How YouTube pay really works: RPM, CPM and the 55% share

In short

YouTube shares ad revenue: creators get 55% of the ad revenue on their long-form videos and 45% of their share of the Shorts pool.
The number that matters is RPM, what you earn per 1,000 views after YouTube’s share; CPM is what advertisers pay, and it’s normally higher.
Ads need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views; from February 1, 2027, new applicants face a higher bar.

Who pays whom

Advertisers pay YouTube to show ads, and YouTube shares that money with creators in the YouTube Partner Program. On long-form videos, you earn 55% of the revenue from the ads shown on them, plus a share of YouTube Premium subscriptions when Premium members watch.

Shorts work differently. Ad revenue from the Shorts Feed goes into a Creator Pool, which is divided by each creator’s share of engaged views after the cost of any music used; you then keep 45% of what’s allocated to you. And YouTube can run ads on any video, even on channels outside the program, but those channels get no share until they qualify.

RPM, CPM and the gap between them

CPM is what advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions, before YouTube takes its share. RPM is what you actually earn per 1,000 views, after YouTube’s share and across all your revenue: ads, channel memberships, YouTube Premium, Super Chat and Super Stickers. YouTube gives two reasons why RPM is lower: it comes after the revenue share, and it counts every view, including the ones that showed no ad.

YouTube’s own example shows the gap. A video gets 5,000 views; 1,500 of them show ads, for a total of 2,000 ad impressions, and advertisers pay $7. The CPM is $3.50. At a 55% share you get $3.85, which spread over all 5,000 views is $0.77 per 1,000 views. Same video, two numbers, and the one that pays your bills is the smaller one. That’s why figures that quote CPM as if it were pay, or count every view as paid, look bigger than what reaches your account.

What moves your RPM

Your revenue isn’t CPM times views, YouTube explains, because not every view has an ad: videos that aren’t advertiser-friendly get limited or no ads, and some views simply find no ad available. Ad rates move, too. Advertisers bid differently through the year, and many bid higher just before the holidays; rates also vary with where your viewers live.

So two channels with the same views can earn very different amounts. The math itself is simple: earnings = views ÷ 1,000 × RPM. At an RPM of $2, 100,000 views bring in $200; at $5, they bring in $500. Once you’re in the program, YouTube Analytics shows your own RPM; the YouTube earnings calculator does the arithmetic with your numbers.

The calculatorYouTube earnings calculator

Who can earn, and the 2027 changes

Fan funding (channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks) and Shopping open at 500 subscribers, 3 public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 3 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Ad revenue and YouTube Premium revenue need 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days.

YouTube has announced changes from February 1, 2027. New applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours or 20 million qualified Shorts views, still with 1,000 subscribers, while channels already in the program keep their status. To earn from the Shorts pool each month, creators will need 10 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days. The 500-subscriber tier doesn’t change.

The checklistA YouTube video, from idea to upload

Getting paid, and taxes

Earnings go to your AdSense for YouTube account. Each month’s estimate is finalized between the 7th and the 12th of the following month, after adjustments for things like invalid traffic and copyright claims. If your balance reaches $100 by the 20th, you’re paid between the 21st and the 26th; if not, it rolls over. In the UK, the threshold is £60.

Every creator in the program must give Google US tax information. Without it, Google may withhold 24% of your total earnings worldwide; creators outside the US have 0% to 30% withheld on earnings from US viewers, depending on tax treaties. In the US, the IRS says this kind of income is taxable even if you don’t get a tax form, and if you create as a business you may owe self-employment tax of 15.3% on net earnings of $400 or more, plus quarterly estimated payments. In the UK, the £1,000 trading allowance covers small amounts each tax year. A tax professional can tell you how this applies to you.

Sources

Text checked on September 30, 2026

How YouTube pay really works