The AI design platform is shifting to a system that pays creators based on engagement rather than audience size, marking its evolution from a tool to a platform enabling direct earnings. This change comes after the introduction of an AI agent marketplace in March.
Picsart has introduced a monetisation programme available to its over 130 million users, with no need for a minimum follower count or invite list.
The programme, named Earn with Picsart, compensates creators based on content performance rather than audience size, challenging the follower-centric monetisation models of most platforms.
The system is campaign-based. Creators can select from a dashboard of existing prompts and creative challenges, create original content using Picsart’s tools, share it on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or X, and provide the URL along with a brief creation description within Picsart.
Earnings depend on views, comments, shares, and reach. Users can withdraw money through Stripe. Picsart notes that simply generating and posting AI images without genuine creativity will not yield significant engagement or earnings.
For instance, one campaign involves creating animated characters using Picsart Aura, the platform’s AI conversational assistant, capable of generating and animating images and videos through text or voice prompts. Various types of content are eligible, such as tutorials, aesthetic edits, and short-form videos.
Hovhannes Avoyan, Picsart’s founder and CEO, described the initiative as a response to the industry’s tendency to underpay everyday creators.
“The creator economy has a structural problem: platforms have never truly committed to compensating everyday creators,” he stated. “It’s open, structured, and straightforward: show up, make things, and if your content performs, you get paid.”
Founded in 2011, Picsart became a unicorn in 2021 after a $130 million Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Sequoia, G Squared, Tribe Capital, and DCM Ventures, among others.
The monetisation launch follows the March 2026 introduction of an AI agent marketplace, allowing creators to hire AI assistants for tasks such as resizing and remixing social content and editing product photos on Shopify. Together, these developments indicate Picsart’s shift from a mere editing application to a creator economy platform.