How to Be Eligible to Make Money on TikTok

Thinking about turning your TikTok scrolling into a source of income? It’s entirely possible. This guide strips away the guesswork and lays out the exact requirements you need to meet to start making money directly through TikTok and other proven methods.

First, Get Your Account Ready for Monetization

Before you can apply for any of TikTok’s official programs, you need a solid foundation. These aren't just suggestions, they are the baseline requirements to get your foot in the door. Treat this as your pre-flight checklist.

• Switch to a Pro Account: If you're still using a personal account, switch to a Creator or Business account. It's free and grants you access to analytics and monetization tools. To do this, go to your profile, tap the three lines in the top-right corner, select "Settings and privacy," then "Account," and finally "Switch to Business Account" or "Creator Account." Creator is typically the best fit for individuals.
• Understand the Community Guidelines: This is non-negotiable. An account with strikes, shadowbans, or a history of removed content is a major red flag for TikTok. Read the Community Guidelines and the Terms of Service. If your content violates rules on hate speech, misinformation, or explicit content, you won't be eligible. Your account needs to be in "good standing."
• Build an Engaged Audience: Follower and view counts are important, but engagement is what really matters. Brands and TikTok itself look for creators whose audience comments, likes, shares, and saves their videos. High engagement signals a healthy, active community and makes your account more valuable.

The Official Routes: TikTok's Creator Programs

TikTok offers several built-in programs that allow creators to earn money directly from the platform. Each one has its own specific set of eligibility and rules. Let’s break them down one by one.

1. TikTok Creativity Program

This is the successor to the original Creator Fund and the primary way creators get paid for their video views. The main difference? The Creativity Program is designed to reward higher-quality, longer videos - specifically, those over one minute.

Eligibility Requirements for the Creativity Program:

• Location: You must be based in one of the countries where the program is available. (Currently, this includes the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and Korea, but it is expanding).
• Age: You must be at least 18 years old.
• Follower Count: You need a minimum of 10,000 followers.
• View Count: You must have garnered at least 100,000 authentic video views in the past 30 days.
• Content Length: Only videos that are 1 minute or longer qualify for earnings.
• Account Status: Your account must be in good standing with no repeated Community Guideline violations.

How to Check Your Eligibility and Apply:

1. Open your TikTok app and go to your profile page.
2. Tap the menu icon (three lines) in the top right corner.
3. Select "Creator Tools."
4. Tap on "Creativity Program."

From there, you'll see a dashboard that shows your progress toward meeting the follower and view count requirements. Once you meet all the criteria, the "Apply" button will become active, and you can submit your application.

Actionable Advice:

To succeed in the Creativity Program, shift your mindset from short, quick trends to storytelling. Think about creating videos with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Tutorials, in-depth opinions, multi-step "how-to" videos, and personal stories perform extremely well in the one-minute-plus format. Focus on holding your audience's attention for as long as possible.

2. Creator Marketplace

The TikTok Creator Marketplace (TCM) is the platform’s official portal for connecting brands with creators for sponsored content and brand deals. Think of it as TikTok playing matchmaker for paid collaborations.

Eligibility Requirements for the Creator Marketplace:

The requirements for TCM can vary slightly by region, but these are the general benchmarks:

• Age: You must be at least 18 years old.
• Follower Count: You generally need over 10,000 followers.
• Activity: You must have posted at least 3 videos in the previous 28 days.
• Engagement: You must have received over 1,000 video views in the previous 28 days.
• Content Quality: Your content must align with TCM's policies - it needs to be brand-safe.

Joining the Creator Marketplace allows brands to discover you, see your audience demographics, and invite you to collaborate on paid campaigns right within the app. It adds a layer of professionalism and security to the process.

3. LIVE Gifting and Subscriptions

If you enjoy interacting with your audience in real-time, monetizing your LIVE streams is a fantastic opportunity.

Eligibility for LIVE Gifts:

This is one of the more accessible monetization features on TikTok.

• Age: You must be 18 years or older.
• Follower Count: You need at least 1,000 followers to unlock the ability to go LIVE.

Once you’re LIVE, viewers can purchase virtual "Gifts" and send them to you during the broadcast. These Gifts are converted into "Diamonds," which you can then withdraw as cash.

Eligibility for LIVE Subscriptions:

Subscriptions are a more advanced feature that lets your biggest fans pay a monthly fee for exclusive perks like custom emotes and badges. The eligibility is a bit higher:

• Age: Again, you must be 18 years or older.
• LIVE Access: You need to have access to go LIVE (so, 1,000+ followers).
• Engagement (invite-only): Access to subscriptions is often invite-only, but TikTok looks for creators with an engaged LIVE audience. You generally need to go LIVE frequently and have a solid base of returning viewers.

4. Video Gifts and Tips

These features allow your followers to show appreciation on your standard feed videos, not just your LIVEs.

• Video Gifts: Similar to LIVE Gifts, viewers can send you digital gifts directly on your eligible videos. You'll need at least 10,000 followers to be eligible.
• Tips: This feature lets followers send you a tip directly. It is processed a bit differently from Gifts. This generally requires a higher follower count, often 100,000 followers or more, and isn't available in all regions.

For both, you must be 18 years old and have an account in good standing. You can access these features from the "Creator Tools" menu on your profile to see if you are eligible and to turn them on.

Beyond the Platform: Popular Ways Creators Make Money

Many of TikTok's most successful creators earn the bulk of their income from sources outside TikTok's official programs. Your TikTok account is a powerful tool for driving traffic and attention to other income streams.

Brand Deals and Sponsorships

This is the classic way to monetize an online following. Brands will pay you to feature their products or services in your video content. You don't have to be in the Creator Marketplace to do this - you can find deals on your own or through an agent.

How to get started: Create a media kit. This is a one-page document outlining who you are, what your niche is, your follower counts, engagement stats (screenshots from your analytics work!), and your rates. Put a business email in your TikTok bio so brands can easily reach out. Don't be afraid to pitch brands you love directly!

Affiliate Marketing

With affiliate marketing, you promote a product and earn a commission for every sale made through your unique link or discount code.

How it works on TikTok: Place your affiliate links in your bio using a "link-in-bio" tool like Linktree or Beacons. You can then create videos talking about the products you're promoting and direct viewers to the link in your bio. The Amazon Associates program is a popular place to start.

Selling Your Own Products or Services

Your TikTok audience can become your future customers. You are building trust with every video, and that trust can translate into sales.

What you can sell:

• Merchandise: T-shirts, hats, and other branded products.
• Digital Products: E-books, online courses, filters, or video editing presets.
• Services: If you're a coach, consultant, fitness trainer, artist, or an expert in any field, you can leverage TikTok to attract clients. Create content that showcases your expertise and provides value, then lead people to your website to book your services.

Final Thoughts

Becoming eligible to make money on TikTok requires a mix of hitting specific follower and view milestones, consistently creating quality content, and engaging with your community. Whether you're aiming for the Creativity Program or building a launchpad for your own brand, the key is to show up consistently and provide value to your audience.

Consistency is often the hardest part, and that's where we wanted to make a difference. At Postbase, we designed our platform to remove the friction from planning and scheduling your content. Our visual calendar gives you a clear view of your whole strategy, and because we built our tool for a video-first world, scheduling TikToks, Reels, and Shorts is seamless. This helps you stay on track, hit your content goals, and ultimately gives you a better shot at meeting those eligibility requirements without the stress.