Can You Make Money on Threads? Bonuses, Deals and Reality

Yes, you can make money on Threads, but not from Threads itself. As of October 2026, Meta runs no open ad revenue share, no creator fund and no tipping on Threads, and its invite-only Threads Bonus Program stopped paying creators in spring 2025. The people earning money with Threads today do it through brand deals, affiliate links and their own products, services, newsletters or podcasts, using Threads to get discovered.

That answer disappoints a lot of people, partly because older articles (and some current ones that were never updated) still describe the bonus program as live. This guide covers what the bonus program actually was and why it ended, how to check whether your account has any active invite, why the arrival of ads did not bring a revenue share, and the four income routes that work, with numbers framed honestly. It ends with a 30-day test so you can find out whether Threads can earn money for your specific account before you put months into it.

Facts in this guide were checked in October 2026.

Does Threads pay creators directly in 2026?

No. Threads has no general program that pays creators for views, replies or followers in October 2026. You can get a million views on a post and Meta will send you nothing for them. Every working income route depends on money from a third party: a brand, a buyer, an affiliate network or your own subscribers.

Here is the current state of each payout type people search for:

Monetization type	Status on Threads (Oct 2026)	Who gets paid
Ad revenue share on your posts	Does not exist	Meta keeps ad revenue
Threads Bonus Program	Ended, payouts stopped around April 2025	Nobody (closed)
Creator fund or pay per view	Does not exist	Not applicable
Tips, gifts or paid subscriptions inside Threads	No native Threads equivalent confirmed	Not applicable
Sponsored posts (brand deals)	Possible, negotiated directly	You, paid by the brand
Affiliate links	Possible	You, paid by the merchant or network
Selling your own product or service	Possible	You
Sending people to a newsletter, podcast or store	Possible, and Meta keeps building tools for it	You, off-platform

You may also see posts on Threads saying there is a hidden monetization beta that is "full." Some of these appear to come from AI-generated answers, including chatbot replies, rather than from Meta announcements. We could not find any Meta newsroom post or help page that confirms a current Threads creator payout beta, so treat it as unconfirmed until Meta announces it.

What was the Threads Bonus Program, and why did it end?

The Threads Bonus Program was an invite-only Meta incentive that paid selected creators for hitting post-count and view targets on Threads. It ran for roughly a year, starting in 2024, and creators who took part said the payments stopped around the end of April 2025.

TechCrunch reported in April 2024 that Meta confirmed a limited-time bonus program for Threads, at a time when the app had just passed 150 million monthly users. Social Media Today's coverage explained the mechanics: a limited number of creators were invited, and the invite showed up as a pop-up notification and inside the Professional Dashboard of the Instagram app. Bonuses were based on how posts performed and how many posts a creator published. Targets varied from person to person and Meta never published a formula.

In July 2025, Engadget confirmed with Meta that the program had quietly ended earlier that year. Creators had told Engadget they earned monthly bonuses ranging from $500 to $5,000 for hitting their targets. The Instagram support page that used to describe creator incentives no longer mentioned Threads. Meta never explained the shutdown publicly.

Date	What happened	Source type
Spring 2024	Invite-only bonus program confirmed for selected creators	News report confirming with Meta
2024 to early 2025	Invited creators earn monthly bonuses for post and view targets	Creator reports
Around end of April 2025	Creators report payments stopped	Creator reports
July 2025	Meta confirms to Engadget the program has ended	News report confirming with Meta
October 2026	No replacement payout program announced	Our check of current coverage

The most likely explanation, which several outlets suggested, is that Meta decided Threads had enough growth on its own and no longer needed to pay people to post. Bonuses are how a platform buys activity early on. Once activity arrives without them, the budget usually goes elsewhere. The same pattern shows up on other platforms. Short-term creator funds rarely last, which is why we treat any incentive program as a bonus and never as a business model, as our guide to TikTok's Creator Rewards Program also explains.

How can you tell if your account has been invited to a Threads bonus?

You check inside the Instagram app, because that is where Meta delivered Threads bonus invites and where creators set up payouts. If nothing related to Threads shows up there, you have not been invited, and given the program's status, nobody is currently being invited.

