Douyin agency cost comes in two layers. The agency, called a Douyin Partner (DP), charges a monthly retainer of about RMB 30,000 to RMB 100,000 in our calculator data, plus 5% to 8% commission on sales. You then fund the ads and the creator commission yourself. Price the whole stack at one sales target before comparing quotes, because the commission terms move it more than the retainer does.
Douyin is China’s short-video app, and brands sell on it through live rooms and short videos. A foreign brand shipping from abroad sells through Douyin Global, the cross-border store format. Douyin calls the agencies that run brand shops e-commerce service providers. Brands call them DPs. The ads run on Qianchuan (巨量千川), Douyin’s ad system for shops. At our planning rate of RMB 7.10 to the dollar, the retainer range works out to about US$4,200 to US$14,100 a month. Every figure below was checked on September 24, 2026.
Three lines in the table below go to the DP. The other three, creator commission, session fees, and Qianchuan, are paid outside the agency. In our worked year they cost more than the agency does.
| Cost line | Who is paid, and how | Typical range | Source | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retainer | The DP, a flat monthly fee | RMB 30,000 to 100,000 a month | TheChinaPath calculator data | The live hours and videos it buys |
| DP commission | The DP, a share of sales on top | 5% to 8%, near 10% at the ceiling | TheChinaPath calculator data | Gross or net of returns, and the ladder math |
| Creator commission | Creators, per sale, settled by Douyin | 5% to 50% open to all; up to 80% for named creators | Douyin affiliate rules, Aug. 2026 | Rate ladders, and who picks the creators |
| Slot and session fees | Hosts or their agencies, a fixed fee for airtime | RMB 500,000 to 3 million for a dedicated session with a mid-tier or top host | Xinhua, Aug. 2024 | Refund terms if the session misses |
| Qianchuan ads | Douyin, from an ad account you fund | Paid sales divided by return on ad spend | TheChinaPath calculator data | Account in your name, no markup |
| Co-fund | The DP, a yearly pot for peak dates | Negotiated; zero in the calculator default | TheChinaPath calculator data | A plan attached to the money |
The fee models Douyin Partners use
DPs price their work in a few ways. A fixed retainer plus a commission on GMV (gross merchandise value, the sales total before returns) is the default in our calculator. Commission-only deals drop the retainer, which moves risk to the agency and usually pushes the rate up. And some DPs quote a flat fee with no commission at all, mostly for a set scope of work.
The fourth arrangement is a different deal altogether. The partner buys your stock and resells it, and once it owns the stock, it sets the price.
Creators sit outside the DP’s fee. A brand sets their rate in Douyin’s affiliate marketplace, Jingxuan Lianmeng (精选联盟), and Douyin pays it out of each order. Douyin sets the floor and the ceiling.
An open commission offer to all creators can be set at 5% to 50% of the order’s paid amount. An offer limited to named creators, tiered offers included, can run from 5% to 80%. Some special categories can go as low as 1%. Source: Douyin E-commerce (抖音电商), affiliate commission settlement rules, August 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/articlev0/112620
Pure-commission creator deals, which the trade calls chunyong (纯佣), pay only on sales. Bigger hosts also charge for airtime: a slot fee (坑位费) for a place in a session shared with other brands, or a flat fee for a session of their own.
A Yalu representative told Xinhua that in the company’s past deals, a dedicated session with a top host cost RMB 1 million to 3 million and one with a mid-tier host RMB 500,000 to 1 million, with commission of roughly 10% to 20% on top. Source: Xinhua (新华网), August 4, 2024. https://www.news.cn/fortune/20240804/ec11b5b85b514e8b9332998d0b23b020/c.html
Treat it as one company’s 2024 experience. It does show the size of a fee that gets paid before a single unit sells.
Read where a ladder steps up
Douyin’s own tiered creator offer is marginal. The base rate applies up to the sales threshold, and the higher rate applies only to sales above it.
In a tiered offer, sales up to the threshold earn the base commission and sales above the threshold earn the raised commission. Source: Douyin E-commerce (抖音电商), affiliate commission settlement rules, August 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/articlev0/112620
DP contracts use ladders too, and the math varies. Take an illustrative ladder of 5% on the first RMB 3 million and 8% above it. On RMB 5 million of sales, paid the way Douyin pays creators, it costs RMB 310,000. Paid retroactively, with 8% on the whole year once the threshold falls, it costs RMB 400,000. The headline rates are identical, and the bills end up RMB 90,000 apart.
Ask for the formula in writing, with a worked example at your own target.
