Douyin marketing cost in 2026: what you pay and what a package should include

Douyin marketing cost splits into seven lines. Six of them carry a figure from the platform itself or from a dated public source. The seventh is our own fee, which our pricing page publishes. The one number nobody prints is the first ad deposit.

Cost line	What the record shows	Source
Verification	600 yuan first year, 120 yuan to renew	Ocean Engine, 2022
Video production	About 4,900 yuan a video at most, in one public contract	Beijing award notice, 2025
Paid media	Prepaid. DOU+ from 100 yuan an order. No published first deposit	Douyin, Ocean Engine
Creators	25,000 to 65,000 US dollars a collaboration, plus a 5% platform fee	Long Advisory, 2026; Xingtu
Live commerce	Creator fees, commission and paid traffic at 35% of sales or more	Ebrun, 2025
Douyin Shop	Base fee of 2% to 5% in the categories below, deposits from 500 yuan	Douyin E-commerce, 2026
Agency fee	Published on TheRedScroll’s pricing page	TheRedScroll

Dollar figures are as the source gives them. Everything else is in yuan, and every source was checked in October 2026.

Why Douyin marketing cost runs higher than other platforms

Douyin (抖音), TikTok’s sister app inside China, is enormous, and reach at that scale costs money.

Douyin had about 1.03 billion monthly active users in June 2026, second only to WeChat. Source: Sina Finance (新浪财经), reporting QuestMobile, August 2026. https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/discovery/2026-08-04/doc-inimcxxp2069391.shtml

Ocean Engine, ByteDance’s ad platform, still tells advertisers that Douyin has more than 600 million daily active users. Source: China Daily (中国日报网), January 2026. https://caijing.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/30/WS697c3a1aa310942cc499d74d.html

Three things push the bill up. Video is the first. Xiaohongshu (小红书) can run on photo notes and WeChat (微信) on articles. Douyin runs on short video. Every one of those videos has to be planned, shot, cut and subtitled in Chinese before it earns a single view.

Then there’s paid traffic. Sellers fight for the same feed.

For every 100 videos a Douyin user watches, about 9 to 12 are e-commerce content from the trade and paid traffic pools. Source: LatePost (晚点LatePost), via Sina Finance, September 2025. https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/t/2025-09-08/doc-infpuwrf4417383.shtml

And once you sell, there’s the live room, which needs hosts and operators, plus paid traffic every day it runs. Even the specialists earn thin margins.

Yowant, a listed live commerce company, lifted its social e-commerce gross margin from 2.08% to 5.53% in 2025. Source: Yowant (遥望科技), 2025 annual report, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, April 2026. https://disc.static.szse.cn/download/disc/disk03/finalpage/2026-04-28/c6762ed2-b22f-4e6a-93c3-681d924ba0ed.PDF

Account setup and verification

The verified Douyin (抖音) enterprise account, known as Blue V (蓝V), is the cheapest line on the list.

Douyin Blue V verification costs 600 yuan for the first year and 120 yuan a year to renew. Review takes about two working days. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Douyin enterprise account FAQ, May 2022. https://www.oceanengine.com/faq/douyin-qyh-zmrzn.html

There are two catches. You pay even if verification fails. And the current agreement only promises that review starts within 15 working days.

The review fee is whatever the application page shows. It is owed whether or not verification succeeds, and review begins within 15 working days. Source: Douyin enterprise account verification agreement (抖音企业号认证服务协议), December 2025. https://renzheng.douyin.com/support/content/123631?graphId=412&mappingType=2&spaceId=77

For a foreign brand, the bigger question is the entity. Douyin’s 2022 FAQ pages describe the enterprise account as one for companies in China. In 2026 its help center added a separate route.

Douyin’s enterprise help center lists a self-service onboarding guide for overseas, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan entities, updated October 13, 2026. It also lists a review rulebook for overseas and cross-border entities. Source: Douyin Enterprise Account Help Center (抖音企业号帮助中心), October 2026. https://renzheng.douyin.com/support/content/227771?graphId=412&mappingType=2&spaceId=77

Both documents sit behind a login, so the papers, fee and review time for that route aren’t public.