Use these steps to check properly:

1. Open the Instagram app (not Threads) and go to the profile linked to your Threads account.
2. Open your Professional dashboard. If you don't see one, your account is personal, and personal accounts were never eligible for Meta's creator bonuses.
3. Look in the monetization or tools section for anything labeled bonuses. Invited creators described finding the Threads offer there, with its terms and a setup flow for payout and tax details.
4. Check your Instagram and Threads notifications for an in-app invite. Meta's invites came as in-app pop-ups, not as cold DMs.
5. If you find nothing, accept that result and stop looking. Waiting for an invite is not a strategy.

How to read what you find:

What you see	What it means
No bonus or Threads entry in the Professional dashboard	Not invited (the normal result in 2026)
An old Threads bonus entry with an expired period	A past invite, no longer paying
A DM or email "inviting" you to a Threads bonus with a link to log in	Almost certainly phishing
A message asking for a fee, your password or a verification code to "unlock" monetization	A scam, every time
A Meta newsroom announcement of a new program	Real, and worth reading the eligibility rules

The phishing angle matters more than people think. Fake "monetization approved" messages are an old trick for stealing Instagram accounts, and Threads profiles have been tied to Instagram accounts from the start. A real Meta program never needs your password sent through a link in a DM. The same rule applies to any service you use: a legitimate provider only needs a public username or link.

Do Threads ads mean creators get an ad revenue share?

No. Ads now run on Threads worldwide, but Meta does not share that revenue with the creators whose posts appear next to them. The rollout of ads was about turning Threads into a business for Meta, not about paying creators.

The ad timeline is clear. Meta first tested ads with Threads users in the US and Japan in January 2025. MediaPost reported that ads became available to all advertisers globally in spring 2025. Then, on January 21, 2026, Meta announced it would start showing ads to all Threads users globally the following week. CNBC noted that Meta called the full launch gradual and expected it to take a few months. At that point Threads had more than 400 million monthly users.

Meta has since reported crossing 500 million monthly users, according to its own mid-2026 announcement as summarized in a September 2026 analysis by Steal What Works. So the audience is large and advertising is live. On YouTube and X, that combination came with some form of creator payout. On Threads it has not.

Will a revenue share come? Maybe. Meta knows how to run creator payouts, and it already tested direct bonuses on Threads. But since ending the bonuses, Meta has put its effort into messaging, communities, link tools, analytics and podcast features, not into a payout system. If your plan only works once Meta pays for views, you are building on something Meta has not promised. Compare that with platforms where the rules are published. Our breakdowns of YouTube's monetization thresholds and X's monetization rules and payouts show what a documented program looks like.

How do creators actually make money on Threads?

Creators make money on Threads by turning attention into a transaction somewhere else: a brand paying for a post, a reader buying through an affiliate link, a client hiring them, or a follower joining a newsletter or podcast they monetize. Threads is the place people find you, and the payment happens outside it.

That changes which accounts do well. A humor account can get enormous reach and earn nothing, because there is nothing behind it to buy. A consultant with a few thousand followers in the right niche can land one client and make more than that humor account will make all year. On Threads, follower count is a weak predictor of income, and what you sell matters most.

The four working routes, and what each one needs:

Route	What you need first	Earnings per view	Main risk
Brand deals	A clearly defined audience a brand wants to reach	Medium, depends on niche	No standard rates, slow early deal flow
Affiliate links	Posts that reach people already close to buying	Low per sale, scales with volume	Low intent traffic converts poorly
Your own product or service	Something worth paying for, plus a way to deliver it	Highest	Requires real expertise or a real product
Newsletter or podcast funnel	An owned channel you can monetize later	Delayed, then compounding	Takes months before revenue shows

As of October 2026, every working Threads income route runs through something you sell or negotiate yourself.

The sections below take each route in turn. One rule runs through all of them: decide what you are selling before you start optimizing for reach. Reach with nothing behind it is the most common way people spend six months on Threads and earn zero.

How do brand deals on Threads work, and what should you charge?

Brand deals on Threads work the same way as on any other platform: a company pays you directly to post about its product, and you agree on deliverables, timing and disclosure. Threads has no built-in rate card, no marketplace of its own and no public pricing data, so you negotiate from your audience and results, not from a formula.

