How much does YouTube pay per view? Earnings from 1,000 to 10 million views
What 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, 1 million and 10 million views earn, worked from sourced RPM ranges with the arithmetic shown, and why Shorts, niche and country move the number.
- 01YouTube pays no fixed rate per view. It pays a share of the revenue views earn: 55% of net ad revenue on long-form videos, and 45% of a creator's allocation from a shared pool on Shorts.
- 02At the median RPM measured by AIR Media-Tech across 300 channels, $2.30 per 1,000 views, 100,000 long-form views earn about $230 and 1 million earn about $2,300. Niche medians in the same study run from $0.33 to $10.22, so a million views is worth $330 to $10,220.
- 03Shorts pay a fraction of that. AIR found most niches at $0.07 to $0.20 per 1,000 views, or $70 to $200 per million. Your own RPM in YouTube Studio beats any table: multiply views ÷ 1,000 by it.
YouTube does not pay a fixed amount per view. It pays a share of the revenue those views earn, and what a view earns depends on who watched, what they watched and whether an ad ran. At the median rate measured in one study of 300 channels, 1,000 long-form views earn $2.30, 100,000 earn about $230 and 1 million earn about $2,300. The range around that median is wide: $330 to $10,220 per million views across the niche medians in the same study.
Below is an earnings table by view count with the arithmetic shown, then the two numbers behind it, RPM and CPM. After that come the Partner Program share, Shorts against long-form, and why niche and country move the result. The rates come from YouTube Help, the YouTube blog and the AIR Media-Tech studies listed under Sources. The sums are ours.
Figures are in US dollars and were checked on 15 October 2026. Two dates matter. The way YouTube counts views changed on 24 August 2026, and the Partner Program thresholds change on 1 February 2027. Both are covered below.
Earnings by view count
The table multiplies views by three RPM figures from AIR Media-Tech's study of 300 monetised channels, which used 3,595 channel-months of YouTube Studio data from May 2025 to May 2026. The low figure is the median of the lowest-paying niche in the study, Kids & Teens. The middle figure is the median across all channels. The high figure is the median of the highest-paying niche, Education & Science.
| Long-form views | Low, $0.33 RPM | Median, $2.30 RPM | High, $10.22 RPM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $0.33 | $2.30 | $10.22 |
| 10,000 | $3.30 | $23 | $102.20 |
| 100,000 | $33 | $230 | $1,022 |
| 1 million | $330 | $2,300 | $10,220 |
| 10 million | $3,300 | $23,000 | $102,200 |
The sum is views ÷ 1,000 × RPM. For 100,000 views at $2.30 that is 100 × $2.30 = $230. The dollar amounts in the table are our arithmetic, not YouTube figures, and they count long-form views only. Shorts pay far less per view and have their own table further down.
Treat the table as a spread of outcomes. The rates are medians for channels that AIR works with, from 10,000 to 50 million subscribers. AIR sells channel audits, and a sample of its own clients may differ from YouTube as a whole. A median also hides the spread inside each niche, which comes later.
How much YouTube pays for 100,000 views
At the all-channel median of $2.30 RPM, 100,000 long-form views earn about $230. Across the niche medians in the AIR study the range is $33 to $1,022. Inside one niche it still moves: AIR puts the middle half of Gaming channels at $0.70 to $3.62 RPM, which is $70 to $362 for 100,000 views (our arithmetic).
If those 100,000 views were Shorts, the figure is much smaller. At AIR's $0.07 to $0.20 per 1,000 Shorts views, 100,000 engaged Shorts views earn $7 to $20. Ad revenue is shared only with Partner Program channels, so a channel outside the programme earns nothing from ads on those views.
How much YouTube pays for 1 million views
The median is about $2,300 for long-form views. The niche medians run from $330 for Kids & Teens to $10,220 for Education & Science. In Education & Science the middle half of channels sits between $2.31 and $19.50 RPM, which is $2,310 to $19,500 per million.
Some sites quote more per million views than this. AIR says the advertiser CPM that third-party tools publish is a pre-cut estimate. It runs roughly 1.5 to 2 times higher than the Studio CPM AIR measured, because it counts only ad impressions and cannot see the views that earn nothing. RPM is what the creator earns per 1,000 views, so it is the number to multiply.