A foreign brand name adds one more document.

A foreign trademark used on an account needs a Chinese registration certificate or a Madrid registration certificate. Source: Douyin Enterprise Account Help Center, verification information rules, July 2024. https://renzheng.douyin.com/support/content/141500?graphId=412&mappingType=2&spaceId=77

Our guide to whether you need a Chinese entity covers the other platforms.

Video production: the real cost of one shootable week

Douyin (抖音) publishes no posting quota, so cadence is a budget choice. It is the biggest one you make.

No platform publishes a production price, either. Public procurement does. Chinese government buyers have to post what they paid, which makes their award notices the closest thing to a public price list.

Buyer and date	What they bought	Price
Beijing Development and Reform Commission, 2025	At least 50 original short videos, at least 4 a month	245,000 yuan, about 4,900 a video at most
Nanjing university college, 2026	Promotional film, scripted, shot and graded	7,500 to 10,000 yuan a finished minute
Same contract, 2026	AI-made promotional video	3,000 to 8,000 yuan a minute

The Beijing commission paid 245,000 yuan for at least 50 original videos, at least four a month. Source: China National Instruments Import and Export Group (中国仪器进出口集团), award notice, June 2025. https://bid.cnic.com.cn/fjggs/15679.jhtml

A 2026 award priced promotional film at 7,500 to 10,000 yuan per finished minute. AI promotional video ran 3,000 to 8,000 yuan per minute. Source: Nanjing University of Finance and Economics Hongshan College (南京财经大学红山学院), result notice, April 2026. https://hs.nufe.edu.cn/2026/0328/c347a26378/page.htm

Now price one shootable week. Say a shoot day gives you four short videos, which happens to be the Beijing contract’s monthly minimum. At Beijing’s ceiling, that comes to about 19,600 yuan. Shoot every week instead of every month and the bill is four times higher.

So price the video before you price the ads.

There are cheaper routes. Our pricing page lists editing and subtitling of client footage in the entry scope, with real-life shoots in China quoted separately.

Douyin advertising cost: in-feed, search, TopView and the minimums

Douyin ads run through Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), and you pay for all of it up front.

Ocean Engine bills in advance, by CPC, OCPC, CPM, OCPM and other modes. Its agreement says the platform sets and publishes the minimum top-up. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), platform service agreement, in force January 2026. https://sf1-cdn-tos.douyinstatic.com/obj/ies-hotsoon-draft/account_center/ee525166-d060-401d-9d2f-83359617acf0.html

We found no published minimum. The figures in circulation come from resellers, so we’re not printing one. Ask your agency to put its own rule in the contract.

Format	How it is bought	Published floor or price	Source
In-feed	Auction, by CPM, CPC or oCPM	No floor published. We plan from 1,000 yuan a day	TheRedScroll
Search	Auction on keywords	2,000 yuan for the 7-day mode, or 100 yuan a day	Ocean Engine, 2024
TopView	Reserved, by the day or by CPM	52.8 million yuan a day list price (2020); CPM orders from 200,000 yuan	Ocean Engine rate card, 2020
DOU+	Self-serve boost of one video	100 yuan to 5 million yuan an order	Ocean Engine SDK, 2025

Search ads in the 7-day steady mode need a budget of at least 2,000 yuan. Custom schedules need at least 100 yuan a day. Source: Ocean Engine open platform (巨量引擎开放平台), changelog, September 2024. https://open.oceanengine.com/changelog/1810687227706499

In its rate card for the fourth quarter of 2020, Ocean Engine listed TopView first-refresh at 52.8 million yuan a day. TopView CPM cost 320 yuan in core cities, with orders from 200,000 yuan net. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), national rate card, fourth quarter of 2020. https://lf3-ttcdn-tos.pstatp.com/obj/cognition-public/attachment_pdf_31204ca42bb9640459f1ace869f45701.pdf

A DOU+ order must be 10,000 to 500 million fen, which is 100 yuan to 5 million yuan. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Marketing API SDK, March 2025. https://github.com/oceanengine/ad_open_sdk_go/blob/master/models/model_douplus_order_create_v3_0_request.go

The TopView figures are list prices from 2020, before discounts, and no newer card is public. For in-feed, the only ranges we can give are our own, and they are planning figures, not a platform average.