Douyin agency cost over one year, at RMB 5 million
We ran the Douyin calculator at RMB 5 million of first-year sales, about US$704,000. Your target will differ, so watch the ratios more than the totals. At a RMB 250 average order, that’s 20,000 orders.
The retainer, the 5% DP commission, the 20% creator rate, and a return on ad spend of 2.5 all come from the calculator’s defaults, the lean end of the range. We changed two things. The channel mix is 40% paid ads, 40% creators, and 20% organic, and a RMB 120,000 co-fund pays for a Double 11 push. No client’s numbers are in any of it.
| Partner stack, year one | RMB | Share of sales | How it is built |
|---|---|---|---|
| DP retainer | 360,000 | 7.2% | RMB 30,000 x 12 |
| DP commission | 250,000 | 5.0% | 5% of RMB 5 million |
| Campaign co-fund | 120,000 | 2.4% | Selected input |
| Qianchuan ads | 800,000 | 16.0% | 40% of sales at a return of 2.5 |
| Creator commission | 400,000 | 8.0% | 40% of sales at 20% |
| Slot and session fees | 0 | 0% | Not in the model; add any you sign |
| Total partner stack | 1,930,000 | 38.6% | About US$272,000 |
| Per placed order | 96.50 | 20,000 orders | |
| Per kept order, 5% returns | 101.58 | 19,000 orders | |
| Per kept order, 20% returns | 120.63 | 16,000 orders |
TheChinaPath calculator data, September 2026. The 20% row is a stress case, far below the festival return rate quoted further down. Both kept-order rows hold every line at its gross value, the way the calculator books them.
In practice the creator line would shrink as refunds come in, because Douyin cancels commission on refunded orders. At 20% returns spread evenly, that’s up to RMB 80,000 back. The DP line shrinks only if the contract says so.
The fixed lines, retainer plus co-fund, come to RMB 480,000. The sales-linked lines come to RMB 1.45 million, three times as much, and they grow with every order while the retainer stays put. The full calculator year adds deposits, import tax, logistics and Douyin’s fee, and needs RMB 3,287,000 of cash. Of that, RMB 405,000 is refundable deposits that come back when the store closes. Most of the rest is the partner stack above.
Douyin itself takes RMB 125,000 of the year’s cash. Packaged food, the calculator’s default category, pays a 2.5% tech service fee on sales, halfway between Douyin’s 2% and 3% rates for the category. The store deposit is RMB 5,000. That’s the top of three tiers set by last month’s sales, and a shop selling RMB 5 million a year sits in it.
Douyin Global charges a base tech service fee of 2% on grains, cooking oil and a few condiments, and 3% on most other packaged food. Orders from the Douyin Mall app and the Doubao assistant pay a supplement on top. Source: Douyin E-commerce (抖音电商), Douyin Global tech service fee schedule, July 15, 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/articlev0/aHMYyFoqESKn
Douyin Global’s base deposit is RMB 500 up to RMB 50,000 of last month’s sales, RMB 2,000 up to RMB 100,000 and RMB 5,000 above that, in every category. Source: Douyin E-commerce (抖音电商), Douyin Global deposit rules, revised June 2025. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/articlev0/107821
Now change one input at a time and see what it adds.
| Change at RMB 5 million of sales | Added cost, RMB |
|---|---|
| Retainer up RMB 10,000 a month | 120,000 |
| DP commission from 5% to 8% | 150,000 |
| Creator commission from 20% to 30% | 200,000 |
| Return on ad spend from 2.5 to 2.0 | 200,000 |
| The illustrative ladder paid retroactively | 90,000 |
| DP commission on gross instead of net sales, at 20% returns | 50,000 |
TheChinaPath calculator data, September 2026.
At this size every point of DP commission is worth RMB 50,000 a year, and every point of creator commission RMB 20,000. Negotiate the commission terms first. The retainer is one line out of five.
Commission on gross or on net of returns
This is the clause that’s easiest to skim past. Returns in Chinese e-commerce run high. Livestream returns run highest.
China’s overall e-commerce return rate during the 2025 Double 11 period was 61.5%, with apparel livestreams above 80%. Source: Beijing Daily (京报网), carrying CCTV (央视网), January 11, 2026. https://news.bjd.com.cn/2026/01/11/11517038.shtml
That’s an all-platform festival figure. Use it as a planning ceiling for your category.
Douyin’s own settlement already pays creators on kept orders. The commission base excludes shipping, and on cross-border orders it also excludes tax.