For Shorts a million views is worth about $70 to $200 in most niches, or $328 at the Shorts RPM AIR reports for US audiences. YouTube's own worked example for Shorts lands on $405 for a million engaged views, in an invented month.
RPM and CPM, the two numbers
YouTube Help defines RPM as the money you have earned per 1,000 video views, calculated after YouTube's revenue share. It draws on ads, channel memberships, YouTube Premium, Super Chat and Super Stickers. CPM is the cost per 1,000 ad impressions before YouTube's revenue share. A playback-based CPM is what an advertiser pays for 1,000 video playbacks where an ad is displayed.
Three steps separate CPM from RPM. Only some views show an ad, YouTube keeps its share of what advertisers pay, and other revenue types are added back. Here is the first two with a made-up CPM of $10, which is not a measured rate. With ads on half of the views, 1,000 views earn $5 before the share. At the 55% long-form share that is $2.75, so RPM is $2.75 before any other revenue.
How many views show an ad varies. AIR's median channel showed an ad on 53% of its views, from 77% in Education & Science to 32% in Kids & Teens. The CPM and RPM Calculator takes your revenue, your total views and your monetised playbacks, and shows both rates side by side.
To read your own RPM, open YouTube Studio, go to Analytics and select Revenue. YouTube Help says estimated revenue can be adjusted later for invalid traffic, copyright claims and disputes, and some ad campaign types.
Views are now counted from the first frame
On 24 August 2026 YouTube began counting a view from the first frame, in every format. The older, stricter definition is now called an engaged view. YouTube's blog says engaged views are how you qualify to earn and that the Partner Program is unchanged. YouTube Help says RPM is calculated per 1,000 engaged views. Our reading is that a public count from after that date can run ahead of the engaged views that earn, so use the engaged views figure from Analytics in your sums when you have the choice.
YouTube's share and the Partner Program
YouTube Help's partner earnings page sets the shares by module. On the Watch Page, creators get 55% of net revenue from ads on their public long-form videos. On Shorts, they get 45% of the revenue allocated to them from the Creator Pool, based on their share of views. For channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks the page says 70% of net revenue.
A channel has to be in the YouTube Partner Program to share ad revenue. YouTube Help lists two ways in today, and both need 1,000 subscribers. The first adds 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months. The second adds 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Watch hours from Shorts in the Shorts Feed do not count toward the 4,000.
The Monetization Calculator checks a channel against 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, then estimates what it could earn each month from ads once it is in.
From 1 February 2027 the bar rises for new applicants. A YouTube Blog post dated 10 August 2026 gives the new thresholds for ad and Premium revenue sharing as 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Existing members do not have to meet them. YouTube Help also ties a separate requirement to the same date: 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to share in Shorts ad and Premium revenue each month.
Our guide to making a YouTube channel covers what the Partner Program needs and the settings worth changing before you apply.
Shorts against long-form
Shorts earn from a shared pool. YouTube Help says the ad revenue earned between Shorts in the Shorts Feed is pooled each month. The pool rewards creators and covers music licensing. A creator's allocation is their share of engaged views from monetising creators in each country, and the creator keeps 45% of it.
YouTube Help works an example for a hypothetical Country A. There are 100 million engaged Shorts views and $100,000 of Shorts Feed ad revenue. $10,000 covers music licensing, which leaves a $90,000 Creator Pool. A Short with 1 million engaged views holds 1% of the views, so its allocation is 1% × $90,000 = $900. The creator keeps 45% of that, $405, which is $0.405 per 1,000 engaged views.
Measured rates are lower. AIR pulled Shorts data from the YouTube Analytics API for 274 channels and found Shorts RPM between $0.07 and $0.20 per 1,000 views in most niches. AIR puts Shorts RPM at 3% to 14% of long-form RPM in most niches. Music is the exception, because of Content ID revenue. For US audiences AIR reports $0.328.
| Engaged Shorts views | AIR low, $0.07 RPM | AIR high, $0.20 RPM | AIR US audience, $0.328 RPM | YouTube example, $0.405 RPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100,000 | $7 | $20 | $32.80 | $40.50 |
| 1 million | $70 | $200 | $328 | $405 |
| 10 million | $700 | $2,000 | $3,280 | $4,050 |
The dollar amounts are our arithmetic on those four rates. The Shorts Monetization Calculator shows where a channel sits against both Partner Program tiers, including the 2027 rise.
