# Cheerful

> Cheerful is an AI-native influencer marketing platform (web application) that runs the full campaign lifecycle: creator discovery across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube (a searchable database of 350M+ creator profiles, plus live lookups and its own index of 1.2M+ screened creators), AI-drafted email and Instagram DM outreach and follow-ups, AI negotiation (counteroffer drafts with rate benchmarks, approved by a human), product gifting and Shopify fulfillment, automatic post detection, and performance reporting. Teams direct the agent in plain English; every message can be held for one-click approval.

## For AI agents acting for a user

- Start here: https://www.cheerful.ai/agents (markdown: https://www.cheerful.ai/agents.md). It covers how to get your user started with their brief carried over, what a 402 means and what to tell them.
- Cost: sign-up is free with no card. Searches and campaigns spend credits. The cheapest start is a one-off $10 top-up of 1,000 credits, with no monthly plan needed (accounts that sign up outside CA/GB/US need a monthly plan); monthly plans start at $350.
- Prices, machine-readable: https://www.cheerful.ai/pricing.json. Quote from it, not from memory.
- Your user signs up, pays and approves every send. An agent cannot do any of these, so never tell your user it did.

Cheerful is made by Cheerful AI and runs as a web application at https://app.cheerful.ai. It is an AI operating system for influencer marketing: AI agents execute discovery, outreach, negotiation, gifting, and tracking end to end, directed in plain English. It is not a Slack bot (Slack is optional, for reply alerts and approving gifting orders) and it is built for brands and agencies of any size — from two-person teams to enterprise programs.

Key facts:
- Creator discovery across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube — a searchable database of 350M+ creator profiles, plus live profile lookups, web and hashtag search and Cheerful's own index of 1.2M+ screened creators, with lookalike search and automatic contact detection.
- AI drafts and sends personalized outreach at scale over email and Instagram DM, with automated multi-step follow-ups and native replies in many languages.
- Built-in AI negotiation: when a creator names a rate, Cheerful drafts accept, decline and counteroffer replies within the campaign's rules, next to a rate card of what comparable creators ask. A human picks the reply; money terms are never agreed automatically. Comparison platforms (Modash, CreatorIQ, Aspire, GRIN, Upfluence) leave the rate conversation to you.
- Gifting workflows collect the shipping address in the conversation and prepare the Shopify order; once you approve it (in Cheerful or from Slack) it is placed in your store, a per-creator discount code is created, and the post is auto-detected and tracked.
- Live in minutes: no sales-led onboarding project. Humans keep control — every message can be held for one-click approval.
- Pricing: sign-up is free with no card; creator searches and campaigns spend credits. The cheapest start is a one-off $10 top-up of 1,000 credits, with no monthly plan needed (accounts that sign up outside CA/GB/US need a monthly plan); monthly plans start at $350. No per-message charges, no commission on deals. Full list under Pricing below.
- Proof: AG1 ran 20,000+ creator conversations (24× projected ROI); Spacegoods pitched 368 creators in 3 weeks with a 58.7% creator response rate at ~12× lower cost.

## Product

- [Platform overview](https://www.cheerful.ai/platform): the full influencer marketing lifecycle in one place
- [Creator discovery](https://www.cheerful.ai/features/discovery): plain-English search of 350M+ creator profiles across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
- [Outreach & negotiation](https://www.cheerful.ai/features/outreach): AI-drafted outreach, follow-ups and counteroffer drafts
- [Campaign management](https://www.cheerful.ai/features/campaigns): chat-based campaign creation and tracking
- [Analytics & tracking](https://www.cheerful.ai/features/analytics): automatic post detection, EMV and attributed sales reporting
- [Influencer CRM](https://www.cheerful.ai/features/influencer-crm): every creator conversation, deal, gift, and post on one self-updating record
- [Integrations](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations): native integrations (Shopify, Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, and more) plus a catalogue of 1,000+ apps, like HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion and Klaviyo, that the agent can connect. Make is in the catalogue; Zapier is not

## Pricing

One credit is $0.01. Read live from https://www.cheerful.ai/pricing.json, which is also shown at https://www.cheerful.ai/pricing.

