China KOL pricing in 2026: rates by platform and tier

China KOL pricing has no official price list. Creators set their own rates on each platform’s marketplace, and those rates can change every month. We book creators from Shanghai and Hong Kong. The table below is our own planning grid, as published on our influencer marketing service page.

Platform	Creator tier (followers)	Planning range
Xiaohongshu	Under 5,000 (nano KOC)	100 to 500 yuan a post, or product only
Xiaohongshu	5,000 to 20,000 (micro KOC)	500 to 3,000 yuan a post
Xiaohongshu	20,000 to 100,000 (mid-tier KOL)	3,000 to 15,000 yuan a post
Xiaohongshu	Over 100,000 (top-tier KOL)	15,000 to 80,000+ yuan a post
Douyin	Under 50,000	1,000 to 5,000 yuan a video
Douyin	50,000 to 500,000	5,000 to 30,000 yuan a video
Douyin	Over 500,000	30,000 to 200,000+ yuan a video
Douyin	Live commerce host	Base fee plus 20% to 40% of sales
WeChat	Official Account article	5,000 to 50,000+ yuan, about 1 yuan a view
WeChat	Channels video	3,000 to 20,000 yuan a video

TheRedScroll publishes these ranges as first-quarter 2026 benchmarks: “Not quotes.” Source: TheRedScroll, influencer marketing service page, October 2026. https://www.theredscroll.com/services/influencer-marketing/

A plus sign means the top of the band is open. They are planning figures, not measured averages. Every outside source below was checked twice in October 2026.

China KOL pricing by platform and tier

A KOL (key opinion leader) is a creator paid for reach. A KOC (key opinion consumer) is a small account paid for trust, often in product. Brands book both through each platform’s marketplace. Douyin (抖音) uses Xingtu (巨量星图), and Xiaohongshu (小红书) uses Pugongying (蒲公英). WeChat (微信) runs its own creator marketplace (互选).

No Chinese data firm publishes a current yuan price for each follower band. The rate tables that circulate in China sit on agency pages with no date and no named source. So we show two labeled grids: ours, and an outside consultancy’s, left in US dollars as it published them.

A Xiaohongshu nano KOC with 1,000 to 5,000 followers may earn about 20 to 60 US dollars a post, often in incentives or gifted product. A micro KOL with under 1 million followers can charge about 10,000 to 35,000 US dollars a campaign. Source: Long Advisory, June 2026. https://longadvisory.eu/en/kol-vs-koc-marketing-in-china-which-delivers-better-roi/

The bigger story is the gap between the card price and what buyers actually pay.

In 2025, KOL list prices (刊例价) rose 11.6% while actual net prices fell 3.4%, a 15-point gap. R3 expected the 2025 market to pass 108.5 billion yuan. Source: Pangjing (胖鲸), reporting R3’s 2026 KOLC governance white paper, January 2026. https://pangjing.cn/6106244-2/

Already paying creators? Put your last invoice next to the creator’s listed price. If you paid the list, you paid more than the market did.

Spend is also moving down the tiers.

In 2025, head KOLs took 13.1% of placements and 20.5% of spend. Mid-tier and tail creators took 86.8% of placements. Total KOL spend was 84 billion yuan, down about 4%. Source: TopMarketing, reporting Topklout (克劳锐), June 2026. https://www.itopmarketing.com/info22850

Weibo (微博) and Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) aren’t in the table. We found no dated source for their creator rates, so we don’t guess.

How Chinese creators quote a price

Each marketplace sets its own quoting rules, and those rules decide where you can push.

Douyin’s Xingtu (巨量星图). Creators list one price for a brand mention inside their usual video and a higher one for a custom video.

Xingtu requires custom videos to cost more than integrations, and longer videos to cost more than shorter ones. A creator gets one immediate price change a month. Other changes start on the 1st of the next month. A price under half the platform’s suggested price may not take effect. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu help center, August 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/author/113055

Payment terms vary by task type.

Assigned tasks are bought at a fixed price. Open-call tasks are billed on results after the video goes live. Xingtu is prepaid. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu help center, July 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/demander/109046

Xiaohongshu’s Pugongying (蒲公英). Creators set separate fixed prices for an image note and a video note.

A creator quoting 10,000 yuan costs the brand 11,000: the fixed price plus a 10% platform service fee. A published note cannot be deleted for 30 days. Source: Xiaohongshu Pugongying help center (小红书蒲公英帮助中心), September 2026. https://pgy.xiaohongshu.com/help/home

WeChat works differently. On its creator marketplace (互选), an Official Account owner sets a price per article, and that price is the owner’s take-home pay before tax.

WeChat’s marketplace uses the last price an Official Account set in the previous month as this month’s price. Source: Tencent Marketing (腾讯营销), creator marketplace help center, June 2026. https://huxuan.qq.com/trade/free/help_detail?post_ids=7611

Does category change the price?

