Instagram is offering YouTubers up to $500,000 to post with its new horizontal format

Instagram isn’t just chasing YouTube‘s TV watch time and ad revenue–it’s chasing its talent, too. The Meta-owned platform has offered to pay some YouTubers up to $500,000 to post videos with its newly announced long-form horizontal format “Features.”

According to Business Insider, Instagram has approached “select” YouTubers with a floor price of $50,000; others have gotten six-figure offers, and things top out at a half-million dollars.

“We’ve been public about the fact that we are funding Features content directly with some creators right now to support them,” a Meta spokesperson told BI. “The details of those deals are confidential, but we’re excited to see the content going live.”

It’s not clear how Instagram is paying out these amounts–per video, per month, or as one-time flat compensation. We’d bet the latter, and perhaps the pot’s sweetened with a promise to pay creators performance bonuses or an ad rev share if their Features content does well (especially on TVs, where pricier ads slots can pull in serious cash for platforms).

Meta already said, though, that it’s “too early to share a long-term monetization model [for Features], but we’re exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram, including performance-based incentives.”

Introducing Features earlier this week, Instagram hyped its established TV viewership, with VP of Product Tessa Lyons saying “people love to watch Reels together in their living rooms with their friends, so we’ve been working on a TV version of Reels.”

“[W]e know to do that well, we need more than just short-form video,” she added.

Insta chief Adam Mosseri chimed in Oct. 28 after concern from creators, tweeting that “[w]e understand the economics matter a ton, and are exploring multiple options to help long-form creators get paid.”

This YouTuber-bait program is perhaps one of those options.

Instagram, of course, is not the only one gunning for YouTube’s talent–but unlike Netflix (and, increasingly, Disney), it’s not trying to convince creators to give it exclusivity.

People familiar with the deals told BI Instagram’s terms just ask creators to post their long-form videos as Features on the same day they upload to YouTube.

Reza Izad, who reps Kareem Rahma, Noah Beck, and more as a Partner at Underscore Talent, told BI these deals are an “exciting opportunity” for YouTubers. The money is part of that excitement, sure, but Izad said this is also an opportunity for creators’ content to get a boost.

“Every time there’s a new feature in these apps that the company’s promoting, people will have more opportunity to be seen because there’s going to be algorithmic preference to this kind of content,” he said. “And unlike short-form, there’s not a lot of abundance.”

What he’s saying is true: We already know Instagram plans to pump posts made with Clips as Reels (a tool that takes snippets of Features videos and posts them to Reels with a link back to the full long-form upload) on its Explore page, and in other areas around the platform.

Something to think about in all of this is that a major part of YouTube’s living room success is the relative attractiveness and easy UX of its TV app. Google has put stock into making the TV app a banger, and Instagram isn’t there yet.

As Mosseri put it, “We’re going to try to support these different types of formats, both in the mobile app, but also on the TV app, which […] is going to take some time to get it right. But I’m actually very excited about it, and we’re very committed to it long-term.”

Creators looking for equal viewership across YouTube and Features will likely be disappointed–at least for now. But for the folks Instagram wants to pay, this is indeed a rare chance to get get cash for cross-posting.

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