Charli D’Amelio makes the most money of any creator whose main platform is TikTok, with an estimated $18 million in gross earnings over the 12 months to March 2026. Brent Rivera and Jordan The Stallion follow her, and every name in the top 10 earns well into seven figures. Their money comes mainly from brand deals, their own products and live shows rather than TikTok’s own payouts, which is the part most lists skip.
| Before You Read the Numbers: – These are gross earnings for one year, before expenses are taken out. – They count money from every platform and business, not just TikTok payouts. – They aren’t net worth, and stakes in companies aren’t included. |
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The 10 Highest-Paid TikTok Creators
The figures below come from an annual ranking of the top 50 creators, published each June by a US business magazine. It estimates what each creator earned in the 12 months to March 2026 from deals, products, shows and platform payouts. This table keeps only the creators the ranking classes as TikTok creators and sorts them by those estimated earnings.
| # | Creator | Estimated earnings | Known for |
| 1 | Charli D’Amelio | $18 million | Dance videos, fashion deals and stage work |
| 2 | Brent Rivera | $13.7 million | His own studio and snack brand |
| 3 | Jordan The Stallion | $12.4 million | Food and comedy clips, brand deals |
| 4 | Khaby Lame | $9.9 million | Silent reaction comedy |
| 5 | Mikayla Nogueira | $9 million | Beauty reviews and her own beauty brand |
| 6 | Vivian Tu | $8.2 million | Personal finance, a podcast and books |
| 7 | Tana Mongeau | $8 million | Her podcast and beauty collaborations |
| 8 | Nurse John | $7.2 million | Hospital comedy and a large live tour |
| 9 | Leah Kateb | $7.1 million | Brand deals and a fragrance brand |
| 10 | Dixie D’Amelio | $7 million | Music, DJ sets and brand deals |
The original ranking doesn’t order creators by money alone. It also scores reach and business-building, which is why Jordan The Stallion sits near the bottom of the full top 50 while earning more than Khaby Lame. Sorting by earnings gives the cleaner answer.
The money at the top keeps growing. The 50 creators on the ranking earned $1.02 billion between them, up 20% on the year before. Many of these creators also post on YouTube and Instagram, and their figures include that income.
Why the Most-Followed Star Isn’t the Top Earner
Khaby Lame has more TikTok followers than any other person, at about 161.6 million, yet his estimated earnings of $9.9 million are a little over half of Charli D’Amelio’s. Followers open doors to deals, but they don’t set the price. Advertisers pay for audiences they can reach and sell to, and creators with their own products or long-running partnerships can earn far more than their follower counts suggest.
His name still tops many “richest TikToker” lists for a different reason. In January, a sale involving his brand business valued it at $975 million. That’s a company valuation, not cash he took home, and the ranking doesn’t count company stakes in yearly earnings.
Who Counts as a TikToker?
Some of the best-known TikTok faces aren’t in the table because the ranking now classes them under another platform. Jake Shane first built his following with comedy clips on TikTok but is now counted as a YouTuber, with an estimated $14 million from a podcast, stage work and long-term brand partnerships. Alix Earle, at $12 million, and Nara Smith, at $7.5 million, both grew on TikTok and are now counted as Instagram creators, so if you post on both apps it’s worth knowing how much Instagram pays for views.
The label is the ranking’s call on each creator’s main platform today, and it doesn’t always match where they started. If you counted every creator who became famous on TikTok, Jake Shane would rank second, Alix Earle fifth and Nara Smith just behind Tana Mongeau.
The highest earner on the whole ranking makes an estimated $300 million, far more than anyone in this list. He’s classed as a YouTuber, because his money comes from his videos there and the businesses built around them, even though he also has a large TikTok following. YouTube shares ad revenue with creators, which is a different model, and our breakdown of what creators make on YouTube with 1 million subscribers shows how that adds up.
Where the Money Actually Comes From
Brand deals come up in almost every top creator’s story. Charli D’Amelio works as an ambassador for a luxury fashion house, Khaby Lame has worked with a menswear label and a crypto exchange, and Jordan The Stallion films sponsored clips for food, pet and delivery brands. These deals often run across several apps at once, which is why the figures mix platforms.
Their own products are the other big earner, and they help explain why some creators out-earn accounts with far more followers. Brent Rivera runs a production studio and a snack brand, Mikayla Nogueira launched her own skincare and beauty brand, and Leah Kateb now helps run a clean fragrance brand sold in a large beauty chain. Selling your own product starts with a place to send people, so it helps to add a link to your TikTok bio as soon as your account qualifies.
Live shows, podcasts, books and TV make up a third group. Nurse John’s comedy tour sold more than 250,000 tickets, Charli D’Amelio has performed on Broadway, and Vivian Tu turned personal finance clips into a podcast and books. Some creators also sell products through TikTok Shop and earn a cut of each sale.
