How Kajabi Creators Earned $10 Billion 💰

Back in August, Kajabi announced a major milestone – it has paid out $10 billion to creators, just months after hitting the $9 billion threshold, 100% of which has gone directly to creators.

The milestone reflects the shifting creator economy, where creators are taking more ownership of their audiences and content, building businesses through creator commerce that emphasizes diversified income streams and full control over monetization.

“We’re really proud of it. $10 billion is a big number,” Kajabi CEO Ahad Khan tells me.

“These are entrepreneurs spread throughout the world who are selling knowledge, experience, and expertise directly to audiences that they own and control. As a result, they can build revenue and businesses that are sustainable, predictable, and that can augment whatever they're doing on social media as well.”

But the number itself isn’t the “only thing Khan and the company are celebrating. It’s how creators are doing it.

Platforms and Kajabi: Not an Either/Or

Khan doesn’t see it as an either/or for creators between social media platforms and Kajabi, a point he also mentioned in our previous conversation.

“YouTube and Kajabi. LinkedIn and Kajabi. TikTok and Kajabi,” he says.

Through platforms like these, creators build audiences and then, with Kajabi, turn them into customers—however works best for them and their audiences. That’s a key point Khan highlights as unique about Kajabi creators: it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to monetization.

In some cases, using social platforms alongside Kajabi creates a flywheel effect. Since 2023, creators who joined Kajabi have uploaded 123% more content on YouTube than average, and in Q2 2024, Kajabi creators increased YouTube uploads by 217%. By starting on Kajabi early and monetizing outside of CPMs—such as selling digital products or memberships—creators are empowered to reinvest in YouTube content, which further drives growth.

“And what ends up happening is this: you have sustainability as a creator and money coming in. You find people on YouTube, so you have the resources to invest in your content, which makes your YouTube content better. Your publishing rates go up because your content is better, and you reach more people. YouTube is happy because your content creation is up. You’re happy because you’re making money on Kajabi and on platform payouts. Advertisers are happy because they can sell ads into your YouTube stream. So it’s a win-win,” Khan explains.

Understanding the Numbers

The nuances of the verticals creators play in and the social media platforms they use all matter, which makes the $10B milestone even more powerful.

The top-earning categories are Health & Fitness ($1.6B), Business & Finance ($1.4B), and Personal Development ($1.4B), aligning with the most popular categories in digital commerce. But within these categories, there niches, with creators focusing on everything from sleep training kids to foraging mushrooms to beekeeping.

Regardless of category, creators must figure out how to convert their audiences into paying customers, and that varies widely.

“It’s hard to have a blanket statement across industries, verticals, niches, because it doesn’t do justice to the nuances of each creator’s content and audience. You can be a writer, and LinkedIn can be great. You can use email marketing tools effectively, and that works. But you can also have a huge Twitter following, where many followers don’t convert to newsletter sign-ups, because not all social media is created equal,” Khan points out.

What might surprise many is that the average six-figure Kajabi creator isn’t as far along as you might think. A six-figure Kajabi creator has between 1,000–10,000 followers, an email list of around 4,000 people, and just 309 paying customers.

“It's a couple hundred people paying your average transaction value, and all of a sudden, you’re a six-figure earner,” Khan highlights.

It’s often thought that creators need thousands of customers to make a living, but when broken down, it’s more realistic and manageable. Of course, getting people to pay anything is a challenge, especially when competing for dollars with other creators, streaming services, traditional media publications, and more, along with everyday expenses.

Khan emphasizes the diversity in how creators earn from supporters.

“It works in a bunch of ways: one-time transactions, multiple transactions, subscriptions, memberships, however the creator wants to charge, they can. What really matters is whether the creator’s content is resonating with their audience and whether they’re able to build a sustainable business, letting the market decide.”

And the most important point: people will pay for what they value.

“One of the things $10 billion shows us is that if you build what people want, give them the tools to sell—mini courses, big courses, communities, or bundles—you’re providing value to end customers. And we’re still growing Creator Revenue at a good clip. It tells us our creators, our entrepreneurs, are doing something right that resonates with their audiences.”

Revenue Streams Matter

This aligns with how most of Kajabi’s six-figure earners operate: 75% maintain multiple revenue streams, with the average creator running five different offerings, including courses, communities, coaching, newsletters, and digital downloads. Creators who bundle products earn 4.5 times more than those with single offerings.

Multiple revenue streams are key, as they allow creators to serve different customers, depending on their vertical. Some creators with hundreds of YouTube followers make six or seven figures annually by selling high-ticket items like real estate investment training, while others with massive audiences focus on lower-ticket items.

Who is Right for Kajabi

According to Kajabi, 60% of creators migrate after outgrowing entry-level platforms, and 1 in 2 discover Kajabi through word-of-mouth. While there are many platforms available, Khan sees Kajabi as “grad school” for creators—a place for those who already have proven product-market fit with their audience but want a more sophisticated understanding of business and the creator economy.

That includes recognizing the potential income lost when using platforms that take 10%, 15%, or even 20% of earnings, which can be significant for creators making six figures or more.

“If you're making over $100,000 a year, you're giving up $10,000–15,000. That's a lot of your income, right? When you come to Kajabi, depending on what plan you're on, it's a couple thousand bucks, but it's not $10–15K. And you get so much more flexibility. You’re the center of the universe.”

Flexibility and minimizing administrative overhead are also major benefits. Khan stresses that Kajabi centralizes all of a creator’s needs in one platform:

“Kajabi can handle your communities, courses, newsletters, podcasts, coaching products, and all your digital offerings. We also help you distribute your content via email, SMS, and mobile apps, which allow you to send push notifications, text messages, or emails to the audience that you now own. Analytics tools are included to help you track performance.”

He adds, “And the administrative burden of fragmented software sucks. Half the time, you’re just logging in everywhere and connecting systems. That’s opportunity cost for building content, audiences, and revenue.”

AI’s Impact on Creators

With Kajabi creators often in the expertise and knowledge categories, it’s clear AI will have an impact, especially on content creation and information workflows, but creators still have a clear advantage.

"AI is taking content and, frankly, commoditizing a lot of it, but also commoditizing the workflows behind it," Khan shares. "The brand is going to matter way more in a world of commoditized content than it does right now."

He cites his own use of a CEO coach as an example: "I could technically read it in a blog or somewhere else, but when he says X, Y, and Z, I perk up because this guy's done some stuff. And that dynamic is where I think the world is going, which is talking to people who've actually, like, demonstrated something, have unique knowledge or have some kind of expertise.”

This reinforces the core thesis: creator businesses are built on owned relationships and specialized expertise, not viral moments or algorithmic favor. As content becomes increasingly commoditized, creators who monetize unique knowledge through direct relationships will likely see benefits in a growing AI-filled world.

"People are going to gravitate toward those people because of their brand, and AI is just going to accelerate all the stuff underneath it. But the individual is still going to matter a lot more."

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