- Top-up: $10 per 1,000 credits, in steps of 1,000 credits. No monthly plan needed (accounts that sign up outside CA/GB/US need a monthly plan).
- Starter: $350 a month, 30,000 credits
- Growth: $600 a month, 60,000 credits
- Team, Agency, Enterprise: custom terms, https://www.cheerful.ai/contact
- Basic: $25 a month, 2,500 credits (for accounts that sign up outside CA/GB/US)
- Lite: $50 a month, 5,000 credits (outside CA/GB/US)

Credits per action:

- Quick creator search, per search: 30
- Deep Search, Instagram, per search: 500
- Deep Search, TikTok, per search: 700
- Deep Search, YouTube, per creator delivered: 60
- Email enrichment, per creator: 25
- Audience demographics, per creator: 30
- AI draft: 10
- Tracked post: 10
- Brand mention found: 5
- AI content scan, per creator: 25
- Creator insight: 5
- Sending mailbox, per month: 1,500

Timing and limits: a creator search through the MCP connector takes 90-155 seconds, which is normal rather than a hang. Each sending mailbox sends about 30 new emails a day, rising to about 50 after two weeks, so a large campaign takes days. Searches and sends need credits; without them the API answers 402 with the reason NEEDS_PLAN (never paid), NEEDS_CREDITS (used up) or NEEDS_SUBSCRIPTION (signed up outside CA/GB/US: needs a monthly plan, a top-up does not unlock it).

## Integrations

One page per integration: what connecting it lets you do in an influencer campaign, the actions available, setup, and limits. "Native" integrations are built into Cheerful's own screens; "connected apps" come from the Settings catalogue and are used by the agent through the app's own actions, on request or in a campaign automation.

- [Cheerful + Shopify](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/shopify) (native integration): Connect Shopify to Cheerful to place $0 gifting orders in your store once you approve them, create a discount code per creator, and see which sales each code drove.
- [Cheerful + Gmail](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/gmail) (native integration): Connect Gmail or Google Workspace to Cheerful to send creator outreach and follow-ups from your own address, sync replies every two minutes and draft answers to them.
- [Cheerful + Google Sheets](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/google-sheets) (native integration): Connect Google Sheets to Cheerful and an AI reads each creator’s email thread and fills their row: status, rate, address, notes, whatever columns you define.
- [Cheerful + Slack](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/slack) (native integration): Connect Slack to Cheerful to get an alert in a campaign channel when a creator replies, and approve, edit or skip gifting orders from a daily Slack digest.
- [Cheerful + Airtable](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/airtable) (native integration): Connect Airtable to Cheerful and each creator’s record in your base is created or updated from their email thread, field by field, following your instructions.
- [Cheerful + Instagram](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/instagram) (native integration): Connect Instagram to Cheerful to read and answer DMs in one inbox, capture mentions, tags and story mentions of your brand, and run paced cold DM campaigns to creators.
- [Cheerful + WooCommerce](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/woocommerce) (native integration): Connect WooCommerce to Cheerful to place free gifting orders in your WordPress store, issue creator coupons through GoAffPro, and match sales to each creator every six hours.
- [Cheerful + Stripe](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/stripe) (native integration): Cheerful uses Stripe Connect to pay creators: the brand pays by card, the money lands in the creator’s Stripe account, and off-platform payments are recorded in the same ledger.
- [Cheerful + Monday.com](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/monday) (native integration): Connect Monday.com to Cheerful and each creator becomes an item on your board, with status, email, Instagram handle and last activity kept in sync as the campaign moves.
- [Cheerful + Instantly](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/instantly) (native integration): Connect Instantly to Cheerful and replies to your Instantly creator campaigns are routed to the right Cheerful campaign, where they get AI reply drafts and the rest of the workflow.
- [Cheerful + ShipHero](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/shiphero) (native integration): Connect ShipHero to Cheerful and approved creator gifts become ShipHero fulfilment orders with the right SKUs, tagged as gifts and shipped at $0.
- [Cheerful + SignWell](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/signwell) (native integration): Connect SignWell to Cheerful to send creator contracts from the inbox using your template, have creators sign on their collaboration page, and track status automatically.
- [Cheerful + HubSpot](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/hubspot) (connected app): Connect HubSpot to Cheerful and its agent creates contacts for opted-in creators, logs agreed collaborations as deals, and adds notes and tasks, on request or automatically.
- [Cheerful + Salesforce](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/salesforce) (connected app): Connect Salesforce to Cheerful so its agent logs creators as leads or contacts, tracks paid collaborations as opportunities and adds them to Salesforce campaigns.
- [Cheerful + Klaviyo](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/klaviyo) (connected app): Connect Klaviyo to Cheerful so its agent adds creators to Klaviyo lists, tags their profiles, and reads the metrics behind creator discount codes.
- [Cheerful + Notion](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/notion) (connected app): Connect Notion to Cheerful so its agent adds creators to a Notion database, updates their status as campaigns move, and writes campaign briefs and recaps as pages.
- [Cheerful + Pipedrive](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/pipedrive) (connected app): Connect Pipedrive to Cheerful so its agent adds creators as people, creates a deal for each collaboration, and moves it through a creator pipeline as terms, shipping and posting happen.
- [Cheerful + Attio](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/attio) (connected app): Connect Attio to Cheerful so its agent creates or matches a person record for each creator, adds them to an Attio list with a stage, and leaves notes on the record.
- [Cheerful + DocuSign](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/docusign) (connected app): Connect DocuSign to Cheerful so its agent sends a creator agreement from your DocuSign template when a deal is agreed and checks whether the envelope has been signed.
- [Cheerful + Outlook](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/outlook) (connected app): Connect Outlook to Cheerful so its agent finds meeting times, books creator calls on your Outlook calendar and searches or drafts Outlook mail. Campaign sending runs through Gmail or SMTP.
- [Cheerful + Google Drive](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/google-drive) (connected app): Connect Google Drive to Cheerful so its agent creates a folder per campaign or creator, saves briefs and content files there, and shares them with the right people.
- [Cheerful + Make](https://www.cheerful.ai/integrations/make) (connected app): Connect Make to Cheerful so its agent lists your Make scenarios, changes their schedules and reads their run logs. What it can and cannot do today, including Zapier.

