What AI Creatives Actually Earn: Real Numbers From 551 Documented Wins
Most of what gets written about AI creative rates is guesswork from people who've never sent an invoice.
We've got actual numbers. Members post their wins inside GenHQ and we've logged over 551 of them now from more than 329 people, worth over a million dollars in wins and opportunities between them. Loads of those posts have the figure sitting right there in the text. What they quoted, what the client paid, what actually cleared.
So this isn't me guessing at what the work pays. It's what it paid.
What a first paid job pays
This is the one everyone wants to know, so here it is. Our documented first-client wins land between $200 and $1,000:
€200 for a set of images for a car rental company
$300 a minute for a hype video for a professional rugby team
$325, posted with the question "did I underprice myself"
€500 for a first brand deal
€750 for a one month coaching programme, held with a €25 deposit
$800 a project for a shoe brand
$1,000 for a first paid job, paid in full
That range starts below the floor I teach, which is $800 to $2,000. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, because the data is the data. What I will say is that the people down at the bottom of it nearly always come back a few weeks later asking whether they underpriced, and the answer is usually yes. That's a fixable problem if you catch it on the second job. It's a much more annoying one if you've spent a year anchoring a client at $300.
What it pays once you know what you're doing
The jump happens quicker than people expect. Single projects, money in:
$2,500 for a project for a creative client
$7,000 closed inside 48 hours of trying a new outreach method
$8,000 cash from one client off LinkedIn, about a fortnight from first message to signed
€10,000 from a spec ad somebody made for fun that turned into the real thing
€10,000 for a project
$20,000 for an educational film
€40,000 for a twenty video contract
That last one's Ahmed's, and the story behind it is the useful part. He was about to quote €500 a video. He asked in the community first, we talked him up to €2,000, and he signed for twenty of them without the brief changing at all.
A full year, start to finish
David Andriate had been a video editor for ten years before any of this. Every job came through referrals and he'll tell you himself he could never convert a cold prospect. When the big video models started landing he thought his career was finished.
He did $100,000 in his first year of AI video.
His post in the wins feed, with the numbers attached.
He charges $2,000 to $4,000 a video, runs around fourteen active clients including Zapier, and his gross margin is sitting at 73.3%. That last number is the one I'd pay attention to. Most production businesses would take that and never complain again.
Retainers
The people here with genuinely steady incomes are nearly all on monthly deals rather than chasing the next project.
$650 a month for six videos for a perfume brand
$1,500 a month from AI content
Around €1,300 a month per client, six clients signed at once
€7,900 sold in one month with another €3,500 still to come in
€14,000 a month from an AI model agency
What people actually charge
The rates members are working off right now, September 2026:
$120 to $240 a hook
€200 for an LED billboard design
$300 a minute of finished video
$800 for a full ad
$2,000 to $4,000 a video at agency level
Around $2,000 for four fifteen second ads for a local business
One member built a workflow that turns out $1,000 to $5,000 projects in about fifteen minutes. Clients haven't dropped what they'll pay anywhere near as fast as production costs have fallen, and that difference is where the money is at the moment.
If you'd rather have a job
Not everyone wants clients. Two roles came through the community this year:
Creative Evaluation Lead at Netflix, $210,000 to $330,000 a year
Head of Operations at $150,000 base plus bonus plus revenue share
Freelance side, US agencies are paying AI creators somewhere around $700 to $1,000 a day.
What the numbers tell you
Your first deal will be small and there's nothing wrong with that. Most of them land between $200 and $1,000 and hardly anyone starts on their real rate.
The second one is where it changes. The biggest jumps in this whole dataset came from repricing a client someone already had, not from going and finding another one.
Asking before you quote is worth more than anything else in here. That €40,000 contract was heading for €10,000 until he asked.
And spec work turns into paid work more often than you'd think. More than one five figure job in this data started as an ad somebody made for fun and stuck on LinkedIn.
Common questions
How much does an AI video creator earn?
Depends entirely where you are. Documented first projects sit between $200 and $1,000. Established members report single jobs from $2,500 to $40,000 and monthly retainers from $650 to €14,000. Full time AI creative roles have been posted at $150,000 to $330,000 a year.
What should I charge for my first AI video project?
My number is $800 to $2,000 for something you can turn around in a week. Plenty of people in this data started below that and got away with it, but they all had to climb back out.
How much can you charge per AI ad?
Reported rates run $120 to $240 a hook, $800 for a full ad, and $2,000 to $4,000 a video at agency level. The twenty video contract in here went at €2,000 a video.
Is AI video actually profitable?
Yes, and the margin is the reason. David runs at 73.3% gross on a six figure year. Another member makes $1,000 to $5,000 projects in about fifteen minutes of production time.
Where do these numbers come from?
Dated posts inside GenHQ, out of over 551 documented wins from more than 329 members, worth over $1M in combined wins and opportunities. Everything above is money that actually landed.
Want to see the wins as they land, and ask what to quote before you send it? Join the community.
