Your gifted content is worth what you would otherwise pay to commission it. Enter the posts you received and a rate per piece from UGC creators and from an agency to see the replacement cost next to what you spent.
Count what the campaign produced, then enter what you would pay for the same pieces. The rates start as illustrative placeholders, not market averages. Replace them with quotes you have actually received.
Pieces received, then a rate per piece from each source.
Gifted content belongs to the creator. Only count what you have permission to use as ads or on your site.
Product + packaging + shipping.
Replacement cost, not revenue. Nothing here is sent anywhere.
Value at UGC creator rates
Next: work out the licence fee for using this content in ads with the usage rights calculator, or see the full return in the product seeding ROI calculator.
Seed turns a gifting plan into sent product: share one branded link, the creator picks a product and types their address, and a $0 draft order lands in your Shopify admin.
Install Seed on ShopifyThe table shows the same calculation piece type by piece type, so you can see which format carries most of the value and spot a rate that looks wrong. The rates are whatever you entered.
| Type | Pieces | UGC rate | UGC value | Agency rate | Agency value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photos | 12 | $50 | $600 | $200 | $2,400 |
| Short videos (Reels, TikTok) | 8 | $150 | $1,200 | $500 | $4,000 |
| Stories | 10 | $25 | $250 | $100 | $1,000 |
| Total | 30 | — | $2,050 | — | $7,400 |
To price a creator's work properly before you commission it, use the UGC creator rate calculator. For the cash cost per piece of a gifting campaign, see the gifting ROI calculator.
The value above only becomes yours to use if you have the right to use it. Sending a creator free product does not, by itself, give you the content. Four points matter in practice. This is general information, not legal advice, and the details vary by country, so check with a lawyer before building a campaign on it.
In the US, copyright belongs to the author of the work. A gift does not transfer it. If you want to own the content outright, or have exclusive rights, that has to be in a signed written agreement.
The Copyright Act excludes a nonexclusive licence from its definition of a transfer, so the signed writing rule for transfers does not apply to it by its terms. Even so, a short written licence that says where, how long and in what format you may use the content avoids disputes later. The UGC contract template and the influencer contract generator cover this, and the usage rights calculator prices it.
Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads both work from the creator's own post, and both depend on the creator authorizing it, with a partnership ad code or an authorization code. On TikTok the creator chooses how long the authorization lasts, and ads stop when it expires.
The FTC treats free product as a material connection that should be disclosed, and says the brand is still responsible for what endorsers say on its behalf. Do not crop or edit a post so the disclosure disappears when you reuse it.
More on the contract side is in the Seed blog. Browse the rest of the free tools on the tools page.
It is worth whatever you would otherwise pay for the same piece, which varies by creator, format and usage rights. This calculator multiplies the pieces you received by two rates you enter: one for UGC creators and one for an agency or studio. We do not publish typical rates because the honest range is wide.
Not exactly. Paid UGC is commissioned with agreed deliverables and usage rights. Gifted content is created because the creator chose to post, so you cannot count on getting it, and you usually only have organic posting rights unless you agree more. The value shown here is a replacement-cost comparison, not revenue.
Only with the creator's permission. The creator owns what they make, and posting about your product does not hand you the right to run it as an ad. Get written permission, or use the platform's own tools: Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads both rely on the creator authorizing the post.
The FTC says free product is a material connection that should be disclosed, and that the brand remains responsible for what endorsers say on its behalf. Ask creators to disclose clearly, and keep the disclosure intact when you reuse their post. This is general information, not legal advice.
They answer different questions. A UGC creator rate shows what you would pay to commission the content directly. An agency or studio rate shows the cost if you outsourced production with strategy, casting and retouching on top. Showing both gives you a range, and you can set either rate to zero.
Last updated: October 29, 2026. This is a replacement-cost estimate:
value = Σ (pieces of each type × rate per piece)
spend = packages gifted × all-in cost per package
value ÷ spend = value at that rate ÷ spend
reusable value = value × share of pieces you have permission to reuse
The rates are yours. The defaults for UGC creator and agency rates are illustrative placeholders so the page has a worked example. They are not market averages, not Seed data and not a published rate card. Replace them with quotes you have received. We do not state typical UGC prices on this page because we have no verified source we are willing to stand behind.
What the number means. It is what you would have paid to commission the same content. It is not revenue, and it does not include the value of the post reaching the creator's own audience. Content you cannot legally reuse should be counted at zero, which is what the reuse field is for.
The copyright and FTC points are about the United States. The UK, EU and other markets have their own rules on ownership and disclosure. This page is not legal advice.
Build a gifting agreement in under a minute — deliverables, posting window, usage rights, and FTC disclosure. Copy it or save as PDF. Free, no email.
The same contract generator, pre-set for an Instagram deliverable: in-feed post plus story.
The same contract generator, pre-set for a TikTok deliverable.
A content-licensing agreement for UGC, not a posting agreement. Usage rights and deliverables only.