## Free tools

Browser-only calculators, no signup. Each states its formula and, deliberately,
publishes no benchmark it cannot source. The rate calculator reads only the
figures published on the influencer rates research page below, never combines
two ranges into one, and does not take engagement as an input.

- [Free tools](https://www.cheerful.ai/tools): influencer marketing calculators
- [Influencer rate calculator](https://www.cheerful.ai/tools/influencer-rate-calculator): what creators this size ask and what brands offered, from real negotiations, with the sample size on every range
- [Instagram engagement rate calculator](https://www.cheerful.ai/tools/instagram-engagement-rate-calculator): (likes + comments) / followers x 100, placed against our measured Instagram bands
- [TikTok engagement rate calculator](https://www.cheerful.ai/tools/tiktok-engagement-rate-calculator): (likes + comments + shares) / views x 100, plus like-to-view ratio and an average-views check
- [YouTube engagement rate calculator](https://www.cheerful.ai/tools/youtube-engagement-rate-calculator): (likes + comments) / views x 100, plus views-to-subscribers and an average-views check

## Research

Original measurements from our own campaigns, published with sample sizes, the
exclusion rule, and the figures we refused to publish. Free to reuse under
CC BY 4.0 with a link.

- [Influencer rates 2026: how much influencers charge](https://www.cheerful.ai/research/influencer-rates): what creators ask and what brands actually pay, by follower tier and content format. Typical asks run $450 (1K-10K) to $4,250 (250K+); a first ask is about 2x the brand's best offer; 73% of deals settle at exactly the brand's number and 98% at or below it; 74% of quoted lines are a flat fee and only 2% are commission. The usage-rights premium every other guide cites at 50-150% is one we looked for and could not measure.
- [Instagram engagement benchmarks](https://www.cheerful.ai/research/instagram-engagement-benchmarks): median and quartile engagement by follower band and creator category

## Alternatives and comparisons

Each page below is both: the alternatives to that tool, and a head-to-head
against Cheerful. They merged on 2026-08-25; /compare URLs now redirect here.

- [Alternatives hub](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives): Cheerful vs. the influencer marketing landscape
- [Modash alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/modash)
- [CreatorIQ alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/creatoriq)
- [Aspire alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/aspire)
- [GRIN alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/grin)
- [Upfluence alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/upfluence)
- [Influencer Hero alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/influencer-hero)
- [HypeAuditor alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/hypeauditor)
- [Traackr alternatives](https://www.cheerful.ai/alternatives/traackr)

## Evidence

- [Case studies](https://www.cheerful.ai/case-studies): real campaign numbers from AG1 and Spacegoods
- [AG1 case study](https://www.cheerful.ai/case-studies/ag1): 20,000+ creator conversations, 24× projected ROI
- [Spacegoods case study](https://www.cheerful.ai/case-studies/spacegoods): 474 creators sourced and 368 pitched in 3 weeks for $1k instead of $12k