TikTok’s own payouts barely feature in how these creators are described. They matter far more to smaller creators, because they’re often the first money you can earn without a deal or a product.
How TikTok Pays Creators Directly
TikTok pays creators in several ways from inside the app. Each has its own rules, and none pays a fixed amount per view or per follower.
The Creator Rewards Program
The Creator Rewards Program pays creators for longer original videos. According to TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program help page, you need to meet all of these:
- Be 18 or older and live in a country where the program is available.
- Have a personal account in good standing.
- Have at least 10,000 followers.
- Have at least 100,000 video views in the last 30 days.
Only original videos that are at least one minute long and posted after you join can earn. To apply, tap Profile, then the Menu button, then TikTok Studio, then Creator Rewards Program. TikTok says you’ll get a reply within about 3 days.
Rewards are calculated from qualified views and the reward per 1,000 qualified views, which TikTok calls RPM, plus an additional reward based on how well-crafted, engaging and specialised a video is. TikTok doesn’t publish a fixed rate, so any exact figure you see online is an estimate.
What Counts as a Qualified View
A qualified view is a unique view from the For You feed that lasts longer than 5 seconds. Each account counts only once per video. A video starts earning once it reaches 1,000 qualified views.
TikTok also leaves several kinds of views out. Paid views, promoted views, artificial views, fraudulent views and views on videos the viewer disliked don’t count, and neither do views from people who said they’re not interested. That’s why a video’s public view count is usually higher than the number it gets paid for.
LIVE Gifts and Diamonds
During a LIVE, viewers can send virtual Gifts, and creators receive Diamonds based on the popularity of their LIVE. TikTok’s LIVE Gifts help page says you must be 18 or older and eligible to go LIVE to receive them. Diamonds can also come from gifts on regular videos.
Diamonds are one factor in your LIVE rewards, and TikTok’s Diamonds help page explains that you can exchange them for money. You need to collect a minimum number before you can take a payout. Gifts depend on how often you go LIVE and how engaged your viewers are, and our full guide on how to make money from TikTok gifts covers coins, Diamonds and withdrawals.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions let your most loyal viewers pay you a monthly fee to support your account. To offer one, you need to be 18 or older with 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the past month, or meet the requirements to go LIVE. A LIVE-only subscription has a lower bar of 18 or older with 1,000 followers.
Names Missing From Older Lists
If you’ve searched this before, you’ll have seen Matt Rife, Addison Rae, Bella Poarch and Zach King near the top. None of them made the latest top 50. That doesn’t mean they earn little. It only means their estimated yearly earnings didn’t place them among this year’s top creators.
Older lists also tend to mix up two different numbers. Net worth is an estimate of everything a person owns minus what they owe, built up over years. Yearly earnings are what they made in one year. That’s why a net-worth list and a yearly earnings list can rank the same creator very differently, and why this article sticks to yearly figures.
Many old guides also quote tiny per-view rates from the Creator Fund. TikTok has since replaced the Creator Fund with the Creator Rewards Program, which uses qualified views and RPM, so those old figures don’t apply.
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See our TikTok servicesTikTok Earnings Questions
How much does TikTok pay per 1,000 views?
TikTok doesn’t publish a fixed rate. Creator Rewards pay is based on qualified views and RPM, plus an additional reward for well-made, engaging videos. The figures quoted online vary widely and none of them come from TikTok.
How many followers do you need to get paid on TikTok?
Creator Rewards and Subscriptions both need 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the last 30 days. A LIVE-only subscription needs 1,000 followers, and every option requires you to be 18 or older.
Do paid or promoted views count toward Creator Rewards?
No. TikTok excludes paid, promoted, artificial and fraudulent views, so only unique For You views longer than 5 seconds count toward your rewards.
Does TikTok pay you for followers?
No. Followers are a requirement for some programs, but TikTok pays for qualified views, gifts and subscriptions, not for the size of your audience. Brands may pay more for a bigger following, but that money comes from the brand, not from TikTok.
How much can you make from TikTok gifts?
It depends on how many gifts your viewers send and how often you go LIVE. Gifts turn into Diamonds, which you can exchange for money once you reach the minimum payout, and there’s no set amount per stream.
What the Top Earners Have in Common
The creators at the top of this list don’t rely on TikTok’s payouts alone. Each one has a clear niche, whether that’s dance, beauty, comedy or money, and an audience that follows them from app to app. They turn that audience into deals, products and shows that keep paying when a video flops.
If you’re building toward TikTok income, start with what TikTok controls. Reach 10,000 followers, post original videos that run at least a minute and keep an eye on your analytics in TikTok Studio. Then add a second income stream as soon as you can, because that’s where the real money in this list comes from.
