[0:00] So, inside this makeshift piggybank is
[0:02] exactly how much we made from our
[0:04] highest earning YouTube short over the
[0:06] last year.
[0:10] But, before I show you what's inside
[0:12] here, I need you to do me a little
[0:13] favor.
[0:14] Go down to the comments and put in your
[0:17] own guess.
[0:18] How much do you think 2.5 million
[0:21] YouTube shorts views pays in this day
[0:24] and age?
[0:27] Written it down? Good. Because I
[0:29] guarantee half of you are going to feel
[0:31] really good about your guess.
[0:33] And the other half are going to be
[0:35] really confused about how YouTube works.
[0:38] Either way, I spent the last few weeks
[0:40] going through every single YouTube short
[0:42] we've posted on this channel in 2025 and
[0:45] into 2026. The views, the revenue, the
[0:47] RPM, all of it. And I'm about to expose
[0:50] what I found across our channel. And not
[0:52] only that, we're going to back this up
[0:53] with data from other channels from
[0:55] different niches to see what they've
[0:57] been making as well.
[1:01] Now, here's the thing that most people
[1:03] get wrong about YouTube shorts. They
[1:05] assume that with more views comes more
[1:08] revenue. Yeah, it's not as simple as
[1:10] that. The numbers tell a really
[1:12] interesting, contrasting story. So, as I
[1:15] mentioned earlier, this YouTube short
[1:16] got us 2.5 million views, which is not
[1:19] too shabby. And it made us
[1:25] $178.
[1:32] Thank you, but YouTube calculates the
[1:34] revenue of a short based on engaged
[1:37] views. That's how many people actually
[1:39] watch a short for a certain length of
[1:41] time as opposed to swiping immediately
[1:43] to the next short. Why YouTube has two
[1:46] different metrics for views?
[1:49] I don't know, you'll have to ask them
[1:50] yourself. So, when we factor that in,
[1:52] the number of engaged views plummets to
[1:55] just over a million. And those are the
[1:57] views that earn the YouTube short money.
[2:00] And for every 1,000 engaged views on
[2:02] this particular YouTube short, it pays
[2:05] 16 cents
[2:07] or around about 10 English pennies.
[2:11] However, although this short got a lot
[2:14] less engaged views, just 40,000 of them,
[2:18] it made $23.
[2:20] And that's an RPM of almost 60 cents,
[2:23] which is basically four times as much.
[2:30] So, one short is earning four times more
[2:33] revenue per view than another. But, the
[2:36] one earning more revenue has 40 times
[2:40] fewer views. So, why such the big
[2:42] difference? Well, let's dig into those
[2:43] three letters I've already casually
[2:46] tossed into this conversation.
[2:48] RPM.
[2:51] Now, the technical term RPM stands for
[2:53] revenue per mille, but you don't really
[2:55] need to understand that, to be honest.
[2:57] What you need to know is that RPM
[2:58] calculates the money you earn per 1,000
[3:01] YouTube shorts views. Those are engaged
[3:04] views remember.
[3:06] As we've already shown you in the two
[3:07] examples so far, one short earned 16
[3:10] cents per 1,000 views, while another one
[3:13] earned 59 cents per 1,000 views. Now,
[3:16] that in itself is pretty simple, right?
[3:19] But, here's where things get really
[3:20] interesting. RPM, as we've already shown
[3:24] you, is not a fixed number. YouTube
[3:26] doesn't assign you a RPM for your
[3:29] channel. On the contrary, RPMs vary
[3:32] wildly from one YouTube short to the
[3:34] next. Across all of our shorts in 2025
[3:37] and leading into 2026, the average RPM
[3:40] on our channel sits at around about 13
[3:43] cents per 1,000 views. And the good news
[3:45] is, for shorts creators in general, is
[3:49] that RPMs over time continue to be
[3:53] yeah, trending upwards. So, in summary,
[3:55] with admittedly a lot of fluctuations,
[3:58] that means more revenue for all. But,
[4:00] watch what happens when you look at
[4:02] individual shorts.
