YouTube Shorts earnings
YouTube Shorts Money Calculator
Estimate what a YouTube Shorts account your size earns per month from Shorts ad revenue sharing, brand deals, and affiliate links.
Estimated monthly earnings
$9,834–$67,255
Most likely around $24,852 per month, or $298,224 per year.
Platform ad revenue
2,000,000 views at an effective RPM of $0.02–$0.13
$102
$34.00–$255
Brand deals
2 sponsored integrations per month at $4,000–$20,000 each
$18,000
$8,000–$40,000
Affiliate income
Estimated from click-through and conversion on your monthly views at a $15 average commission
$6,750
$1,800–$27,000
These are estimates, not guarantees. Creator payouts vary widely with watch time, seasonality, advertiser demand, and platform policy changes. Figures are modelled from publicly reported creator RPMs and published rate cards — see our methodology for how each band was derived. Nothing here is financial advice.
Quick answer
YouTube Shorts pay roughly $0.02 to $0.15 per 1,000 views, with most creators reporting $0.04 to $0.07. One million Shorts views typically pays $20 to $150.
YouTube Shorts earnings by views
| Views | Low ($0.02 RPM) | High ($0.15 RPM) |
|---|---|---|
| 100,000 | $2 | $15 |
| 1,000,000 | $20 | $150 |
| 10,000,000 | $200 | $1,500 |
| 50,000,000 | $1,000 | $7,500 |
About the YouTube Shorts Money Calculator
YouTube Shorts pays from a shared revenue pool rather than per-video ad auctions. Ad money from the Shorts feed is collected centrally, music licensing costs are paid out of it first, and creators receive 45 percent of what remains, allocated by share of views. The practical result is an RPM of roughly $0.02 to $0.15 per 1,000 views — somewhere between 40 and 80 times lower than long-form YouTube. This calculator makes that gap concrete: a million Shorts views typically pays $20 to $150, a number that surprises creators who have seen long-form RPM figures quoted online. Shorts views do count toward Partner Program eligibility, and Shorts remain an excellent discovery engine, but treating them as a direct income source rarely works. The estimate therefore also models brand deals and affiliate income, which is where almost every full-time Shorts creator actually earns.
What people use it for
- Find out what a viral Short with a million views actually pays
- Compare Shorts income against the same effort spent on long-form video
- Decide whether to keep chasing Shorts volume or pivot to brand deals
- Set realistic expectations before quitting a job to post Shorts
- Estimate how Shorts views contribute to Partner Program eligibility
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Questions people ask
How much does YouTube Shorts pay per 1,000 views?
Roughly $0.02 to $0.15 per 1,000 views, with most creators reporting $0.04 to $0.07. This is far below long-form YouTube because Shorts revenue comes from a shared pool that pays music licensing costs before creators are allocated their 45 percent share.
How much does 1 million YouTube Shorts views pay?
Typically $20 to $150, and commonly around $50. The same million views on long-form YouTube would usually pay somewhere between $1,200 and $8,000, which is why Shorts are best treated as a discovery channel rather than a revenue channel.
Do Shorts count toward YouTube monetisation requirements?
Yes. You can qualify for the Partner Program with 1,000 subscribers plus 10 million valid Shorts views in the previous 90 days, as an alternative to the 4,000 watch hours path. Shorts views count for eligibility even though they pay far less.
Why do Shorts pay so much less than regular YouTube videos?
Long-form videos run ads attached to that specific video, and the creator gets 55 percent of that video's ad revenue. Shorts ads appear between videos in a feed, so revenue is pooled, music licensing is deducted first, and creators split 45 percent of the remainder by view share.
Can you make a living from YouTube Shorts?
From the revenue share alone, almost never — you would need tens of millions of monthly views. Creators who go full time on Shorts do it through brand deals, affiliate links, and driving traffic to a product or a long-form channel.
Are Shorts worth making if they barely pay?
For most channels, yes. Shorts are currently the cheapest reliable way to reach new viewers on YouTube, and subscribers gained through Shorts can be converted to long-form watch time, which does pay well.