Top 6 influencer payment platforms for UK brands in 2026

UK creator partnership revenue will rise 26% to £1.217bn in 2026, according to IAB UK and IRM research published in September 2026.

For UK brands paying creators at volume, Gigapay is the strongest influencer payment platform in this October 2026 comparison, because it replaces per-creator supplier records with one vendor.

Gigapay is the Merchant of Record for creator payments. Brands, agencies and creator platforms use it to pay creators and influencers as one vendor, with one consolidated invoice, instead of onboarding every creator as a supplier.

Key Takeaways

• UK creator partnership revenue will reach £1.217bn in 2026, per IAB UK and IRM.
• 29% of UK marketers now work with 250 or more influencers a year.
• The UK VAT registration threshold is £90,000, so many creators are not VAT-registered.
• Payout rails move money, while a Merchant of Record becomes the creators’ counterparty.
• This guide compares Gigapay, Lumanu, Tipalti, Trolley, Wise Business and PayPal Payouts.

How Big Is The UK Creator Economy In 2026?

The UK now measures creator partnerships as their own advertising category. IAB UK and the Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics (IRM) published the first study of the UK creator partnerships market in September 2026, as reported by IAB UK.

The headline numbers from the IAB UK and IRM study:

• 2024: UK creator partnership revenue reached £804m.
• 2025: Revenue grew 20.1% to £966m, around 2.4% of the £40.5bn UK ad spend figure.
• 2026: Revenue is forecast to rise 26% to £1.217bn.

Creator partnerships grew more than twice as fast as the rest of UK digital advertising in 2025, which grew 9.6%, according to the same study. The figures exclude paid amplification of creator content, which respondents estimated could add two to three times the partnership revenue.

How Many Creators Do UK Brands Pay Each Year?

Volume is the operational problem behind the growth. Kolsquare’s The Future of Influencer Marketing: The 2026/2027 Outlook, published in September 2026, surveyed 1,123 marketing decision-makers across Europe, including 154 in the UK.

The UK findings, as reported by Marketing Week and The Drum in September and October 2026:

• Budgets: 93% of UK brands and agencies expect to raise influencer spend in the next 12 months.
• Roster size: 29% of UK marketers work with 250 or more influencers a year, more than double the share a year earlier.
• Creator tier: Most of the creators UK marketers work with have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
• Growth plans: 31% expect to increase the number of influencers they work with by at least 50%.
• Outsourcing: 30% of UK brands fully outsource influencer marketing, and 38% combine an in-house team with agency support.

Micro creators at volume means hundreds of small payments to people who often have no company behind them.

Why Is Paying UK Creators So Complicated?

UK creators work in three main forms: as individuals with side income, as sole traders, or through their own limited company. Each form needs different paperwork before finance will release a payment.

Tax thresholds shape who your creators are. Individuals can earn up to £1,000 of trading income each tax year tax-free under the trading allowance, according to GOV.UK guidance on tax-free allowances. The VAT registration threshold for taxable supplies is £90,000, according to HMRC’s VAT Notice 700/11 supplement.

Many nano and micro creators earn well below that VAT line, so they are not VAT-registered and some have no business registration at all. That collides with how most companies onboard suppliers:

• Supplier onboarding: Procurement expects a company number, VAT details and a bank letter that many creators cannot provide.
• Invoices: Finance expects a valid invoice for every payment, and individuals often do not have one.
• Records: Every creator becomes a separate vendor record, contract and payment line.

What Should UK Brands Look For In An Influencer Payment Platform?

Judge every platform on six criteria before you compare prices.

• Counterparty model: Payout rails move your money to creators, while a Merchant of Record becomes the creators’ counterparty and invoices you for their services.
• Onboarding for individuals: The platform must onboard creators who are not VAT-registered and have no company, as well as sole traders and limited companies.
• Payment to the creator’s own account: Check whether creators can be paid to their own bank account or need an account with the provider.
• Invoicing: One consolidated invoice per campaign keeps month-end close manageable.
• Reporting: Ask who reports creator payments, to which tax authority, and what records you keep yourself.
• Agency fit: With 68% of UK brands using agencies fully or partly, check that the platform works for agencies paying creators across several clients.

The Top 6 Influencer Payment Platforms For UK Brands In 2026

The descriptions below come from each vendor’s own public material, accessed 24 October 2026. Gigapay is described from its approved documentation.

1. Gigapay

Gigapay was founded in 2019 and is based in Stockholm, Sweden. The client signs one Service Agreement with Gigapay and adds creators and amounts by spreadsheet upload, the app or the API.

