---
title: 'How Much YouTube ACTUALLY Pays Small Channels in 2025'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=XHE1ALkmxdk'
video_id: 'XHE1ALkmxdk'
date: 2026-06-17
duration_sec: 0
---

# How Much YouTube ACTUALLY Pays Small Channels in 2025

> Source: [How Much YouTube ACTUALLY Pays Small Channels in 2025](https://youtube.com/watch?v=XHE1ALkmxdk)

## Summary

This video explores the wide variation in YouTube earnings for small channels in their first month of monetization. It explains that two creators with the same number of views can earn vastly different amounts due to RPM (Revenue Per Mille), which is influenced by niche, audience location, video length, and viewer retention. The video provides real earnings examples and strategies to maximize ad revenue.

### Key Points

- **The Question of Small Channel Earnings** [0:00] — The video starts by asking how much small channels make in their first 30 days of monetization, noting that the answer can range from $10 to $500, depending on various factors.
- **Two Creators, Same Views, Different Payouts** [0:15] — Two creators with almost the same number of views had completely different payouts: one earned enough for a pizza, the other for a Nintendo Switch, illustrating the impact of RPM.
- **RPM vs. CPM Explained** [1:05] — RPM (Revenue Per Mille) is the amount a creator earns per 1,000 views after YouTube's 45% cut. CPM (Cost Per Mille) is what advertisers pay YouTube. RPM is the key metric for creator earnings.
- **Example: Low RPM from Shorts** [3:32] — A creator with 237,000 views earned only $23.79 (RPM ~$0.10) because most views came from YouTube Shorts, which pay 50-100 times less than long-form content.
- **Example: High RPM from Finance Niche** [4:33] — Another creator with similar views earned $684.83 (RPM ~$2.80) due to a high-value niche (personal finance) and a US-based audience.
- **Example: Very High RPM from Niche and Audience** [5:46] — Caleb Bale earned over $200 from just 22,000 views (RPM ~$10) because his finance content targets a high-spending audience, primarily in the US.
- **Variable 1: Niche** [6:14] — Finance, marketing, and educational content have high RPM because advertisers pay more to reach audiences ready to spend money. Entertainment, vlogs, and pranks have lower RPM.
- **Variable 2: Audience Location** [7:22] — Viewers from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia have higher ad rates (CPM >$20), while viewers from India, Indonesia, and the Philippines yield very low CPM (e.g., $0.30).
- **Variable 3: Video Length** [8:31] — Long-form videos (over 8 minutes) allow midroll ads, increasing earnings. A 9-minute video with midroll ads earned $750 more than a shorter video with fewer views.
- **Variable 4: Viewer Retention** [9:56] — Longer watch time means more ads can be shown, making content more valuable. A sticky 6-minute video can outperform a longer video with low retention.
- **Tier 1: Low RPM Niches ($1-$3 per 1,000 views)** [10:44] — Includes entertainment, lifestyle, music, pranks, vlogs, and gaming. These are popular but pay the least due to broad, casual audiences.
- **Tier 2: Mid-RPM Niches ($4-$7 per 1,000 views)** [11:18] — Includes tutorials, productivity, education, and tech reviews. This is the sweet spot for most creators, with better engagement and ad rates.
- **Tier 3: High-RPM Niches ($8-$12+ per 1,000 views)** [11:52] — Includes finance, marketing, and real estate. Advertisers compete fiercely for these audiences, leading to high RPM even for small channels.
- **Strategies to Boost RPM** [12:56] — Make longer, value-packed videos (15 min vs 10 min), target high-value topics (e.g., budget travel → finance), and create problem-solving content to attract higher-paying ads.
- **First Paycheck Reality** [13:06] — The first YouTube paycheck is typically around $100 (the AdSense payout threshold), but it varies. It's proof of passive income potential.

### Conclusion

YouTube earnings for small channels vary dramatically based on RPM, which is driven by niche, audience location, video length, and retention. Creators can boost their RPM by making longer, problem-solving videos and targeting high-value topics, turning their first small paycheck into a foundation for passive income.

