YouTube Revenue Calculator

RPM is the number YouTube shows you

RPM is revenue per 1,000 views after YouTube has taken its share of the ad money - roughly 45%. It is the number on your YouTube Studio dashboard, and it is what you keep, not the gross ad revenue a brand sees. Because it is already net of the platform cut, multiplying your views by RPM directly gives the money you keep.

The calculator splits your total views by the share you mark as Shorts, prices each half at its own rate (long-form at the RPM you enter, Shorts at a lower one), and adds the two into the monthly figure. That same monthly number times twelve is the yearly total the page shows, so the long view comes from the same arithmetic rather than a separate shortcut.

Shorts pay a fraction of long-form

Short-form has far fewer ads, so its RPM typically runs $0.50-$1 while long-form in a good niche runs $8-$15. The calculator separates the two so a channel that mixes both formats gets an honest combined number rather than one blurred average.

Set the Shorts share to zero if you only make long-form, or only care about its money; the figure then prices every view at the one rate you entered. The split is your input, so the combined result is only as honest as the share you tell it - which is the point of making the assumption explicit instead of burying it.

The real lever is RPM, not just views

A channel that doubles its RPM is doing the same work for twice the money. RPM follows your topic, the countries your audience is in, and the length of your videos - longer, higher-intent content in valuable niches earns more per view.

This is why two channels with the same view count can have very different incomes, and why view count alone never tells you how much a channel makes. The page keeps views and RPM as separate inputs on purpose, so you can hold one still and slide the other to see which lever moves the income most.

Your own Studio number beats any published average

The published ranges are a starting point, but the RPM YouTube shows for your channel is the number that pays you - it already reflects your niche, your audience countries and your video lengths. Run the calculator with that number rather than a hopeful industry figure.

The honest timing check is also RPM over time: a channel’s rate moves with seasons and monetization policy, so this is a snapshot of today’s assumptions, not a lifetime forecast. Memberships, Super Chat and brand deals sit entirely outside ad revenue, so the monthly and yearly figures are the ad-only estimate rather than the channel’s full income.

What RPM does not include

RPM is advertising only. Sponsorships, affiliate links, memberships, merchandise and a channel-owned product usually out-earn AdSense on a finance or tech channel, and none of them appear in the rate YouTube reports - which is why a channel with a $4 RPM can be a business and one reporting $12 can still be a hobby.

YouTube keeps 45% of the ad revenue before the RPM you see is calculated. That is why RPM and CPM are not interchangeable: a $10 CPM on a video does not become $10 of income per thousand views, it becomes about $5.50, and quoting the CPM as take-home is the most common arithmetic mistake in a sponsorship deck.

Music, licensed clips and disputed claims come out before payment. A video using a licensed track can have a share of its revenue routed to the rights holder, and Content ID matches do that automatically without the creator approving anything; short-form is capped further because those videos carry far fewer ad slots.

Geography and season move the number more than effort does. A view from a high-CPM country can be worth ten times a view from a low-CPM one, and January pays more than July for the same audience on the same channel - so compare RPM by month and by country mix rather than across them. A single monthly total hides all three of those differences at once.