market rates
Search for UGC rates and you will find plenty of price ranges, very few of which can be compared with each other. One figure includes paid usage and another excludes it; one bundles raw footage and several hooks, the next quotes a single edit. A borrowed number cannot tell you whether it covers your hours, your costs or the rights a particular brand wants. So this page contains no benchmark rates on purpose. It gives you the structure and the questions; your own records supply the figures.
It also pays to be precise about what the brand is buying. In a UGC deal the brand mainly pays for an asset and the right to use it, often on its own channels or in ads, rather than for access to your audience. Once you also post that content on your own account as a paid endorsement, you have a sponsored post as well as a UGC deliverable, and disclosure duties come with it. The FTC's Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers says a financial relationship includes being paid or receiving free or discounted products, and that the disclosure has to be easy to notice and placed with the endorsement itself.
Line 1: the production fee, your floor
Start with the work you would do even if the brand wanted nothing extra. List each task, estimate your hours honestly from past projects, and add the direct costs you carry. The production fee is that time multiplied by your target hourly rate, plus costs, plus a buffer for the overruns every shoot produces.
Your target hourly rate is a business decision, not a market fact. Work out what you need to earn across the hours you can realistically bill once tax, software, equipment, unpaid admin and quiet months are accounted for, ideally with an accountant who understands creator income. If you have not yet set up your business structure, our creator business setup guide covers the questions to take to a professional.
| Task | What to include in the estimate | Easy to forget |
|---|---|---|
| Brief review | Reading the brief, researching the product, clarifying questions | The back-and-forth before sign-off can outlast the shoot. |
| Concept and scripting | Hooks, talking points, shot list, script approval | Brands that approve scripts first add a whole review cycle. |
| Set-up and filming | Lighting, set dressing, takes, retakes, product handling | Products that arrive late, damaged or different from the brief. |
| Editing | Assembly, captions, sound, colour, exports | Every export format is more rendering and checking. |
| Delivery and admin | File naming, uploads, invoicing, contract review | Chasing late payment is unpaid time unless you price it in. |
| Direct costs | Props, location, travel, software, equipment wear, postage | Products you have to buy or return at your own expense. |
Line 2: variations and deliverable add-ons
A single video and a set of tested variations are different products. Each extra hook, alternative call to action, cut-down, aspect ratio, subtitle file or voiceover is more work for you and more value for the brand, because variations are what ad teams test against each other. Price each variation as its own line instead of folding it into the base fee, and define what one variation means: a new opening shot, a re-edit of footage you already have, or a fresh take.
Raw footage and project files deserve a line of their own. Handing over raw clips lets the brand cut edits you never priced, which is closer to selling the shoot than selling a video. If you do sell raw files, attach the same usage terms to them as to the finished asset, so a narrow licence on the edit cannot be sidestepped through the raw material.
Line 3: usage rights and who owns the work
Usage is where most of the value sits and where most underpricing happens. Define it along these axes: who may use the content (the brand only, or also its affiliates, retailers and agencies), where (organic social, website, email, paid social, outdoor or broadcast), for how long, in which territories, and whether the brand may edit it. Organic use on the brand's own feed and paid use in ads are different grants and belong on different lines. A fixed-term licence should cost less than a perpetual one, and a renewal should be priced as a new grant rather than handed over as a courtesy.
Watch for ownership wording that quietly turns a licence into a sale. For US law, the Copyright Office's Circular 30 on works made for hire explains that a commissioned work counts as made for hire only if it falls into one of the listed categories, which include a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, and the parties sign a written agreement that expressly says so; the commissioning party is then treated as the author and owner. A work-for-hire or full-assignment clause can therefore stop you reusing, showing or relicensing the footage, so either price it as a buyout or negotiate a licence. Other countries treat commissioned work differently, so have a lawyer read any ownership clause before you sign.
| Usage grant | What the brand gets | Questions to settle | Pricing logic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic, brand channels | Posting on the brand's own accounts and site | Which accounts, for how long, with edits or without? | Often bundled into the base fee, but name it so nobody assumes it covers ads. |
| Paid social | The asset run as ads from the brand's accounts | Which platforms, what term, which territories? | A separate line that grows with the length and breadth of the grant. |
| Creator-handle ads | Ads that run under your name and profile | Which permission level, how long, who approves copy? | Priced on its own, as the next section explains. |
| Outdoor, broadcast or retail | Use beyond social and the web | Which media, term and territories? | Quoted case by case, because these are the widest grants. |
| Perpetual licence or buyout | Use everywhere, indefinitely, sometimes with ownership | Is ownership transferring, and can you still show the work in your portfolio? | Your highest line, because you give up future licensing. |
| Renewal | An extension after the term ends | When exactly did the original term start and finish? | Priced as a new grant. |
If anyone else appears in your content, such as a friend, a partner or a hired model, you need their permission before you can license their image to a brand. Our content rights release checklist lists what that paperwork should cover.
Line 4: whitelisting and ads under your handle
Whitelisting covers ads that run from your identity rather than the brand's, and the platforms build it differently. Meta's help page on partnership ad permissions says advertisers need permission from the partner whose handle the ad will include, and that creators can revoke it at any time. It describes content-level permission for promoting an individual post, story or reel, and broader account-level permission that lets an advertiser create ads from your handle without pre-existing content, use your existing content that tags them, and include or exclude your custom audience in a campaign. The same page says advertisers can hide comments on those ads and on your original post, and edit your content for ads while your original post stays as it was.
