TikTok Creator Fund Earnings in 2026: What US Creators Actually Receive

TikTok launched the Creator Fund in 2020 with a $200 million initial pool (later expanded to $1 billion over three years). US creators who met eligibility requirements received payments based on video views, engagement, and content quality.

The payouts were notoriously low. Based on widely reported creator data:
- $0.02-$0.04 per 1,000 views was the typical range
- A video with 1 million views earned approximately $20-$40
- A creator with 10 million monthly views earned $200-$400/month

The fundamental problem was that the fund had a fixed size but the number of eligible creators and total views kept growing. As more creators joined and TikTok's total viewership increased, the per-view payout actually declined over time. This is a structural flaw of fixed-pool models.

Many prominent creators publicly criticized the fund. Hank Green called it "not close to enough" and demonstrated that equivalent YouTube views would pay 20-50x more. The fund's low payouts became a recurring talking point in creator economy discourse.

TikTok acknowledged the criticism and began transitioning monetization toward the Creativity Program Beta, which uses a different payment model.

TikTok's Creativity Program Beta (launched mid-2023, expanded throughout 2024-2025) replaced the Creator Fund for eligible creators and offers substantially higher payouts:

Reported payouts: $0.50-$1.00+ per 1,000 qualified views

This is roughly 15-25x higher than the original Creator Fund. A video with 1 million qualified views can earn $500-$1,000+ under the Creativity Program.

Key differences from the old fund:
- Minimum video length of 1 minute — Shorts under 60 seconds do not qualify. TikTok is incentivizing longer content.
- "Qualified views" metric — Not all views count. Views must come from the For You page and meet minimum watch time thresholds. This reduces the effective view count.
- Higher eligibility bar — 10,000+ followers, 100,000+ views in the last 30 days, 18+ years old, US-based account.
- Not a fixed pool — Payouts are tied to ad revenue sharing, similar to YouTube's model. This means payments can scale with TikTok's advertising growth.

Creator reports from the US market suggest typical monthly earnings of $500-$5,000 for creators with 1-10 million qualified monthly views. This is dramatically better than the old fund, though still below YouTube's per-view rates for long-form content.

Here is what US creators in the Creativity Program Beta typically earn from the program alone:

100,000 qualified views/month: $50-$100. Modest, but 5-10x what the old fund paid.

500,000 qualified views/month: $250-$500. Approaching meaningful side income.

1 million qualified views/month: $500-$1,000. A reasonable supplemental income for consistent creators.

5 million qualified views/month: $2,500-$5,000. At this level, TikTok monetization alone can represent significant income.

10 million+ qualified views/month: $5,000-$10,000+. This places you among the top TikTok earners from platform payments alone.

Important caveats:
- "Qualified views" are a subset of total views. If your video gets 1 million total views, qualified views might be 400,000-700,000 depending on how viewers found and watched it.
- Not all content qualifies. Videos under 1 minute, reposts, and content flagged for policy issues do not generate Creativity Program revenue.
- Payment rates fluctuate based on advertiser demand, similar to YouTube's CPM cycles.

For most US TikTok creators, platform payments represent only 20-30% of total income. Brand deals, TikTok Shop affiliate commissions, and cross-platform revenue make up the majority.

For US creators, here is how TikTok's per-view payments compare to other platforms:

Per 1,000 views (US market):
- YouTube long-form: $5-$8 RPM (and up to $40 in finance)
- TikTok Creativity Program: $0.50-$1.00 per 1,000 qualified views
- YouTube Shorts: $0.04-$0.10 RPM
- Instagram Reels: Highly variable, roughly $0.01-$0.05 RPM (bonuses aside)

TikTok's Creativity Program pays roughly 5-10x less than YouTube long-form but 5-10x more than YouTube Shorts. Since TikTok content is short-form (1-3 minutes for Creativity Program), the comparison to YouTube Shorts is most relevant.

The reach advantage: TikTok's algorithm is significantly more aggressive at distributing content to non-followers. A TikTok video has a much higher probability of reaching 100K+ views than a YouTube video or Instagram Reel from the same creator. This reach advantage partially offsets the lower per-view payment.

The real money on TikTok: Platform payments are not where most TikTok creators earn their income. A 2025 Linktree survey of 2,000+ creators found that US TikTok creators with 100K+ followers earned an average of $2,000-$5,000/month from brand deals versus $500-$1,500/month from platform payments. The platform is best viewed as a reach and brand-building tool, with direct payments as a supplementary income stream.