Yes, though not in the way agency proposals often put it. You will read that beauty creators charge a set premium. No platform publishes a category multiplier for the same follower tier, and neither does any data firm or broker we found.

What is published points somewhere else.

On Douyin (抖音), looks, auto and finance creators lead on the unit price of sponsored posts. On Xiaohongshu (小红书), beauty creators face the most competition, and their average price is relatively low. Source: QuestMobile, via Digitaling (数英), September 2024. https://www.digitaling.com/articles/1268336.html

That is 2024 data, and it averages beauty creators of every size. Small accounts and stars sit in the same number. It can’t tell you what one beauty creator charges against one travel creator with the same following, and no published source can. What it does show is that the most crowded category on the platform was not the priciest.

Crowded isn’t the same as expensive.

Money is also shifting between categories.

In 2025, Douyin’s 3C electronics category took 4.1 points more of KOL spend, and auto took 3.6 points more. Source: TopMarketing, reporting Topklout (克劳锐), June 2026. https://www.itopmarketing.com/info22850

Ebiquity tracked how tier costs moved on each platform in 2025.

Platform	Head KOLs	Mid-tier	Tail and KOCs
Douyin	Up	Up	Not published
WeChat	Up	Up	Not published
Xiaohongshu	Down	Up sharply	Up sharply
Bilibili	Up	Up	Not published

Ebiquity expected like-for-like KOL costs to rise about 8% in 2025. It found KOL quotes have no transparent mechanism and usually rise more than 8% a year. Source: Campaign China (Campaign中国), reporting Ebiquity (思媒思智), September 2025. https://www.campaignchina.com/article/ebiquity%E6%9C%80%E6%96%B0%E8%B0%83%E7%A0%94%EF%BC%9A2025%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%A4%BE%E4%BA%A4kol%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80%E5%B8%82%E5%9C%BA%E5%B0%86%E5%8D%A0%E5%85%A8%E7%90%83kol%E6%8A%95%E8%B5%84%E7%9A%8458/504529

What the fee includes, and what is billed on top

The creator’s price buys the post. Most of what comes with it is billed as a separate line.

Line	Xingtu (Douyin)	Pugongying (Xiaohongshu)	Creator marketplace (WeChat)
Platform fee	5%, or 10% on open-call tasks	10%	5%; 10% or 20% on recruitment tasks
Ad use of the post	Free by default, or a fee of up to 50%	Ticked when you order	One year; ads need creator consent
Paid boost of the post	Not covered here	25 yuan per 1,000 impressions	One year of in-feed boost

Xingtu adds a 5% platform fee on assigned, co-created and recruitment tasks, and 10% on open-call tasks. The bill lists the creator fee, any service provider’s fee and the platform fee as separate lines. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu settlement rules, June 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/author/133057

From April 1, 2026, new recruitment tasks on WeChat’s marketplace pay 10% on Channels and 20% on Official Accounts. One-to-one deals pay 5%: a creator paid 500 yuan costs the client 525. Source: Tencent Marketing (腾讯营销), creator marketplace help center, September 2026. https://huxuan.qq.com/trade/free/help_detail?post_ids=13088

Pugongying raised the price of boosting a cooperation note to 25 yuan per 1,000 impressions, up from 15. The change was finished on January 23, 2026. Source: Xiaohongshu Pugongying help center (小红书蒲公英帮助中心), September 2026. https://pgy.xiaohongshu.com/help/home

Tax is easy to miss.

Xingtu’s invoices include 6% VAT. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu help center, June 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/demander/130343

Product you ship to creators, and the agency’s own fee, sit outside all of this. Our China social media marketing cost guide puts creator fees next to every other line in a budget.

Exclusivity, usage rights and whitelisting

Ad buyers outside China call it whitelisting: running a creator’s post as your own ad. In China it is an authorization, and each platform handles it differently.

On Xingtu (巨量星图), ad-use authorization is free by default. A brand can add a one-off fee from 20 yuan up to 50% of the task amount. (The 5% platform fee applies to that, too.) Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu help center, June 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/demander/139122

Paying for ad use doesn’t buy the video. Xingtu’s help center says the copyright in an ordered video stays with the creator.

Douyin’s commercial authorization agreement grants a worldwide, non-exclusive right. The creator cannot revoke it during the term, and the term can be set to “permanent.” Source: Douyin and Ocean Engine (抖音／巨量引擎), commercial cooperation authorization agreement, June 2026. https://lf9-cdn-tos.draftstatic.com/obj/ies-hotsoon-draft/account_center/1071a9ba-ffbd-42e8-961f-457385bf210d.html

Set the term yourself, in writing, when you place the order.

