Three numbers from a typical American brief: 5 videos, 12 months of paid usage, raw files included. A creator who quotes one price for "five videos" has answered the first number and ignored the two that decide what the work is worth. In the United States the price of UGC is the price of a license. The filming is the smaller part, and a brand that will run a video in paid ads for a year, cut it into ten variations and never post it on the creator's account is buying something quite different from a brand that wants one clip for its own feed for a month.
This guide does not publish a rate card. There is no official source for what American brands pay, and any table that pretends otherwise is guessing. What it does is take apart the components of an American quote, show how they combine with an example whose numbers are chosen for arithmetic and not as a benchmark, and explain which of them creators most often leave out.
The price is a license, not a video
Four components in every quote
An American UGC price has four parts, whether or not the creator names them: the production of the video itself; the usage rights, which say where, for how long and in what form the brand may use it; exclusivity, which says what the creator may not do for competitors meanwhile; and the extras that performance teams ask for, raw footage, extra hooks, revisions beyond the agreed round, and turnaround faster than the standard one. The mechanics of the first two are described in the guide to creator contracts and usage rights; what follows is how they turn into a number.
Usage rights are the biggest lever
By convention, a creator's base rate covers a video the brand may use organically on its own channels for a limited period. Paid usage, the brand running the video as an ad, is a separate permission with its own term, and the term is what moves the price the most: a month is not a year, and "perpetual" or "in perpetuity" is a license with no end date, which in practice is close to selling the video outright and should be priced that way. Channels matter too: paid social alone is narrower than "all media", which would include the brand's website, email, retail screens and television. American briefs are precise about this because the legal team wrote the clause, and a creator who reads the clause before quoting is pricing what is actually being bought.
Exclusivity and raw files
Exclusivity is time during which the creator cannot work for a competing brand in the same category. It has a cost because it removes future income, and it is priced by its length and by how wide "competing" is drawn. Raw footage is priced because it lets the brand make more ads without paying for more videos: a team that has the raws can produce a second batch of variations from the first shoot. Both are legitimate requests. Both belong on the invoice as lines, not as favors.
An example, with numbers that are only an example
Take a creator whose base rate for one finished video with 30 days of organic use is $300. That figure is chosen because it makes the arithmetic easy, not because it is what anyone should charge; a creator in New York with an in-person day and one in a smaller market filming at home will land in different places, and the city guides in this cocoon explain why. The brief asks for 5 videos, 12 months of paid social usage, and raw files.
| Component | Basis | Example amount |
|---|---|---|
| 5 finished videos at base rate | $300 each, 30 days organic | $1,500 |
| Paid social usage, 12 months | Percentage of the production fee, here 50% | $750 |
| Raw footage for the 5 videos | Flat fee per video, here $50 | $250 |
| Category exclusivity, 3 months | Flat fee, here $200 | $200 |
| Total | $2,700 |
The point of the table is the shape, not the amounts. The production fee is $1,500; the license and extras add $1,200, close to the production itself. A creator who quoted "five videos, $1,500" would have given away the paid usage, the raws and the exclusivity, and would have found out when the brand asked for the raw files as if they were included. Different creators use different percentages for paid usage and different flat fees for exclusivity; what matters is that each component appears, with its basis, so the brand can accept or negotiate each one.
What changes the base rate in the United States
Three things move the base rate itself, before rights. The first is who is buying: a founder running a small ad account, a growth team ordering monthly batches, or an agency reselling the work, each with a different budget and a different expectation of volume. The second is the format: a screen-recorded app walkthrough, a product unboxing at home and an on-location day in Los Angeles are three different jobs with three different costs, and the guide to Los Angeles shows how a permit and a crew enter the price there. The third is the creator's own track record with the buyer: a creator whose previous batch produced the winning ad is rebooked at a higher rate because the risk on the brand's side has fallen.
What does not move the base rate, in the American market, is the creator's follower count. The video will run on the brand's account. The buyer is paying for the ad, not for the audience, and creators who add a premium for their own reach are quoting for a job the brand did not order, unless the brief includes posting on the creator's channel or whitelisting, which are priced as what they are.
The objection: "everyone charges per video"
The objection creators raise is that American brands expect a per-video price and will not sit through a breakdown. Performance teams buy media by the unit every day and are used to line items, and the breakdown is what lets them say yes to the videos while dropping the exclusivity they did not need. What brands dislike is a number that changes after acceptance because a component was forgotten. The guide to negotiating UGC rates covers the conversation; the structure above is what makes it short.
Three habits that protect the price
- Quote the components separately, with the term of the usage in months and the channels named, and put "paid usage not included" on any base quote.
- Treat raw footage and extra hooks as products with a price, and deliver them only once that price is accepted.
- Refuse perpetual usage in the base rate. If a brand wants the video forever, price forever, and say so in one sentence.
Sources
Checked on 20 September 2026. This guide is not legal or tax advice. Where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source prevails.
