Highest-paid AI influencers: every income claim checked
No AI influencer has published audited earnings. The biggest figures are outside estimates built from follower counts, like $2.5 million a year for Lu do Magalu, or figures the owners gave reporters, like up to €10,000 a month for Aitana López. Below is every figure we could trace: who said it, where, when, and how it changed when it was retold.
- Stated by the owner. The agency, the creator or the platform said it. Nobody outside the company has checked it.
- Outside estimate. Someone calculated it, usually from follower counts and a price list for sponsored posts. Nobody reported being paid this.
- No traceable source. The page names no source, or the figure no longer matches the source it came from.
- The verdict says where a figure comes from. It does not say whether the figure is true. Only the companies behind these characters know that.
Who is the highest-paid AI influencer?
On outside estimates, Lu do Magalu. Kapwing counted 74 sponsored posts in the 12 months before July 2025 and priced each at $34,320, which gives $2,539,680. On figures the owners gave themselves, Aitana López, whose agency named €10,000 as her best month. Neither is a payment anyone has shown. Lu is the retailer's own character, and we found no figure from Magalu itself.
- Stated by the owner
- Outside estimate
- No traceable source
SourceThe figures listed on this pagechecked
Aitana López
The Clueless, a Barcelona agency
Her agency told Euronews she can earn up to €10,000 in a month and usually earns about €3,000. Every higher figure since then has no source.
- Stated by the owner
Up to €10,000 a month; average about €3,000; just over €1,000 per advert
Monthly income from brand deals. Said by: Rubén Cruz, founder of The Clueless, to Euronews.
This is the original. The agency gave a best month and an average month. First published 22 November 2023, updated 27 December 2024.
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
$11,000 a month
Monthly income from brand deals. Said by: Entrepreneur, retelling Euronews.
The best month became every month. The article quotes Euronews, which gives €3,000 as the average.
- Stated by the ownerRetold, same figure
$11,000 in one month last year
One month of income in 2023. Said by: Fortune.
Matches the agency's best month, in dollars. Fortune keeps it to one month.
Fortune — AI influencers are making their secretive creators thousands
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
$10K–$20K+ per month
Monthly income, together with Emily Pellegrini. Said by: Sacra, an analyst firm.
No source is given. The upper end is twice anything the agency has said.
- Stated by the ownerRetold, same figure
Up to €10,000 a month in brand deals
Monthly income from brand deals. Said by: Decrypt.
The figure matches the agency's, but the sentence no longer says the agency is the source.
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
Over $20,000 per month through brand partnerships
Monthly income. Said by: Press release of the AI Personality of the Year Awards (OpenArt, Fanvue, ElevenLabs).
No source is given. The organisers run a contest for AI personas, so a high figure helps them. We read the release in a full reprint.
AI Personality of the Year Awards press release (reprint, Macau Business)
Emily Pellegrini
An anonymous creator, with a profile on Fanvue
Fanvue said she earned nearly $10,000 in her first six weeks, and later $23,000 of revenue in January 2024. The often repeated "$10,000 a month" has no source.
- Stated by the owner
Nearly $10,000 in just six weeks
Earnings on Fanvue in her first six weeks. Said by: Fanvue, in a press release.
This is the earliest version we found. We could not find the release on Fanvue's own site; Bored Panda quotes it word for word.
Bored Panda — AI model Emily Pellegrini (quotes the Fanvue release)
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
Más de 10 mil dólares al mes (more than $10,000 a month)
Monthly earnings. Said by: CRHoy, citing Diario Libre.
Six weeks became one month, and "nearly" became "more than".
CRHoy — this model does not exist, but her creator earns 10,000 a month
- Stated by the owner
$23,000 in revenue in January, up from $6,000 in October
Revenue on Fanvue in two single months. Said by: Fanvue, to Fortune.
Fortune calls it revenue. It does not say how much of it reached the creator after Fanvue's share.
Fortune — AI influencers are making their secretive creators thousands
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
Factura US$ 10.000 por mes (bills $10,000 a month)
Monthly revenue. Said by: Hoy Día Córdoba.
No source is given. By now the six-week figure has become a fixed monthly income.
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
$10K–$20K+ per month
Monthly income, together with Aitana López. Said by: Sacra, an analyst firm.
No source is given.
Lil Miquela
Brud, a Los Angeles studio, bought by Dapper Labs in 2021
Every figure for Miquela is an outside estimate or a company valuation. The estimates range from $73,920 a year to $11.7 million a year, depending on who calculated them and how.
- Outside estimate
Upwards of $6,000 per post; $11.7m a year
Estimated fee per sponsored post, and a year of income. Said by: OnBuy, an online shop, in research reported by The Register.
Calculated from her followers. The Register does not link the study.
The Register — virtual Instagram influencers (OnBuy figures)
- Outside estimateRetold, changed
$8,500 per sponsored post; about $11.7 million for her creators this year
Estimated fee per sponsored post, and 2020 income. Said by: OnBuy research, reported by YPulse.
The same study, but a different fee per post from the one The Register printed.
- No traceable source
$125 million valuation
The value of the studio Brud, not income. Said by: TechCrunch, reporting the Dapper Labs deal.
TechCrunch does not say who set the valuation, and Dapper did not disclose what it paid. A company's value is not what a character earns.
TechCrunch — Dapper Labs acquires virtual influencer startup Brud
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
Casi 9.000.000 de libras al año (almost £9 million a year)
What her creators "would be pocketing" each year. Said by: El Grupo Informático.
No source is given. It is close to the 2020 OnBuy estimate in pounds, now told as money received.
- Outside estimate
£16,400 per sponsored post in the table, £4,200 in the text
Estimated fee per sponsored post. Said by: A study credited to SAP.com, reported by CFI.co.
