Instagram Is Reportedly Offering YouTubers Up To $500,000 To Post Long-Form Videos
Instagram wants YouTube’s long-form crown — and according to new reporting, it is willing to write serious checks to get it.
Business Insider reported on October 29 that Instagram has approached select YouTube creators with offers ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 to post their long-form videos to Features, Instagram’s new horizontal video format. Features, announced October 26, supports videos up to 90 minutes long and is aimed at podcasters, comedians and other long-form creators.
Meta confirmed the program in general terms. “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 Business Insider. “The details of those deals are confidential.” The specific dollar figures have not been confirmed by Meta.
The reported terms are creator-friendly on paper: the deals are not exclusive, and Instagram asks creators to post their videos to Features the same day they go up on YouTube. The catch: Features currently pays no share of advertising revenue, while YouTube’s Partner Program pays creators 55% of ad revenue on long-form videos. So for now, this is seed money — a signing bonus, not a business model.
The test is starting small — a limited group of creators in the U.S. and Brazil — and Features comes with a companion tool called Clips, which cuts moments from a long video into Reels that link back to the full upload.
For creators sitting on a catalog — interviews, podcasts, full shows — the play is obvious whenever access widens: same-day mirroring costs nothing if the deal stays non-exclusive. The question is whether Instagram ever builds the revenue share that keeps creators fed after the checks stop.
So let’s talk about it: if Instagram offered YOU the bag — same-day post, no exclusivity, no revenue share yet — do you take the check, or stay YouTube loyal? Sound off.
Story: Business Insider. Additional reporting via PetaPixel and Dexerto.
