Where the money actually comes from

TikTokers make money in three main ways. Brand deals are the big one — a company pays the creator to feature a product in a post. Creator Rewards (TikTok's view-based payout program, formerly the Creator Fund) chips in some extra on top. And then there's everything that lives off the platform: merch, live gifts, affiliate links, paid newsletters. We can estimate the first two from public data. The third one is anyone's guess.

Brand deal rates are mostly about audience size and how engaged that audience is. A creator with two million followers who actually watch and comment is worth a lot more per post than a creator with five million followers who just scroll past. Creator Rewards pays a small amount per thousand views — useful, but rarely the headline number. The figures above blend both into what a typical post is worth.