Length also changed. A Short can now run to three minutes if it was uploaded on or after 15 October 2024, and our guide to how long YouTube Shorts can be covers the rule and the music limits.
Why niche moves the number
Advertisers pay more to reach some audiences, and some content leaves more room for ads. AIR's niche medians show both effects. The last column is the share of views that showed an ad.
| Niche | Median RPM | Middle half of channels | Views that show an ad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education & Science | $10.22 | $2.31 to $19.50 | 77% |
| Lifestyle | $2.98 | $1.77 to $5.24 | 61% |
| Entertainment | $2.43 | $0.88 to $5.02 | 55% |
| Gadgets & Tech | $2.33 | $0.70 to $3.71 | 34% |
| Gaming | $2.05 | $0.70 to $3.62 | 55% |
| Health & Sport | $1.23 | $0.72 to $1.53 | 44% |
| Kids & Teens | $0.33 | $0.16 to $0.88 | 32% |
The table shows seven of AIR's 13 niches. Business & Finance, a niche often assumed to pay most, had a median of $2.01 RPM, but it came from fewer than ten channels. AIR marks it, Transport, News & Politics and Food & Cooking as directional for that reason, and none of the four is in the table.
The spread inside a niche can be wider than the gap between niches. In Education & Science the top quarter of channels earned 8.4 times the bottom quarter, $19.50 against $2.31 RPM (our division). Gaming ran from $0.70 to $3.62. AIR also found little link between subscriber count and RPM, with small channels at about $2.14 and medium channels at about $2.04.
Why country moves the number
AIR says advertisers pay for purchasing power, not language. Its CPM data from more than 3,000 channels, published in June 2025, shows how far apart countries sit. These are advertiser CPMs, before YouTube's share and before views without an ad drop out, so RPM is lower in every country. The table picks five from each end of AIR's list of ten.
| Higher-paying audience | CPM per 1,000 | Lower-paying audience | CPM per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $14.67 | India | $0.74 |
| Australia | $13.30 | Egypt | $0.69 |
| Switzerland | $12.98 | Pakistan | $0.53 |
| Canada | $9.93 | Bangladesh | $0.53 |
| United Kingdom | $8.91 | Yemen | $0.48 |
By our division the US figure is about 20 times India's and about 31 times Yemen's. Language does not decide it. A channel published in English can still land low if most of its viewers watch from lower-paying countries, and AIR points to the Geography report under Audience in YouTube Studio to see your own mix.
For Shorts, AIR's partner data gives RPM of $0.328 for the US, $0.193 for Australia, $0.166 for the UK, $0.165 for Canada and $0.163 for Germany. A million Shorts views at those rates is $328, $193, $166, $165 and $163.
Other things that move RPM
- Season. AIR's pooled monthly median peaked at $2.35 in November and fell to $1.56 in January, about 34% lower. A screenshot from one good month overstates a year.
- Ad breaks. YouTube Help says you can turn on mid-roll ads for videos longer than 8 minutes. More ad slots can mean more ads per view.
- Views without an ad. AIR notes that ad-blocker and YouTube Premium viewers generate no standard ad revenue. Premium viewers still add to a separate pool, which YouTube Help says RPM includes.
- Adjustments. Invalid traffic, copyright claims and disputes can change estimated revenue after the fact.
How to work out your own number
- Open YouTube Studio, go to Analytics, select Revenue and set the date range you care about.
- Read the RPM for that range.
- Divide your views by 1,000, then multiply by the RPM.
- To plan the other way round, divide the target by the RPM and multiply by 1,000.
- Compare the RPM with the niche medians above. A rate far below your niche's middle half points to something to look at: the share of views with ads, your audience countries or your ad breaks.
To earn $1,000 from long-form views you need $1,000 ÷ $2.30 × 1,000, about 435,000 views, at the all-channel median. At $10.22 it is about 98,000 views and at $0.33 about 3.0 million. These are our sums.
If you have no RPM yet, the Earnings Calculator runs the longer sum from views, a niche, an audience-country tier and the share of views with an ad, and shows each step. It works from CPM presets, so its output will not match the measured RPM table here exactly.
The Views to Revenue Converter turns the view count of one video into an ad revenue range for a content category and an audience tier.