## Guides

- [What is an AI influencer marketing agent?](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/what-is-an-ai-influencer-marketing-agent): definition, capabilities, and limits
- [The best influencer marketing platforms in 2026, by use case](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/best-ai-influencer-marketing-platforms-2026)
- [How to measure influencer marketing ROI](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/influencer-marketing-roi): formula, KPIs by goal, attribution methods, free tracker spreadsheet
- [How to negotiate rates with influencers (and what to pay)](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/how-to-negotiate-rates-with-influencers)
- [How to get Instagram influencers to promote your Shopify store](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/get-instagram-influencers-to-promote-your-shopify-store)
- [AI that messages influencers for you](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/ai-that-messages-influencers-for-you): how automated outreach and replies work
- [Influencer outreach: how to do it, plus 10 templates](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/influencer-outreach): the 5-step process, email vs DM, 10 email and DM templates, a 3-follow-up cadence, and measured reply rates (58.7% on a 368-creator gifting campaign, ~12% on a 20,521-creator affiliate program)
- [How to know if an influencer actually posted about your brand](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/how-to-know-if-an-influencer-actually-posted)
- [How to run influencer marketing as a one-person team](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/influencer-marketing-for-a-one-person-team)
- [How to measure influencer gifting ROI](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/how-to-measure-influencer-gifting-roi)
- [How to find influencers for your brand](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/how-to-find-influencers): 8 methods, free and paid, plus a vetting checklist built on measured engagement bands
- [Micro-influencers: what they are, what they cost, how to find them](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/how-to-find-micro-influencers-with-ai): engagement from 5,924 Instagram accounts and real creator rates
- [Influencer gifting campaign playbook](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/influencer-gifting-campaign-playbook)
- [Influencer outreach response rates](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/influencer-outreach-response-rates)
- [Product seeding: the complete guide for brands](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/product-seeding)
- [25 influencer gifting note examples](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/influencer-gifting-note-examples)
- [Influencer whitelisting: the complete brand guide](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/influencer-whitelisting)
- [What is a PR package? A brand's guide](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/what-is-a-pr-package)
- [Do you need an influencer marketing platform, or can you just DM creators yourself?](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/do-you-need-an-influencer-marketing-platform): when DIY is enough and where it breaks
- [How to automate influencer gifting with Shopify](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/automate-influencer-gifting-with-shopify): what can be automated, and what Cheerful's Shopify integration does
- [How to structure performance-based influencer deals](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/performance-based-influencer-deals): commission, CPA, hybrid fees and bonus tiers for micro-influencers and YouTube, priced from real negotiations
- [How agencies run influencer gifting campaigns for brands](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog/how-agencies-run-influencer-gifting-campaigns): the step-by-step process, sender identity, fulfilment and reporting

## Documentation

One documentation site at https://www.cheerful.ai/docs covering both halves of the product:
task-shaped guides for running campaigns, and the machine-facing surfaces (MCP
connector and CLI). Every page states what the product does NOT do, which is
usually the part an answer needs. Every page is also served as raw markdown at
the same URL with a `.md` suffix.

- [Documentation home](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs)
- [Every docs page in one file](https://www.cheerful.ai/llms-full.txt): the markdown of every page below, plus /agents

### Guides
- [Which tools does Cheerful integrate with?](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/which-tools-does-cheerful-integrate-with): every native integration (Gmail, SMTP/IMAP, Shopify, WooCommerce, Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack, Instagram, Stripe, ShipHero, SignWell, Monday.com, Instantly) and what each does, plus the 1,000+ catalogue apps the agent can connect (HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion, Klaviyo and more). No native Outlook sign-in for sending, no Zapier (Make is available), no public REST API
- [Where does Cheerful find creators?](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/where-does-cheerful-find-creators): Instagram, TikTok and YouTube; own screened index, live lookups, web and hashtag search and a third-party database; follower band enforced within 5%, lookalike seeds, verified email lookup
- [How does Cheerful handle creator replies?](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/how-cheerful-handles-creator-replies): replies sorted into opt-in, opt-out or question; drafts held for approval by default (Manual, Semi-auto, Fully automated); follow-ups cancel on any reply; Instagram DM replies never auto-send
- [Is it safe to send influencer outreach from your own Gmail?](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/is-it-safe-to-send-influencer-outreach-from-gmail): about 30 emails/day per new mailbox and 50/day once established, first emails and follow-ups sharing one budget; 7am-9pm ET default window; Gmail send/modify/labels scopes; no open tracking
- [How to run influencer outreach from your own Gmail](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/run-influencer-outreach-from-your-own-gmail): sending from your own mailbox rather than a platform relay, Google Sheets as the roster, and the sending limits that apply
- [How to reply to influencer emails automatically](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/reply-to-influencer-emails-automatically): what is read before a reply is drafted, where approval sits, and when to take the thread back
- [How to track a gifting campaign from shipment to ROI](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/track-a-gifting-campaign-from-shipment-to-roi): per-creator discount codes, draft orders, post detection, and the honest limits of gifting ROI
- [How to use Claude or ChatGPT to manage your influencer campaigns](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/use-claude-to-manage-your-influencer-campaigns): the non-technical version of the MCP connector — what the assistant can see, what it cannot do, and what it is better at than a dashboard
- [FTC disclosure rules for gifted and sponsored posts](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/guides/ftc-disclosure-rules-for-gifted-and-sponsored-posts): what counts as a material connection, what clear and conspicuous means per format, and where the brand's own liability sits. US requirements; not legal advice

