YouTube Brand Deal Pricing Calculator

1. Enter the hours the deal will take and your hourly rate. Add direct costs such as an editor, props or travel.
2. Enter the profit margin you want. Add a usage-rights or exclusivity add-on if the brand has asked for those terms, and a commission if an agent is involved.
3. Read the price to quote and the break-even quote. Add the brand offer to see whether it covers your costs.

What each result tells you:

Brand deal pricing is the process of setting the fee a creator charges a brand for sponsored content. This page uses the cost-plus method: start from what the deal costs you to deliver, add a profit margin, then add fees for extra rights the brand wants.

Cost-plus pricing suits creators who have no past deals to copy and no steady view count yet. It also gives a floor: a price below your cost base means you pay to do the work.

What it is not: it is not a market rate. No official source publishes a fair price for a brand deal, and the old version of this page worked from a made-up table of rates by topic. That table is removed. A view-based quote is a different method, and the sponsorship rate calculator covers it.

The calculator stacks four layers in a fixed order: cost, margin, add-ons, commission.

1. Cost base = hours x hourly rate + direct costs.
2. Base fee = cost base / (1 - margin). Profit is then the chosen share of the base fee.
3. Usage add-on = base fee x usage %. Exclusivity add-on = base fee x exclusivity %.
4. You keep = base fee + both add-ons.
5. Price to quote = you keep / (1 - commission). Break-even quote = cost base / (1 - commission).

Margin and markup are different. A 30% margin on a 1,250.00 cost gives 1,785.71, and a 30% markup gives 1,625.00. The margin calculator shows both side by side.

Example values only, not benchmarks. A creator expects 22 hours of work at a personal rate of 45.00 per hour, with 260.00 of direct costs. The creator wants a 30% margin and charges 25% for usage rights and 15% for exclusivity. A manager takes 10%. The brand offers 2,400.

Meaning: the offer is 13.6% below the price but well above break-even, so the verdict is amber. The creator can counter at 2,777.78, or accept and drop one of the add-on terms.

Each input moves the price in a known way, so you can see what a brand request costs before you agree to it.

Hours, Including the Hidden Ones

Emails, briefs, revisions and reporting are work. Two extra hours at 45.00 add 90.00 to the cost base and 200.00 to the example quote.

Your Hourly Rate

The rate must cover time you cannot bill, such as planning and admin. To turn an income goal into an hourly figure, use the salary to hourly calculator.

Usage Rights

Usage rights let the brand reuse your video, for example in its own paid ads. You give up control of your work for a period, so charge for it. No standard percentage exists.

Exclusivity

Exclusivity stops you working with competing brands for a period. The cost to you is the deals you must turn down, so a longer or wider clause deserves a larger add-on.

Commission

Commission comes out of the top-line price. A 10% commission means the quote must be 11.1% higher than the amount you want to keep.

Cost-plus pricing starts from your side of the deal, and view-based pricing starts from what the brand receives. Run both and quote the higher number.

For several videos sold together, price each one here and bundle them with the sponsorship package calculator.

Your First Brand Deal

With no past deals to lean on, your own costs are the only solid numbers. Price from them and you cannot lose money on the job.

A Brand Adds Terms Late

The brand asks for 90 days of paid usage after you quoted. Add a usage percentage and send the new price with the reason.

Deciding Whether to Accept a Low Offer

Enter the offer. The verdict shows whether it clears your break-even quote and how much it leaves.

A brand deal must be disclosed however it is priced, and a deal paid in products counts too. These notes were read on 2026-10-03 and are not legal advice.

• YouTube: YouTube Help says that if you feature branded content, sponsorships or endorsements, you have to let YouTube know by selecting the paid promotion setting in the video details. YouTube Help adds that you and the brand are responsible for following the laws that apply.
• US viewers: the FTC says it is the influencer's responsibility to make the disclosure, and that free or discounted products are a relationship to disclose. It says the disclosure should be in the video, not only in the description.
• Honest claims: the FTC says you cannot talk about your experience with a product you have not tried, and you cannot say a product is great when you thought it was bad.

1. Counting Only Filming Time

Briefs, emails, revisions and reports often take as long as the shoot. Count them.

2. Confusing Margin with Markup

Adding 30% to cost gives a 23.1% margin, not 30%. Divide by one minus the margin instead.

3. Giving Rights Away for Free

Usage rights and exclusivity have a cost to you. Leaving both at zero prices them at nothing.

4. Adding Commission on Top

2,500 plus 10% is 2,750, which leaves 2,475 after commission. The right quote is 2,500 / 0.90 = 2,777.78.

5. Using Someone Else's Add-on Percentages

No standard exists. Set each add-on from what the term costs you.

6. Accepting Below Break-even

An offer under your break-even quote means you fund the brand's campaign yourself.

The arithmetic is exact, so the price is only as good as your estimate of hours and costs.

Charge at least your break-even quote, and aim for your cost base plus the margin and add-ons you set. No official price exists, so this calculator builds the figure from your own hours, costs and margin.

Use the rate you need to earn for the hours you can bill. Start from your yearly income goal and your working hours, and remember that planning and admin time is unpaid.

Usage rights are permission for the brand to reuse your video, for example in its own paid ads or on its website, for a set period. The add-on is the extra fee you charge for that permission.

Exclusivity is a promise not to work with competing brands for a set period. The add-on pays you for the deals you must turn down during that time.

No. No official body sets one, and this page publishes none. Set each add-on from the length and scope of the term and what it costs you.

Margin is profit as a share of the price, not of the cost. Dividing a 1,250.00 cost by 0.70 gives 1,785.71, and 30% of that is the 535.71 profit.

It is the lowest quote that pays for your time and costs after commission, with no profit. In the example it is 1,388.89, so any offer below that loses money.

Work out both and quote the higher one. Cost-plus protects you on a heavy production, and a view-based quote rewards a large audience.

For disclosure, yes. The FTC says financial relationships are not limited to money and that free or discounted products should be disclosed. For pricing, enter only the cash offer.

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent to our servers. Anything you choose to Save stays in this browser only.

• Add branded content restrictions and disclosure labels: the paid promotion setting (YouTube Help, read 2026-10-03).
• Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers (US Federal Trade Commission, dated November 2019, read 2026-10-03).
• FTC Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking (US Federal Trade Commission staff guidance, read 2026-10-03).
• Understand ad revenue analytics: RPM, CPM and what RPM leaves out (YouTube Help, read 2026-10-03).