How Much Money Do Contestants Make After ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’?

As Latrice saw it, there was only one way to change things: RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Latrice has been doing drag full-time since 1998, but when she appeared on the fourth season of Drag Race in 2012, coming fourth in the competition, it changed everything. Before Drag Race, Latrice charged around $125 to $250 for a gig. She would do multiple gigs in a day to make enough money to get by. “After I got on the show, I was able to set a fee and do one gig a day,” she says. “Your booking fee goes up substantially after your appearance. I was still modest because I didn't know my worth. I thought $800 was a lot of money, so my booking fee was between $800 and $1,500. But baby, that was not any money.” In the years since the show, Latrice has continued to build her career and increase her rates. “Now, you can't even call me for that. I've definitely increased my value.”

Latrice is one of many contestants whose life and career have been transformed by Drag Race. The show’s first season aired in 2009, and since then, it has become an award-winning reality TV show behemoth. There are now spin-off shows such as RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, in which previous contestants return and compete against each other, and there have been versions of the show all over the world. 

If you’re not familiar with Drag Race, here’s how it works: contestants compete against each other in challenges, demonstrating their drag prowess through incredible costumes, lip-syncing and dancing. Every week, a queen is eliminated. At the end of the show, the winner is crowned “America’s next drag superstar” (or somewhere else’s next drag superstar, depending on the franchise). But they’re not just competing for kudos. On the US show, which is now in its 15th season, the prize money has grown from $20,000 to $200,000. (The UK show, which launched in 2019, has no prize money because it airs on the BBC, which is publicly funded).

But prize money or not, winning the show isn’t the be-all and end-all. In fact, some queens say that the real race starts afterwards. Being on RuPaul’s Drag Race catapults queens into the public eye, creating opportunities to grow their careers, as well as their bank balances – sometimes, substantially. In an interview with The Times, last year, UK season one contestant Baga Chipz estimated her annual earnings were “at least a quarter of a million”, and might be more.

Latrice had seen other queens doing well out of Drag Race, and saw the show as her chance to “get out of the struggle”. She explains: “I was watching my sisters that were on previous seasons and how their lives were changed. I needed to be part of that.” But for queens in the UK, it wasn’t clear if the show would take off in the same way. Vinegar Strokes, who placed eighth on the first UK season, says she didn't have high expectations. “I only really expected that if I did a gig in a bar, the fee might go from £100 to £250 [$120- $310] or something,” she says. 

Sister Sister, who was on the second season of the UK show, says that while there isn’t any guarantee of earning money, “the producers fill your head with visions of fame and fortune.” That might explain why, when she heard she was on the show, she texted her landlord offering to buy the half-a-million pound house she was living in. “I still have the text. I sent it before the show was even announced. He ignored it and told me someone was coming to look at the boiler on Monday.”

Whatever their expectations were, all of the queens who spoke to VICE said that they were able to up their rates after appearing on the show. “When you compare it to what you would get before Drag Race, it’s a nice amount,” says Vinegar. “With the regular gigs, compared to what would be, say £150 [$185] before you’re famous, to bump it up to £500 [$620] for the same thing is incredible. But it’s different for everyone. You can get someone who’s done Drag Race but isn’t doing much else, so they might get £100 [$120] less.” 

Crystal appeared on the same season as Vinegar and placed sixth. She says she doubled or tripled her fee after being on Drag Race, but she is practical about the work she takes on: “If I'm willing to do it for the money that's offered, I'll do it. I don't have minimums, some people do. I'd rather be working than not.”

It makes sense that the queens can up their rates after being on Drag Race. Following the show, their fan bases are much bigger, so they’re bringing in more people. “You're probably bringing 20 percent more business their way,” says Vinegar. “You realise: ‘I am worth a bit more than just £100’.” She says it helps to have a management team who can push for more money, too. “They were able to get a couple of extra noughts [on a fee], because they are slapping a name on there from telly.” 

This also chimes with Bob the Drag Queen, who won season eight of the US show. “As a performer, you can charge what you can bring to the door,” she says. “I'm not saying that what RuPaul’s Drag Race girls do has more value than someone who's not on RuPaul’s Drag Race, but what I am saying is you can charge more money when there are more people in the audience coming to see you and paying a higher ticket price. That's just economics.”

Beyond drag gigs, going on Drag Race opens up new ways to make a living. And in the case of Cameo – the platform where you can request personalised videos from celebrities – the queens can make money from the comfort of their own homes. For many contestants, this was a lifeline during the pandemic. “When the show was airing in peak lockdown, I remember getting into drag one afternoon, smashing through all my Cameos and paying rent for the next three or four months with it,” says Sister Sister. It was the same for Latrice over in the US. “In the pandemic, Cameo was my saving grace – it paid my mortgage throughout the whole two years,” she says. 

In fact, Latrice became increasingly popular on Cameo, and was able to increase her rates. Currently, she charges $145 for a video that’s at least a minute long, meaning she can now earn more in a minute than she would in an entire night in the early days of her career. “Isn't that wild to think of that? That's the difference between then and now,” she says. Things like Cameo have helped her understand her worth when it comes to other work, too. “You can say: I can sit home and make this amount of money. If you want me to get on a plane, pack my drag and come to you, then that's going to cost you this amount of money. It puts it in perspective.”

