How to quote a brand in India: rates, wording, and when to raise them

Most creators don't lose money because their work is bad. They lose it in the four minutes it takes to reply to a brand's DM. Someone types "what are your charges?" and you send back a number you half invented, then spend three weeks quietly resenting the shoot.

The number matters. How you send it matters almost as much. Here's both.

The ranges, roughly

Published India rate cards for 2026 put a single Instagram reel somewhere in these bands:

• 1K to 10K followers: ₹1,000 to ₹12,000

• 10K to 50K: ₹2,000 to ₹35,000

• 50K to 100K: ₹8,000 to ₹68,000

• 100K to 500K: ₹50,000 to ₹3.5 lakh

Those ranges are embarrassingly wide, and that's the honest part. Nobody can give you one number from your follower count alone. A finance creator with 20K can out-earn a lifestyle creator with 80K, because the audience is worth more per head to an advertiser. Both upGrowth and TickTime put finance and tech roughly 30 to 50 percent above food and lifestyle for the same reach.

A static post usually prices around half to 60 percent of your reel rate. A story frame, 20 to 30 percent. Carousels sit closer to the reel because they take real work.

Retainers are the calmer money. Freelance social media management in India runs about ₹10,000 to ₹35,000 a month for basic posting on one or two platforms, per Jigsawkraft's 2026 breakdown. Mumbai and Bengaluru clients pay 20 to 30 percent over that. Indore, Kochi, Jaipur, less. But if you own strategy, shooting, editing and replying to every comment, you are not a ₹12,000 retainer. That band is for scheduling someone else's content.

Followers are the worst input

The things that actually move your price barely appear on your profile.

Usage rights are the big one. A reel that lives on your page is one price. A reel the brand can run as a paid ad for three months is a different product, and it should cost 40 to 100 percent more. If they want it forever, price it like you're selling the asset, because you are. This is where Indian creators leak the most money. Brands ask for "the raw file also, just in case" and people hand it over free.

Exclusivity costs too. "Don't work with any other skincare brand for 90 days" means you're turning away unknown work. Charge for the door you're closing.

Then the boring stuff: how many revisions, how fast, whether they give you a script or you write it, whether you're shooting at their store in Andheri on a Sunday. Each one is a line you can point at.

Send the quote like this

Here is the practical bit. Stop replying with one number in a chat bubble. Reply with three lines and a total.

1 Instagram reel, up to 45 sec, shot and edited by me: ₹18,000 Organic use on your page, 30 days: included Paid ad usage, 60 days: +₹9,000 2 rounds of edits included. Delivery in 7 days from product receipt. Total: ₹27,000 + GST if applicable. 50% advance.

That's it. Copy the shape, change the numbers. It does three things at once. It shows the price is built, not guessed. It makes the extras visible, so when they ask for paid usage they can see it costs money. And it lets them cut scope instead of cutting your rate. A brand that can't pay ₹27,000 can pay ₹18,000 and skip the ad usage. That's a real negotiation. "Can you do 15K?" is not.

Also: put the advance in the first message, every time. Not later, not "we'll discuss". Creators who ask for 50 percent upfront get paid. Creators who invoice after delivery chase people for 90 days.

When to raise

Simple test. If you've said yes to your last five enquiries, your rate is too low. Not maybe. It is. A healthy rate loses you some deals. If nobody ever says no, you found the price where everyone can afford you, which is not the price where you should be working.

Other honest signals: you're booked three weeks out. You're turning down work you actually want because of work you don't. A brand agreed to your number in under an hour without blinking. That last one stings, but it's data.

Raise on new clients first. Old clients get a heads-up: "from September my reel rate is ₹22,000, your current rate holds till then." Most stay. Some don't, and those are usually the ones sending 4 AM voice notes anyway.

Raise 20 to 30 percent at a time. Ten percent isn't worth the awkward conversation.

How you know you're underpriced

Do the maths once. Take your reel fee. Subtract travel, props, the ₹800 you spent on that one ingredient, and the editing hours. Divide what's left by the total hours, including the DMs and the three re-edits. If a small business in your city would pay a plumber more per hour, you're not running a business, you're running a hobby with invoices.

The other tell is barter. "We'll send you the product, worth ₹4,000!" A product is not payment unless you were going to buy it anyway with money you have. Most barter deals in India are brands buying reach at a 95 percent discount from people who don't know what reach costs.

You do now. Write the ranges down somewhere you can find them at 11 PM, when the DM comes in and you're tempted to just say a number to end the conversation.