## Transcript

Here's a popular YouTube question. How
much do small channels make in their
first 30 days of monetization? $10,
$100, $500? Well, weirdly, it's all of
them. In fact, I found two creators with
almost exactly the same number of views.
One creator earned enough to buy a pizza
with pineapple. Controversial opinion,
I'm a recent convert. I actually like
them. On the other hand, another creator
earned enough to buy a Switch, too.
Oh, yeah. So, two creators with the same
number of views but completely different
payouts. And that's what this video is
all about. I'll not only explain why
this discrepancy in payouts happens, but
I'll also reveal real earnings and real
screenshots from small creators, so
you'll have some idea of what to expect
in your first YouTube paycheck. But it's
always fun to speculate a little bit,
isn't it? So before we dive into the
details, how much do you think your
first YouTube paycheck is going to be
when, not if, when you get monetized?
And if you are already monetized, let us
know what your first paycheck was if you
want to share it. Right? Then why does
YouTube pay some creators more than
others? And is this even fair? To answer
that question, you have to understand
the little acronym that's responsible
for all of this. It's called RPM or
revenue per millie. This basically is
just a fancy way of saying how much
YouTube will pay you for 1,000 views.
But this tiny three-word acronym is a
reason two creators with the same number
of views can earn completely different
amounts of revenue. And to explain that,
let's go for a drive.
[Music]
This is electric. But imagine for a
second that this is a gas car and you're
cruising down the Californian coast with
the windows down and the music booming
and all of a sudden you run out of said
gas. But now let's imagine you're
driving exactly the same car, exactly
the same distance in the UK and you also
run out of gas. Now in California you
can pull into a gas station and you can
probably fill up the car for what around
about $3 to $4 per gallon. But in the
UK, that's a completely different story.
You'll probably expect to pay, goodness,
I don't know, $10 to $12 per gallon. And
the reason I don't really know that is
because I have an electric car. But the
moral of the story is that the same car
travel the same distance and yet they
paid completely different prices.
Whoops.
Yeah, RPM pretty much works in the same
way. Just because two creators both get
10,000 views on one video doesn't mean
that YouTube will pay them the same. And
that's because the viewing conditions
are very different. The RPM is
influenced by what your video is about,
where your viewers live, how long your
video is, and how long people watch the
video for. And just to be clear, RPM is
not to be confused with CPM. They do
sound similar, but they are slightly
different. CPM stands for cost per
millie, and that's what the advertisers
pay YouTube to run ads on your videos.
But you don't get all of that money.
YouTube takes a giant 45% cut of the
CPM. And so that's why we have RPM,
which is a number you actually earn per
1,000 views after YouTube takes its
share. All right, so with all of that
out of the way, let's look at some
actual creators and see how wildly
different their first YouTube paychecks
can be.
>> And you can see that I earned in total
over this month 237,000 views. I gained
413 subscribers and my estimated revenue
for my first month of being monetized on
YouTube as a part of their YouTube
partner program was a whopping $23.79.
>> Yeah, that's 10 cents per 1,000 views.
And why your prize at the end of a month
is a pineapple pizza. I really was under
the impression that I would be gaining
at least $100 a month.
>> Yeah. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that is
simply not the case when most of your
views are coming from YouTube shorts.
They pay a fraction of long form views.
Usually 50 to 100 times less. So to make
any serious cash from shorts, you'll
need to get tens of millions of views
per month, if not more. So that's
something to remember. It's easy to grow
a channel with shorts, but harder to
make a sustainable income.
>> So, since getting monetized on August
23rd, my grand total YouTube earnings so
far is $684.83.
>> Hang on a second. Savage.
Any relation?
>> No. Rob, is everyone with the last name
Wilson related to you? Savage is a very
common last name here in America.
>> Fair enough. Moving on. So, this channel
with roughly the same amount of views as
the previous channel has earned 30 times
more revenue because the RPM is around
about $280, which is so much higher.
>> I can't even tell you how many videos
just like this I've watched trying to
figure out exactly how much I can expect
to earn on YouTube. And I saw creators
earn as little as $30. And I've also
seen big creators reveal their earnings
and they're making way more than this.
>> Well, now come on, non-savage savage.
$600 is still enough to afford a Switch