While things like Cameo and meet-and-greets do bring money in, the queens I spoke to say that commercial work – whether it’s sponsored content, a commercial gig or a brand partnership – is, unsurprisingly, the most lucrative. Both Crystal and Vinegar say they can earn thousands for a corporate job. “Corporate companies chuck money at it if they’ve got the budget,” says Vinegar. “I had one gig where they paid me about £8,000 [almost $10,000] to host karaoke.” Latrice gives the example of a business Cameo – “They’re $1,000. For a commercial thing, whatever it is, it's going to be ten times the cost.”

The impact of Drag Race has been huge, both on an individual level for the contestants and on the drag scene more broadly. Latrice says being able to up her rates has been “empowering”. She explains: “And to be able to say it without even blinking. That's what it is, they can say yes or no. There was a time when I needed to say yes to everything – and I don't anymore.”

When it comes to the drag scene, many of the queens say that the effect of the show is felt by people who haven’t even been on it. “I think this is probably the first time trickle-down economics has actually worked,” says Crystal. “The Drag Race boom created much more interest in drag and therefore more opportunities for performers. So even if you weren't on the show, you were getting a piece of that pie because suddenly people wanted to go to drag brunches.” 

Laganja Estranja, who was on the sixth season of the US show, agrees, saying that the show has “allowed other drag queens, even if they're not on the show, to be taken more seriously,” she says. “I have friends who have not been on the show and they have their own cabarets in New York and they get hired at the malls of Beverly Hills. It has helped everyone.”

I ask all of the queens I speak to if they ever had a moment where they felt they had “made it” because they could afford that one luxury, or they didn’t have to worry about paying rent. For Bob, the big thing was being able to buy her mum a house. “That was a big moment for me, because it was something I remember telling my mom that I was going to do for her when I was a young kid.” 

Quite a few queens mention being able to afford property, but there are also the more low-key things. “I'm not flashy with money,” says Crystal. “It just means that I eat Deliveroo a bit more often.” Laganja says she went from making $50 a night to thousands, and that her life has drastically changed. “But does that mean I have a BMW and I'm dining at the Ritz-Carlton? Absolutely not. I drive a Nissan and I'm happy that I can get guacamole at Chipotle. I'm not dripped in Versace every day,” she says. 

For many queens, the opportunities that result from Drag Race means that going on the show is a no-brainer. But there is a cost associated with being a contestant – and while the prize money is going up, so is that financial burden. This is something that previous US contestant Willam has spoken out about while criticising the fact that the UK show does not have a cash prize. Willam told Digital Spy last year that “some of these girls are coming out in the red” because of spending money on costumes and hair.

Both Bob and Latrice mention how much the show has grown since they were on it. “At the time, it wasn't quite what it is today. It was on Logo back then, it wasn't on MTV or VH1 or Paramount plus. It was a very different show back then,” says Bob. Latrice says that as the show has increased in popularity, expectations have grown when it comes to the queens’ looks. On her season, she says everyone was wearing “home-sewn” outfits with a DIY vibe. “But as the show has elevated and gotten more popular and more mainstream, it's become expensive. You have to have designer looks and concepts. It has to blow you away on the main stage – and that's expensive,” she says.

When talking with the queens about progressing their careers, one name that comes up frequently is Trixie Mattel, who was on the seventh season of the US show and is worth an estimated $10 million. That’s partly down to her business ventures, like her Trixie Motel in Palm Springs and her makeup line, Trixie Cosmetics. 

For some queens, Trixie’s trajectory – or something like it – is the goal. “It inspires me when I see another queen who is more successful than me and making more money than me, like a Trixie Mattel,” says Laganja, who is currently working on expanding her cannabis brand. “They're opening doors, they're allowing other girls to make that same amount of money. I think that's something every drag queen dreams of – being your own successful business person and having new avenues to work on, besides just promoting yourself all the time.”

Like Laganja, Latrice is inspired by the business ventures of Drag Race contestants like Trixie Mattel and Kim Chi, who also has a makeup line. “I’m looking at things that are sustainable. I want to wake up and have $50,000 in my account, because I made $50,000 overnight,” she says. “Those are the goals I’m trying to reach. That means that you have other things that are bringing in income without you having to get in drag.”

Latrice has come a long way from the days when she was getting paid in tips and worrying about paying rent. But in some ways, those experiences still motivate her. “When you do business ventures that bring you income while you're asleep, that's how you stay sustained and rich,” she says. “I'm not even trying to be rich. I just want to be completely comfortable, because I've struggled my entire life. I want the second half of my life to not be that.”

For everyone I spoke to, going on Drag Race has opened them up to opportunities, helping them progress their careers and increase their earnings. “It's changed all of our lives,” says Latrice. “Drag culture is ever-changing and ever-evolving. The more mainstream we go, the more opportunities for financial growth there are going to be. So, the girls that are doing well, just know that they’re doing very well.”