Core eligibility criteria
These apply across most monetization features (Reels bonuses, gifts, subscriptions etc.).
- Account type: Must be a Professional account (Creator or Business) rather than a personal account.
- Age: You must be 18 years or older.
- Location: You must reside in a country where Instagram’s monetization tools are supported. If you live in a region not included, you may not have eligibility.
- Content & policy compliance:
- You must abide by Instagram’s Community Guidelines and Content Monetization Policies (no hate speech, violence, copyright violations, etc.).
- Your content must be original (or meaningfully edited) — reposting other platforms’ watermarked videos may be penalised/decline monetisation.
- Clean account standing: No recent major violations, strikes, or “shadowban” level issues.
- Payment & tax setup: You’ll need to connect valid payout method (bank account/PayPal) and fulfil any tax/info requirements.
Program-specific thresholds and additional rules
While the core criteria above apply to almost all monetization features, each specific feature often has extra rules (followers, views, invite-only etc.). Some of the commonly cited ones:
- Some sources say for Reels-based bonus/monetisation you might need 1,000 or more followers (or higher) in some regions.
- For features like Subscriptions or Badges, the follower minimum is higher: e.g., ~10,000 followers in many cases.
- A view-threshold (for certain bonus programs) is sometimes cited (e.g., “5 million+ views in X time period”) though this appears in some guides and is less officially documented.
- Region and feature availability matter — parts of the world may not yet have all types of monetization enabled.
Important Caveats
- Even if you meet minimum criteria, invitation or eligibility review may be required. Some bonus programs are invite-only.
- Meeting the follower count alone does not guarantee monetisation — engagement, content type, region, and program availability all matter.
- Instagram has in recent years ended or paused some monetisation programs (for example retro bonus programs for Reels) which means rules are shifting.
- The “minimum” numbers listed (followers, views) are often estimates from third-party guides — Instagram/Meta may not publish exact thresholds for each region or program.
- For newer creators: even if monetisation is enabled, actual earnings may be small until scale, engagement, and niche are developed.
Summary
If you want to monetise Reels on Instagram, at the bare minimum make sure:
- Your account is a Creator/Business account and you’re 18+
- You live in a supported country and have your payment/payout info set up
- Your content is original, follows policies, and your account has a clean record
- Then aim for consistent posting, good engagement (shares, saves, watch time), and grow your follower base (aiming for thousands rather than just hundreds)
Once you’re past the basic eligibility, you can look at which program you can activate (Reels bonuses, gifts, subscriptions, branded content) and what additional thresholds apply.