2.
Oh yeah. And one of the modern Zelda
games, which are absolutely trash.
But she does have a point about how much
she's earning.
>> So that first YouTube paycheck that I
got was from September 13th to the end
of October, and it was $264.25.
So, this is Caleb Bale, a small but
mighty channel that's able to earn over
$200 from just 22,000 views. And the
plain and simple reason for this is
because he has an astronomical RPM. So,
the big question is, why are these RPMs
so different? How did Caleb get nearly
$10 per 1,000 views while Tatiana gets
$280 per 1,000 views? Well, it all comes
down to four big variables. Starting
with
>> ultimately though some YouTube channels
are more monetizable because certain
audiences have more money. So in the
case of personal finance, that's one of
the higher ones for RPM and CPM because
companies that are trying to reach
people who are interested in personal
finance are more likely to pay higher
dollars to YouTube in order to get their
ads in front of these people. Yep, Caleb
is spot on. The niche plays a huge
factor. Viewers of finance content are
often ready to spend some money right
now. They're looking for credit cards,
investment tools, or business software,
which is exactly what these advertisers
are trying to push to the viewer.
Whereas a lifestyle vlog or prank
channel, entertainment content, might
still pull in tons more views, but the
audience is usually just watching for
fun. They're not ready to buy anything
right there, right now. And what are you
supposed to sell them? Toys, drinks,
clothing. It's not quite as specific, is
it? So, if you're in a niche such as
making money online, marketing,
educational content, you're already in a
high RPM zone. But if you're doing
reaction videos, music, or
entertainment, then the RPMs tend to be
lower. The next variable is the location
of your audience. Where your viewers
live matters a lot. If most of your
audience is from the UK, US, Canada,
Australia, basically places that pay
higher wages, your viewers tend to have
more spending power and advertisers are
willing to pay more to get ads in front
of them. But if your views come mostly
from countries with lower ad spend, like
India, Indonesia, or the Philippines,
well, it's probably best if I just show
you the difference. For this video,
these are the two biggest contributors
in terms of views, the US and India. The
CPM of US views is over $20, which
probably equates to an RPM of around
about 12 to$14.
India, on the other hand, despite half a
million views, contributes just a book
30. And that's before YouTube's cut. the
RPM will be less than a dollar and the
average for all countries is around
about $11.50. And just to be clear,
location is not about where you, the
creator, uploaded the video or the
contents of the video itself. It's all
about the location of the viewers. So
your video could be a travel vlog about
India, but if most people are watching
from the US, that's where your RPM will
be based off of. The next big variable
is video length. Obviously, we've
already established that if you make
short videos that end up as YouTube
shorts, which go into a completely
different type of video feed, it will
seriously impact your RPM. But there is
another end of this revenue earning
spectrum. Long form videos will earn you
more revenue because adverts can be
played before and after the video.
However, if your video is over 8 minutes
long, you can also add something called
midroll ads. These are extra ads that
will show up in the middle of a video,
not just at the beginning and the end.
And more ad slots means more chances to
earn more money. For example, let's say
you've got two creators who earn exactly
the same RPM. One makes five minute
videos with no midroll ads, but another
makes 12-minute videos with three ad
breaks. Guess who earns more per video?
Obviously, it's the creator with more
ads. But does that mean you should stuff
as many ads in your videos as possible?
Definitely not. In fact, YouTube won't
even let you do that. But one or two ads
throughout your video at the right time
can definitely help your earnings. As a
brief and non-scientific example, this
video that's under 8 minutes in length
has $840,000 views and has earned
$3,600.
On the other hand, this video that's 9
minutes long and is therefore eligible
for midroll ads has 30,000 views less,
but has earned $750 more. Midroll ads
likely contribute to that. But of
course, we have to appreciate the
variable of the viewer themselves. The
longer people watch your videos, the
more ads YouTube can show them and the
more valuable your content becomes to
advertisers. So even a 6-inute video can
earn more than a 12minute video if it
keeps them watching until the end while
viewers bail after the first minute of
the longer video. So more than just
making your videos longer, you want to
make them stickier. And so when all of
these four variables line up nicely,
that's when RPM starts to climb into the