For unpaid product-gifting sends specifically: the gift, deliverables, and usage rights.
Send personalized bulk Instagram DMs to creators without copy-pasting one message at a time. Built for outreach at volume.
The Chrome extension behind the DM assistant above. Install it, connect your Seed account, send from your own session.
Put in your product cost, shipping, and creator count, and get your real cost per piece of content, including your own hours. Ungated.
How much should you pay an influencer? Enter views and a CPM to get a fair cash range, and see if your gifted product alone is a fair trade.
Work out a creator's engagement rate on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, by followers and by views. Average up to 12 posts. Free, no email.
Build an influencer media kit with stats, audience, past collabs and rates. Live preview, three layouts, save as PDF. Free, no signup.
A UGC or influencer rate card with deliverables, usage rights, whitelisting and bundles. Preview it, then save as PDF. Free, no signup.
Three ready-to-send pitch emails (cold, warm, follow-up) for creators asking brands for PR packages or collabs. Free, no signup.
What can you actually earn on TikTok? Sponsored-post rate by tier, Creator Rewards eligibility, and a TikTok Shop affiliate estimate. Free, no signup.
Sponsored feed post, Reel and Story rate ranges by follower tier, plus an affiliate-earnings estimate. Free, no signup.
Score a creator's video against your brief in about two minutes. Free, no login.
Enter how many posts you want and get the number of creators to contact and gift, using your own acceptance and post rates.
Plan a gifting campaign budget: product, packaging and shipping cost by lane, total cost and cost per creator.
Compare the cost per 1,000 views and per content piece of influencer gifting against Meta and TikTok ads, with your own numbers.
Answer six questions to find the right influencer deal type for a creator: gifting, a flat fee, or affiliate commission.
Build a free influencer gifting application form with the exact fields to ask, then copy it or run it live on Shopify.
A free outreach CRM template with statuses, follow-up dates and notes. Download the CSV for Google Sheets or Excel.
Track sends, posts, discount codes, revenue and ROI with formulas built in. Download the CSV for Google Sheets.
Generate a one-page influencer brief: product, key messages, dos and don'ts, disclosure and deadlines. Free, no signup.
Generate a short outreach DM or email offering influencers a gifted product, in your own tone and language.
Score your influencer outreach subject lines against a transparent checklist, and get better variants.
Pick a niche and platform for a hand-written hashtag set, mixed broad to niche. No made-up volume numbers.
Get a recommended monthly influencer budget, split across gifting, paid posts and UGC, from your revenue and stage.
Estimate the real cost of a PR package: product, box, inserts, packing materials and shipping.
Estimate fair UGC rates from experience level, deliverables and usage rights, for brands and creators, sources linked.
Estimate fair YouTube sponsorship rates from a channel's average views, format and usage rights, sources linked.
Estimate expected reach for a creator's post, Reel or Story from follower count, using published benchmarks.
Calculate follower growth rate over any period and flag suspicious spikes between two checkpoints.
Enter a follower count to see its influencer tier under three published definitions, with typical CPM ranges.
Create $0 influencer orders in Shopify, tag them, and calculate the real COGS and shipping cost of every gift.
Generate hundreds of unique influencer discount codes from a prefix and download a CSV, ready for a Shopify bulk-codes app or the API.
Per-creator code conversion plus an estimate of the halo sales promo codes miss, with every assumption editable.
Paste your landing page and a list of creators and get one tagged UTM link per creator in bulk, as a CSV.
Price usage rights for creator content in ads: duration, channels and exclusivity, with editable percentages. Free, no signup.
Add the creator fee to your media spend to get blended CPM and CPA for TikTok Spark Ads or Meta partnership ads.
Turn a creator's fee and post stats into CPM, cost per engagement and cost per view, and compare with your own benchmark.
Estimate EMV from views, likes, comments and shares using values you set, plus an honest look at why EMV isn't revenue.
Find the most you can pay to acquire a customer through influencers, from your margin, repeat orders and target LTV:CAC ratio.
Find the highest affiliate commission you can pay influencers from your order value, costs and the profit you want to keep.
Build a tiered ambassador commission ladder from your margin, a starting rate and sales thresholds. Copy it or download CSV.
Work out ROI, ROAS and break-even revenue for a paid or gifted influencer campaign from your costs, commission and margin.
Get a step-by-step gifting campaign plan with dates and creator counts, from your goal, product and budget.
Score how well a creator fits your brand on a transparent, weighted checklist before you reach out.
Pick a launch date or holiday and get backward-planned recruit, ship and posting-window dates for 2026 and 2027.
See whether import VAT and duty likely apply when gifting product abroad, for the EU, UK, Switzerland and Norway, with official sources.
The regulator, required label and gifted-product rule in 10 countries, each with an official source. Not legal advice.
What the IRS, HMRC, CRA, ATO and other tax authorities say about gifted product as creator income, with sources. Not tax advice.
Share one branded link. The creator picks a product and types their address, and a $0 draft order lands in your Shopify admin.