TheRedScroll plans Douyin in-feed from 1,000 yuan a day, with CPC from 0.2 yuan and CPM of 10 to 50 yuan. Source: TheRedScroll, advertising page, checked October 2026. https://www.theredscroll.com/services/advertising/

Bids climb in festival windows such as Double 11 (双十一), when every brand chases the same evenings. Our Double 11 countdown covers the 2026 calendar.

Our Douyin advertising guide covers what each format is for, how oCPM bidding and the cost guarantee work, and the creative rules that decide delivery.

Live commerce: studio, host and the hidden operating cost

Nobody publishes a dated price for a Douyin (抖音) live studio. The people cost is public, and it is falling.

Womenswear hosts with one to two years of experience earned 25,000 to 50,000 yuan a month in 2023. Now it is about 15,000 to 20,000 yuan. Source: Cailian Press (财联社), April 2025. https://www.cls.cn/detail/1992813

In the fourth quarter of 2025, advertised pay around Beijing averaged 7,300 yuan a month for short-video operations jobs. E-commerce operations jobs advertised 9,700 yuan. Source: China Academy of Labour and Social Security Sciences (中国劳动和社会保障科学研究院), February 2026. https://www.calss.net.cn/p1/kybgList/20260224/44935.html

The bigger number is the share of sales a live room eats. Merchants call it the fee ratio.

With mid-tier or larger creators, expect slot fees, commission and paid traffic to take at least 35% of sales. At big creator sessions, paid traffic can be more than 30% of all traffic. A brand’s own live room usually runs 10 points or more lower; one food merchant’s runs at 40% to 50%. Source: Ebrun (亿邦动力), via Sina Tech, July 2025. https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/roll/2025-07-16/doc-inffsfyq6067212.shtml

Live commerce line	What the record shows	Source
Host	15,000 to 20,000 yuan a month, womenswear, 1 to 2 years in	Cailian Press, 2025
Operations staff	7,300 to 9,700 yuan a month, by role	CALSS, Q4 2025
Paid traffic	More than 30% of the traffic at big creator sessions	Ebrun, 2025
Creator session, all in	35% of sales or more	Ebrun, 2025
Your own live room	10 points or more below a creator session	Ebrun, 2025
Studio and kit	No dated published figure	None

The squeeze is getting tighter, too.

More creator agencies have asked merchants to pay traffic costs separately since 2025. One service provider says a merchant needs at least 50% gross margin to do well. Source: Ebrun (亿邦动力), via Sina, April 2026. https://finance.sina.cn/tech/2026-04-03/detail-inhtferc8897819.d.html?vt=4

Creator and KOL fees on Douyin

Douyin (抖音) creators are booked through Xingtu (巨量星图), the platform’s official marketplace. It charges its own fee on top.

Xingtu charges the client a platform fee of 5% on assigned, co-created and recruitment tasks, and 10% on open-call tasks. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu settlement rules, June 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/author/133057

Creators set their own prices against a suggested price, and there is a floor.

A creator quote below 50% of Xingtu’s suggested price may not take effect. Source: Ocean Engine (巨量引擎), Xingtu creator quoting rules, August 2026. https://www.xingtu.cn/help-center/author/113055

What do brands actually pay per deal? One outside consultancy puts it in dollars.

Average collaborations on Douyin often run 25,000 to 65,000 US dollars, against 10,000 to 40,000 US dollars on Xiaohongshu. Source: Long Advisory, May 2026. https://longadvisory.eu/en/how-much-influencers-cost-in-china-kol-pricing-explained/

Our influencer marketing page publishes our own Douyin planning ranges. They are planning figures only, never quotes or a market average.

