Cost guide

What does social media management cost in 2026?

Monthly social media management runs $300–$2.5K per month at the direct rate, sized by the platforms you are on, how often each one posts and how heavy the comment and message queue is. A content calendar by the month, UGC video by the piece and a product shoot by the day are priced on their own below, and every figure becomes a written proposal within 48 hours.

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Direct rate, in ₹ or $ · Itemised proposal in 48 hrs

The range

What it costs,
at the direct rate.

Priced as a monthly retainer scoped to platforms, cadence and community load, plus a per-calendar unit and a per-video unit for buyers who only want the content.

RetainerMonthly management$300–$2.5Kper month
Per unitContent calendar, per month$150–$500per calendar
Per unitUGC-style video, per piece$200–$600per video
Per unitCreator-sourced UGC video$350–$1Kper video
Per unitProduct shoot, per day$600–$2.5Kper shoot day

Indicative: every figure is refined into an itemised proposal within 48 hours.INR figures shown excl. GST.

Every option includes a Prism workspace for requests, approvals, tasks and the weekly review.

What moves the price

Why the range
is a range.

Platforms, times cadence

Each platform rewards a different post, and one asset cropped for all of them reads as exactly that. Short-form video cut to TikTok's pacing, long-form written for LinkedIn and replies tuned to X each take their own hours. A third platform is more posts, not more copies. One account posting weekly is the bottom of the range; several platforms fed daily is the top.

Biggest lever

How heavy the community queue is

Comments and direct messages are answered to a stated response standard, and every reply passes a brand-safety review. A LinkedIn account with a few comments a week is a small queue. A commerce brand with a live message queue about orders, sizes and returns is a daily job, sized from your volume.

Ongoing lever

Who is on camera, and who shoots

Short-form video is the post most platforms reward and the most expensive one to make. A founder on a phone with our shot list keeps it at the bottom. No one to put on camera means a creator booked through partner creator panels. Their fee sits inside the per-video unit and is quoted separately on a retainer.

Production lever

Approvals and brand risk

A regulated category, a claims-heavy product or a founder who wants to read every caption all add a review layer. Brand-safety review is inside the fee for every post and reply. An approval chain on your side that returns posts after their slot has passed adds rework.

Hidden lever

Paid social, which is not in this fee

This fee is the organic channel: strategy, content, community and listening. Paid social and its management sit with the PPC team, priced on their own row, with media spend billed to you by the platform. Organic hands paid what it learns about audiences and creative, so the two never duplicate spend.

Often forgotten

The options

Which option
fits your case.

Each option below is one way to buy Social media. Read what it is and who it fits, then request the one that matches your case; the proposal itemises it.

Retainer

Monthly management

$300–$2.5Kper month

What it is

The channel run monthly. A written strategy names the goal and formats per platform, a calendar is built from it, and platform-native content ships against it. Comments and messages are answered to a standard, listening covers the brand and the category, and monthly reporting is tied to the goal the strategy set, not to likes.

Who it fits

Businesses whose buyers are on social and that need the channel run, not filled. It does not fit a brand that mainly wants paid reach, which starts with PPC. Nor a team that publishes and answers itself and only needs the plan; the calendar unit covers that.

Included

A written strategy naming the goal and formats per platform, revisited monthly
Platform-native content: short-form video, LinkedIn long-form, X replies, YouTube upkeep
Comments and DMs answered to a stated standard, every reply brand-safety reviewed
Social listening on the brand and the category
Monthly reporting tied to the goal the strategy set, not likes

Not included, quoted separately

Paid social budget and management (see PPC and paid media)
Creator fees
Photography, shoots and stock licensing

Turnaround: Monthly, 3-month minimum; first posts live inside 14 days
Moves the number: Platforms times cadence times community load: one LinkedIn account posting weekly and a five-platform commerce brand with a live DM queue are not the same month.

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Per unit

Content calendar, per month

$150–$500per calendar

One unit: one month's calendar for up to two platforms: 12 posts briefed, captioned and creative-directed against a written strategy, ready for production or for your own team to publish

What it is

One month's calendar for a small set of platforms: each post briefed, captioned and creative-directed against a written strategy, brand-safety reviewed and handed over for your team to produce and publish.

