Picsart Just Opened Creator Monetization to 130 Million Users — No Followers Required

Picsart just launched a creator monetization program with zero follower minimum — opening the door for any of its 130 million+ monthly users to get paid based on engagement, not audience size. Called "Earn with Picsart," the program pays creators through Stripe for content that performs. No invite list. No velvet rope.

In an industry where 50% of creators earn less than $5,000 a year, that's not just a product launch — it's a provocation.

What is Picsart's 'Earn with Picsart' and how does it work?

The program is campaign-based. Creators browse a dashboard of creative prompts, produce original content using Picsart's AI tools — including its Aura conversational AI assistant — and post it to their own Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or X accounts. Earnings are calculated from real engagement: views, comments, shares, and reach.

According to Picsart's announcement, the model is purely performance-based — the better your content performs, the more you make. Funds are withdrawn through Stripe, with payout logic visible before creators commit. Eligible content spans tutorials, aesthetic edits, short-form videos, and AI-generated artwork.

Why is a zero-follower-minimum a direct shot at TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram?

The big platforms' monetization programs are designed for the top, not the middle. TikTok's Creator Fund requires 10,000 followers and 100,000 monthly views. YouTube's Partner Program demands 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours. Instagram gates most features behind 10,000 followers and 100,000 monthly Reel views.

Picsart said: none of that. If you create content and it resonates, you get paid. Period.

How does the follower-gate model hurt everyday creators?

According to Behind the Scenes' 2026 report, there are over 207 million content creators worldwide — but only 4% earn more than $100,000 annually. Half earn less than $5,000. The follower-gate model ensures the majority hit a ceiling before they ever see a dollar, while their content generates engagement, ad revenue, and data that flows upward.

The creator economy has a structural problem: platforms have never truly committed to compensating everyday creators. It's open, structured, and straightforward — show up, make things, and if your content performs, you get paid.

— — Hovhannes Avoyan, Founder & CEO of Picsart (The Next Web)

Why is Picsart making this move now?

This isn't a scrappy startup experiment. Picsart is a $1 billion unicorn backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sequoia Capital, and G Squared, generating $750 million in annual revenue. Founded in 2011, the platform has quietly amassed 130 million monthly users — comparable to many social networks.

The monetization launch is the third move in a deliberate sequence. February: Aura, an AI assistant that generates content through voice prompts. March: an AI agent marketplace. Now: Earn with Picsart. Create → post → get paid. The company is evolving from a creative tool into a full creator economy platform.

What does this mean for creators who aren't already famous?

The creator economy is a $252 billion industry growing at 23.3% annually, projected to exceed $1.3 trillion by 2033. But most of that money flows to the top 1%. For everyone else: grind for years, hit an arbitrary follower threshold, hope the algorithm doesn't bury you, maybe get paid pennies per thousand views.

• Micro-creators and niche communities — DIY crafters, aesthetic editors, design enthusiasts — get a monetization path that didn't exist before
• No platform lock-in — content posts to your own social accounts. Picsart doesn't own your distribution
• AI-powered creation — Picsart's tools lower the production bar so creative ideas matter more than production budgets

Is this the future of creator monetization — or just another experiment?

The caveats are real. Campaign-based monetization means creators still work within someone else's framework. Pay rates aren't public. And "engagement-based" can be a double-edged sword — it could reward virality over quality, just like every other algorithm-dependent system.

But the signal matters more than the specifics. A billion-dollar platform with 130 million users just said the quiet part out loud: follower counts are a bad proxy for creative value. And they're putting real infrastructure behind it — Stripe payouts, campaign dashboards, transparent payout logic.

If Earn with Picsart gains traction, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram will face a question they've been dodging: why should a creator need 10,000 followers to earn a cent from the platform profiting off their content? Picsart just proved there's another way.