How Filipino Creators Should Price Services: Rate Cards and Packages

TL;DR: Price the job, not your follower count and not a blog’s peso chart. A rate card lists one deliverable at a time: a post, a day, or a face, plus usage, exclusivity, rush, and travel. A package bundles a fixed count of those lines. Brands already have guides for what they pay. This page is the supply side: how you set the number, write the quote, and keep the license separate from the work.

If you create, model, or do makeup in the Philippines, people will ask “what’s your rate?” before they send a brief. Answer with a card you can defend. The card is your menu. It is not a national price list. Nobody at the BIR, the DTI, or any platform sets the peso figure for a Reel, a catalog day, or a debut glam.

Buyers who want the other side of this conversation should read the influencer rates guide and the model talent fee guide. Those pages tell brands how to budget. This page tells you how to quote so the budget conversation stays specific.

What you are actually selling

You are selling time, a skill, and a license. The time is the call, the commute, the shoot, the edit, the revision, and the posting. The skill is the reason they hired you instead of a friend with a phone. The license is what they may do with the file after you deliver it: one organic post, a Shopee listing, a billboard in EDSA, a TVC, a paid ad on Meta, a six-month whitelisting deal.

Most arguments about “lowball offers” skip the license. A brand in Makati asks for “a quick TikTok” and later runs that file as an ad for a quarter. If your quote was one number with no usage line, you donated the media buy. IPOPHL’s copyright pages are the reason to write the license down. You do not need to become a lawyer. You need the quote to name the channels, the months, and the territory.

A second split matters for creators who also post. A file the brand publishes on its own channels is UGC. A post on your account is influencer work, because they are buying your audience as well as the edit. Many people in Manila do both in one week. Price them as two services. The UGC guide is written for brands; the useful line for you is that follower count does not set a UGC fee, and ad use is a separate license from handing over an MP4.

If the post sits on your YouTube or Instagram, mark it as paid. YouTube’s paid promotion rules and Meta’s branded content policies require that label. Do not discount the fee because the label is there.

Build the rate card before you build the package

Write the card as a list of units you can repeat. Start with the smallest honest unit in your lane.

| Line on your card | Typical unit | What is inside the unit | What is outside | | --------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | Creator, organic post | One Reel, TikTok, or static | Shoot, edit, caption, one post, a stated number of revision rounds | Whitelisting, ads, extra months, a second platform | | Creator, UGC file | One finished video or a set of cuts | Script help, shoot, edit, file delivery | Posting on your account, paid amplification | | Model | Half day or full day, or one look | Call time, wardrobe you agreed, the looks named in the brief | Usage beyond the channels you wrote, overtime, a second day | | Makeup artist | One face, or a block of hours | Application, agreed products, touch-up window | Extra faces, a trial day, hair, travel outside your city | | Add-on | Rush, travel, exclusivity, usage | The thing named on the line | Everything else |

Keep the card short enough to paste into Messenger or email. Six to ten lines is enough.

Update the card when your calendar is full, when your work has changed, or when the same client keeps adding usage. Do not change a number in the middle of a job you already confirmed. The next quote can be higher. The signed one stands.

Publish the base lines where a buyer can see them without a pitch meeting. An Idol talent profile is built for that: you set the fee, and the brand books against it. Idol does not add a client commission on top. If an agency later represents you, read whether the contract lets you keep a public rate. The modeling agency directory covers that exclusivity question for models.

The lines every quote needs

A quote is the rate card applied to one brief. If the brief is vague, the quote stays incomplete on purpose. Send the questions, not a discount.

Every quote you send should be able to answer:

1. Deliverable. One Reel, four e-commerce looks, bridal glam for the principal, a three-minute YouTube integration. Count them.
2. Place and hours. Studio in Poblacion, half day, call time 8:00. Or “I shoot at home in Pasig and deliver files in five days.”
3. Revision rounds. “Two rounds” means two. A third round is a new line or a new job.
4. Usage. Organic on your account for 30 days. Or brand channels, Philippines only, six months, no paid ads. Or paid ads included, and for how long.
5. Exclusivity. None, unless they pay for a category and a period. “Do not post a competing shampoo” for a year is a different sale from “post this once.”
6. Expenses. Grab inside Metro Manila included or not. A flight to Cebu, a hotel, an assistant, and a studio rental are extra until you fold them in and say so.
7. Pay. Deposit to hold the date, balance on delivery or on the shoot day, and the account name that matches your invoice.

If you cannot fill those seven from the message they sent, reply with the gaps. “Happy to quote. Please send usage, city, and date” is a professional answer. A single peso figure with none of the seven is how you get stuck in a Viber thread at 11 p.m. renegotiating a billboard.

Packages that stay honest

A package is a bundle with a cap. It is useful when the same client buys the same shape every month and you are tired of re-quoting. It is a bad idea when the word “unlimited” appears.

