After initially testing the choice last November, Instagram has in the present day announced that every one eligible Reels creators within the US will now be capable to settle for digital items from their followers through a button on their clips.
As you’ll be able to see on this overview, Reels viewers will be capable to buy digital items in-stream, at various money quantities, through Stars, Meta’s in-app forex. They’ll then be capable to use their digital stickers as a donation instrument to present cash to their favourite creators.
How a lot cash?
As per IG:
“Viewers will purchase stars and use them to send you gifts on Instagram. Instagram will then provide you with a revenue share from your reels that received gifts on a monthly basis equal to $.01 USD for every star received from fans.”
One cent per Star. Which doesn’t sound superb, however nonetheless it’s one thing.
That additionally equates to round a 40% break up to creators, based mostly on the present Stars buy value.
Creators should attain a cashout threshold of $100 (which may embody earnings from different monetization applications), at which level they’ll be capable to convert their Stars items into money.

It’s one other means for creators – and Reels creators particularly – to become profitable within the app, which has turn out to be a key battleground for short-form video platforms, as every platform tries to work out one of the best ways to maintain high creators round.
YouTube not too long ago launched its new monetization framework for Shorts, which can see a share of all advert {dollars} generated by Shorts clips break up between eligible creators, whereas TikTok continues to refine its personal choices to get extra of its stars paid.
That, ultimately, might turn out to be a key sticking level, particularly as creators increase their followings, and search for one of the best alternatives to monetize their reputation whereas they’ll.
Instagram’s donations function looks like a lesser consideration on this respect. However once more, it’s one thing, and it’ll present one other means for customers to become profitable immediately from their content material within the app.
Instagram says that creators within the US can verify their Skilled Dashboard to see if they’ve entry to Instagram items and might onboard to start incomes from in the present day. Reels items will probably be coming to extra areas quickly.