It is the first question almost every brand asks us, usually before they have said what they are selling. It is a fair question, and the honest answer is a range — but a narrower range than most people expect, once you know what drives it.
The numbers below are not from an industry survey. They are from the rate cards we actually quote from, for the creators on our roster, most of them in and around Nagpur, as of October 2026. Treat them as a guide to what is normal, not as a price list — the full, live table is in our Creator Rates Report.
What a reel costs, by audience size
These are prices for a single Instagram reel posted on the creator's own account, for a Nagpur brand, before GST — the median, and the range the middle half of creators fall in.
- Under 10,000 followers: about ₹2,500 (most between ₹1,750 and ₹3,500)
- 10,000 to 1 lakh followers: about ₹11,000 (most between ₹11,000 and ₹13,000)
- 1 lakh to 5 lakh followers: about ₹38,000 (most between ₹30,500 and ₹56,500)
- Above 5 lakh: about ₹43,000 and up — at that size the creator's calendar matters as much as the rate
The jumps between those bands are steep, and the spread inside each band is wide. Two creators with the same follower count can differ by three times. The next section is why.
What actually moves the price
Follower count is where a price starts, not where it ends.
- Engagement. A creator whose reels are watched to the end and argued about in the comments costs more than one with a bigger, quieter following — and is usually worth it.
- Niche. Tech, finance and real estate creators command more than general entertainment at the same size, because their audience is closer to a purchase.
- The kind of reel. A collaboration reel, posted on both your account and the creator's, usually costs a fifth to a third more than a reel on their account alone. It is worth it when you want the reel to live on your own profile too.
- Production. A reel shot in your store with your staff is a different job from one filmed at the creator's desk. Travel, extra shoot days and scripting all add up.
- Timing. Diwali, Ganpati and the wedding season fill calendars early. Brief late and you pay for it, or you don't get the creator at all.
The other things you can buy
A reel is the headline, but most campaigns are built from several pieces. On the same cards, the smaller deliverables are priced as a share of the reel.
- A story is roughly a sixth to a quarter of the reel price. Good for a date, a link or a reminder; poor at explaining anything.
- A reshare of content you already have is cheaper still, and useful when you already own a strong video.
- UGC — a video made for you to post, rather than for the creator's feed — usually costs a little less than a reel. We have written separately about when it is the better buy.
- A YouTube Short sits close to the reel price. A dedicated YouTube video costs noticeably more — often double — because it is a much bigger piece of work.
Ad rights: the line people forget
If you want to run the creator's reel as a paid ad — boosted from your own page, or used in Meta ads — that is a separate right, and it is priced per month. On our cards, organic usage rights run at a little under half the reel price per month, and rights for paid Meta ads at close to the full reel price per month.
It surprises brands, but it is fair: an ad puts the creator's face in front of far more people than their own followers, for as long as you keep spending. Agree it up front, in writing, with the months spelled out. Using a creator's reel in ads without that agreement is the fastest way to lose them, and occasionally ends in a takedown notice mid-campaign.
Nagpur prices and outside ones
Local creators pricing for a local brand are often more flexible than the same creator quoting a national one. That is not a discount so much as recognition that a Nagpur restaurant and a national phone launch are not buying the same thing. If you are a brand from outside the city, expect to be quoted separately.
How to spend less without getting less
- Brief early. Two weeks' notice gets you better creators at better rates than two days.
- Book a few smaller creators instead of one big one. For a local launch, four creators with 30,000 followers each in Nagpur often do more than one with 2 lakh spread across the country.
- Combine deliverables. A reel and two stories from the same creator cost less than buying them separately, because it is one shoot.
- Be clear about usage. Pay for ad rights only if you are actually going to run ads.
What we would suggest
Start from the result you want, not from the follower count you can afford. If the goal is footfall in one city, a handful of well-matched local creators will do more than a big name. If the goal is national awareness, the maths changes.
One more way to judge a quote: divide it by the views the creator's Reels usually get. On our roster the median works out to about ₹0.86 per view, and the cheapest views tend to come from smaller creators — see how to calculate CPV and nano vs micro influencers.
If you would like real numbers for your campaign rather than ranges, tell us what you are launching and where. We will come back with specific creators, what each one costs, and why we picked them.