Honest packages in this market look like this:

• Three short videos for the brand’s TikTok and Reels, two revision rounds each, files only, usage on their organic channels for 60 days, no whitelisting. Shot in one half day in Metro Manila.
• A model day plus a half day of selects. Eight hours, two looks, images for the brand’s own shop listing for six months. Out-of-home and TV are not in the package.
• Debut or bridal block. Principal, a named number of entourage faces, one trial, touch-ups through the program, travel inside a named city. Cavite, Laguna, or a resort in Batangas is a travel line if you live in Quezon City. Hair is included only if you wrote hair.
• A month of creator work. Four posts on your account, topics they can brief, no exclusivity, organic only. A fifth post is another fee. A request to run post two as an ad is another fee.

Write the cap in the first paragraph of the package, not in a footnote. Clients remember “monthly content.” They forget “four posts” unless you repeat it when they send the fifth concept on a Thursday.

Ambassadorships are not a discounted package of posts. They add months, a face people will associate with the brand, and usually a competitor ban. Price the ban. If you cannot take other milk brands, or other clinics, or other telcos for six months, that silence has a price. The brand-side ambassador guide shows how buyers think about that length. Your job is to charge for the months you are off the market, not to feel flattered that they used the word ambassador.

Models, creators, and makeup artists

The card is the same shape. The unit changes.

Creators and influencers. Your organic unit is the post. Production effort moves the fee: a static with a caption is smaller than a scripted Reel, which is smaller than a YouTube video you research, shoot, and edit. Niche changes demand. A personal-finance explainer and a dance trend are not the same labor, even at the same follower count. Do not copy a US rate card or a screenshot from a group chat. Look at published rates from people who do your kind of work in your city, then set yours. Brands are told the same thing in the influencer rates guide: compare live profiles, do not hunt a secret tariff.

Models. Your unit is time on set and the looks in the call sheet. A half day for a catalog in a Makati studio is one sale. A two-day TVC with a usage term is another. Overtime starts when the agreed hours end, so write the clock. Event and promo work is often a full day of standing, talking, or sampling, which is a different body of work from a silent e-commerce look. Price the day you will actually work. You set the number. You can refuse a “market rate” that arrived in a pitch deck with no brief.

Makeup artists. Your unit is the face and the hour. A one-hour glam in a salon is the floor. A debut adds entourage, a trial, an ocular, and touch-ups until the program ends. Bridal work in a hotel in Pasay with a 4 a.m. call is not the salon unit. Hair, lashes, and a second artist are lines. The makeup cost guide tells clients why packages differ. Use it as a mirror: if a buyer expects “debut” to mean one face, your quote should list the faces before they book the date.

People who do two lanes should keep two units on one card. A model who also posts a Reel from the set is selling a day plus a post. A makeup artist who films a GRWM for the bride’s brand deal is selling faces plus a video. Do not let the second unit hide inside the first because the client said “you’re already there.”

How to choose a number without a fake chart

No editor at Idol has a secret 2026 price list, and this article will not invent one. Ranges that float around Facebook with no date and no brief are how people undercharge a national ad and overcharge a barangay bazaar. Use a method instead.

1. Count the hours you will not get back. Prep, travel, the job, edits, revisions, posting, and the messages. A “one hour glam” that includes a two-hour trip each way to Alabang is a five-hour job.
2. Add the costs you pay. Grab or gas, parking, kit you buy for this brief, an assistant, a studio if you rent it, and the tax you will remit on the fee. If you skip tax, your “day rate” shrinks after filing season.
3. Look at published fees for the same unit. On Idol, talent set their own numbers. Shortlist people in your city and lane and read what they published. You may sit below them while you are new. You should know that you are sitting below them, and you should know why.
4. Mark a portfolio rate with an end. The first paid jobs can be lower so you can show permitted work. Write “portfolio rate, three bookings or until 31 December 2026, whichever comes first.” When the end arrives, the card moves up. Do not let a favor become the public price.
5. Raise the card on the next quote when you are turning work away, when usage grows, or when your samples are doing the selling. Tell repeating clients before the next job, not after you have shot it.

Product-only deals belong in step 4, and only when you would have bought the product anyway. A serum you will use is a fair early trade if the usage is one organic post. A crate of goods in exchange for a TVC, a year of exclusivity, or ads is a gift from you to their media budget. Ask for a fee. If they cannot pay a fee, they cannot buy that license.

Friends-and-family rates leak. The moment a brand finds out you did a similar Reel for a cousin at half the card, your card is a suggestion. Keep the discount private, cap it, and do not post the cousin’s fee in a group chat.

Usage, exclusivity, and rush

Treat these three as add-ons even if you sometimes waive them.

Usage. Organic posting on your account for a set number of days is the default creator license. A file for the brand’s product page is a different default. Ads, whitelisting, billboards, and TV are further licenses. Name the months. “Perpetual, all media, worldwide” is the most expensive sentence a marketing officer can paste into a contract. If you are not paid like a national campaign, do not sign like one. Cut it to the channels they will really use.

Exclusivity. Narrow it. Category, competitor list, cities, and months. A ban on all beauty brands is a living. A ban on one serum SKU for 30 days might be acceptable inside a campaign fee. If they cannot name the competitors, they are not ready to buy exclusivity.

