How much do AI influencers make? The figures with a source
8 min read
Nobody can say what the average AI influencer (or virtual influencer) makes, because no study we found counts them. There are few figures with a name and a date: an agency's claim for Aitana, a Bigfoot series still running at a loss, a Brazilian creator who says he earns little and a $3 million record deal. Each is below, with who said it and how far to trust it.
Which earning figures have a source?
Six cases have something to report about money, and every one comes with a limit.
| Account or source | What was reported | Who said it, and when | How far to trust it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aitana Lopez (Spain) | About EUR 3,000 a month on average and EUR 10,000 once. Most of it comes from social media ads, and she is an ambassador for a sports supplement brand | Rubén Cruz of her agency, to Euronews, as reported by Fortune, November 2023 | The agency's own claim. Not audited. No later figure found |
| Big Yowie (AI Bigfoot vlogs) | The creator says a short video usually costs $50 to $150, on top of a $250-a-month plan. Kapwing says the series was "still operating at a loss". No revenue figure given | The creator and Kapwing, July 2025 | The cost is the creator's word. The loss is Kapwing's assessment, not an audited account |
| Dona Maria (Brazil) | About R$ 20 a video. Speaking of sponsorships, the creator said "I earn little". He makes AI videos for companies and teaches how to make them | BBC News Brasil, published by O Povo, April 2026 | The creator's own words. No revenue figure |
| Granny Spills | One of the creators said TikTok flagged the videos as "unoriginal" and removed them from the Creator Rewards Program. No earnings figure | One of the creators, to TIME, November 2025. Asked by TIME, a TikTok representative pointed to a page on unoriginal or low-quality content | The creator's account. TikTok did not address the case directly |
| Xania Monet (AI singer) | A $3 million record deal with Hallwood Media, after a bidding war | Wikipedia, page read October 2026 | A deal for an AI-generated singer, not income from posting. The source is the Wikipedia page only |
| The $JEANPHIL coin | More than US$100,000 in fees, reportedly collected by the creator. The token lost more than 99% of its value on September 21, 2026 | The magazine L'ADN, as reported by O Tempo, October 2026. The fall, by Bored Panda, September 2026 | The fees are second-hand and unconfirmed. The creator is unknown |
Read the right-hand column first. No row is a proven income from posting for an AI profile: there is an agency's claim, two creators' accounts, a cost with a loss that someone else calculated, a record deal and second-hand fees from a coin.
How each route works, with its limits, is in how to make money with an AI influencer. The coin has its own story in who Jean Phil is.
Which AI accounts have a big audience and no earnings figure?
Most of the famous ones. Followers and views can be counted from outside, which is why they are easy to find. Income cannot.
| Account | Audience reported | Source and date | Earnings reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jean Philanthrope | About 270,000 TikTok and 240,000 Instagram followers in under a month. Top clip about 35.9 million views | VRT, October 2026. LADbible, September 2026 | None reported, apart from the coin above |
| Fruit Love Island | More than 3 million followers in nine days and 300 million total views | Wikipedia, page read October 2026 | None reported. The anonymous creator stopped new episodes on March 28, 2026 |
| Granny Spills | 1.9 million Instagram followers. Mentioned the brands Kurt Geiger and Papi Steak over the past six months | Kolsquare, August 2026 | None reported |
| Aitana Lopez | 393,000 Instagram followers | Kolsquare, August 2026 | Only the 2023 claim in the table above |
| Marisa Maiô (Brazil) | More than 4 million Instagram views in two days on a post for the retailer Magalu | Consumidor Moderno, June 2025 | No fee reported |
| Dona Maria (Brazil) | 751,000 Instagram followers. One video from July 2025 with 8.8 million views | Terra, April 2026. O Povo, April 2026 | Her creator says he earns little from sponsorships |
| Big Yowie | More than 250,000 followers and 35 million views from 20 posts | Kapwing, July 2025 | A loss, according to Kapwing |
One of these accounts is also the subject of a request to Brazil's electoral court (the TSE). According to Terra on April 27, 2026, three parties (PT, PV and PCdoB) asked the court on April 22 to suspend Dona Maria's profiles and to identify those responsible for the profiles and their monetization. The report gives no ruling by the TSE: it was a request and not a decision. More cases of accounts that grew fast are in AI influencers that went viral, and the Brazilian ones in Brazil's AI influencers.
Which famous numbers are only estimates?
Several, and none comes with an invoice.
- Media value. Kolsquare lists, as of August 2026, earned media value (EMV) figures, such as EUR 75,000 for a Lil Miquela promotional video for Liquid IV. They measure media value, not what the account was paid. The same article says AI influencer earnings vary widely and are hard to benchmark, and that many creators do not disclose them.