TheRedScroll plans Douyin creators at 1,000 to 5,000 yuan a video under 50,000 followers, and 5,000 to 30,000 yuan up to 500,000. Above that, 30,000 to 200,000 yuan or more. Live hosts take a base fee plus 20% to 40% commission on sales. Source: TheRedScroll, influencer marketing page, Q1 2026 benchmarks, checked October 2026. https://www.theredscroll.com/services/influencer-marketing/

How does a big brand buy? Fuling Zhacai, the Chongqing pickle maker, published a tender in June 2026.

Fuling Zhacai budgeted 805,000 yuan for at least 500 Douyin creator videos, with a sales target of at least 3.8 times the production fees. Source: Chongqing Fuling Zhacai Group (涪陵榨菜), tender notice, June 2026. https://www.flzc.com/html/text/4e25c8cc173f8ade8949b9d1a6d364b3.html

That budget works out to about 1,610 yuan a video at most. Sales-linked creators work differently. On the Select Alliance (精选联盟), you set a commission and Douyin takes a cut from the creator.

Merchants set open commission rates of 5% to 50%. From August 5, 2026, creators pay Douyin 10%, 20% or 40% of that commission, depending on their rating. Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center (抖音电商学习中心), affiliate settlement rules, July 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/article/112620

Head hosts sit in a different price bracket altogether.

Head hosts charge brands about 1 million to 3 million yuan for a dedicated session, and big hosts’ commission is generally 20% or more. Source: Ebrun (亿邦动力), via Sina Tech, July 2025. https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/roll/2025-07-16/doc-inffsfyq6067212.shtml

Our China KOL pricing guide covers the tiers in depth.

Douyin Shop commission and fulfillment

If you only want reach, skip ahead to the budget levels. This part is for brands that want to sell inside the app.

A foreign brand without a mainland company has its own route: Douyin’s cross-border channel, Global Purchase (全球购).

A cross-border seller needs a company registered outside the mainland, a mainland agent that shares liability, and an offshore corporate bank account. Mainland-registered companies cannot open this shop type. Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center (抖音电商学习中心), cross-border merchant rules, July 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/article/108056

Douyin calls the commission a technical service fee. It has two parts: a base rate, plus an extra rate on orders through the Douyin Mall app and Doubao. If an order is refunded, the fee comes back.

Category, 2026	Base rate	Extra channel rate
Apparel, domestic shop	5%	5%
Facial care, domestic	4%	5.2%
Supplements, domestic	3%	3.9%
Snack food, domestic	2%	2.6%

In 2026, base and channel rates are 5% and 5% for apparel and 4% and 5.2% for facial care. Supplements pay 3% and 3.9%, and snack food 2% and 2.6%. Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center (抖音电商学习中心), 2026 rate standards, July 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/article/aHijyoJA6hvb

Deposits are modest. A shop pays a base deposit of 500, 2,000 or 5,000 yuan, set by last month’s sales. Cross-border sellers add a second deposit on top.

The base deposit is 500, 2,000 or 5,000 yuan, tiered on the previous month’s sales. Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center, deposit rules, October 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/article/101830

Cross-border sellers add an after-sales deposit of twice the base, or ten times for high-refund-risk sellers. Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center, cross-border deposit rules, June 2025. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/article/107821

Cash comes back quickly, at least on paper.

Merchants are paid three days after the buyer confirms receipt, in categories with an after-sales period of 30 days or less. Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center, settlement date rules, September 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/article/111412

Returns are the cost that bites.

Douyin e-commerce accounts for 10% to 20% of all e-commerce return parcels in China, per 100EC data. Source: 21st Century Business Herald (21世纪经济报道), May 2026. https://www.21jingji.com/article/20260519/405e1b01c27de014f97f27670fe0cb1c.html

Three budget levels and what each realistically achieves

Each level is built from the figures above. We don’t add them into one monthly total, because the creator and live lines grow with your sales. Our own fee for running them sits on our pricing page.