Rush. Your normal lead time is part of the card. Say it: “files in five days” or “book me two weeks out for weddings in December.” Inside that window, a rush fee applies, or you decline. December, summer debuts, and Holy Week travel fill first. A client who messages on Thursday for a Saturday mall launch is buying your weekend, not your standard unit.

Write a cancellation line too: what you keep if they move the date inside 48 hours, and what you refund if you cancel. An outdoor call in Intramuros that moves indoors still uses the hours you blocked.

What to say when they ask your rate

Send this shape. Replace the brackets. Delete any line that does not apply. Do not delete usage.

For [deliverable], in [city], on [date or lead time], with [revision rounds]: [your fee]. Usage: [channels, duration, territory]. Exclusivity: [none / the category and months]. Travel outside [your base city] and a third revision round are separate. Deposit: [amount or percent] to hold the date, balance on [delivery or shoot day]. I will invoice under [the name on your BIR registration].

Then stop talking. If they answer “what’s the package for everything,” send them back to the cap. If they answer “the boss wants a discount because we have a big following,” the size of their page is not your cost. You may offer a smaller deliverable: one static instead of a Reel, one look instead of three, organic instead of ads. Shrinking the scope is cleaner than cutting the fee for the same work.

A brand that will not say the client name, the date, or the usage does not get your lowest number. They get questions. The same habit protects you on castings. The casting-call reply guide covers the five ways a sloppy yes costs you the job or your safety. Pricing is the part you do before you type “sige.”

Tax, invoices, and deposits

When you earn from bookings, you are in business even if you still call it a sideline. Register with the BIR as self-employed. Form 1901 (the January 2024 edition) is the application for sole proprietors, professionals, and mixed-income individuals, and it asks whether you are availing of the 8% income tax rate option. ORUS lists self-employed individuals among the people who can do registration transactions online, including an update to avail of that 8% option.

Revenue Memorandum Order No. 23-2018 is the BIR’s own write-up of the option. For someone who earns only from self-employment, and whose gross sales or receipts and other non-operating income do not exceed the VAT threshold of ₱3,000,000, the order allows a choice: graduated income tax rates, or 8% of gross in excess of ₱250,000, in lieu of the graduated rates and the percentage tax. Mixed income, a salary plus bookings, is a different paragraph in the same order. Read it before you tick the box. This article is not tax advice. The figures above are the order’s figures, checked 22 September 2026, not a guess at what you should charge a client.

The NewBizReg portal, checked the same day, tells new applicants to pay a ₱30 documentary stamp tax on the certificate of registration. Use the live BIR instructions for any other amount due. Old blog posts still quote fees that the current portal does not. Your registration requirements page is the list to follow for IDs and attachments.

Issue an invoice in the registered name. A client who asks you to receive the full fee on a friend’s GCash so they can “skip paperwork” is asking you to own a mess. The DTI’s consumer education pages are a plain reminder that paid services should leave a trail. You want that trail when a brand delays the balance.

Deposits hold dates. Say what the deposit buys: “This deposit holds 14 March; the balance is due before I send finals” or “the balance is due at call time, by transfer to this account name.” Say what happens if they cancel. Put the account name in the quote so a last-minute “send it to this other number” stands out.

After the quote

Save the brief, your quote, and their yes in one folder. When they add a platform, add a line and a fee before you shoot. When they repost your frame as an ad two months later, send the usage line you already wrote, with a price, instead of a paragraph of hurt feelings.

If you are new, the influencer career guide covers samples, niches, and how brands find you. A clear card will not invent demand. It will stop you from giving away the demand you already have.

Review the card each January and July. Which unit did you sell? Which add-on did clients try to get free? Which job was priced so low you resented the call time? Change those lines. If a client rebooks the same catalog, the second quote can stay flat or rise with usage. It should not fall because they now call you a friend of the brand.

When a manager quotes for you, ask to see your fee and their commission as two numbers. Your card is the floor. A blended quote hides whether the client is paying you fairly.

Frequently asked questions

How should a Filipino creator price a service?

Price the job: hours, deliverable, city, usage, and exclusivity. Put your number on a rate card, then change the quote when the brief changes. There is no official peso tariff for posts, looks, or makeup.

What is the difference between a rate card and a package?

A rate card lists base lines: one post, one day, or one face, plus usage, rush, and travel. A package bundles a set count of those lines into one price. Unlimited content is an open bill, not a package.

Should models and makeup artists use the same pricing method?

Use the same lines. Models often sell a day or a look. Makeup artists sell faces, trials, and hours on site. Creators sell a file, a post, or both. Usage sits outside the work fee unless your quote includes it.

Do I have to register with the BIR before I charge clients?

Register when you earn as self-employed. BIR Form 1901 covers sole proprietors and professionals. The 8% income tax option is explained in Revenue Memorandum Order No. 23-2018, including a gross-receipts cap. Read the current BIR page before you file.

Where can a brand see the rate I actually charge?

Publish it on your Idol profile. Buyers comparing influencer, model, and makeup fees should read the brand-side guides, then book the number you set. Idol does not add a client commission on that booking.

Quote the job you will actually do

Write the unit, the usage, and the date. Bundle only what you can count. Publish the base fee where buyers can read it. When the brief grows, the quote grows with it, in writing, before the call time.