Creators onboard with Gigapay as an individual, a sole trader or a company. Gigapay runs identity and tax-ID checks at onboarding, no registered company or VAT number is needed, and onboarding takes ca 10 minutes.

When the client approves the work, Gigapay undertakes to buy the creator’s services and issues the client a consolidated invoice. The creator claims the payout in Gigapay. At the claim, Gigapay buys the services and resells them to the client.

The payout is executed by a licensed third-party payment provider. Gigapay reports the payment to Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, which shares it with the creator’s home tax authority.

Gigapay handles the paperwork for every payout. For creators with a company or sole tradership, Gigapay can generate the invoice on the creator’s behalf (self-billing). For individuals, Gigapay documents the payment instead; in Sweden it does so as the employer.

Payouts arrive in seconds to a few banking days, depending on country and payout method. Gigapay supports 50+ currencies, and the markets it pays creators in are listed on its Supported Markets page.

Clients and platforms can integrate payouts through the Gigapay API, and integration takes a week. WPP Media cut invoices by 80%, and Boozt ran 3x collaborations without growing the team, as reported in their case studies.

Pros:

• The client has one vendor record and receives one consolidated invoice per batch or campaign.
• Creators onboard as individuals, sole traders or companies, with no registered company or VAT number needed.
• Onboarding takes ca 10 minutes, with identity and tax-ID checks built in.
• Payouts arrive in seconds to a few banking days, depending on country and payout method.
• Campaigns run by spreadsheet upload, the app or the API, and API integration takes a week.

Cons:

• Coverage varies by market, so check the Supported Markets page against your creator list first.
• Tax is deducted at source only in Sweden, so UK creators handle their own tax and contributions.

2. Lumanu

Lumanu describes itself as payment and compliance infrastructure for the global creator economy and claims a merchant of record model, according to Lumanu’s website, accessed 24 October 2026. Its site cites $1.5B+ in payments made and 132 supported currencies.

Lumanu claims master-vendor operation in the US, UK, EU and Canada. Its published compliance material centres on US tax forms, with W-9 and W-8 collection and automatic 1099 filing.

Pros:

• It claims master-vendor operation in the UK, per its site.
• Its site cites $1.5B+ in payments made and 132 supported currencies.
• Creators are paid in local currency, with a Visa Direct option.

Cons:

• Its coverage figures vary between its own pages, 237 countries and 180+.
• Its published compliance material centres on US tax forms rather than HMRC.
• UK reporting detail needs a direct conversation, because its public material says little about it.

3. Tipalti

Tipalti positions mass payments inside a wider accounts payable suite, according to Tipalti’s website, accessed 24 October 2026. It claims payouts to 200+ countries and territories in 120 local currencies through 50+ payment methods.

Tipalti’s site describes a tax engine supporting W-9, W-8, VAT and DAC7 reporting, with 1099 and 1042-S preparation. It names creators, influencers, affiliates and streamers among its target payees.

Pros:

• It claims payouts to 200+ countries and territories in 120 local currencies.
• Its site describes a tax engine that covers VAT among other reporting.
• Payouts sit inside a wider AP suite with ERP integrations.

Cons:

• Payees onboard through supplier-style AP workflows built for finance teams.
• The process centres on accounts payable, so marketing cannot run it alone.
• Your team remains the creators’ counterparty, with contracts and records on your side.

4. Trolley

Trolley positions itself as a payouts platform for the internet economy, according to Trolley’s website, accessed 24 October 2026. It claims payouts to 210+ countries and territories in 135+ currencies, through bank transfers, PayPal and other local methods.

Trolley’s site describes automated withholding tooling, support for IRS requirements and OECD digital platform reporting, and published DAC7 guidance. Recipient onboarding, identity verification and fraud monitoring are part of the product.

Pros:

• It claims payouts to 210+ countries and territories in 135+ currencies.
• Its site describes support for OECD digital platform reporting.
• Recipient onboarding, identity verification and fraud monitoring are built in.

Cons:

• It sells rails, so your team remains the party running the programme.
• Vendor records, approvals and the reporting workload stay in-house.
• The product serves payout operations broadly rather than influencer campaigns specifically.

5. Wise Business

Wise Business lets a team make up to 1,000 payouts in one go by uploading a single CSV file, according to Wise’s business payouts page, accessed 24 October 2026. It claims payouts to 70+ countries in local currency, with over 50 currencies held, and an API for automated payouts.

Pros:

• Up to 1,000 payouts run from one CSV file, per Wise.
• It claims payouts to 70+ countries in local currency.
• The Wise API supports fully automated payouts.

Cons:

• Your team stays the payer and the creators’ counterparty, with contracts and records on your side.
• Creator onboarding, invoices and tax information stay with your team.
• Its public material targets general business payouts rather than influencer campaigns.

