How to Make Money on TikTok: Every Option and Its Requirements

You make money on TikTok in one of six official ways: selling products on TikTok Shop, earning affiliate commission on other people's products, getting paid for views through the Creator Rewards Program, receiving LIVE Gifts, selling Subscriptions, or landing brand deals through TikTok One. How you make money on TikTok depends mostly on your follower count, because each route has its own minimum, from none to 10,000.

That's the short answer. This guide puts every option side by side with its official eligibility rules as of 2026, explains which one a new account can realistically start with, and points to our deeper guides for each. Rules below are for the US unless noted.

What are all the ways to make money on TikTok?

There are six money features TikTok runs itself. Two pay you for sales, one for views, two for fan support, and one connects you with paying brands.

Requirements come from TikTok's Seller Center, Creator Academy and Help Center pages, checked in 2026. TikTok changes them often, so confirm the current version in TikTok Studio before you plan around a number.

Notice the pattern: the routes that pay for sales open earliest, while the routes that pay for attention (views, Gifts, Subscriptions, sponsorships) need a big audience. If selling is where you want to start, our step-by-step TikTok Shop guide covers that path from the first product to the first commission.

How many followers do you need to make money on TikTok?

You need zero followers to sell your own products, 1,000 to self-apply as a US Shop affiliate or go LIVE in most regions, and 10,000 for Creator Rewards, Subscriptions and TikTok One.

Think of it as a ladder:

• 0 followers. Open a TikTok Shop and sell your own products, or accept a seller's invitation to become their marketing creator. No follower minimum applies to either.
• 1,000 followers. Self-apply to the TikTok Shop affiliate program in the US. TikTok's Help Center also lists 1,000 followers to go LIVE, noting that this may vary across regions. Once you can go LIVE, you can turn on LIVE Gifts.
• 10,000 followers. Creator Rewards (plus 100,000 views in the last 30 days), Subscriptions (more than 100,000 video views in the last month) and TikTok One all sit here.

Every rung also requires you to be at least 18 and to keep your account in good standing with the Community Guidelines. Government, politician and political party accounts are excluded from most of these features.

Why followers aren't the whole story

A follower count unlocks a feature; it doesn't create income. An account with 1,000 followers in a clear niche, where viewers trust the creator's product picks, can out-earn a bigger account full of people who followed for one viral joke. Pick a topic people buy things in, and stick with it.

Which option should a beginner try first?

For most new accounts, TikTok Shop is the realistic first step: as a seller you can start with no audience, and as an affiliate you can start at 1,000 followers. View-based and fan-based income usually comes later, if at all.

Here's why we'd start with sales:

• Lower bar. Affiliate access opens at one tenth of the Creator Rewards follower requirement.
• No inventory as an affiliate. You promote products that sellers ship. Becoming one takes a few steps in the app; our guide on how to become a TikTok Shop affiliate explains them, including the pilot limits for new creators.
• Each video can earn on its own. A product video that reaches the right buyers can earn commission even when your account is small.

The trade-off is that commission depends on purchases, not views. Many videos won't sell anything, and refunded orders don't pay.

Example (hypothetical): you promote a $25 product at a 10% commission, so each delivered, non-refunded order earns $2.50. Twenty orders in a month would be $50. That's a modest but typical early result; plenty of new affiliates earn less in their first months, and some earn nothing while they learn.

How does TikTok pay for views?

TikTok pays for views only through the Creator Rewards Program, which rewards qualified views on original videos longer than 1 minute. It requires 10,000 followers, 100,000 video views in the last 30 days, and residence in an eligible country.

As of 2026, those countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Mexico and Brazil. TikTok doesn't publish a fixed rate per view, and duets, stitches, ads and reposted content don't qualify. The payout math, RPM and payment schedule are explained in our guide to the TikTok Creator Rewards Program, so we won't repeat them here.

One honest caution: Creator Rewards pays the people who post, not the people who watch. Apps and videos claiming TikTok pays you to scroll your feed are usually misleading, and some are outright scams that end with a request for a "deposit".

How do LIVE Gifts and Subscriptions work?

LIVE Gifts let viewers send virtual Gifts during your livestream, which TikTok converts into Diamonds you can redeem. Subscriptions let fans pay you a monthly fee for perks. Both reward an engaged community more than raw reach.

LIVE Gifts

To turn on Gifts, you must be 18 or older (19 in South Korea), be eligible to go LIVE, live where Gifts is available, and keep your account in good standing. Viewers buy Coins with real money, spend them on Gifts, and you collect Diamonds based on your LIVE's popularity. TikTok doesn't publish a fixed Diamond-to-cash rate in its Help Center, so check your own balance screen for the current conversion.

If you haven't streamed yet, our guide on how to go live on TikTok covers the requirements and setup. Gifts are a different thing from selling on LIVE. If you'd rather sell products during a stream, see our guide to selling on TikTok Shop LIVE.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions need more than 10,000 followers, more than 100,000 video views in the last month, and an 18+ account. TikTok's Creator Academy lists a default price of $5.99 a month, and you can set your own price from $2.99 to $99.99 a month. Subscribers pay in local currency, so exchange rates and taxes change what you receive. Perks can include priority comments, subscriber-only posts and custom stickers.

Both features depend on people caring enough to pay you directly. That usually takes months of regular posting and LIVEs. Once you stream regularly, agencies may start messaging you; read whether a TikTok LIVE agency is worth joining before you sign anything.

How do brand deals work on TikTok?

Brand deals happen when a company pays you to create content about its product. TikTok's official channel for them is TikTok One, which includes the Creator Marketplace, where brands find creators for campaigns.

To join TikTok One, TikTok's Help Center lists:

1. An account in good standing, with no history of repeated violations or fraud.
2. Age 18 or older (may differ by region).
3. At least 10,000 followers (may differ by region).
4. At least 1,000 post views in the last 30 days.
5. At least 3 posts in the last 30 days.

You check eligibility in the app under TikTok Studio, then Monetization, then Creator Marketplace.

Brands also contact creators directly, outside TikTok One. That's legitimate, but it's also where fake "collab" offers live, so never pay a fee to receive a deal. Whatever the route, US rules apply: the FTC says you must disclose the relationship if you got anything of value, and in a video the disclosure belongs in the video itself, not only in the caption.

What does it cost, and how long does it take?

Most TikTok money features are free to join. The real costs are time, a decent phone, and, for sellers, product and shipping. The timeline is the part most people underestimate.

• Time to eligibility. Reaching 1,000 followers can take weeks or months of consistent posting; 10,000 takes longer, and many accounts never get there.
• Time to income. Even after you qualify, commissions are paid only after orders are delivered and settled, and view-based rewards are calculated after the month ends. We map each delay in how long it takes to make money on TikTok.
• Money. Affiliates can start with nothing but a phone. Sellers pay for stock, packaging and shipping, plus TikTok's fees on each order.

Results depend on your effort, niche and execution. Nothing here pays a predictable amount, and anyone who promises a fixed daily income from TikTok is selling something.

Next steps

Pick the rung you're on today and start there, instead of waiting for 10,000 followers.

• Under 1,000 followers: sell your own products or grow in one niche. Our beginner's guide to making money on TikTok Shop walks through both.
• At 1,000 followers: apply as a Shop affiliate and start testing products.
• At 10,000 followers: add Creator Rewards, Subscriptions or TikTok One on top of what already works.

If TikTok isn't the right fit, our guide to making money online compares other realistic options.