Influencers have been living it up on the gram for our viewing pleasure, jet-setting to exotic locales, flaunting designer wares and riding expensive cars. Social media forums say that they rake in by the crores, especially the big ones.

We've all wondered how much India's top influencers earn and whether influencing is worth leaving our 9-5 jobs for. There must be some truth in all the influencer lore after all, going by what our sources say.

It seems that influencing is fast shedding its "side hustle" tag given the big bucks India's top content creators are raking in. exchange4media was able to uncover some of the jaw-dropping numbers from reliable industry sources.

Influencers are slotted into two major categories, according to their follower count and engagement rate on platforms like Instagram.

For instance, influencers who have between 1M and 5M followers or above with a good audience retention rate, fall under Category A. While influencers with followers ranging from 500K to 1M fall under Category B.

Sources say that top creators like Ashish Chanchlani, Bhuvan Bam, Barkha Singh, Tanmay Bhat and Mostly Sane can quote anywhere between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per post. Creators like Aisha Ahmed, Sakshi Sindhwani and Dr Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, whose followers range from 500k to a little under a million, can charge between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 9 lakh per post, said the source.

From passion project to full-time profession

With the dizzying amount of money that creators charge per post, it's easy to understand this shift. Most of the top influencers end up raking in a single post what nine-to-five?-ers might make in a year. 

What a time to be a part of the creator economy in India! Recently, the sector received a major fillip with the National Creators Award in Delhi, wherein creators from different categories were acknowledged for their good work.

As the sector is poised to grow, the remuneration mechanism is also set to evolve and move to a more performance-based model for smaller influencers, according to the EY-FICCI report.

Such is the lure of money that from being a passion project and a side hustle, with time and success, being an influencer has now become a full-time job for many creators, says Kunal Sawant, Business Head at INCA, part of GroupM.

Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO at Monk Entertainment says that the ease of platforms and accessibility of social media platforms along with the increase in budget by brands who have realized the importance of this channel to reach the audience, are the reasons, why being an ‘influencer’ has become a full-time profession.

Setting grounds

For some years now, platforms have been quite diligent in creating the right environment to ensure the growth of the creator economy.

A few years back, Meta launched a program - ‘BOI - Born On Instagram’, which helped influencers to find their voice and collaborate with brands. Similarly, LinkedIn and YouTube also had their respective creator programs to upskill people.

Platforms also came out with subscription plans for audiences to browse exclusive content of their favourite creators. Instagram also enabled ad revenue for selective influencers.

Kalyan Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of KlugKlug says that the trailblazer for influencer marketing was Musically now TikTok, which is famous in a lot of markets. Meta and Google followed the bandwagon; however, unlike TikTok, the latter is focused more on ad revenue rather than boosting the creator economy money per se.

Moreover, industry experts indicate a rising demand for data and insights from influencers to grasp market trends and allocate their funds effectively.

Social commerce and live commerce are emerging as fresh avenues for influencers to generate income. Companies like Myntra are actively engaging influencers to produce content on their platforms, thereby expanding the avenues for monetizing content creation.

“Content creation has transcended its status as a mere pastime, evolving into a legitimate and mainstream career path. The support from brands and platforms like Meta has transformed it into a viable source of income for many. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, content creation stands as a testament to the power of creativity, authenticity, and the ever-expanding possibilities of the online world”, said Travel & Lifestyle influencer Shashank Sanghvi.