Free Tool
YouTube Revenue Estimator
Nobody can tell you what your channel will earn, because the number that matters — your CPM — belongs to your channel, your audience and your month. What a calculator can do is show scenarios: if these are your numbers, this is what they would pay.
Planning estimate, not financial advice. Outputs are labelled scenarios from assumptions you enter — never earnings predictions. CPM is entered by you from your own YouTube Analytics; no niche CPM table is presented as fact. All figures on this page are estimates or scenarios for planning purposes only. They are not financial, tax or legal advice, and no earnings are promised. Read the full financial disclaimer.
What this tool does
Enter your monthly views, your CPM (cost per 1,000 ad impressions, from your own YouTube Analytics — use your real one, not a table from the internet), the percentage of your views that actually play an ad (your monetised-playback rate, also in Analytics), and the format. Long-form videos pay the creator 55% of ad revenue under YouTube's published Partner Program terms; Shorts pay 45% of the pooled Shorts revenue. The calculator shows three scenarios — low, base and high CPM — and the RPM each implies.
The scenario framing is deliberate. A single "your channel will earn $X" figure would be a lie: CPM moves with viewer country, niche, season and advertiser demand, and a CPM table copied from another site is that site's average, not yours. The low scenario (70% of your CPM) and high scenario (150% of your CPM) are labelled illustrative multipliers so you can see the range your month could land in, instead of a false single number.
The page also states the current YouTube Partner Program thresholds, dated: for new applicants for ad revenue from 1 February 2027, the full tier requires 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 qualified watch hours in 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days. Until then, the requirement is 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours in 12 months, or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. Shorts feed views never count toward watch hours, and the two paths never mix. Thresholds change — check YouTube's own Partner Program page (YouTube Help) before relying on any figure here. Last checked 14 November 2026.
Try it
Waiting. Enter your views, your own CPM and your monetised-playback rate, and press Estimate scenarios. The results are labelled scenarios, not predictions.
How it works
One formula drives all three scenarios. Base monthly revenue: (monthly views divided by 1,000) multiplied by CPM, multiplied by the monetised-playback rate as a decimal, multiplied by the creator share as a decimal. RPM (revenue per 1,000 views): CPM multiplied by the monetised-playback rate multiplied by the creator share. The low scenario multiplies the base revenue by 0.70 and the high scenario by 1.50 — labelled illustrative multipliers that show the spread, not measured bands.
Why the monetised-playback rate matters: not every view plays an ad. Viewers with ad blockers, Premium subscribers and viewers in regions with thin ad inventory all lower it, typically to somewhere around half of views. Using 100% here is the most common way revenue estimates get inflated.
For Shorts, the simple formula is only an approximation: Shorts revenue comes from a pooled model, not per-view ads, so the 45% share does not behave like the long-form 55%. The page flags that openly rather than hiding it.
Assumptions and limitations
These are scenarios, not predictions — change any assumption and the answer changes. The calculator does not model tax, channel memberships, Super Chat, sponsorships, affiliate income, or the months before a channel is monetised at all (zero revenue until the Partner Program thresholds are met). It does not model the Shorts pooled-revenue system properly, and it cannot know your real CPM — entering a CPM copied from a table makes the output a copy of someone else's average, not your channel's number.
- CPM is user-entered only, from your own YouTube Analytics. No niche or country CPM table is presented as fact anywhere on this page.
- YPP thresholds are dated (last checked 14 November 2026) and must be re-checked on YouTube's own Partner Program page — they change, and the February 2027 change is exactly the kind of move that makes stale pages wrong.
- Monetised-playback rate above 100% or below 0% is rejected. A rate of 100% is almost certainly wrong — check Analytics.
- Views and CPM of zero produce zero revenue, which is correct: an unmonetised channel earns nothing from ads, however many views it gets.
Worked example
Example (illustrative inputs, not a real channel's earnings). A long-form channel gets 100,000 views a month, with a CPM of $6 entered as an example from its own Analytics, a monetised-playback rate of 55%, and the 55% creator share. Base monthly revenue: (100,000 ÷ 1,000) × $6 × 0.55 × 0.55 = 100 × $6 × 0.3025 = $181.50. RPM: $6 × 0.55 × 0.55 = $1.82 per 1,000 views. Low scenario (70% of base CPM): $127.05. High scenario (150%): $272.25. The channel's month lands somewhere in that $127–$272 range if the assumptions hold — and the assumptions move every month, which is why the answer is a range, not a figure.
Frequently asked questions
Why will this page not just tell me what my channel will earn?
Because the number that decides it — your CPM — is yours alone. It depends on your viewers' countries, your niche, the season and advertiser demand, and it changes monthly. Any page that gives one figure without your CPM is either copying someone else's average or inventing one. Scenarios from your own CPM are the honest version.
Where do I find my CPM and monetised-playback rate?
In YouTube Studio, under Analytics, then Revenue: CPM is shown there, and the monetised-playback rate is the share of views that played an ad. Use your channel's own figures, averaged over a few months — a single good month will flatter the estimate.
What are the current YouTube Partner Program thresholds?
For new applicants for ad revenue from 1 February 2027: 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 qualified watch hours in 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days. Until then: 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours in 12 months, or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. Shorts feed views never count toward watch hours. Last checked 14 November 2026 — verify on YouTube's own Partner Program page, because thresholds change.
Why are the low and high scenarios 70% and 150% of my CPM?
They are labelled illustrative multipliers, not measured bands — a simple way to show the spread a month can land in. CPM moves with season and advertiser demand, so a single-point estimate hides the real uncertainty. If your own CPM history is wider than that range, use your own history instead.
Does this include Shorts revenue properly?
No — the simple formula is only an approximation for Shorts, because Shorts revenue comes from a pooled model rather than per-view ads. The 45% share is applied here so the shape of the answer is visible, but treat Shorts results as rougher than long-form ones.
My channel is not monetised yet. What does this tool tell me?
What your views would pay if the channel were monetised at those assumptions — nothing more. Until the Partner Program thresholds are met, ad revenue is zero regardless of views. The thresholds above are the first thing to check.