On TikTok, Spark Ads let a brand run your organic post as an ad, with the views, likes, comments, shares and follows from the promotion credited to the original post, and a video must be un-authorised as a Spark Ad before you can delete it from your account. You authorise a post by generating a video code, and TikTok's Spark Ads set-up guide lists authorisation periods of 7, 30, 60 or 365 days.
Price this line by breadth and time. Account-level access reaches further than one approved post, so it earns a higher line. The authorisation period you choose on the platform should match the usage term in the contract, so neither outlasts the other. And because the ad speaks with your face and name, ask for approval over ad copy and write down how comments and edits will be handled, since both platforms hand the advertiser some control over each.
Line 5: revisions, exclusivity and rush delivery
Revisions need a definition before they need a price. A revision is a change inside the agreed brief: trimming, reordering, swapping in a take you already filmed, fixing captions. A reshoot is anything that needs new filming, a new script, a different product or a new location. Decide how many revision rounds you include, give the brand a feedback window for each, and price extra rounds and reshoots as separate lines. The discipline in our scope confirmation form carries over to brand work: deliverables, approvals and exclusions written down before you start.
Exclusivity is an opportunity cost. If a brand asks you not to work with competitors, pin down the category, the named competitors or a clear test for who counts, the platforms covered and the duration. Then price the work you would have to turn down during that window. You cannot know that figure in advance, which is exactly why the window should be as narrow as the brand will accept and priced as a line that ends when the exclusivity ends.
Rush delivery compresses your schedule and usually pushes other paid work aside. Define rush against your normal turnaround, write that turnaround into your rate card, and charge for the disruption instead of absorbing it.
The rate card worksheet
Copy this table into a spreadsheet and add a column for your own figures. Every line should be something you can describe to a brand in one breath.
| Line | Define in writing | Price it from |
|---|---|---|
| Production fee | Tasks, hours and direct costs | Hours times your target hourly rate, plus costs and a buffer |
| Variations | What one variation contains | Extra filming or editing time per variation |
| Raw footage and files | Which files, under which usage terms | The re-edit value you are handing over |
| Organic usage | Brand accounts, term, edit rights | Included in the base fee or shown as a named line |
| Paid usage | Platforms, term, territories | The breadth and length of the grant |
| Creator-handle ads | Permission level, authorisation period, approvals | Breadth, time and reputational exposure |
| Exclusivity | Category, competitors, platforms, duration | The work you would decline during the window |
| Extra revisions and reshoots | What a round includes and how long feedback can take | Your time per round or per reshoot |
| Rush | Normal turnaround against the requested date | The disruption to your schedule |
| Product and postage | Who buys, who returns and who pays shipping | Actual cost |
| Cancellation fee | What is payable if the brand cancels mid-project | Work completed plus time you reserved and cannot resell |
| Payment terms | Deposit, due date, late fees, currency | The cash-flow cost of waiting to be paid |
- Confirm the brief and the brand's usage request in writing before pricing anything.
- Price the production fee from your task estimate.
- Add only the variation and file lines the brief actually asks for.
- Add usage lines that match the requested channels, term and territories.
- Add creator-handle ads only if requested, stating the permission level and authorisation period.
- Add exclusivity, revision and rush lines where they apply.
- Show every line separately, so a brand on a budget removes scope rather than asking you to cut your production fee.
- Finish with payment terms and the date the quote expires.
Contract checkpoints before you sign
- Usage start and end dates are tied to a specific event, such as delivery or the first ad going live, rather than left open.
- Channels, territories and edit rights match your quote line for line.
- The whitelisting permission type, the authorisation period and how access ends are all written down.
- Ownership wording describes a licence unless you priced a buyout, and any work-for-hire clause has been shown to a lawyer.
- Disclosure is clear for anything posted on your own account; the FTC disclosure guide says a video endorsement should carry the disclosure in the video itself, not only in the description, and that vague tags such as sp, spon or collab should be avoided.
- You keep portfolio rights, so the finished work can appear in your influencer media kit once it is public.
- Payment terms, late fees and the cancellation fee are stated in the contract, not just the quote.
- If the deliverable will also go on your own TikTok, remember that TikTok's video eligibility rules exclude ads, paid promotions and sponsored content from Creator Rewards, so that post will not earn program rewards; our Creator Rewards eligibility checklist covers the rest of those rules.
Limitations of this worksheet
The worksheet gives you a defensible structure, not a market price. It cannot tell you what a particular brand will pay, and the rate ranges published elsewhere rarely state the scope and usage behind them, so treat them with caution. Your target hourly rate, buffer and add-on pricing are judgement calls that should be revisited as your portfolio and costs change.
The Copyright Office circular describes US law only, and other countries handle commissioned work, assignment and moral rights in their own ways. Platform tools for partnership ads and Spark Ads change their options and names, so check the linked help pages before writing permission terms into a contract. None of this is legal or tax advice: ask a lawyer to review usage, ownership and exclusivity clauses, and an accountant to help set your hourly target and handle GST, VAT or sales-tax registration where it applies to you.