Be skeptical of claims like "10,000 Threads followers equals $500 a post." Nobody has published a large, reliable dataset of Threads sponsorship prices. The best available reference is cross-platform marketplace data. The Steal What Works analysis cites Collabstr's 2026 report, which looked at more than 21,000 completed creator collaborations and found that nearly 80% cost brands under $300. That covers all platforms, not Threads specifically, but it is a useful reality check: four-figure sponsorships are rare across the whole creator market.

What brands actually look at on a Threads account:

• Audience fit. A security engineer reaching 6,000 practitioners can be worth more to a security vendor than a general account with 60,000 followers.
• Conversation quality. Threads runs on replies, and Meta says posts that spark conversations are more likely to be recommended. Brands look at whether people actually talk to you.
• Engagement that adds up. A brand that sees 40,000 followers and three replies per post will assume the audience is empty or fake. Our guide to calculating engagement rate shows the math a brand manager will run, and the engagement benchmarks article explains why the denominator matters.
• Proof of results. Link clicks, sign-ups and screenshots from past partnerships carry more weight than follower count.

A hypothetical example of pricing: say you run a home-coffee account with 4,200 Threads followers, and your posts about grinders regularly get 15,000 to 30,000 views with dozens of replies. You could price a single sponsored post from what a comparable newsletter mention or Instagram post earns in your niche, then offer a package (one post plus two replies in relevant conversations plus a link in your profile for a week) instead of one isolated post. Packages give you room to negotiate and give the brand more than one chance at a result.

Always disclose paid posts clearly at the start of the post. In the US the FTC expects clear disclosure of material connections, and similar rules apply in the UK and EU. Check whether your Threads app offers a paid partnership label, and use plain wording like "ad" or "sponsored" either way.

Can Threads send traffic to your own products, newsletter or podcast?

Yes, and this is where Meta has put most of its creator work. Since 2025, Threads has added multiple profile links with link performance insights, long text attachments that can preview an article and point to the full version, direct messaging, and in September 2026 a podcast toolkit with episode cards, guest and transcript cards and podcast-specific insights. These are all tools for sending people somewhere else, which tells you how Meta expects creators to earn.

There is a caveat. When Engadget covered the end of the bonus program in July 2025, it pointed out that Threads was driving very little traffic to outside websites, and that viral posts rarely turned into new followers because the feed is mostly recommended content. Link tools have improved since then, but expect click-through to be modest. A million impressions will not become a million visitors, or anything close.

The economics still favor this route because each customer can be worth a lot. A hypothetical comparison:

• A freelance bookkeeper who charges $1,500 per client needs one client from Threads to make $1,500.
• An affiliate creator earning $15 per sale needs 100 sales for the same amount.
• If a platform paid $1 per 1,000 views (Threads pays nothing, this is only for scale), the same $1,500 would need 1.5 million monetized views.

That is why consultants, freelancers, founders, writers and podcasters are the ones doing best on Threads right now. Here is the flow that works for them:

1. Post useful, specific takes in your niche three to five times a week. Consistency matters more than volume.
2. Spend as much time replying in larger conversations about your topic as you spend writing your own posts.
3. Put one clear destination in your profile links: a newsletter signup, a booking page or a product page.
4. Use a text attachment or a single link post to point to deeper work, not a string of "click here" posts.
5. Track sign-ups or inquiries that came from Threads (use a dedicated link or a "how did you hear about us" field).

Do affiliate links work on Threads, and does Threads penalize links?

Affiliate links work on Threads when the post reaches people who are already shopping, and there is no confirmed blanket penalty on posts that contain external links. What does hurt is posting promotional links over and over with no conversation around them, because Threads says posts that spark conversations are more likely to be recommended.

Intent matters more than reach. A funny post about running shoes can spread widely and sell nothing. A smaller, careful comparison of two marathon shoes for flat-footed runners reaches fewer people, but those people are close to buying, and that post is the one that pays.

Run the arithmetic before you commit. Say an affiliate program pays $20 per sale and you want $1,000 a month. That is 50 sales. If 2% of interested visitors eventually buy (an assumption for the example, not a Threads benchmark, because no credible one exists), you need about 2,500 qualified clicks a month. If your posts produce 30 clicks each, that is more than 80 well-targeted posts a month. For most accounts, the numbers say affiliate income is a supplement, not a living.

