Instagram previously shut down its Reels Play Bonus in March 2023. The new payout program is capped for creators, like previous versions of Instagram’s bonuses, and BI has seen two examples of the limited bonus being capped at $30,000 for a 30-day period. The program is currently invite-only.

The current Spring Bonus had previous iterations as a “holiday bonus” and “New Year’s bonus,” and is now only available in the US, Japan, and South Korea.

Posts that are labelled as branded content or collab posts are not eligible for monetization through the program. And any posts with watermarks from a third-party platform (cough, cough TikTok) are also ineligible.

Meme creator Jackson Weimer told BI that he gained access to the Spring Bonus on March 30. Within about four days, his estimated earnings were at $70, according to documentation viewed by BI.

Weimer previously earned money through Instagram’s now-defunct Reels Play Bonus program.

Mike Potter, who runs the Instagram account @grippingfoodwithforce, told BI he was notified about the Spring Bonus on March 29.

Potter’s estimated earnings were at $58 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to documentation viewed by BI. He estimated that the CPM was about $0.16 (Weimer estimated $0.14 to $0.16).

The platform also appears to be testing a “Performance Bonus,” which pays for engagement on photo posts in the app. Facebook has a similar program, which pays for engagement on photo and text posts (and excludes reels and stories).

It’s unclear on Instagram’s website where this bonus is accessible for creators or the eligibility requirements. Weimer and Potter, for instance, told BI that they did not have access to Instagram’s Performance Bonus.

The company also lists a “Threads Bonus” program on its website, which pays select creators for engagement on posts to Meta’s Twitter rival.

In October, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri teased a potential return of bonuses to the app while addressing a crowd of creators. At the time, Mosseri said the company was reconsidering how to bring back bonuses as it continued testing new iterations of the programs in Japan and South Korea.

Instagram isn’t the only photo-sharing app anymore

Bonuses are a common strategy to incentivize creators to use certain features that align with the app’s business priorities. Until recently, Instagram’s focus was on reels, the short-video format it launched to directly compete with TikTok.

But competition with TikTok has spread well beyond video in recent months.

TikTok has been encouraging users to post more photos, telling them via push notifications that “photo posts get 1.9x more likes and 2.9x more comments on average than videos,” The Wall Street Journal reported. TikTok also may be planning to launch a standalone photo app, per the tech blog The SpAndroid.

After watching TikTok become the cool new app in town, Instagram has since regained ground. The app outpaced TikTok in global download growth last year, per data from the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Instagram downloads jumped 20% in 2023 compared to the previous year, while TikTok experienced a 4% rise during the same period, with daily-active-user growth flatlining.