It’s not a secret that you can buy social engagement. A quick search for “buy YouTube subscribers,” “buy TikTok views,” “buy Instagram comments,” and you’re swarmed with a metric ton of websites promising all that and more–and quick delivery to boot.
These services are not new. They’ve been around as long as social media has, and they’re in a constant cat-and-mouse with platforms. These days, most major social/content platforms have implemented systems designed to catch fake engagement, and collectively they delete billions of bogus accounts (which are used to deliver fake views/likes/comments/etc) each year.
But, as we saw most recently with Twitch, sometimes things slip through the cracks–whether that’s due to systems not being comprehensive enough, or fake engagement services evolving how they deliver to avoid tripping automated flags.
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Okay, so, to be clear, we do not endorse buying fake engagement.
If you were to buy fake engagement in this good old year of 2026, though, how much of a strain would it put on your wallet?
VPN/antivirus/scam protection company (and frequent sponsor of YouTubers) Surfshark just came out with a study that collected prices from a number of fake engagement services.
Overall, it found that paying for fakes “remains very affordable” for the average Joe.
The most affordable fake? Views, which average $1.40 per 1,000 on TikTok up to $6.70 per 1,000 on YouTube.
At the other end of the expense spectrum are comments, which are by far the priciest service. Unlike with views, comments are least costly on YouTube. Surfshark found the average price for 1,000 random positive comments is $93 on YouTube, $104 on Instagram, $140 on TikTok, and $287 on Facebook.
As Surfshark notes, the steep cost here indicates that comments are a lot more difficult and/or time-consuming to fake than views. And, extrapolating, this likely means Facebook is the most difficult platform for services to deliver on, while YouTube is the easiest.
Does that indicate Facebook is better at catching fakes than YouTube? Hard to say. It could just be account creation barrier to entry.
Services like shares, reposts, and retweets are also pretty pricey.
This time, TikTok takes the crown: Services average $68 per 1,000 shares there compared to $37 per 1,000 on Instagram and Facebook, $27 per 1,000 on X, and just $17 per 1,000 on YouTube.
YouTube arguably has the strongest recommendation algorithm and the most options for exposing viewers to potential new content and creators across formats, so it makes sense that shares from individual people would hold less weight there. Still–intriguing.
Now we get back down into more affordable options with likes and followers/subscribers. Surfshark says likes generally “occupy the middle ground between inexpensive views and more costly comments and shares.” Across all platforms, you’re usually looking at anywhere from $10 to $25 per 1,000.
For fake followers/subscribers, you’ll shell out $14-20 per 1,000 on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X.
Surfshark says YouTube is a “clear outlier”: Fake subscribers average $78 per 1,000 on Google’s platform, a 4x higher cost than fake followers on FB, TikTok, Insta, and X.
Again, this is probably due to YouTube’s unique operations. It treats subscriber counts as reward-worthy achievements in a way other platforms don’t (those shiny plaques!). But we are curious about the (relative) rock-bottom prices for YouTube views and comments versus subscribers. Surely leaving comments is more effort than clicking the “subscribe” button?
We can’t say for sure. What we can say is that this study indicates fake engagement is steadily easily accessible for those with eyes to see it (and the moral compass to hit Buy). That means we should all be a little more discerning when judging channels’ propulsion based on raw numbers alone.
Surfshark concluded its data indicate that views are the least trustworthy metric for gauging engagement, since they’re the cheapest and most easily faked. Expensive options like comments “may serve as a stronger indicator of authenticity than views, although it should not be considered reliable on its own,” the company said.