Estimated from follower numbers with an earnings calculator. The same article gives two different figures, and links no study.
CFI.co — Avatar influencers are storming up the earnings charts
- Outside estimate
$73,920
Estimated income from sponsored posts in 12 months. Said by: Kapwing, a video editing company.
Kapwing counted her sponsored posts from the past 12 months and priced each one from her follower count. The 2020 estimate was about 160 times higher.
Kapwing — Virtual influencers: the most followed and top-earning
Lu do Magalu
Magazine Luiza (Magalu), a Brazilian retailer
The famous $2.5 million is Kapwing's estimate: 74 sponsored posts in a year, each priced from her follower count. We found no figure from Magalu itself.
- Outside estimateRetold, changed
£26,700 per sponsored Instagram post
Estimated fee per sponsored post. Said by: The same study, reported by Startups.co.uk.
One study, two outlets, two figures. This version gives Miquela £12,900.
- Outside estimate
£26,200 per sponsored Instagram post
Estimated fee per sponsored post. Said by: A study credited to SAP.com, reported by CFI.co.
Estimated from follower numbers with an earnings calculator.
CFI.co — Avatar influencers are storming up the earnings charts
- Outside estimate
$2,539,680 from 74 sponsored posts at $34,320 each
Estimated income from sponsored posts in 12 months. Said by: Kapwing, a video editing company.
Kapwing priced each post with a rate taken from human influencers. Lu is Magalu's own character, and we found no fee confirmed by Magalu.
Kapwing — Virtual influencers: the most followed and top-earning
- No traceable sourceRetold, changed
An estimated $2.5 million in 2024 across 74 sponsored collaborations
Income in 2024. Said by: SQ Magazine, a statistics roundup.
The 74 posts match Kapwing's estimate, which covers the 12 months before July 2025, not 2024. The roundup credits Inc. and links nothing.
imma
Aww Inc., Tokyo
The only figure we found is an outside estimate of £3,800 per sponsored post. We found none from Aww Inc.
- Outside estimate
£3,800 per sponsored post
Estimated fee per sponsored post. Said by: A study credited to SAP.com, reported by CFI.co.
Estimated from follower numbers with an earnings calculator.
CFI.co — Avatar influencers are storming up the earnings charts
Noonoouri
Joerg Zuber
Two outside estimates, four years apart, and nothing from her owner.
- Outside estimate
$2.6m this year
Estimated income in 2020. Said by: OnBuy research, reported by The Register.
Calculated from her followers. The Register does not link the study.
The Register — virtual Instagram influencers (OnBuy figures)
- Outside estimate
£4,000 per sponsored post
Estimated fee per sponsored post. Said by: A study credited to SAP.com, reported by CFI.co.
Estimated from follower numbers with an earnings calculator.
CFI.co — Avatar influencers are storming up the earnings charts
How one figure grows when it is retold
Most of the famous numbers are not new figures. They are old ones, retold without the words that limited them. "Up to" disappears, a best month becomes every month, six weeks become a month, and an estimate becomes money received. Two chains show it.
- Up to €10,000 in a month, €3,000 on averageHer agency, to Euronews, 22 Nov 2023The original
- $11,000 a monthEntrepreneur, 28 Nov 2023Changed when retold
- $10K–$20K+ per monthSacra, 3 Jun 2025Changed when retold
- Over $20,000 per monthAwards press release, 3 Apr 2026Changed when retold
SourceEuronews — Spain's first AI model (opens in a new tab)checked
- Nearly $10,000 in six weeksFanvue release, 24 Nov 2023The original
- More than $10,000 a monthCRHoy, 8 Jan 2024Changed when retold
- $10,000 a monthHoy Día Córdoba, 29 Aug 2024Changed when retold
SourceBored Panda — AI model Emily Pellegrini (quotes the Fanvue release) (opens in a new tab)checked
The estimates drift too. The OnBuy study of 2020 appears with $6,000 per post in one report and $8,500 in another. The study credited to SAP.com gives Lil Miquela £16,400 per post in one table, £4,200 in the text beside it and £12,900 in a different outlet. When you quote a figure, quote the oldest version you can open, with its limits.
What is the net worth of an AI influencer?
Nobody has published one, for any of them. A net worth belongs to a person, and these characters are assets of a company: an agency, a retailer, a studio or an anonymous creator. The nearest real number is a company value, like the $125 million valuation TechCrunch reported for Lil Miquela's studio Brud in 2021, without saying who set it. Pages that give a net worth for Aitana López or Lil Miquela do not say where it comes from.
If you want figures you can check, Fanvue publishes some about its platform as a whole. How much AI influencers make goes through them, and what counts as an AI influencer explains how these brand characters differ from a persona account run by one person.
Figures we could not check
These sources exist or are quoted, but we could not open or find them. Their figures are not in the lists above.
- Axios, 15 June 2026, on Lu do Magalu. Search results quote it with "an estimated $2.5 million a year in sponsored posts". The page refused to load for us, so it is not in the list.
- The original Daily Mail story on Emily Pellegrini (January 2024). Many reprints quote the creator talking to the Daily Mail. We could not find the original article.
- The SAP.com study behind the per-post fees. Every report credits SAP.com, and none links to a page on it. We could not find the study.
- The OnBuy study of 2020. Reports credit the online shop OnBuy. We could not find the study on its site.
How we checked
- We searched for income figures for each persona in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and opened every page that gave one.
- For each figure we followed the credit back until a page gave no further source. That page is the original.
- We quote each figure as it was printed, in its own currency, with the date it was published.
- We do not estimate anything ourselves, and we do not rank the personas by money.
If a figure here is wrong or you know an older source, tell us. We correct it with the new source and its date and say what changed on the corrections page. The persona profiles themselves are on famous AI influencers.
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