[4:05] There are huge variations. This short
[4:08] about YouTube demonetization, around 75
[4:11] cents per 1,000 views. Again, that's
[4:13] another one with four times our average
[4:16] RPM. And this one about a YouTube
[4:18] update, 53 cents per 1,000 views, more
[4:20] than three times our average. But,
[4:22] obviously, if some shorts have a much
[4:24] higher RPM than others have to
[4:27] underperform. This short about the best
[4:29] time to post your videos on YouTube got
[4:31] 150,000 views, but made only 9 cents per
[4:35] 1,000 views, below our own average
[4:37] despite the higher view count. So, it's
[4:39] the same channel, and it should be the
[4:40] same audience and the same team making
[4:42] the content, but completely different
[4:45] RPMs for every single video. And it's
[4:47] not just us who are seeing those
[4:49] patterns.
[4:49] >> And how much did this 4.5 million view
[4:52] short pay me? It gave me 9,600
[4:55] subscribers. That is crazy. And it paid
[4:57] me $158.
[4:59] You know what I mean? Like, oh, what is
[5:00] this? 5 cents per 1,000 views. 99.7%
[5:05] stayed to watch. 99.7,
[5:08] what is that? I've never seen such stats
[5:09] before. How is that even possible?
[5:12] So, the views were massive, and the
[5:14] retention was nigh on perfect. But, the
[5:17] RPM, quite frankly, was shambolic. Now,
[5:20] compare that to his main channel.
[5:22] >> 10 million views, guys. 10 million
[5:24] views. How much does 10 million views of
[5:27] YouTube shorts pay? $1,105
[5:30] from a 56-second video that took half an
[5:34] hour to make. That's kind of bonkers,
[5:35] isn't it? And if we look at the revenue,
[5:37] it pays pretty much the average 20 cents
[5:39] per 1,000 views. Wow. So, double the
[5:42] views, but more than six times the
[5:44] revenue at over $1,000. It's the same
[5:47] creator, but the RPM made all of the
[5:49] difference. So, now that you understand
[5:51] that RPMs can be pretty agile, let's get
[5:54] into our full numbers. Every major short
[5:57] we posted in 2025, what it made, and
[6:01] what
[6:03] we can learn from it. We've posted over
[6:06] 160 shorts in 2025 and into 2026. And
[6:10] here are the five biggest by engaged
[6:12] views. The first one you already know
[6:14] about, 1.1 million engaged views and
[6:17] $178 revenue earned. And this is what
[6:20] these 1 million people were engaging
[6:22] with. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. How?
[6:30] And why? Here's another one with 1.1
[6:33] million engaged views, but only $145
[6:36] earned this time because of a slightly
[6:38] lower RPM. But, this next one has just
[6:40] over 800,000 views, so that's 300,000
[6:43] less views than the previous short, but
[6:46] it's earned three more dollars at 148
[6:49] thanks to its higher CPM. And this one
[6:52] is just about to crack 800,000 engaged
[6:55] views, but now we're earning less than
[6:57] $100 because the RPM just isn't high
[6:59] enough this time. And finally, this
[7:01] short, ironically about how much YouTube
[7:03] pays me for YouTube shorts, got a little
[7:06] over half a million engaged views and
[7:09] $80 in revenue. All right, then. So, as
[7:11] a quick calculation,
[7:15] that's 4.3 million views in total, which
[7:18] has brought us in
[7:22] carry over one.
[7:23] $652.
[7:26] That's an RPM on our biggest YouTube
[7:28] shorts on the channel of
[7:34] 15 cents, which is slightly higher than
[7:37] the channel's average. And just in case
[7:38] you enjoyed that, here's a little bit
[7:40] more touchscreen tapping ASMR.
[7:46] Like and subscribe.
[7:47] >> It's clear then that making money from
[7:48] YouTube shorts still continues to be
[7:50] what you might call a quantity game. To
[7:52] live sustainably from that type of
[7:54] content, you will need tens of millions,
[7:57] if not hundreds of millions of shorts
[7:59] views per month. That's if we're just
[8:01] talking about ad revenue from YouTube
[8:03] shorts. Because there's something really
[8:05] interesting to look at that most
[8:07] creators probably miss. This short,
[8:09] relatively speaking, has an astronomical
[8:12] RPM. And that's because the majority of
[8:14] its revenue comes from
[8:16] YouTube memberships.
[8:18] Yeah, someone has signed up to the VidIQ
[8:20] membership that gives you custom emojis
[8:23] from this short and has been a member
[8:25] ever since. So, cheers, whoever that is.
