YouTube Money Calculator
What your views actually pay: honest RPM math by niche, not influencer-course fantasy numbers
The same views in Finance & Investing would pay $2,350.
Advertisers bid on who is watching, not how many.
What 100k views earns on each platform
Same footage, 24x the money depending on where you post it.
YouTube RPM by niche (2026)
| Niche | RPM range | 1M views pays |
|---|---|---|
| Finance & Investing | $12 to $35 | $12,000 to $35,000 |
| Business & Marketing | $8.00 to $20 | $8,000 to $20,000 |
| Tech & Software | $6.00 to $15 | $6,000 to $15,000 |
| Education & How-To | $4.00 to $10 | $4,000 to $10,000 |
| Health & Fitness | $3.00 to $8.00 | $3,000 to $8,000 |
| Beauty & Fashion | $2.00 to $6.00 | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Food & Cooking | $2.00 to $5.00 | $2,000 to $5,000 |
| Gaming | $1.50 to $4.00 | $1,500 to $4,000 |
| Entertainment & Vlogs | $1.50 to $4.00 | $1,500 to $4,000 |
| Music | $1.00 to $3.00 | $1,000 to $3,000 |
| Shorts (any niche) | $0.05 to $0.18 | $50.00 to $180 |
RPM = what lands in the creator's pocket per 1,000 views, after YouTube's 45% ad-revenue cut. Ranges assume a majority-US audience. Estimates, not guarantees. Your Analytics RPM is the real number.
Why the same views pay wildly different money
YouTube doesn't pay for views. Advertisers do, and they bid on who's watching. A thousand people researching index funds are worth more to advertisers than a thousand people watching gameplay, which is the entire gap between a $2 RPM and a $30 RPM. Format matters just as much: Shorts monetize from a pooled feed model at pennies per thousand, which is why a viral Short with 5 million views can pay less than a long-form video with 50,000.
Geography is the third lever: a US or Norwegian view pays several times an Indian or Filipino view, for the same reason your streaming royalties vary by country. And remember ads are the floor, not the ceiling: established channels typically earn more from sponsorships, affiliates, and their own products than from AdSense. For the full breakdown of how the Partner Program pays, read how much YouTube actually pays.
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