---
title: 'How Much YouTube ACTUALLY Pays for Shorts in 2026?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=nvSrftWNu-w'
video_id: 'nvSrftWNu-w'
date: 2026-06-17
duration_sec: 0
---

# How Much YouTube ACTUALLY Pays for Shorts in 2026?

> Source: [How Much YouTube ACTUALLY Pays for Shorts in 2026?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nvSrftWNu-w)

## Summary

The video reveals the actual earnings from YouTube Shorts, debunking the myth that more views automatically mean more money. It explains the critical role of RPM (Revenue Per Mille) and engaged views in determining revenue. The creator shares data from their own channel and other creators to illustrate the wide variation in earnings.

### Key Points

- **High views, low revenue example** [1:25] — A short with 2.5 million views earned only $178, with an RPM of 16 cents per 1,000 engaged views.
- **Low views, high RPM example** [2:20] — A short with 40,000 engaged views earned $23, with an RPM of 59 cents—four times higher than the previous example.
- **Average RPM and variation** [3:40] — The average RPM across the channel was 13 cents per 1,000 views, but individual shorts varied from 9 cents to 76 cents.
- **RPM includes community support** [8:38] — RPM includes not just ad revenue but also memberships, Super Chats, and Super Thanks, which can significantly boost earnings.
- **Large creator low RPM example** [11:06] — A creator with 266 million views earned less than $30,000, with an RPM of 11 cents, showing the need for diversified income.

## Transcript

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