YouTube Money Calculator

Which numbers should you enter?

1. In YouTube Studio, open Analytics, then the Revenue tab, and note your RPM for the last 28 or 90 days.
2. Note your long-form views for the same period from the Overview tab. Leave Shorts out; they are paid differently.
3. Enter the monthly views and your RPM. The estimate updates as you type.
4. No RPM yet? Leave it empty to see the range from the lowest to the highest niche median in the AIR Media-Tech data.

The range is wide on purpose. A cooking vlog and a science explainer can sit several dollars apart per 1,000 views, and two channels in the same niche can differ by more than that.

How does the formula work?

YouTube defines RPM as your total revenue per 1,000 views, after its revenue share. That makes the formula simple: views ÷ 1,000 × RPM. RPM already absorbs three things people often forget to deduct: YouTube’s share (creators keep 55% of net ad revenue on Watch Page videos), views that never showed an ad, and differences in how many ads each view carried.

Example, with hypothetical numbers. A channel gets 180,000 long-form views in a month.

If this channel’s Studio shows an RPM of $3.10, its own estimate is 180 × $3.10 = $558. That number beats any table, because it reflects the channel’s real audience.

Why do niche RPMs differ so much?

AIR Media-Tech’s Studio data, from 300 channels it works with, puts Education & Science at a $10.22 median and Kids & Teens at $0.33. Its key finding is that the spread inside a niche is often wider than the gap between niches: the top quarter of Education channels earned $19.50 per 1,000 views, the bottom quarter $2.31. The median channel in the sample monetized only 53% of its views. Audience country, video length (longer videos can carry mid-roll ads) and what share of viewers see an ad all move the result.

What about Shorts?

Shorts revenue comes from a monthly Creator Pool shared by engaged views, and you keep 45% of your allocation. Per view it is much lower: AIR Media-Tech measured Shorts RPMs of $0.02 to $1.48 by niche across 274 channels, roughly 3% to 14% of long-form RPM. From February 1, 2027, earning from the pool in a given month also requires 10 million qualified Shorts views over the past 90 days. Our guide to Shorts vs long-form views explains which views count for what.

How do you raise your YouTube earnings?

Get into the Partner Program first; the 1,000 subscribers guide lays out every threshold. Then work on watch time and on videos long enough to carry mid-rolls without padding. Teaching-style videos topped the niche table in the AIR Media-Tech data, so a clear how-to angle is worth testing in any niche.

Paid views do not belong in any income plan: YouTube’s policy on buying views and subscribers explains why they never earn. If you run a channel that doesn’t monetize, such as a band, a brand or a new channel testing a trailer, and want an early push for one video, you can buy YouTube views for that video alone. The glossary explains RPM, CPM and watch time in plain English.