[8:28] You see, the monthly recurring revenue
[8:31] from that membership is attributed to
[8:33] this short and its RPM. And that's the
[8:35] subtle difference between CPMs and RPMs.
[8:38] CPMs only concern themselves with ad
[8:41] revenue. RPM includes everything from
[8:43] memberships to super chats to super
[8:45] thanks. In other words, the community
[8:47] directly supporting the channel. So,
[8:48] once again, I say cheers to all of you
[8:51] who've been doing that over the years.
[8:52] Because now I've dug into the data, it
[8:54] happens a lot more than I thought. The
[8:56] highlight of which is this short that
[8:58] not only has membership purchases, but
[9:00] also some super thanks as well that
[9:02] pulled the RPM up to an insane 76 cents.
[9:06] So, maybe instead of wasting time in
[9:08] your YouTube short asking people to
[9:10] press this,
[9:13] instead, you should encourage them to do
[9:15] this.
[9:16] So, that is our channel, but how does
[9:18] this look across the entire YouTube
[9:21] landscape? Different creators, different
[9:23] content, different sizes, different
[9:25] niches. Because this is where things get
[9:27] really intriguing.
[9:31] Let's start off with a big creator,
[9:33] Nathan. After 10.8 million views, we
[9:37] ended up receiving $1,502
[9:41] dollars.
[9:41] >> Nathan has multiple YouTube channels, by
[9:43] the way. The biggest of which has 20
[9:45] million subscribers. So, let's check out
[9:47] a smaller creator, a consistent poster,
[9:50] no viral moments, they're just showing
[9:52] up every single day.
[9:53] >> This is my performance. This, $18.80.
[9:59] My shorts gave me $400
[10:02] and 67 cents. And then my live stream
[10:06] gave me $6. That is lifestyle content
[10:08] and they are making 94% of their total
[10:12] YouTube revenue from shorts and feeling
[10:14] pretty good about it.
[10:15] >> So those of you who are saying "Shorts
[10:18] don't pay. I'm not doing shorts. Shorts
[10:21] don't pay."
[10:23] Like what are you waiting for?
[10:25] >> And then there is this.
[10:26] >> And my audience watched 266 million
[10:30] views, which was mainly YouTube shorts.
[10:32] That sounds like a lot of views, which
[10:34] it is. In 2024, YouTube paid me
[10:37] $29,824.08,
[10:41] which I'm thankful for, but honestly,
[10:43] it's not that much money when you're
[10:45] considering how many videos I had to
[10:47] post.
[10:47] >> Let me try and put that into some sort
[10:48] of context. A quarter of a billion views
[10:52] for less than $30,000 in revenue.
[10:55] Average salary in the US
[10:58] is around about $60,000. And if we put
[11:01] all of these engaged views through the
[11:03] RPM meat grinder, that is a return of 11
[11:06] cents per 1,000 views. Admittedly, a
[11:09] couple of years ago, so it might be a
[11:11] little higher these days. But even so,
[11:13] the creator themselves admits that they
[11:15] can't make enough money from their
[11:17] content by just ad revenue alone.
[11:19] >> Luckily, I have awesome brands that have
[11:21] supported me through the years, which
[11:23] makes it possible to do this full-time
[11:25] because I think I spend a little bit
[11:27] more than that every single year just on
[11:29] travel alone.
[11:30] >> So yeah, the creators making real money
[11:32] from YouTube shorts aren't just looking
[11:34] at the ad revenue numbers. Instead, they
[11:37] are building
[11:38] highly engaged audiences who support
[11:41] them through memberships and super
[11:43] thanks and brand deals, shopping for
[11:46] products, and a whole host of other
[11:48] income revenue streams. Shorts are just
[11:50] the top of the funnel.
[11:54] The ad revenue is just the beginning. So
[11:56] the question for you in the future might
[11:58] not be how much does YouTube pay me for
[12:01] my YouTube shorts? It should be more
[12:03] along the lines of how much does my
[12:05] audience pay me for the value I offer.
[12:08] And if you want to understand exactly
[12:11] what keeps your top of monetization
[12:13] funnel healthy
[12:15] and what helps you get your shorts
[12:16] monetized, but also what might get them
[12:19] flagged, we sat down with a YouTube
[12:21] employee recently who revealed pretty
[12:23] much everything and you can watch it
[12:25] over here.