Level	What it includes	Cost anchors	What it can achieve
1. Test	Verified account, four videos a month, DOU+ boosts	Up to about 19,600 yuan of production a month at the Beijing rate	Learn what holds attention. No sales engine yet
2. Grow	Weekly shoots, in-feed and search ads, small creators	Four times the test production, plus ads planned from 1,000 yuan a day	Steady reach and search presence. Traffic to your stores
3. Sell	Cross-border shop, your own live room, creator sessions	Hosts and operators every month, plus 35% of sales or more with creators	Sales inside Douyin, if your margin carries the fee ratio

Level 1 is cheap. It tells you whether Douyin wants your product before you pay for traffic.

Most brands should sit at level 2 for six months. Ads only work once the videos do.

The third level is a different business: a shop and a studio, run by a team that sells every day.

What a Douyin package should spell out

Whatever the level, a package should name six things in writing:

1. Who verifies the account, and under which entity.
2. How many videos a month, how long, and who shoots them.
3. Ad spend billed at cost, with the platform invoice shown.
4. Which creators, booked where, with the Xingtu fee on the bill.
5. Who staffs the live room, and how many hours a week.
6. Who runs Douyin Shop, and who pays for returns.

Our Douyin agency page shows how we cover each one.

Already on Douyin? Hold your monthly bill against these lines. If production is under four videos a month, the ads have little to work with. If your fee ratio is past 35% and your gross margin is under 50%, you’re below the line one provider told Ebrun a merchant needs.

When Douyin is the wrong platform for you

Check the audience first. Douyin (抖音) skews older and more provincial than Xiaohongshu.

In October 2025, 22.2% of Douyin users were 51 or older. On Xiaohongshu, 54.2% of users were under 30, and 37.2% lived in first-tier and new first-tier cities. Source: QuestMobile, via 36Kr (36氪), December 2025. https://www.36kr.com/p/3597577937502473

The Douyin app has more than 500 million monthly users in third-tier cities and below. Source: QuestMobile, via 36Kr (36氪), July 2026. https://www.36kr.com/p/3884935514648839

Douyin is the wrong first platform if your buyer is young, urban and researching a considered purchase. Xiaohongshu (小红书) usually fits better. It’s also wrong if your margin cannot carry a live room, or your budget cannot carry weekly video. One listed Chinese food brand treats it as a launch window.

Listed Zhongjing Foods treats Douyin and Kuaishou (快手) as launch windows, where the goal is to break even with a slight profit. Source: 21st Century Business Herald (21世纪经济报道), April 2024. https://www.21jingji.com/article/20240411/herald/2c9861b61345c86a8bdcd2a409a45f4e.html

Our Xiaohongshu marketing cost guide and our WeChat marketing cost guide price the alternatives line by line.

FAQ

What is the minimum budget for Douyin marketing?

The platform minimums are small: 600 yuan for Blue V, 100 yuan for a DOU+ order and 100 yuan a day for custom search ads. The real minimum is video. One public contract paid up to about 4,900 yuan a video and required four a month. No first ad deposit is published, so ask your agency for its rule in writing.

How much does a Douyin livestream cost to run?

Plan for people and a share of sales. Womenswear hosts with a year or two of experience earned about 15,000 to 20,000 yuan a month in 2025. Operations jobs around Beijing advertise 7,300 to 9,700 yuan a month. With creators, slot fees, commission and paid traffic take 35% of sales or more. Your own room runs about 10 points lower.

Is Douyin more expensive than Xiaohongshu?

For most brands, yes. Video costs more to make than photo notes (and Douyin wants it weekly). Long Advisory puts an average Douyin collaboration at 25,000 to 65,000 US dollars, against 10,000 to 40,000 on Xiaohongshu. In return, Douyin can sell inside the app through live rooms and Douyin Shop.

See what a Douyin package costs with us

Every number above is a cost you pay to someone else. Our pricing page publishes the last line: our fixed fee for running Douyin for you, with ad spend billed separately at cost. To add up the other lines for your own plan, try our China social media budget calculator.