Picsart introduces

      The AI design platform is now compensating creators based on engagement metrics instead of audience size, marking its evolution from a simple tool to a platform where creators can earn directly. This initiative follows the introduction of an AI agent marketplace by the company in March.

      Picsart has introduced a monetization program for creators that is accessible to all of its over 130 million users, with no minimum follower requirement or invitation needed. Named "Earn with Picsart," this program rewards creators based on the performance of their content rather than their audience size, presenting a direct challenge to the follower-based model prevalent in most platforms' monetization strategies.

      The system is campaign-driven. Creators can explore a dashboard with current prompts and creative challenges, create original content using Picsart’s tools, share it on their Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or X accounts, and submit the URL along with a brief description of their creation process in Picsart.

      Earnings are determined by views, comments, shares, and overall reach. Funds can be accessed via Stripe. Picsart emphasizes that simply generating and posting AI images without authentic creative input will not lead to significant engagement or earnings.

      One example initiative encourages creators to design animated characters using Picsart Aura, the platform’s AI conversational assistant that generates and animates images and videos through text or voice commands. The range of acceptable content types is broad, including tutorials, aesthetic edits, and short-form videos, all of which are recognized as eligible formats.

      Hovhannes Avoyan, the founder and CEO of Picsart, characterized the launch as a necessary adjustment in an industry that has consistently undervalued ordinary creators. He stated, “The creator economy has a structural problem: platforms have never truly committed to compensating everyday creators. It’s open, structured, and straightforward: show up, make things, and if your content performs, you get paid.”

      Founded in 2011, Picsart achieved unicorn status in 2021 following a $130 million Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with contributions from Sequoia, G Squared, Tribe Capital, and DCM Ventures, among others. The introduction of the creator monetization program follows the AI agent marketplace launched in March 2026, where creators can employ AI assistants for various tasks such as resizing and remixing social media content and editing product photos on Shopify. Together, these developments indicate Picsart’s shift from being a standalone editing application to becoming a creator economy platform.