Sponsorship.so, OutlierKit, GetSponsored, Influencer Advisory and others, each run proprietary databases that produce conflicting rankings. That disagreement is itself the most useful finding for a media buyer because it tells you the category is fragmented, definitionally messy, and priced across a range wide enough to drive a truck through.
Here's what the available data actually shows, attributed source by source, and how to use it.
The brands that keep showing up
Start with the recurring names because cross-source agreement is more trustworthy than any single vendor's ranking.
Three clusters appear across multiple independent databases:
- VPN and security brands. NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN are cited as tech-relevant sponsors by SponsorTrace, GetSponsored, OutlierKit, Sponsorship.so and the YT Calculators rate pages. GetSponsored calls VPNs “the single largest category” of sponsors overall. NordVPN even runs a dedicated YouTube partner programme, per Sponsorship.so.
- SaaS and website tooling. Squarespace is the connective tissue of the whole space, SponsorTrace, GetSponsored, OutlierKit and Sponsorship.so all flag it, and OutlierKit calls it “the most cross-niche sponsor on YouTube.” Notion, Shopify, Canva, Adobe and Webflow round out the SaaS bucket (SponsorTrace).
- Hardware and accessories. Anker, UGREEN, DJI, Samsung, and Lenovo lead SponsorRadar's hardware-heavy tech ranking, alongside accessory maker dbrand.
Brilliant also earns repeated mentions, OutlierKit flags it as a “premium sponsor, picky on audience demographic,” and it ranks in Influencer Advisory's overall top 10.
Why the top-10 lists don't match
Now the messy part. The vendor rankings diverge sharply because each measures a different thing.
SponsorRadar's tech leaderboard (dated Feb 26, 2026), ranked by unique creators, puts Samsung first with 417 creators, followed by Anker (372), UGREEN (295), AliExpress (231) and DJI (205). It's a hardware-dominated view.
Sponsorship.so's technology ranking (updated July 18, 2026), ranked by creator mentions, looks nothing like it: Business Insider tops the list with 605 creators and 2,768 videos, ahead of BYD (473), realme (323), CourseCareers and PCBros. Business Insider and BYD aren't brands most buyers would file under “tech” at all, a definitional discrepancy the sources never reconcile.
The practical takeaway: treat any single “top tech sponsors” list as a lens, not a verdict. If you're benchmarking competitive activity, pull from more than one tool and reconcile the definitions yourself.
What tech sponsorships actually cost
Every source agrees tech is a premium niche, SponsorRadar ranks it second only to finance. But the CPM figures are genuinely not reconcilable:
| Source | Tech CPM | Date |
|---|---|---|
| SponsorRadar | $15–$25 | Feb 2026 |
| GetSponsored | $30–$60 | Apr 2026 |
| YT Calculators | $45 (flat benchmark) | Jun 2026 |
| vidIQ | $30–$80 | Jun 2026 |
That's a 3–5x spread between the low end (SponsorRadar's $15) and the high end (vidIQ's $80). Don't average these, the methodologies aren't comparable. Use them as guardrails and negotiate against the specific channel's audience geography because US-heavy audiences carry a premium (YT Calculators pegs the US uplift at roughly +80%).
On a per-video basis, the vendor estimates at least trend in the same direction as channel size grows:
- YT Calculators ($45 CPM, 30-sec integration): ~$34–$61 at 10K subs, $342–$621 at 100K, $2,800–$5,000 at 1M.
- GetSponsored: a mid-roll at 50K views runs $1,500–$3,000; at 200K views, $6,000–$12,000. Pre-rolls come in around 70% of a mid-roll; dedicated videos run 150–200% of one.
- InfluencerFee: integrations from $500–$3,000 (10K–100K subs) up to $12,000–$60,000 (500K–2M), with top-tier dedicated tech videos reaching $100,000–$500,000+. It puts tech rates 40–80% above general benchmarks.
- vidIQ: integrated mentions $200–$2,000 and dedicated videos $1,000–$5,000 for 10K–100K channels, with dedicated paying 1.3–1.5x an integration.
