TikTok Creator Marketplace: how it works, who gets in

TikTok Creator Marketplace is TikTok's own list of creators who have signed up to take paid brand work, with TikTok running the search, the brief, the contract and the payment. Since 1 April 2025 it has lived inside TikTok One, TikTok's hub for advertisers, and the old marketplace address now sends you there. Creators still see the old name in the app: TikTok Studio, then Creator Marketplace.

This page covers who gets in, what brands see, how a campaign runs from brief to payment, and what the API gives agencies. Then the part the marketplace cannot show you: the creators who rank for your niche but are not in it, with numbers pulled on 22 September 2026.

What it is, and where it lives now

You will see two names for one thing. TikTok Creator Marketplace, often shortened to TTCM, was a standalone site. TikTok One was announced on 22 May 2024 as one login for all of TikTok's marketing tools, and on 1 April 2025 the old site closed and began redirecting to TikTok One, where the marketplace and its past campaigns live on as a module.

Do not mix it up with TikTok Shop's "creator marketplace" for affiliates, which pays a commission per sale and which TikTok began retiring for US Shop campaigns in June 2026. This one pays a fee per post.

TikTok Creator Marketplace requirements for creators

Two sets of rules are in circulation and they do not match. TikTok's own sign-up page for TikTok One lists three conditions: at least 18, TikTok One launched in your country, and the Community Guidelines and Branded Content Policy met. It adds that specific projects need "at least 1,000+ followers and other requirements" that vary by project. The 2025 and 2026 guides repeat an older, stricter list from the standalone marketplace.

Guides: Stackmatix (September 2026), JoinBrands (August 2026), Influencer Fee (September 2026), Stack Influence (updated June 2026). TikTok: How creators can sign up for TikTok One and About TikTok One for creators.

The 10,000 followers and 100,000 likes rule dates from the standalone marketplace, and TikTok has not republished it since the move. What TikTok does publish is that projects set their own bar, from about 1,000 followers. So if you are under 10,000, apply anyway. The guides say a review takes 2 to 4 weeks and you can reapply 30 days after a rejection.

How to join, and how invitations work

TikTok lists four routes to the same sign-up.

1. In the app: your profile, then TikTok Studio, then Creator Marketplace. Or type "TikTok One Creator Marketplace" into TikTok's search bar.
2. On the web: the TikTok One creator marketplace address above, with your TikTok login.
3. By QR code from TikTok's help page, or by an agency's invitation link, which lists you under that agency.

Once in, TikTok says you add "starting rates, contact information, languages, and industries". The starting rate is what brands compare on.

Invitations come from three directions. TikTok invites some creators itself once they cross a project's bar, according to the guides. Brands invite creators from the Explore creators tab, and can reach creators not on TikTok One through what TikTok's help calls a Lite project. Agencies invite through their link, which is why r/UGCcreators has a July 2026 thread titled "Should I join a TikTok Agency??": the link is a way in, on the agency's terms, so read them first.

What brands see

A brand needs a TikTok Ads Manager or TikTok One account, with no minimum spend to search. In the Explore creators tab it searches by username or a keyword like "skincare". TikTok's help page lists the filters: creator country, follower count, follower gender ratio and language; audience country, age range and gender ratio; and two performance filters, median video views and engagement rate. Results sort by followers, engagement rate or recency.

Open a profile and TikTok shows performance analytics, audience insights, a content portfolio, the creator's starting rate and a "collaboration evaluation score" for recent content quality and activity. Guides add average views over 30, 60 and 90 days, follower growth and past marketplace campaign results.

It does not show anyone who has not signed up.

How a campaign runs, from brief to payment

1. The brief. The brand writes the product, key messages, deliverables, timeline and usage rights into a campaign.
2. Invitation or open application. The brand invites the creators it picked, or posts the brief as an open application campaign that creators apply to.
3. Accept, decline or negotiate in the dashboard, then content review: the creator uploads, the brand asks for changes, and the post goes live from the creator's account.
4. Spark Ads authorisation. Campaigns can include permission to run the post as a Spark Ad. Outside the marketplace the creator does it on the video: Ad settings, Ad authorization, a period of 7, 30, 60 or 365 days, and a code the brand pastes into Ads Manager (how Spark Ads work).
5. Payment. The TikTok One Creator Program Terms (April 2026) say the creator will "look solely to TikTok (and not to any advertiser) for all payments". Base pay is released when the deliverable gets TikTok One approval, revenue share when it runs as an ad.

The fee is where sources disagree most. A September 2026 guide says TikTok charges brands about 10% on top of the creator's rate, a July 2026 guide describes a brand-side fee "in the mid-single-digit percent range", and a June 2026 guide says there is none. TikTok's terms name no percentage. Brands should budget for a fee and check the invoice; creators receive the rate they agreed.

The API for agencies

The TikTok Creator Marketplace API is part of TikTok API for Business, and influencer platforms such as Captiv8, Traackr, AnyTag, Brandwatch Influence and Grin have built it in. Through it a platform pulls a creator's audience by country, gender and age, engagement rate, average views, completion rate, and per-post views, engagement, play time and retention. It can also invite creators to the marketplace and track campaign posts.

The limit is the same as on the site. Brandwatch's help page says that unless the creator logs in to authenticate, data covers only "accounts that are in TikTok's Creator Marketplace". The r/advertising thread "How are agencies actually finding TikTok creators at scale right now?" (September 2025) is asking about the other pool, which the API does not reach.

Where it falls short, for both sides

For creators. If you are under a project's bar there is no way into that project, and most guides still tell creators under 10,000 followers not to bother. The rate you list becomes an anchor: the Influencer Fee guide says marketplace rates often sit 30% to 80% below what the same creators quote directly.

For brands. You only see creators who opted in, which skews the pool towards people who already treat brand work as a job. The r/marketing thread "Follower count is the worst metric for picking creators" (November 2025) is a room full of marketers agreeing; the marketplace has median views and engagement filters, so use those first.

The creators who are not in the marketplace

On 22 September 2026 we ran four Users-tab searches for one niche, dog training, and took the top 20 accounts for each. The phrase decides who you see.

Data: TikTok user search via TokConnect, pulled 22 September 2026. Follower counts as TikTok returned them that day; medians rounded. Snapshot, with identifiers removed.

The generic phrase returns the niche's celebrities, who are probably in the marketplace already. Add "ugc" and 11 of 20 are under 10,000 followers; across all four searches, 19 of 63 distinct accounts were. Skincare showed the same pattern last week: "skincare ugc" returned 19 accounts, 17 under 20,000 followers with a median of 2,563, while "ugc creator" returned 20 with only 3 under 20,000 (snapshot; the UGC creators guide walks through it).

Do the small accounts perform? In a September 2026 sample of 58 creators surfaced by TikTok search in six niches, the five under 10,000 followers had a median engagement rate by views (likes, comments, shares and saves divided by plays) of 9.09%, against 5.95% for the 29 over a million. Five is a small tier, so treat it as a direction; the engagement rate calculator has the quartiles for every tier.

The marketplace gives you contracts, held payment and Spark Ads permission for the creators who signed up. TikTok search gives you everyone else; the influencer search guide and the influencer marketing page show how to screen them on their last ten posts, and an agent can do it in one run.

If you are a creator under the bar, the same searches are how brands will find you: put the niche word and "UGC" in your display name, keep a business email in your bio, and post work a brand could run. How to get brand deals on TikTok covers the pitch.