Who it fits

Teams that publish and manage the community themselves but want the plan and the words done properly. It does not fit a brand with no written strategy yet, because the calendar is built from one. It does not include production, scheduling or replies.

Included

Posting cadence and slot plan per platform
A brief, caption and creative direction per post
Brand-safety review of every caption before handover
One revision round on the calendar as a whole

Not included, quoted separately

Asset production: video edits, design and photography
Publishing and scheduling
Community management

Turnaround: 5 working days from an approved strategy; recurring calendars land a week before the month starts
Moves the number: Platforms: the third platform is not a crop of the first two, so it is priced as more posts, not more copies.

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Per unit

UGC-style video, per piece

$200–$600per video

One unit: one 15 to 45 second UGC-style short video: scripted, directed remotely on footage you capture, edited and captioned for one platform

What it is

UGC stands for user-generated content: the phone-shot, creator-led format. This unit is one short video scripted and shot-listed by us, directed remotely on footage you capture, then edited and captioned for one platform's format.

Who it fits

Brands with someone willing to be on camera: a founder, a team member, a customer. It does not fit a buyer with no footage and no one to shoot it, who needs the creator-sourced unit instead.

Included

Script and shot list written to the platform's pacing
Remote direction of the capture so the footage arrives usable
Edit, captions and sound for one platform's aspect ratio
Brand-safety review before delivery
One revision round

Not included, quoted separately

On-camera talent (or use the creator-sourced unit)
Stock footage, music and licensing
Cuts for additional platforms
Explainer and demo edits (see Video editing)

Turnaround: 5 working days from footage received; batches of 8 or more scheduled weekly
Moves the number: Who shoots it: a founder on a phone with our shot list sits at the bottom; a brief needing two capture rounds sits at the top.

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Per unit

Creator-sourced UGC video

$350–$1Kper video

One unit: one 15 to 45 second UGC-style video with the on-camera creator booked from our partner creator panels, scripted, directed, edited and captioned for one platform

What it is

The same video with the creator supplied. The creator is shortlisted from partner creator panels against your brief, booked and directed remotely, and the cut is delivered edited and captioned for one platform. The creator's fee for that video is inside the price, with usage rights for organic posting.

Who it fits

Brands with no creator and a product that can be shipped to one. It does not fit a buyer expecting a named creator with a large audience at the bottom of the range. The creator sets the price and may need a rights fee of their own.

Included

Creator shortlisted from partner panels against your brief
Creator fee for one video included
Script, shot list and remote direction
Edit, captions and sound for one platform
Usage rights for organic posting; paid usage quoted

Not included, quoted separately

Paid-media usage rights beyond organic
Product shipping to the creator
Cuts for additional platforms
Additional creators for the same brief

Turnaround: 10 working days from brief; product must reach the creator first
Moves the number: The creator: a micro-creator with a phone sits at the bottom; a named creator with an audience sits at the top and may need a separate rights fee.

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Per unit

Product shoot, per day

$600–$2.5Kper shoot day

One unit: one studio or location shoot day through our partner studio panels, art-directed by us, delivering edited stills and short clips ready for listings and social

What it is

One studio or location shoot day booked through partner studio panels and art-directed by us from your product list. It delivers retouched stills in listing and social sizes, short clips for one platform and a named asset library. We do not own a studio or a crew; the brief, the direction and the quality bar are ours.

Who it fits

Brands, mostly in India, with a catalogue to photograph and a launch or listings to feed. It does not fit a brand far from a partner studio unless travel is priced as its own line. Models, stylists and sets are quoted separately.

Included

Studio or location booked through partner panels
Shot list and art direction from your product list
Edited stills, retouched, in listing and social sizes
Short clips cut for one platform
Asset library delivered with naming and usage notes

Not included, quoted separately

Models and stylists
Props, sets and location fees
Travel outside the studio's city
Video beyond short clips

Turnaround: Shoot within 2 weeks of brief; assets 7 working days after the shoot
Moves the number: SKU count and set-ups per day: 20 simple SKUs on white is the bottom; lifestyle sets with talent is the top.

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Cheaper or dearer

What moves a quote
down, or up.