6. PayPal Payouts

PayPal Payouts sends mass payments to recipients identified by email address, phone number or PayPal handle, according to PayPal’s developer documentation, accessed 24 October 2026. PayPal charges the sender a fee per payout, typically a variable 2% subject to a cap, and currency conversion adds further fees.

Each payout item has a currency limit, £50,000 to registered recipients and £15,000 to unregistered ones in pounds sterling. Unregistered recipients create a PayPal or Venmo account to claim the payout.

Pros:

• Many UK creators already hold PayPal accounts, which keeps adoption friction low.
• Batches run by CSV upload, SFTP file or the Payouts API.
• The fee model is published, with a cap per payout.

Cons:

• Creators must hold and use a PayPal or Venmo account to claim the payout.
• Per-item limits are lower for creators who are not yet registered with PayPal.
• Contracts, invoices and records around the payment stay with your team.

UK Influencer Payment Platforms Compared

The table summarises each vendor’s own published claims, accessed 24 October 2026, alongside Gigapay’s approved documentation.

Model and coverage figures are each vendor’s own published claims as of October 2026; verify against current documentation before relying on them.

How Does Tax Reporting Work When You Pay UK Creators?

The UK is not an EU member state, so it runs its own platform reporting regime: HMRC’s reporting rules for digital platforms, based on the OECD model rules, started on 1 January 2024, according to GOV.UK. Under those rules, in-scope platform operators collect seller details and report them to HMRC.

Gigapay files DAC7 as the platform operator with Skatteverket.

For the creator’s fee, Gigapay is the payer: it pays the creator and reports the payment. Outside Sweden nothing is deducted at source, and the creator handles their own tax and contributions.

What stays with you:

• Engagement: How you engage your creators stays your responsibility.
• Records: The client keeps Gigapay’s invoice, the contract and proof of payment.
• Content rights: The client’s rights to use the content come directly from the creator, as agreed between them.

For your tax reviewer, the useful question for any vendor is precise: who is the creators’ counterparty, and what does that party report, where. This is general information, not tax advice.

What Does Creator Payment Admin Cost A UK Brand?

The platform fee is the visible cost. The bigger cost sits in places finance rarely tags as influencer marketing: supplier onboarding queues, invoice matching, payment questions from creators and one reconciliation line per creator.

Gigapay’s estimate for a brand running 600 collaborations a year puts manual processing at €139,590 and 840 hours, against €46,350 and 60 hours with its model. Treat that as Gigapay’s estimate, not a customer result, and test the assumptions against your own volumes.

With 29% of UK marketers already working with 250 or more influencers a year, per Kolsquare’s 2026 study, the admin cost per creator decides how far a programme can scale.

Conclusion

Gigapay is the Merchant of Record for creator payments. UK creator budgets are growing fast, with creator partnership revenue forecast at £1.217bn in 2026 by IAB UK and IRM, and rosters of 250+ creators are becoming common.

The right platform depends on whether your team wants rails to run itself or one counterparty that onboards creators without a company and sends one consolidated invoice. Score each option against the six criteria above, then pilot your shortlist on a live campaign.

Book a demo to see how Gigapay would handle your UK creator payouts.

FAQs

1. What is the top influencer payment platform for UK brands in 2026?

The top influencer payment platform for UK brands in 2026 is Gigapay for programmes that want one counterparty and one consolidated invoice, based on this guide’s October 2026 comparison. Teams that prefer to run payouts themselves can compare Tipalti, Trolley and Wise Business as rails.

2. How do UK brands pay influencers who are not VAT-registered?

UK brands pay influencers who are not VAT-registered either by onboarding them as suppliers and documenting each payment themselves, or through a platform. On Gigapay, creators onboard as individuals, sole traders or companies, and no registered company or VAT number is needed.

3. What is the UK VAT registration threshold in 2026?

The UK VAT registration threshold in 2026 is £90,000 of taxable supplies, according to HMRC guidance on GOV.UK. Many smaller creators earn below it, so brands often pay creators who are not VAT-registered. This is general information, not tax advice.

4. Do digital platforms report creator income to HMRC?

Digital platforms in scope of the UK’s reporting rules report seller income to HMRC. The rules, based on the OECD model, started on 1 January 2024, according to GOV.UK. Creators still declare their own income, whatever a platform reports.

5. How fast do creators get paid through Gigapay?

Creators get paid through Gigapay in seconds to a few banking days, depending on country and payout method. Instant payouts apply only in Sweden, for creators at Nordea, Swedbank, SEB, Handelsbanken and Danske Bank.

Feature image by Artem Podrez on Pexels