How YouTube pays creators for ads
Channels in the YouTube Partner Program that accept the Watch Page Monetization Module receive 55% of the net revenue from ads shown on their long-form videos. Shorts work differently: creators get 45% of the revenue allocated to them from the Shorts creator pool, based on their share of views.
To join the program, YouTube lists two eligibility thresholds: 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months, or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Meeting one makes a channel eligible for review, not automatically accepted.
RPM vs. CPM on YouTube
CPM is what advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions, before YouTube takes its share. Playback-based CPM is what they pay per 1,000 video playbacks that showed at least one ad. RPM is what you earn per 1,000 views after YouTube's share, counting every view, including ones that showed no ads, and every revenue source, including memberships and YouTube Premium.
That's why your RPM is lower than your CPM. It's measured after the revenue share, and it's spread across views that weren't monetized. CPM itself moves with the time of year, where your viewers are, and which ad formats are running.
How this calculator estimates earnings
The math is simple: monthly views × monetized share ÷ 1,000 × niche CPM × 55%. The low end of the range is 65% of that figure and the high end is 135%, to reflect how much CPM moves.
The RPM it shows follows YouTube's definition: your share per 1,000 of all views, so the views that showed no ad are already counted in. At a $14 CPM and 60% monetized views, for example, that's $14 × 55% × 60%, about $4.62. It covers ad revenue only, so an RPM in YouTube Analytics that includes memberships or YouTube Premium can run higher.
The niche CPMs are fixed assumptions: $22 Finance, $14 Tech, $12 Business, $10 Education, $8 Fitness, $6 Cooking, $4.50 Gaming, $3.50 Entertainment, $3 Vlog and $2 Music. Real rates vary by niche, audience country, season and format, so switch to your own YouTube Analytics numbers once you have them.
What the estimate leaves out
The calculator covers long-form ad revenue only. It doesn't include:
- Shorts revenue, which comes from a separate pool
- YouTube Premium revenue, channel memberships, Super Chat and Super Stickers
- Sponsorships, affiliate links and your own products