# Later for Creators: Scheduling, Link in Bio, Affiliates and Campaigns > Later for creators: Free plan limits vs Starter, a Link in Bio shop, Later Creator affiliate payouts, brand campaigns via Stripe, media kits and AI captions. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/later-for-creators — The Professional's Toolkit · updated October 2026_ --- **$25** — a month billed monthly for Starter, or $18.75 a month billed yearly; joining Later Creator and applying to campaigns are free. - **12 posts** — per profile a month on Free - **Twice a month** — affiliate payouts, PayPal or deposit - **5,000+** — engaged followers typical for campaigns ## What Later gives a creator, in short Later started in 2014 as an Instagram scheduler, and it still plans and publishes content well. For creators it now does three more jobs. **Link in Bio** turns your profile link into a small storefront. **Later Creator**, the affiliate side that came from the Mavely deal in January 2025, pays commission on the products you share. And the **campaign network** lets you apply to paid brand deals, deliver the content and get paid through Stripe. The creator side is free to join, and applying to campaigns works on every plan, Free included. You pay mainly for scheduling capacity once you outgrow the Free plan's limits, plus a few creator extras: a media kit, and generating new affiliate links inside Link in Bio. That split matters, because the money and the subscription run on different tracks. Brands build their campaigns in Later Influence, a separate, quote-only product sold to companies, and you never pay for it. You meet those brands inside Later Social, the same app where you schedule posts. A creator can therefore earn through Later without ever buying a plan, or buy Starter for the calendar and never touch a campaign. We read Later's creator pages, its pricing page and its help center to work out where each piece sits and what it costs. > ⚠ **The trial bills automatically:** The 14-day trial needs a card and converts to a paid plan unless you cancel, and plans are non-refundable except case by case. ## Who it suits, and who should skip it Later fits creators who live on **Instagram and TikTok** and want planning, a bio page and income tools in one login. A lifestyle or food creator posting four or five times a week, linking products in Stories and pitching brands now and then, gets the most from it. The visual grid planner suits anyone who cares how a feed looks before it publishes. The affiliate side has no follower minimum, so a small account can start earning from links on day one, while brand campaigns *reward accounts that are already established*. Later's creator page says brand campaigns typically want 5,000 or more engaged followers. Skip it, or at least skip the paid plan, if your work centers on long YouTube videos or a podcast. Later publishes YouTube Shorts only. X is out too, because Later's X support ended on August 28, 2025. It has no public API and no Zapier connection, so creators who wire their tools together with automations will hit a wall. Facebook, LinkedIn and Snapchat work for scheduling, but brand campaigns focus on Instagram and TikTok. And if you post often across many networks, Starter's monthly post cap will feel tight quickly, while Growth costs twice as much. ## Planning the week: what Free covers and when Starter pays off ### The Free plan's real limits The Free plan is not on the pricing page, but the help center describes it, and it is enough to judge Later. You get **12 posts per profile a month**, a calendar that shows only two weeks back and two weeks forward, a Link in Bio page with a Later banner, introductory analytics and no Best Time to Post. YouTube Shorts are capped at one a month, and there are no AI credits at all. For a creator posting three times a week on Instagram, 12 posts a month is roughly the ceiling. That works for a test. It will not hold a growing habit, and the two-week window makes batch planning awkward. Our guide to [whether Later is free](/articles/is-later-free) covers the rest of the gaps. ### Starter, and what the price buys Starter costs **$25 a month billed monthly, or $18.75 a month billed yearly**, which comes to $225 a year [1]. Paying monthly for twelve months adds up to $300, so the yearly bill saves $75, by our arithmetic. Starter gives one Social Set (up to eight profiles, one per network), one user, 30 posts per profile a month, five AI credits, three months of analytics and Best Time to Post for Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. It also removes the Link in Bio banner. Starter sells no add-ons, so a creator who hires an assistant needs Growth at $50 a month billed monthly, with two users and 180 posts per profile. Every paid plan starts with a 14-day trial that needs a card and **converts to a paid plan automatically** unless you cancel before it ends. One trial is allowed per account, and accounts that already had a paid plan do not get another. Plans renew on their own and are non-refundable, with exceptions handled case by case. Read that twice. Put the trial's end date in your calendar the day you start it, and cancel early if Free still covers your posting. > 💡 **Join Later Creator before upgrading:** Affiliate links and campaign applications work on the Free plan. Earn first, then pay for Starter when the 12-post cap or the media kit becomes the bottleneck. ### How posts actually go out Instagram posts and Reels auto publish from business or creator profiles. Stories are different. Auto publish for Stories works only on business profiles, so a creator profile, or any Story with stickers, polls, music or links, goes out through notification publishing, where Later pings your phone and you finish the post in the