Practical rules for affiliate posts on Threads:

• Put the value in the post itself (the comparison, the verdict, the price point), so it earns replies even from people who never click.
• Disclose affiliate links clearly. Most affiliate programs require it anyway.
• Don't post the same link repeatedly. Rotate between helpful posts and the occasional link post.
• Check whether your affiliate program allows social posting and link shorteners. Some networks restrict both.

Is Threads better than X or Instagram for making money?

For direct payouts from the platform, X and Instagram both offer more than Threads in 2026. For low-cost discovery that feeds an offer you control, Threads is competitive, especially for text-first creators. Which one is "better" depends on whether you want a check from the platform or customers for your own business.

Feature	Threads	X	Instagram
Platform pays creators for content	No	Yes, for eligible approved creators	Limited programs, varies by market
Native subscriptions or tips	No confirmed native option	Yes	Yes (subscriptions, gifts where available)
Brand marketplace from the platform	No	No dedicated equivalent	Yes (Creator Marketplace)
Ads in the feed	Yes, global since 2026	Yes	Yes
External links in posts	Yes	Yes	Limited in feed posts
Discovery for small accounts	Strong through replies and recommendations	Mixed	Strongest through Reels

Two things follow from this. First, because Threads profiles have been connected to Instagram accounts, a creator who uses both can use Threads for conversation and discovery and send the people who are ready to pay to Instagram's subscription and gift features where available. Our guide to how the Instagram algorithm distributes posts covers that side. Second, if a direct payout is your priority, read the actual eligibility rules for X before moving. Our X monetization guide breaks down what it takes and what payouts tend to look like in practice.

Does buying Threads followers or likes help you make money?

No, not directly. Threads has no payout threshold that bought followers could unlock, so a bigger number earns you nothing by itself. It can also hurt you with brands: anyone checking engagement will notice a large follower count with almost no replies, and that one mismatch can cost you a deal you could otherwise have landed.

There is also the rule question, and the honest answer is simple. Threads follows Instagram's Community Guidelines, which prohibit artificially collecting likes, followers or shares. Buying engagement breaks those terms. Any seller who calls it "safe" or "undetectable" is telling you something no one can guarantee.

Panel Follows does list Threads followers and Threads likes in its catalog. The narrow case where people consider them is a brand-new business profile that wants a baseline before it starts posting and running ads, and even then the platform rule above still applies. If you are considering that, read what each service actually delivers (start time, speed, refill period, whether it can be cancelled) and our explanation of why followers drop and how refill guarantees work. Be clear-eyed that it is cosmetic. It will not create revenue, and it should never be the core of a plan to earn money on Threads. Orders need only a public username, and Panel Follows never asks for your password.

How can you test whether Threads can earn money for you in 30 days?

Run a 30-day test with one offer, one tracking link and a weekly review, and judge Threads by revenue or leads, not views. Thirty days is enough to see whether your posts produce clicks and inquiries. It is not enough to judge long-term growth, so treat the result as a first read, not a verdict.

1. Day 1: pick one offer. A service, a product, a newsletter or an affiliate category. One, not four.
2. Day 1: set up tracking. Create a dedicated link (UTM-tagged or a unique discount code) used only on Threads, and put it in your profile links.
3. Days 2 to 7: set a baseline. Post three to five times about your niche with no selling. Note views, replies and profile visits per post.
4. Days 8 to 21: add conversation. Keep posting, and spend at least 20 minutes a day replying in larger threads on your topic. Add one link post or text attachment per week pointing to your offer.
5. Days 22 to 28: make a direct ask. One clear post explaining what you offer and who it's for. Answer every reply and DM.
6. Day 30: review the numbers in the table below and decide.