$8, $10, $12 range and beyond. But what
if you're not a finance channel raking
in a high RPM rate? What should you
expect to earn? Well, in this next
section, I'm going to show you which
niches fall into the high, medium, and
low RPM ranges so you can see where your
channel roughly fits. We'll start with
tier one, which is the low RPM range of
between a dollar and $3 every thousand
views. These are niches like
entertainment lifestyle music pranks
vlogs, and yes, of course, gaming. These
are the most popular types of content on
YouTube, but they also pay the least.
Like we shared before, advertisers don't
spend big on broad casual audiences. So,
if your content is fun and casual,
you'll need to get more views to make
the same amount of money as other
channels. But as we said, broad casual
audiences lead to a high volume of
views. In tier 2, we have a mid-range of
niches where you'd expect to earn$4 to
$7 per,000 views. These are niches like
tutorials productivity education tech
reviews. This is the sweet spot for most
creators because here advertisers are
targeting people actively learning,
which means better engagement and better
ad rates. If your channel teaches
something or solves problems, you're
probably in this zone. And the good
news, with the right tweaks, it's often
possible to bump it into the next tier.
And if it helps the context, this is the
RPM tier that the Vid IQ channel sits in
right now. Let's move into tier three.
Now, the higher echelons of RPM revenue,
where you're earning anything from $8 to
$12, possibly more than that. This is
where YouTube breaks out the red carpet
for niches like finance, marketing, real
estate. If RPMs were a party, these guys
are the VIPs with bottle service.
Everyone else is peeking through the
window wondering, "How on earth did they
get in there?" Well, it's simple. The
advertisers here are fiercely fighting
for the attention of the people who
watch these videos. They have loads of
money to spend, and they're ready to
spend it. Now, even a small channel in
this tier can earn big without needing
hundreds of thousands of views. Picture
this as an example. You're a luxury
cruise travel channel and your videos
only average a,000 views, but an
advertiser decides to stick aundred ads
on those views. They only need two or
three people to buy on a very high
ticket price item to make it worth their
while. Now then, even if your channel is
traditionally not in a highpaying niche,
there are ways to boost your RPM. And in
this final section, I'll explain exactly
what this means for small creators and
how you can maximize your earnings no
matter what your niche is in. But first,
here's the truth. Your first YouTube
paycheck won't buy you a yacht. It's
typically designed to earn you around
about $100, which is a threshold to
actually get paid into your AdSense
account. Although, as we've already
seen, the amount earned from channel to
channel varies considerably. But
whatever the amount, that first tiny
paycheck is proof. Proof that you've
unlocked a system that pays you every
single day, even when you're asleep.
I think they call that passive income.
And as you grow your channel over time,
so will your income. Now, as we've just
covered, there are many factors that
come into how much you will earn. But
here are some ways you can increase your
RPM, even if you are in one of those
lower paying niches. First up,
experiment with making longer videos
that hold attention. You should be
testing different video lengths
regardless of a financial incentive to
discover what your audience wants. But
obviously, if you can make a video 15
minutes long instead of 10 minutes by
adding more value, not fluff, there's
more opportunities for more ads to run.
Next, you want to target high value
topics. This one is your secret source.
Engineering your niche into something
far more valuable to advertisers. For
example, if you're making videos about
budget travel, try targeting topics like
how to save money on flights or best
travel credit cards. All of a sudden, in
the eyes of the advertiser, you've
potentially jumped into the realms of
the finance niche. And simply put,
understand what your advertisers want.
They want viewers who are looking for
solutions. So, if your video helps
someone solve a problem, make a
decision, or learn something useful,
then your RPM will usually be higher.
This is how it's possible for small
creators with under 10,000 subscribers
to make 300,500
or even $1,000 a month from ad revenue
alone. But do you want to know what the
weirdest thing is? Some of you have just
watched this 15inute video with all of
its midroll ads and you're not even
monetized. So, I highly recommend you
watch this video over here, which is a
complete guide to earning one of these,
and then you can come back to this video
to figure out how to maximize your ad
revenue and earn yourself
one of these.
Take it away, Dan. Get your screenshots
ready
and take the take the