On Xiaohongshu (小红书) the window is narrow. Tick ad use when you order. If you skip it, the platform’s smart-creative tools for that note can’t be switched on later.

To run a Pugongying note as an ad, the brand ticks “use as ad material” when ordering. The creator accepting the order counts as authorization. Source: Xiaohongshu Pugongying help center (小红书蒲公英帮助中心), August 2026. https://pgy.xiaohongshu.com/help/home

WeChat (微信) lets a brand boost a creator’s video in the feed for one year without consent. Wider ad use also lasts one year and needs the creator’s consent. Source: Tencent Marketing (腾讯营销), creator marketplace help center, September 2026. https://huxuan.qq.com/trade/free/help_detail?post_ids=8435

Exclusivity is the add-on with no public price. WeChat’s creator rules say that if exclusivity is agreed, the creator may only publish that advertiser’s content for the agreed period.

If brands require influencers to avoid working with competitors for a certain period, pricing can increase substantially. Source: Long Advisory, May 2026. https://longadvisory.eu/en/how-much-influencers-cost-in-china-kol-pricing-explained/

Nobody publishes a percentage. Ask for exclusivity by category and by weeks.

One line is never optional: the ad label.

Paid content that sells through experience sharing or reviews, with a purchase link, must be clearly labeled “广告” (advertisement). Source: State Administration for Market Regulation (国家市场监督管理总局), Internet Advertising Measures, Article 9, February 2023. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2023/issue_10506/202306/content_6885261.html

KOC seeding: paying for volume, not reach

KOC seeding means dozens or hundreds of small accounts posting about one product. The aim is to fill search results, not to chase a viral moment. Each post is cheap: our table plans a small Xiaohongshu account at 100 to 500 yuan, or product only. The cost sits in the count and the coordination.

Xingtu (巨量星图) now sells volume as a format.

Xingtu’s recruitment task is built for hiring mid-tier creators and KOCs in bulk, from 1,000 to 50 million followers. The creator receives 0.8 times the client’s bid. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu service provider help center, August 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/facilitator/140778

Its open-call task works the same way at the bottom of the market: one brief, many creators, paid on natural plays. Our KOL vs KOC guide covers when each one fits. Brands are shifting money toward the small end.

Reading NewRank’s (新榜) listing filing, Yema Caijing reported that its brand clients increasingly swap head KOLs for cheaper KOCs, so each deal is shrinking. Source: Yema Caijing (野马财经), via Tencent News (腾讯新闻), May 2026. https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260510A06KQ900

On Xiaohongshu (小红书), tail creators now take close to 20% of KOL spend. Source: TopMarketing, reporting Topklout (克劳锐), June 2026. https://www.itopmarketing.com/info22850

Watch the trend, though. Ebiquity found Xiaohongshu KOC costs rising sharply in 2025. Our KOL vs KOC cost comparison prices a 40-note seeding round against one top-tier post.

Four negotiation levers that work

Read this section before your first call with a creator or an MCN.

1. Treat the card as the opening bid. R3’s 15-point gap means the market already pays under list. Pugongying even builds the haggle into the order.

A Pugongying creator can re-price an order to 80% to 150% of the listed price. The 10% fee is charged on the agreed price. Source: Xiaohongshu Pugongying help center (小红书蒲公英帮助中心), August 2026. https://pgy.xiaohongshu.com/help/home

2. Book before the price changes. A Xingtu creator’s routine price change lands on the 1st of the next month. On WeChat, last month’s final price is this month’s price. Ask the creator, or the MCN (the talent agency many creators sign with), whether a new price is coming, and book first. Festivals tighten the calendar further. Our Double 11 countdown advises against booking top hosts late and points late brands to a mid-tier host for the peak.

3. Pay on results where the platform allows it. Open-call and recruitment tasks on Xingtu pay on plays or bids. Use them for the bottom of the pyramid, and keep fixed prices for the few creators who carry a launch.

4. Write rights and results into the contract. Ad use is free on Xingtu by default and must be ticked at order on Pugongying. Guarantees need the same care.

A brand paid a culture company 100,000 yuan to book a Douyin livestreamer with a million followers. The contract set a 550,000 yuan sales floor. Sales came to 8,209.26 yuan. The court ordered 98,507.41 yuan refunded, using the contract’s own formula. Source: Red Star News (红星新闻), via Sina (新浪), August 2026. https://finance.sina.cn/tech/2026-08-26/detail-iniprytk0877893.d.html

The Ningxiang court went further. It told brands to write the sales floor, the order data standard and the refund ratio into the contract. It also warned against picking creators on follower count and fame alone.

Red flags: inflated followers and fake engagement

Fake traffic is a business in China. The enforcement figures show how big.