Metric	How to measure	What a promising result looks like
Clicks on your Threads-only link	Link analytics or UTM report	Clicks keep rising week over week
Leads, sign-ups or sales	Form, store or newsletter dashboard	At least a few you can trace to Threads
Revenue per 1,000 views	Revenue divided by total views, times 1,000	Any non-zero figure you can improve
Replies per post	Threads Insights	Rising in weeks 2 to 4
Inbound DMs about your topic	Your inbox	Questions that sound like buying intent

If you finish with zero clicks and zero inquiries, the problem is usually the offer or the audience fit, not the algorithm. Change one of them and run another 30 days. If you finish with a few leads, you have found something real, and the next step is doing more of whatever produced them.

Frequently asked questions

Does Threads pay you for views?

No. As of October 2026, Threads does not pay creators for views, replies or followers. Ads run across the platform, but Meta keeps that revenue and shares none of it with creators. The only direct payments Threads ever made were through the invite-only bonus program, which stopped paying around April 2025. Any income connected to Threads today comes from brands, buyers, affiliate programs or your own channels, not from Meta.

Is the Threads bonus program still available?

No. Meta confirmed to Engadget in July 2025 that it had ended the Threads Bonus Program, and creators said their payments stopped around the end of April 2025. Meta has not announced a replacement. Articles that still describe the program as open are out of date. If a message claims to invite you to a Threads bonus, treat it as a likely phishing attempt unless it appears inside the Instagram app itself.

How many followers do you need to make money on Threads?

There is no follower threshold, because Threads has no payout program for you to qualify for. Income depends on what you sell and who follows you. A consultant with 2,000 followers in a narrow professional niche can earn more than a general entertainment account with 100,000. Brands care more about audience fit and real conversation than raw follower count. Start by defining your offer, then grow the audience that would buy it.

Will Threads ever add an ad revenue share for creators?

Possibly, but Meta has not announced one. Ads reached Threads users worldwide starting in early 2026, and the platform has passed 500 million monthly users, so the ingredients exist. However, Meta's creator work since ending the bonuses has focused on links, messaging, analytics and podcast tools rather than payouts. Build your plan around income routes you control, and treat any future revenue share as a bonus if it arrives.

Can you put affiliate links on Threads?

Yes. Threads lets you post external links and add multiple links to your profile, and there is no confirmed rule that suppresses posts just because they contain a link. Affiliate links work best on posts that reach people who are already comparing products. Disclose the affiliate relationship clearly, check that your affiliate program allows social posting, and avoid repeating the same promotional link, because conversation-driven posts tend to get recommended more.

How do I know if I was invited to the Threads bonus program?

Open the Instagram app, go to your Professional dashboard and look in the monetization tools for a bonuses section. That is where Meta delivered Threads bonus invites, along with an in-app pop-up notification. If nothing related to Threads appears, you were not invited. Since the program ended in 2025, a fresh invite in 2026 would be unusual, so be very suspicious of any invite that arrives by DM or email.

Is Threads or X better for making money?

For direct payouts from the platform, X is better, because it runs a payout program for eligible creators while Threads pays nothing. For discovery that leads to clients, newsletter subscribers or customers, Threads can work just as well or better, especially for text-first experts. The right choice depends on your model. If you sell your own offer, test both platforms with tracked links and keep whichever one brings in more paying customers.

Can you make money on Threads without followers?

Yes, to a degree. Threads recommends a lot of content from accounts people do not follow, and replies are visible in busy conversations, so a small account can reach the right people by adding useful replies to bigger threads. Turning that into money still requires an offer, such as a service, product or newsletter. Without something to sell, reach on Threads produces nothing you can bank.

Sources and further reading

• Engadget: Meta has ended its bonus program on Threads, July 2025 report confirming the shutdown with Meta, including the $500 to $5,000 monthly bonus range creators reported.
• TechCrunch: Meta confirms launch of a bonus program for creators on Threads, April 2024 coverage of the program's start.
• Social Media Today: Meta's testing a bonus program for Threads creators, on the invite-only format and how invites appeared in the Instagram app.
• CNBC: Meta to begin rolling out Threads ads globally, January 2026 report on the global ad rollout and the 400 million monthly user figure.
• MediaPost: Threads to roll ads out globally to all users, covering the 2025 advertiser rollout and the 2026 user rollout.
• Steal What Works: Can you make money on Threads now?, a September 2026 analysis that summarizes Meta's 500 million user milestone, its link and podcast tools, and cross-platform sponsorship pricing data.