### MCP connector and CLI

Both authenticated as the signed-in user. Most MCP tools only read data.
creator_search spends credits and, for YouTube, saves results to a new list;
save_creators_to_list saves creators to your own creator lists (free); the
campaign tools create or edit a draft, add creators to a draft, or send. A
campaign is sent only when the user clicks Confirm & send on the launch card. The MCP server cannot send email on its own, place an order or
change campaign settings outside a draft. In ChatGPT, results show as
interactive cards. The CLI is NOT
read-only: it calls the same API the web app calls, so it can create and launch
campaigns and send email. There is no API key — both sign in through the
browser.

- MCP server endpoint: https://mcp.cheerful.ai/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth 2.1). Unauthenticated liveness probe at https://mcp.cheerful.ai/mcp/healthz
- CLI package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@cheerful/cli (macOS arm64/x64, Linux x64, Windows x64)
- [Connect Cheerful to Claude and ChatGPT](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/mcp): the connector URL, three setup steps, the tools, the latencies, and the limits
- [Every tool the connector exposes](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/mcp/tools): every tool with arguments, responses, read-only flag, credit cost and the traps — the silent location drop, the cursor rule, the platform mismatch
- [Add Cheerful to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/mcp/clients): where the server URL goes in each client, and the Claude Team owner gate that stops most first attempts
- [Run Cheerful from your terminal](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/cli): install, browser sign-in, JSON-by-default output, the 25 command groups, platform support
- [Every command in the Cheerful CLI](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/cli/commands): the generated command reference, grouped by job
- [Things worth scripting with the Cheerful CLI](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/cli/recipes): campaign export, threads waiting on a human, a morning health check, bulk-editing a brief, post-tracking metrics
- [Sign in to the Cheerful CLI and connector](https://www.cheerful.ai/docs/api-keys): why there is no API key, and what that means for CI

Every account gets: creator_search, creator_search_status, creator_profile, list_read, campaign_read, campaign_report, campaign_content, inbox_read, integration_status, account_read, billing_usage, get_profile, save_creators_to_list.
Switched on per account: create_campaign_draft, update_campaign_draft, get_campaign_draft, campaign_add_creators, check_sending_mailboxes, preview_campaign_launch, campaign_send.
campaign_content shows the posts tracked from creators who opted in to your
campaigns, sortable by newest, most viewed or most liked. Credits are spent by
creator_search and campaign_send; every other tool is free.
Launching spends credits for each email drafted to a new recipient, plus email lookups for creators still missing one.
campaign_send is called only by the launch card's Confirm & send button. No
MCP tool can place an order.

## For creators

- [Cheerful for creators](https://www.cheerful.ai/for-creators): the free creator app — a deal inbox that organizes brand collaboration emails, a media kit with rates and past partnerships, and a deliverables tracker
- [Free media kit builder](https://www.cheerful.ai/media-kit): generate a shareable media kit from a public Instagram profile
- [Creator directory](https://www.cheerful.ai/creators): browse creator media kits

## Resources

- [Blog](https://www.cheerful.ai/blog): guides and comparisons for AI influencer marketing
- [RSS feed](https://www.cheerful.ai/feed.xml): full-content feed of every guide
- [About](https://www.cheerful.ai/about)
- [Get started](https://app.cheerful.ai)