From March to the end of August 2025, Xiaohongshu (小红书) banned over 12 million fake accounts. It also actioned 13.76 million false marketing notes and cleared over 360 million fake comments. Source: China Daily (中国日报网), January 2026. https://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/20/WS696eef27a310942cc499bf9f.html

Since 2024, the regulator’s campaign against paid posters and faked traffic (刷量控评) has dealt with 2.39 million accounts and shops. Source: Cyberspace Administration of China (中央网信办), December 2025. https://www.cac.gov.cn/2025-12/31/c_1768821889918450.htm

Courts treat bought followers as false promotion under competition law.

A Shanghai court ordered a company selling Weibo follower and read boosts to pay Sina Weibo’s operator 2 million yuan. Data is only true, it said, when it reflects the real choices of real users. Source: Shanghai High People’s Court (上海市高级人民法院), October 2024. https://www.hshfy.sh.cn/shfy/web/xxnr.jsp?pa=aaWQ9MTAyMDM5MzI0MCZ4aD0xJmxtZG09bG01MTkPdcssz

China’s revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law bars helping another business mislead the public through organized fake transactions or reviews. It took effect on October 15, 2025. Fines run up to 1 million yuan. Source: China National Intellectual Property Administration (国家知识产权局), law text from the National People’s Congress, May 2026. https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/5/20/art_104_206437.html

Xingtu’s creator rules block creators with serious follower inflation on their main account from taking orders. Platforms catch a lot, not everything. Check these eight signals before you sign:

1. Views or reads far below what the follower count suggests. No platform publishes a safe ratio, so compare creators of the same size and category.
2. Comments that repeat, or say nothing about the product.
3. A follower jump with no viral post to explain it.
4. An audience profile that does not match the content.
5. A big gap between total views and natural views. Xingtu’s campaign report can exclude paid traffic.
6. A low video completion rate.
7. A creator who wants to deal outside the marketplace, away from its prepayment and records.
8. Any reluctance, from the creator or from an agency, to put a result or a refund term in writing.

No single signal proves fraud. Two or three together should stop the deal.

If a campaign has already run and sold nothing, our KOL campaign audit guide shows how to find where it broke, post by post.

What an agency charges to run a KOL campaign

Last question: who sits between you and the creator? Xingtu (巨量星图) leaves room for a middle layer, and it names that layer. The bill shows a service provider’s fee as its own line. In recruitment tasks, as the KOC section showed, the creator gets 80% of the client’s bid.

Tianxiaxiu (天下秀), a listed influencer-marketing company, booked 3.90 billion yuan of influencer-marketing revenue in 2025 at an 18.95% gross margin. Source: Tianxiaxiu, 2025 annual report, April 2026. http://file.finance.sina.com.cn/211.154.219.97:9494/MRGG/CNSESH_STOCK/2026/2026-4/2026-04-10/12074579.PDF

Part of that margin can come from the platforms, not the brand.

A broker found Tianxiaxiu’s gross margin relies on rebate (返点) policies from platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. Source: Kaiyuan Securities (开源证券), March 2025. https://pdf.dfcfw.com/pdf/H3_AP202503261647745482_1.pdf

Chinese law allows discounts and commissions only when they are paid openly and booked truthfully, under Article 8 of the same Anti-Unfair Competition Law. So ask any agency, in writing, whether it keeps platform or MCN rebates on your spend.

New to China? Test small first. A round of KOC seeding through recruitment or open-call tasks pays on results. It also shows you real prices before you commit to a top creator.

Our pricing page publishes our influencer campaign fee. That is still rare: 0 out of 37 agencies analyzed offer fixed-price packages (TheRedScroll competitive analysis, April 2026).

FAQ

How much does a Chinese KOL cost?

Our planning ranges run from 100 yuan a post for a small Xiaohongshu account to 80,000 yuan and up for a top creator. Douyin’s top tier plans at 30,000 to 200,000 yuan and up a video. Add a 5% to 20% platform fee, then negotiate: in 2025, prices paid fell 3.4% while list prices rose. No source publishes a typical campaign total.

What is the difference between KOL and KOC pricing?

A KOL is paid for reach, at a fixed price per post or video. A KOC is a small account paid for trust, often 100 to 500 yuan a post or product only. KOCs are bought in volume, often through recruitment or open-call tasks that pay on results. Ebiquity found Xiaohongshu KOC costs rising sharply in 2025.

Are usage rights included in a KOL fee?

Not automatically. On Xingtu, ad-use authorization is free by default, and a brand can add a fee of up to 50% of the task. On Pugongying, you tick ad use when you order. On WeChat, wider ad use lasts one year and needs the creator’s consent. The copyright stays with the creator on Xingtu.

See what we charge to run your creators

Creator fees are one line of the budget. Our pricing page publishes another: our fee to find and vet creators, then brief and pay them for you. To see creator fees next to content, ads and a team in one estimate, try our China social media budget calculator.