Estimate your YouTube earnings
Enter your monthly views, pick your niche, and set how much of your traffic comes from Shorts. The calculator estimates your monthly and yearly ad revenue after YouTube's 45% cut. All figures are estimates, not guarantees.
Estimate what your YouTube channel earns.
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Estimates only. YouTube ad RPM varies widely by niche, season, audience country, and watch time, and this shows ad revenue only (not sponsorships, memberships, or affiliate income). Your real earnings depend on your channel.
How much does YouTube pay per 1,000 views?
The number that matters is RPM: revenue per 1,000 views after YouTube keeps its 45% share of ad income. RPM swings hard by niche because advertisers pay more to reach high-intent audiences.
| Niche | Typical RPM (per 1,000 views) |
|---|---|
| Finance and investing | $12 to $22 |
| Business and marketing | $8 to $18 |
| Technology and software | $6 to $14 |
| Education and how-to | $4 to $10 |
| Beauty and fashion | $3 to $8 |
| Gaming | $2 to $5 |
| Entertainment and vlogs | $1.50 to $4 |
| Music | $1 to $3 |
*RPM ranges are 2026 creator-market benchmarks and represent what the creator keeps after YouTube's 45% ad-revenue cut. Actual RPM depends on audience country, season (Q4 is highest), watch time, and ad load. Treat them as a band, not a guarantee.
Audience country matters almost as much as niche. Views from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia earn several times more than views from lower-CPM regions, so two channels with identical view counts can earn very different amounts.
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How much do YouTube Shorts pay?
Shorts monetize through a shared ad pool, not the same per-view ad auction as long-form, so they pay far less. Expect roughly $0.02 to $0.07 per 1,000 Shorts views, which is why a channel can have millions of Shorts views and still earn modest ad revenue.
| Monthly Shorts views | Estimated Shorts ad revenue |
|---|---|
| 100,000 | $2 to $7 |
| 1,000,000 | $20 to $70 |
| 10,000,000 | $200 to $700 |
*Based on a 2026 Shorts RPM of roughly $0.02 to $0.07 per 1,000 views. Shorts are best treated as a reach and subscriber engine that feeds your long-form and off-platform income, not a direct earner.
The smart play is to use Shorts to grow the audience, then earn from long-form ad revenue, sponsorships, and product sales. Judging a channel by Shorts ad income alone badly understates what it can make.
The five ways a YouTube channel makes money
The channels earning the most stack multiple income streams rather than relying on AdSense alone.
| Income stream | How it pays | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Ad revenue (AdSense) | RPM of $1 to $20 per 1,000 long-form views. | Any monetized channel with consistent watch time. |
| Sponsorships | Flat fee per integration, often $15 to $50+ per 1,000 views. | Channels with an engaged, on-niche audience brands want. |
| Affiliate and product sales | Commission or margin on products you link or sell. | Review, tutorial, and product-niche channels. |
| Channel memberships | Recurring monthly fee from your most loyal viewers. | Creators with a strong community and perks to offer. |
| Merch and courses | Margin on your own merch, courses, or coaching. | Creators with a loyal audience and something to sell. |
*Sponsorship and affiliate income vary widely by niche and audience. For product-niche creators, sponsorships and affiliate commission usually clear AdSense several times over.
For creators in a product niche, brand sponsorships and affiliate commission usually out-earn ad revenue by a wide margin, which is why brands compete to recruit the right creators onto their programs.