Questions people ask
How much does YouTube pay per view?
There is no fixed rate. At AIR Media-Tech's median RPM of $2.30 per 1,000 views, a long-form view earns about $0.0023, or 0.23 US cents. Niche medians run from $0.33 to $10.22 per 1,000, which is about 0.03 to 1.02 cents a view. The per-view figures are our arithmetic.
How much does YouTube pay for 1,000 views?
About $2.30 at the all-channel median, and $0.33 to $10.22 across the niche medians in AIR's study. A thousand views is a small sample, so one video can sit far from the median.
How much does YouTube pay for 10,000 views?
About $23 at the median. The niche medians give $3.30 to $102.20 (our arithmetic on AIR's RPM figures).
How much does YouTube pay for 100k views?
About $230 at the median RPM of $2.30, with niche medians giving $33 to $1,022. For Shorts at $0.07 to $0.20 per 1,000 engaged views it is $7 to $20.
How much does YouTube pay for 1 million views?
About $2,300 at the median for long-form views, and $330 to $10,220 across niche medians. In Education & Science the middle half of channels earned $2,310 to $19,500 per million.
How much does YouTube pay for 10 million views?
About $23,000 at the median RPM, or $3,300 to $102,200 across the niche medians. Those are long-form figures and our arithmetic.
How much does YouTube pay for 1 million Shorts views?
Most niches earn $70 to $200 per million in AIR's data, and US audiences about $328. YouTube's own help page works an example that gives $405 for a million engaged views, using invented figures for a hypothetical country.
Why do some sites quote more per million views?
AIR says the advertiser CPM that third-party tools publish is a pre-cut estimate, roughly 1.5 to 2 times the Studio CPM it measured. RPM is the creator's rate per 1,000 views, so multiply that instead.
Does YouTube pay for every view?
No. Ad revenue needs a Partner Program channel and a view that shows an ad. AIR's median channel showed an ad on 53% of its views. Revenue types such as Premium and memberships are added into RPM.
How many views do I need to make $1,000?
About 435,000 long-form views at the $2.30 median, about 98,000 at $10.22 and about 3.0 million at $0.33. Divide $1,000 by your RPM and multiply by 1,000.
When does a channel start earning from views?
When it is accepted into the Partner Program. Today that takes 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 qualified watch hours or 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days. From 1 February 2027 new applicants need 8,000 hours or 20 million Shorts views.
How reliable are the RPM figures here?
They are medians from AIR Media-Tech's own clients, taken from Studio data between May 2025 and May 2026. AIR sells audits, four niches had fewer than ten channels, and your RPM will differ. YouTube does not publish RPM by niche.
Sources
- YouTube Help. YouTube partner earnings overview. support.google.com· Checked 15 October 2026.
- YouTube Help. Understand ad revenue analytics. support.google.com· Checked 15 October 2026.
- YouTube Help. YouTube Partner Program overview & eligibility. support.google.com· Checked 15 October 2026.
- YouTube Help. YouTube Shorts monetization policies. support.google.com· Checked 15 October 2026.
- YouTube Help. Check your YouTube revenue. support.google.com· Checked 15 October 2026.
- YouTube Help. YouTube advertising formats. support.google.com· Checked 15 October 2026.
- YouTube Blog. New opportunities to earn and changes to the YouTube Partner Program, by The YouTube Team, 10 August 2026. blog.youtube· Checked 15 October 2026.
- YouTube Blog. What are 'Engaged' Views on YouTube?, 19 August 2026. blog.youtube· Checked 15 October 2026.
- AIR Media-Tech. How Much Does YouTube Really Pay in 2026? Real RPM Data From 300 Channels, by Mariia Loboda, 1 July 2026. air.io· Checked 15 October 2026.
- AIR Media-Tech. YouTube Shorts RPM vs long-form: real monetization data from 274 channels. air.io· Checked 15 October 2026.
- AIR Media-Tech. How Much Does YouTube Pay for 1 Million Views in 2026? (country CPM table, data published June 2025). air.io· Checked 15 October 2026.
Written by Faisal Ashfaq. Faisal Ashfaq maintains the YouTubeScribe caption extractor at Deeporax AI LTD in Oldham. He writes the under-the-hood notes on timed text.
Reviewed on 15 October 2026. If a line is wrong, email support@youtubescribe.com.