- Market size. For 2025, Grand View Research (July 2026) gives USD 11.2 billion for the virtual influencer market and Straits Research (August 2026) gives USD 8.76 billion. Grand View's own page shows other numbers in a caption. Two firms that sell the reports are more than two billion dollars apart, and neither says what any account is paid.
- The value of a coin. On September 25, 2026, the $JEANPHIL token had an estimated market value of about $8.8 million, with a main pool of about $415,000. Dexerto cautions that this does not mean the creators earned those amounts.
- Subscription-platform revenue. Sacra estimates that AI-generated creators were about 15% of the revenue of Fanvue, a creator subscription platform, "in recent months", and this page does not cover that route.
- A price per post. Prices per post for the best-known accounts circulate on company blogs in the field. We looked for an invoice, a contract or a filing behind them and found none, so none is in the tables.
What do brands and audiences say?
What they say is not what they pay, and the sources are surveys with limits of their own.
| Figure | Who said it, and when | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| 74% of marketers use AI to support influencer marketing and only 11% use it to create content directly | Linqia 2026 report, more than 200 enterprise marketers, via NetInfluencer, October 2025 | It measures how marketers use AI, not what they spend on AI influencers |
| Brand partnerships with AI social accounts down 30% compared with 2024 | Business Insider, as quoted by TIME, November 2025 | Second-hand. We did not open the original |
| 70% of 13 to 24-year-olds in Europe would not want to follow a computer-generated person | YPulse, September 2026 | No sample size or method given |
What does a video cost to make?
Costs are better documented than income.
| Who | What a video costs to make | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Big Yowie | The creator says $50 to $150 for a short video, on top of the $250-a-month Google Veo 3 Ultra plan, with 5 to 10 attempts per clip. Kapwing worked out about $3 a clip on the plan | The creator and Kapwing, July 2025 |
| Dona Maria | About R$ 20 a video | BBC News Brasil, April 2026 |
| Granny Spills | 5 to 10 minutes of work per video | Her creators, to TIME, November 2025 |
| Duble AI | 20 credits for a 10-second trend at Standard quality, which comes to $3.33 on the 300-credit plan | Duble AI's price list |
Kapwing worked out that a video of about $100 pays for itself at 100,000 to 250,000 TikTok views, at what it called a general rate of $0.40 to $1.00 per 1,000 views. The sum for any account is the cost of one video, divided by what 1,000 views pay, times 1,000. It only works if the platform pays per view, and according to one of Granny Spills' creators, TikTok removed the account from its Creator Rewards Program as unoriginal. The sums for three ways of posting are in what an AI influencer costs to run.
What do the sources not tell us?
Four things we looked for and did not find.
- How many AI profiles earn anything, or what the median profile makes. We found no study.
- A 2026 earnings figure for Aitana, Lil Miquela, Imma or Lu do Magalu from a primary source. Kolsquare gives none.
- An invoice that compares what a brand paid an AI influencer with what it paid a human one.
- Instagram's own rule on paying AI content, and whether a remade trend qualifies for any platform's payouts. TikTok's own text on the same question could not be opened.
If you meet a number that answers one of these, ask who said it and whether an invoice stands behind it. To make the content side of a profile, create your AI influencer.
Frequently asked questions
- How much do AI influencers make?
- No one can give a typical figure, because no study we found counts AI profiles. The numbers with a name and a date are claims by an agency and by creators, costs and contracts: about EUR 3,000 a month for one model, per her agency in 2023, and a series still running at a loss in 2025.
- Can AI influencers make money?
- There are reported cases, but no rule. The figures with a source are an agency's claim, the cost and loss of one series, a creator who says he earns little and a record deal for an AI singer. The best-known accounts have no published earnings, and nothing is guaranteed.
- Why do the earning figures online disagree?
- Most are estimates or an agency's own claims, and some measure the media value of a post, not what the account was paid. Two research firms even give market sizes for 2025 more than two billion dollars apart. Ask of any figure who said it and whether there is an invoice.
- Is there a figure for the average AI influencer?
- Not one with a source. We found no study that counts how many AI profiles earn anything, and no median. A page that quotes an average needs to show how it got there. A follower count is not an income.
- Do AI influencers earn money from TikTok?
- TikTok has a Creator Rewards Program, but originality weighs heavily. TIME reported in 2025 that a creator of Granny Spills said TikTok removed the account from it as unoriginal. Kapwing used a rate of $0.40 to $1.00 per 1,000 TikTok views in a sum for an AI series that was still running at a loss.