app. Auto publish for Instagram creator profiles is not supported on the Android app, so connect on desktop. Instagram itself caps auto publishing at 50 posts per profile in a moving 24 hours, which few creators will ever reach. ## Link in Bio as your storefront Link in Bio gives you a page at linkin.bio followed by your name, and for most creators it becomes the shop window. It mirrors your Instagram grid, so each linked post becomes a clickable tile, and an Instagram post can carry up to five links while a TikTok post carries one. Around the grid you add buttons, button groups, a featured banner and a multi-item banner for a product roundup. The Free page works but shows Later branding; Starter removes it and adds custom tracking parameters. The creator angle is the affiliate hookup. **Later Creator affiliate links can sit directly on your Link in Bio page**, so a follower who taps a skincare tile lands on the product through your commission link. On the Free plan you can pick from affiliate links you already created; generating new ones from a product URL needs Starter or above. There is one more catch. TikTok shows a clickable website link only on Business accounts with more than 1,000 followers. For the full setup, read our [Later Link in Bio guide](/articles/later-link-in-bio). ## Affiliate income through Later Creator Later Creator is the affiliate network formerly called Mavely, and joining it is free, with no follower minimum [2]. Later's affiliate page adds that there is no application. You create smart links to products from participating brands and share them anywhere: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, a blog or your bio page. Later says the links track every purchase in the cart, not just the item you shared, and you can group product links into MyShop collections with a cover photo. Performance data refreshes about once a day, and earnings appear in a dashboard alongside contests and monthly bonuses. **Commissions are paid twice a month, by direct deposit or PayPal.** That cadence is the selling point. Later leans on it hard. One creator quoted on Later's own page says getting paid within 30 days rather than six months was huge for her, which is a vendor-selected testimonial, not a measured average. Later also says its most successful creators combine affiliate income, which is steady, with campaigns, which pay more but less often. A Later Creator account connects to one Social Set at a time, and the connection works on every plan, Free included. Note that this is not the Later affiliate program, which pays commission for promoting Later itself. > 💡 **Put affiliate links on your bio page:** Later Creator links can sit on your Link in Bio tiles. Free can reuse links you already made; generating new ones from product URLs needs Starter. ## Landing and delivering brand campaigns ### Getting in front of brands Your creator profile appears once you apply to a campaign, and campaigns are open on all plans. Joining the marketplace needs an Instagram business or creator profile with more than 100 followers, and membership puts you in front of hundreds of brands. Some campaigns are invite-only, and brands can also invite you directly. **Since March 2026, Instagram Login is enough for most campaigns** to apply, be tracked and share insights, with no Facebook Page required [3]. Later's newest article names one exception, Partnership Ads, where a brand pays to promote your post from your handle and Facebook login is still needed. A few older help pages still mention Facebook authentication; the newer article is the one to follow. Creator profiles and campaigns do not work in the mobile apps. ### Concepts, drafts and tracking Some brands want a concept approved before you shoot. You submit it in Later, as a link rather than a PDF, and it comes back approved, approved with corrections or marked as needing work. Drafts follow the same pattern, one per deliverable under review at a time. Once you post, Later binds the content to the campaign automatically for Instagram posts, Reels and Stories and for Pinterest, usually within two hours. TikTok binds through the brand's posting link, and YouTube through a binding hashtag. Everything else is manual. You self-report Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat Stories, blog posts and reviews, and the same goes for anything from a personal Instagram profile, with uploads capped at 500 MB for video and 50 MB for photos. ### Getting paid Brands set the payment, not Later. It can be cash, gifted products or another incentive, and the brand decides the timing. Cash payouts go only through a verified Stripe Express account, which can belong to you, your business or your talent agency, and only one can be active at a time. Once the brand pays, the bank transfer usually takes about two business days [4]. **Later issues no tax forms.** Stripe sends a 1099 once your payouts reach about $600 in a year, so US creators should keep their own records from the first deal. > ⚠ **Later sends no tax forms:** Campaign cash goes through Stripe Express, and Stripe, not Later, sends a 1099 once payouts reach about $600 a year. Keep your own records from the first deal. ## The media kit and what brands see A media kit sits behind a paywall, as does generating new affiliate links inside Link in Bio. Building one needs a **current paid plan**, works on desktop only and pulls data from Instagram or TikTok only. You can add featured media and a rate card, but rates must be in US dollars, which is awkward for creators pricing in euros or pounds. Kits are optional for campaigns. A Free user can still apply without one. The numbers inside are sensible: the kit covers the 90 days before its last data refresh, uses medians rather than averages for Instagram posts