Watch: Car Crashes Into Food Influencers NinaUnrated and Patrick Blackwood While They're in RestaurantMoney doesn't grow on trees-but it does come from likes. This year, #RichTok exploded on social media with content creators like Becca Bloom documenting their caviar-coated and Van Cleef-adorned lifestyles for all to see online. Back in September, makeup influencer Mikayla Nogueira showed off her massive designer shopping haul, saying on TikTok she "completely blacked out" while buying dozens of luxury items-including bags, heels, sneakers, jewelry and clothing from Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Miu Miu and more-totaling an estimated $186,000. And when beauty influencer Jaclyn Hill recently asked why her videos weren't getting the same engagement as usual, her followers were brutally honest: It's about the money, honey. "We're tired of watching influencers rub their wealth in our faces," one person commented on her Dec. 4 video, while another noted, "I can't connect to a $10,000 purse or shoe haul when $10,000 would pay off all my loans and change my life."photosOnlyFans Stars Reveal How Much Money They MakeSo, how much are social media stars actually making to be able to afford these luxe lifestyles? It can indeed be lucrative for the biggest creators, who often start their own companies, like Mikayla's Point of View Beauty or Jaclyn's eponymous cosmetics line. Jeffree Star, who started his self-named makeup brand in 2014, now earns $50,000 when he hosts a TikTok live, raking in the dough by both selling his products and getting monetary gifts from fans watching on their phones. "I'll make bacon in the morning and make $50,000," Jeffree told the Cancelled podcast last year. "There's some times where I don't sell at all, and I'll just make bacon in my kitchen, in my bathrobe, in my little slippers, we'll just hang out and I'll just chat and I'll do a Q&A."Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Prime Video; Don Arnold/Getty Images; Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Getty ImagesOther personalities get paid major bucks from sponsored posts, with Alix Earle charging $450,000 per Instagram Story, as revealed in April by marketing agency cofounder Vickie Segar-whose firm Article 41 has worked with Alix on brand deals-during a talk at the University of North Carolina, per The New York Times. Another way to make bank? Stripping down on OnlyFans, the adult subscription platform where Lily Phillips-who went viral last year for sleeping with 101 men in one day-told E! News she has made "millions" posting NSFW content. Likewise, OnlyFans creator Sophie Rain said she made more than $43 million in just one year on the site. But outside of launching companies, scoring big brand deals or posting nude content, you may be surprised how little some of the more up-and-coming influencers really make on social media.
Jason Sean Weiss/BFA.comFor a complete breakdown, read what creators have said about their wide range of incomes.X / Lil TayLil TayThe content creator said in an August 2025 Instagram post that she earned over $1 million on OnlyFans in three hours, less than a week after turning 18. Tay shared a photo of her alleged earnings, in which she earned $1,024,298: $486,558 from messages, $511,003 from subscriptions and $26,736 in tips.
InstagramAriana BiermannKim Zolciak-Biermann's daughter is making her way an influencer, sharing on her Bravo show Next Gen NYC that she makes $1,000 per sponsored post on TikTok. "Now living in damn New York City, I need to be making a lot more money than I was making in Atlanta," she said in a July 2025 episode. "Right now I need to be doing everything that I can to generate even more money." Ariana-who inked her first brand deal at age 14-knows it can be lucrative, saying, "You can get paid astronomical [amounts] to do a story or do an Instagram post, and I made quite a bit of money."InstagramMiriam EzaguiShe shared in June 2025 that a sex toy company once offered her $100,000 to do advertisements for them, which she turned down. The deal would've included two in-feed Instagram posts, two TikTok posts, two Instagram Story posts and two YouTube integrations.
Photo by John Nacion/Variety via Getty ImagesJimmy "Mr. Beast" Donaldson The YouTuber-who boasts over 430 million subscribers on the platform-shared that he had become a billionaire "on paper" in February 2025. However, he explained that he mostly doesn't keep that money for himself. "In my actual bank account, I have less than a million dollars," he explained during an appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast at the time. "I just like to reinvest it all."Instagram Sophie RainThe OnlyFans model revealed that she made over $43 million in just one year on the adult subscription platform. In fact, she even shared screenshots of her earnings from November 2023 to November 2024, which included a $4.7 million paycheck from one subscriber alone. J Lingo/ShutterstockJoJo Siwa The Dance Moms alum revealed that she made "six digits a month, easy" on YouTube videos as a 13-year-o