Per-view UGC budget calculator: your real cost per 1,000 views

The number that matters in a per-view campaign is your all-in cost per 1,000 views: everything you spent on creators and on the platform, divided by the views you got, times 1,000. The rate you pay creators is only part of it. A platform fee or subscription can move the real number more than you would think, especially at small volumes.

Put in your own numbers below. The presets fill in each platform's public subscription and fee.

Subscription or percentage?

At small budgets a percentage fee is cheaper. As creator pay grows, a flat subscription wins. The lines cross at a specific number: at $1,990 a month of creator pay, a $199 subscription and a 10% fee cost the same. Against a $99 subscription with a 3% fee, the crossover is about $3,333 a month. Below those numbers, the percentage is cheaper, and we would rather you know that.

What a good number looks like

• Under about $1 per 1,000 views all in: an excellent program.
• Low single digits: healthy.
• Stuck above $4 to $5: change the formats and the creators. More volume will not fix it.

For a sense of the path, Pose Genius started at $11.05 per 1,000 views and got to $0.90 by moving budget to the formats that worked. See what 11.5 million views did for installs.

Inputs worth a second look

• Average views: use your own median from a test week if you have one. Averages hide a wide spread. In one campaign, two-thirds of videos stayed under 10,000 views and a few passed 500,000.
• A cap per video limits what a single breakout costs you. It lowers the bill, but set it high enough that creators still want the breakout.
• Warm-up posts and retainers change the math. Warm-ups are a small flat cost per post; retainers pay per video, not per view.
• Card processing fees are not in the calculator. Bank transfers usually avoid them.

For how to set the rate itself, see UGC rates: how brands pay creators.

Preset subscriptions and fees are from each platform's public pricing on September 29, 2026. NewWave: $199/month and no fee on creator pay. Content Rewards: no subscription and a 10% platform fee. viral.app: $99/month and a 3% payout fee.