and Stories to blunt one viral outlier, and shows your top three TikTok posts by reach. It helps to know what brands see without the kit. Brand search shows your Instagram name and photo, your engagement rate within a 2% range, a follower range, top country, connected networks and three recent posts. Once you authenticate an account, brands can also see audience age, gender, top locations and 90 days of follower growth. Before a brand accepts you, your location shows only as city and country. ## Analytics you can rely on, and AI captions Starter keeps three months of analytics for Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Threads; Growth keeps a year for Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, while Later's pages differ on Threads. Starter's Instagram post performance covers your last 30 posts within those three months, which is enough to spot what works this season but too short for a year-on-year view. Audience analytics need at least 100 followers, a platform rule rather than a Later choice. There are no analytics for YouTube Shorts or Snapchat, and Meta has removed impressions, profile views and website clicks from Instagram data. Campaign metrics on Instagram are organic only, while TikTok reports organic and paid. *Treat the dashboard as a trend line, not a ledger.* The AI layer is small. The Caption Writer and Ideas share one pool of credits: one caption costs one credit, and one credit buys three ideas. Free gets none, Starter gets five a month and Growth gets 50, all resetting on the first of the month. The Caption Writer works in English only. Five credits will not carry a daily posting habit. Starter cannot buy more. ## The fine print creators should read Two clauses deserve a careful read before you join. The influencer terms give Later's influencer business and the brands a perpetual, irrevocable license to the content you submit, including for new products and marketing. That is broad. Later also says it builds creator profiles from social platforms and outside data for creators who never signed up, so you may already be in its index. You can deactivate your profile at any time; you stay in current campaigns but drop out of brand search. On the subscription side, remember the automatic trial conversion and the no-refund default. Where customers do complain about Later, on Trustpilot, the complaints center on charges after the trial and refused refunds, which is the same risk seen from the customer's side. None of that touches the free creator tools, which need no card at all. It matters only once you add one. Plan for it. ## FAQ **Is Later free for creators?** Joining Later Creator and applying to brand campaigns is free on every plan, including Free. Scheduling beyond 12 posts per profile a month, generating new affiliate links in Link in Bio and building a media kit need a paid plan, starting with Starter at $25 a month billed monthly or $18.75 a month billed yearly. **How many followers do I need for Later campaigns?** Joining the marketplace needs an Instagram business or creator profile with more than 100 followers. Later's creator page says brand campaigns typically want 5,000 or more engaged followers, while affiliate links have no minimum. **How does Later pay creators?** Affiliate commissions are paid twice a month by direct deposit or PayPal. Campaign cash goes through a verified Stripe Express account, and the bank transfer usually takes about two business days after the brand pays. **Do I need a Facebook Page to join Later campaigns?** Not for most campaigns since March 2026: Instagram Login is enough to apply, be tracked and share insights. Later's newest article names Partnership Ads as the one case needing Facebook login, though some older help pages still ask for it. **Does Later's media kit work on the Free plan?** No. A media kit needs a current paid plan, is built on desktop, uses Instagram or TikTok data only and lists rates in US dollars. **Can Later post to YouTube or X for creators?** Later publishes YouTube Shorts only, not long-form video. X support ended on August 28, 2025. ## The bottom line Later is a good home for Instagram and TikTok creators who want to plan posts, run a shoppable bio page and earn from affiliate links and brand deals in one place. Start on the Free plan, join Later Creator and apply to campaigns, which cost nothing. Upgrade to Starter at $25 a month billed monthly, or $18.75 a month billed yearly, when 12 posts per profile run out or you need a media kit, and set a reminder before the trial converts. Skip it if long-form YouTube or automation tools are central to your work, or if you still post to X, which Later stopped supporting in August 2025. Brands curious about the other side should read our [Later Influence guide](/articles/later-influence). ## Sources [1] Later Pricing Plans for Brands, Agencies & Social Media Managers — https://later.com/pricing (2026-10) [2] For enterprise brands Full-service programs Expert-led influencer campaigns Influencer marketing platform Run your own campaigns Creator AEO — https://later.com/creator (2026-10) [3] Later Help: Connect Instagram to Later Social for Campaigns — https://help.later.com/hc/en-us/articles/26476214522775-Connect-Instagram-to-Later-Social-for-Campaigns (2026-10) [4] Later Help: Connect Stripe Get Paid for Campaigns — https://help.later.com/hc/en-us/articles/27116100613143-Connect-Stripe-Get-Paid-for-Campaigns (2026-10) [5] Later Help Center — https://help.later.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059362253-Choose-a-Later-Social-Plan [6] Later refund policy — https://help.later.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042991873-Later-s-Refund-Policy [7] G2, Later Social reviews — https://www.g2.com/products/later-social/reviews