If an order is refunded during the after-sale period, the creator’s commission is not settled, and commission already paid is clawed back. Commission is settled 15 days after the buyer confirms receipt, plus two working days for cross-border orders. Source: Douyin E-commerce (抖音电商), affiliate commission settlement rules, August 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/articlev0/112620
Brand payouts on Douyin Global follow the same logic.
Douyin Global orders still in after-sale on their settlement date are held until the after-sale closes, and cross-border payouts take two working days beyond the settlement period. Source: Douyin E-commerce (抖音电商), Douyin Global merchant settlement rules, revised January 2026. https://school.jinritemai.com/doudian/web/article/aHyMoi13Bhx5
So ask the DP for the same terms. Its commission should run on the platform’s settled sales after refunds, and be paid on the platform’s clock. At 20% returns, 5% of RMB 5 million gross is RMB 250,000. On the RMB 4 million that stays sold, it’s RMB 200,000.
The difference is RMB 50,000 a year, and it turns on whether the contract says gross or net.
The ad side moved the same way this year.
From 2026, orders a Douyin merchant generates through Qianchuan’s automated product (千川·乘方) carry a technical service fee of 0.6%, in every category. A “net transaction” bid option cuts ad spend on orders that are refunded almost as soon as they are placed. Source: Ebrun (亿邦动力), January 8, 2026. https://m.ebrun.com/636020.html
The report didn’t say whether Douyin Global stores qualify, so get your DP to show the platform fee your store actually pays on the monthly statement.
What the retainer should buy
A retainer is mostly a headcount bill, paid monthly. Get the headcount written down.
- Live hours. On-air hours per month, the host shifts, and who pays for the studio.
- Short videos. How many a month, to feed the live room and the ads.
- Ad operation. Daily Qianchuan management, with a weekly report of spend and return by campaign. The ad account stays in your company’s name.
- Customer service. The hours covered, evenings included, and the reply time.
- Reporting. Sales after returns, exported from the shop backend each month.
Our livestream budget put the fixed cost of a daily brand room at RMB 80,000 a month, before traffic and sales-linked costs. A RMB 30,000 retainer can’t hide a room like that. Either the room is part-time, or it’s billed somewhere else. The livestream room budget shows the arithmetic.
Our social commerce page lists the work a Douyin channel needs, and it doubles as a checklist against a proposal. Creator seeding paid by the post, rather than by the sale, is a separate budget. TheRedScroll, the group’s China social media agency, covers that side.
How to compare three quotes on one page
Three DPs will send three differently shaped quotes. Rebuild them into one.
- Fix the target in writing: one sales figure, one average order, one channel mix. Send the same brief to every DP.
- Put each quote into the six lines of the first table. A blank line is a question to send back.
- Turn every commission into money at your target, with the ladder formula and the base spelled out.
- Add what the DP doesn’t bill. This is where a cheap quote gets expensive, because Qianchuan and the creator costs sit here.
- Divide the total by kept orders, not placed orders.
- Read the scope last. Check the hours and videos, then whose name the accounts sit in.
The Douyin cost calculator runs steps three to five for you. Our guide to finding a Douyin Partner covers the checks to run before fees come up, and Compass holds the DPs we have watched run rooms in our categories.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Douyin agency cost per month?
Our calculator data puts the retainer at about RMB 30,000 a month for a lean setup and up to RMB 100,000 for a larger team, roughly US$4,200 to US$14,100. Commission of 5% to 8% on sales comes on top. Ads and creator commission are separate, and at RMB 5 million of sales they cost more than the agency.
Should the agency pay for Qianchuan ads?
No. Fund the ad account yourself, in your company’s name, and let the DP run it. Our calculator treats ad spend as a direct brand cost for that reason. In our experience, deals where the agency fronts the spend tend to fall over, and a markup buried in ad billing is hard to see from outside.
Is a commission-only deal cheaper?
Sometimes, while sales are small. The agency carries more risk, so it asks for a higher rate, and that rate keeps running as the shop grows. Model both structures at your year-one and year-two targets. The crossover point tells you which one to sign.
What should a first-year quote include at low sales?
Start with a retainer that names its live hours and its videos. Commission should be paid on net sales, and any ladder needs its formula written out. Keep Qianchuan as a separate budget you control. Then check the scale: at RMB 2 million of sales, a RMB 30,000 retainer alone eats 18% of the year’s revenue, before a single ad runs.
When does Douyin pay creator commission?
Fifteen days after the buyer confirms receipt, plus two working days on cross-border orders, under Douyin’s settlement rules. A refund inside the after-sale period cancels the commission, and any amount already paid is clawed back. Ask your agency to be paid on the same clock.
Get a shortlist of Douyin Partners that sell in your category
Updated September 24, 2026
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