The proposal itemises platforms, content pieces, community coverage and any creator or studio lines, so each item below is a line you can see move.

Brings the quote down

One or two platforms, each posting weekly
A founder or team willing to be on camera with our shot list
Your own product imagery and footage already in hand
A quiet comment queue with few messages that need a decision from you
An approval chain that returns posts inside their slot

Pushes the quote up

Several platforms fed daily with native video for each
A live message queue in a commerce category, answered every day
A creator booked through partner panels for every piece
Shoots with models, stylists and lifestyle sets rather than product on white
A regulated category with legal review on every caption

What you get

What the fee
actually buys.

The fee buys a run channel and a monthly account of what it did for the business. No follower count, reach or viral post is promised, because the platforms decide that; the strategy, the calendar, the replies and the report are.

A written strategy per platform

Who each channel reaches, which formats that audience responds to and which business goal it exists to move, revisited monthly against what worked.

Content made for each platform

Short-form video, long-form posts and replies produced natively, with YouTube's comments and channel upkeep inside the same fee.

Replies to a standard, every one reviewed

Comments and messages answered within the stated response standard, brand-safety reviewed, with anything only you can decide escalated to you.

Listening on the brand and the category

What is said about you and about your market across channels, read monthly and fed back into the calendar.

Reporting against the goal, not likes

A quiet post that sent qualified people to a landing page is a win; a widely shared post that sent nobody anywhere is not.

Your channels and their data

Accounts, audiences and every asset produced stay in your name from the first week. Leaving takes a message, not a recovery.

AgenciesAgency partners buy at the partner rates on agencies.pixelcrayons.com; volume terms are agreed under NDA.

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Questions

Frequently
asked.

Because a post is not the unit of work. Behind each one sits a strategy, a slot in a calendar, a brand-safety review and a community queue that fills whether or not anything was posted that day. Pricing per post rewards volume over fit and hides the replies entirely. The fee tracks platforms, cadence and community load. The proposal itemises all three.

No. The fee is the organic channel. Paid social, whether Meta prospecting or the wider paid-media roadmap, is scoped and run by the PPC team on its own row of the rate card. The platforms bill the media spend to you. The two teams work from one brief, so what organic learns about audiences and creative reaches the media buyer before any spend follows.

The creator. The per-piece unit assumes you capture the footage and we script, direct, edit and caption it. The creator-sourced unit adds a creator shortlisted from partner panels against your brief, their fee for that one video, and usage rights for organic posting. Paid-media usage, shipping the product to the creator and cuts for further platforms are quoted on top.

Yes, as a per-day line. The retainer price is the management price. Photography, shoots, creator fees and stock licences sit outside it, so nothing hides inside a monthly figure. A shoot day is booked through partner studios and art-directed by us, with models, stylists, props and travel quoted as their own lines.

Yes, and teams with their own publisher and community manager do. The calendar unit delivers the plan, the captions and the creative direction for a month, reviewed for brand safety. What it does not buy is production, scheduling, replies or listening. A calendar needs a written strategy behind it, so a first month usually starts with that.

Yes, and it is the driver buyers most often leave out. Answering comments and messages to a stated standard, with every reply reviewed, is daily work that scales with your volume, not with your posting cadence. The proposal states the coverage the fee assumes, so a busier queue is a visible line, not a surprise.

Other cost guides
and the service itself.

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Last updated 29 September 2026

What it costs,at the direct rate.

Why the rangeis a range.

Platforms, times cadence

How heavy the community queue is

Who is on camera, and who shoots

Approvals and brand risk

Paid social, which is not in this fee

Which optionfits your case.

Monthly management

Content calendar, per month

UGC-style video, per piece

Creator-sourced UGC video

Product shoot, per day

What moves a quotedown, or up.

What the feeactually buys.

A written strategy per platform

Content made for each platform

Replies to a standard, every one reviewed

Listening on the brand and the category

Reporting against the goal, not likes

Your channels and their data

Frequentlyasked.

Other cost guidesand the service itself.

What it costs,
at the direct rate.

Why the range
is a range.

Which option
fits your case.

What moves a quote
down, or up.

What the fee
actually buys.

Frequently
asked.

Other cost guides
and the service itself.