The consistent structural rule across sources: dedicated video > integration > pre-roll, with dedicated commanding a premium of roughly 30–100% depending on who's counting.
Why brands pay up for tech creators
The rationale is consistent, even where the numbers aren't. SponsorRadar frames tech audiences as skewing male, 18–34, college-educated and higher-income, sitting “one click away from a purchase.” It cites a second-hand Think with Google figure that 68% of YouTube viewers use the platform to inform purchase decisions, reportedly higher in tech.
Two other levers are significant for buyers. First, the long content tail: reviews and tutorials keep pulling views and conversions for years, so a tech integration is closer to an evergreen asset than a burst buy. Second, conversion velocity, InfluencerFee claims a tech recommendation can generate thousands of affiliate clicks and direct purchases within 48 hours. Sponsorship.so makes the same point more soberly: tech audiences “arrive with strong purchase intent and a habit of researching before buying.” The flip side, per SponsorRadar, is skepticism, which is precisely why trusted creators convert and why brands favour long-term partnerships over one-offs.
What the deal data looks like in practice
The SponsorRadar brand pages offer the most concrete (if unverified) picture of repeat-partnership mechanics:
- dbrand: 63 creators, 382+ tracked videos, averaging 6.1 deals per creator. Top channels include LMG Clips (99 deals), Omni (97) and Marques Brownlee (9), with a June 2026 MKBHD ad pushing a “60% off” summer sale.
- Lenovo: 178 creators, 378+ videos, a lower 2.1 deals per creator, a broader, shallower footprint than dbrand's.
- Logitech (tagged gaming): 115 creators, 888+ videos, a high 7.7 deals per creator, with heavy repeat buys on channels like Momo (157), Datto (133) and shroud (129), plus a “Datto10” discount-code partnership.
The deals-per-creator figure is the useful metric here: dbrand and Logitech's high repeat rates signal deep, code-driven affiliate relationships, while Lenovo's lower ratio suggests wider seeding across more channels.
Mid-tier channel economics, per SponsorRadar estimates: Tech By Matt (294K subs, 96K avg views, 17 sponsors) is pegged at $2,900–$5,800 per sponsored video, with Amazon, Temu, Best Buy and others on the roster. Smaller, The Average Tech Guy (146K subs) shows 46 distinct sponsors across 83 deals at an estimated $37–$74 per video, a reminder that sponsor count and per-deal value are entirely unique things.
The AI shift you should be pricing in
The most actionable trend: AI/ML is the fastest-rising sub-niche. YT Calculators reports AI/ML CPMs rose from $60 to $70 (+17%) between 2025 and 2026, the largest single-year increase it tracked, driven by enterprise AI-tool competition. OutlierKit's data backs this up, naming Recall, Higgsfield AI, Zapier, HubSpot and Sunsama as active AI sponsors, with Comet Browser, Granola, Norton Neo and Durable emerging.
Contrast that with gaming, where CPMs fell from $35 to $30 (−14%) as creator supply outpaced budgets, while general tech held flat at $45. And watch fast-movers: SponsorRadar's monthly growth board shows UGREEN up 2000% month-over-month. If you're allocating budget, the money, and the momentum are moving toward AI tooling, not commodity hardware.
How to use all this
For buyers, three disciplines follow directly from the data:
- Cross-check every ranking. No two databases agree, and definitions of “tech” vary wildly. Triangulate before you trust a competitive read.
- Negotiate against a range, not a benchmark. With CPMs spanning $15 to $80 across sources, the number you accept should be anchored to a specific channel's audience geography, format and repeat-deal history.
- Favour repeat partnerships and evergreen formats. The deals-per-creator data and the long-tail argument both point the same way: in a skeptical, high-intent niche, durable relationships and tutorial-style content outperform one-shot placements.
One last caution worth repeating: none of these figures are audited, no brand has confirmed its spend, and no creator has disclosed actual payment terms on record. Every number here is a vendor estimate. Use them to frame the conversation, not to close it.
