YouTube Earnings Estimator
See what your views are worth with real RPM ranges by niche and audience country.
Your channel
Find your monthly views in YouTube Studio → Analytics → Overview with the range set to Last 28 days. If you already have an RPM figure there, switch on manual RPM below for a far more accurate result than any niche average.
Where the money actually goes
Ad revenue is the smallest slice
Channels that earn well rarely earn from ads. These are the standard benchmarks applied to your view count, so you can see what the same audience is worth through other routes.
What a different niche would pay
The same views earn wildly different amounts depending on what advertisers will bid against them. Your current niche is highlighted; every row uses your view count and country tier.
| Niche | RPM range | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|
These are estimates built from published industry RPM ranges, not a prediction of your account. Real RPM swings with season — January is typically the weakest month and December the strongest — and with video length, ad formats, advertiser demand and viewer ad-blocking. RPM here is what a creator keeps after YouTube's 45% share of ad revenue, which is why it is well below the CPM figures advertisers quote. Reviewed August 2026.
About this tool
RPM, not CPM — and the difference is your paycheque
Most YouTube money calculators quote CPM and let you assume that is what you earn. It is not. CPM is what an advertiser pays for a thousand ad impressions. RPM is what lands in your account per thousand views after YouTube takes its 45% share and after every view that carried no ad at all is averaged back in. CPM is roughly 40% higher than RPM, which is why so many creators feel misled when the first payment arrives.
This estimator works in RPM throughout. It shows the CPM your figures imply as a separate line, so you can see the gap rather than fall into it.
The formula
Monthly earnings = (monthly views ÷ 1,000) × RPM
The arithmetic is trivial. Everything that makes an estimate useful or useless lives in the RPM you feed it, and RPM is driven by two things above all others: what you make videos about, and where the people watching them live.
RPM by niche
| Niche | Typical RPM range |
|---|---|
| Finance & investing | $12 – $22 |
| Business & marketing | $8 – $15 |
| Tech & software | $8 – $12 |
| Education & how-to | $5 – $9 |
| Health & fitness | $4 – $8 |
| Food & cooking | $3 – $6 |
| Lifestyle & vlogs | $3 – $5 |
| Gaming | $2 – $4 |
| Music | $1.50 – $3 |
A finance channel and a gaming channel with identical view counts can be six times apart in ad revenue. That is not a judgement on the content — it reflects what a viewer is worth to an advertiser. Someone researching index funds may open a brokerage account worth hundreds in commission. Someone watching a speedrun is not in a buying mood, and bids reflect that.
Why audience country changes everything
These ranges assume a tier-1 audience: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany. Advertiser bids fall sharply outside those markets. A channel whose viewers are mostly in South Asia or Africa may see a fifth of the tier-1 rate for identical content. The tool applies a multiplier for each tier so the estimate reflects where your viewers actually are, which is the single most common reason a creator's real RPM lands far below what they read online.
Ad revenue is the smallest slice
The creators earning a living from YouTube are rarely doing it through ads. Against the same thousand views, sponsorships typically return around $20 and a creator's own course or digital product can return more still, against $2 to $12 from advertising. The tool prices all of these against your view count so you can see the whole picture rather than the narrowest part of it.
This is why chasing a higher-RPM niche is usually the wrong move. A smaller audience that trusts you and buys from you outperforms a larger one that only ever generates ad impressions.
How to use it
- Open YouTube Studio → Analytics → Overview, set the range to Last 28 days and read your views.
- Pick the niche that best matches your content and the tier your audience mostly sits in — check Analytics → Audience if you are unsure.
- If you are already monetised, tick the manual RPM box and enter your figure from Analytics → Revenue. Your own RPM beats any published average.
- Read the range, not the single number. RPM moves with the season: January is usually the weakest month of the year and December the strongest, often by more than 50%.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and your figures are saved only on your own device.
Frequently asked questions
How much does YouTube pay per 1,000 views?
Between roughly $2 and $12 for most channels with a tier-1 audience, and $12 to $22 in finance. Outside tier-1 markets those figures fall substantially. The number that matters is RPM, which is already net of YouTube's 45% share.
What is the difference between RPM and CPM?
CPM is advertiser spend per thousand ad impressions, before YouTube's cut and counted only against views that carried an ad. RPM is your revenue per thousand total views, after the cut and including views that showed no ad. RPM is the honest figure for a creator, and it is always the lower of the two.
How much does a channel with 100,000 views a month make?
At a tier-1 audience: roughly $200 to $400 in gaming, $800 to $1,200 in tech, and $1,200 to $2,200 in finance. Halve those for a tier-2 audience and expect closer to a fifth for tier-4.
Do Shorts pay the same as long-form?
No. Shorts RPM is typically a fraction of long-form, often between $0.05 and $0.15 per thousand views, because the revenue pool is shared differently. If most of your views are Shorts, this estimator will overstate your ad income considerably.
Why is my actual RPM lower than this estimate?
Usually one of four reasons: your audience skews outside tier-1, a large share of your views come from Shorts, your videos run under eight minutes so they carry no mid-roll ads, or your content is limited by advertiser-friendly guidelines. Seasonality accounts for the rest.
When does YouTube pay out?
Monthly, provided your balance has passed the $100 threshold, generally between the 21st and 26th of the following month through AdSense.
Ranges reviewed August 2026. These are industry estimates, not a prediction of any particular account.
Not monetised yet? Check where you stand with the YouTube Monetization Eligibility Checker, or work out the route with the Watch Hours to 4,000 Calculator and the Shorts Views to 10 Million Tracker.