[0:00] I did not make life-changing money on
[0:02] YouTube in 2025. Neither did most of the
[0:05] creators in today's video. I went
[0:07] through the real revenue numbers of all
[0:09] of these channels to figure out what was
[0:10] actually going on. Because here's what's
[0:12] strange. One creator with 2 million
[0:14] views made less money than a creator
[0:15] with 19,000 views. And what's even more
[0:17] wild is that a creator with 1,200
[0:19] subscribers made $18,000 while a creator
[0:22] with double that made $71. And that's
[0:25] exactly why I'm making this video today.
[0:26] Because whenever you watch these videos
[0:28] of people saying, "I made this much
[0:29] money as a small channel in this amount
[0:30] of time." The numbers are always wildly
[0:32] different and I wanted some answers.
[0:34] Before we get into the numbers here, let
[0:36] me just explain two concepts that you
[0:38] need to know so you understand all the
[0:39] nuances about how money moves around on
[0:41] YouTube. First, it's the difference
[0:42] between CPM and RPM. And this is pretty
[0:44] simple. Let's say it cost an advertiser
[0:46] $100 to put an ad on your video, which
[0:48] is not a realistic number, but I just
[0:49] want want to work with a nice round
[0:51] number here. The $100 is the CPM. That's
[0:53] how much it costs the advertiser. you
[0:54] get $55 because that's the cut YouTube
[0:57] shares with creators. That's the RPM,
[0:59] cost per millie, revenue per millie.
[1:01] It's pretty simple. The second thing you
[1:02] need to know is that YouTube has two
[1:04] different levels of monetization. The
[1:06] first is unlocked when you hit 500
[1:08] subscribers and 3,000 hours of watch
[1:10] time. And when you unlock this level of
[1:11] monetization, you're not earning ads
[1:13] just yet. But you can do things like
[1:15] start up a YouTube membership program
[1:16] and have super chats, super thanks,
[1:18] things like that. But once you've hit
[1:19] 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of
[1:21] watch time, that is when you hit YouTube
[1:23] AdSense and you will start getting money
[1:25] from the YouTube ad campaigns that run
[1:27] all across the platform. And just a
[1:28] quick note, those 4,000 hours have to
[1:30] come from long form videos or live
[1:31] streams. They can't come from shorts.
[1:32] So, with that out of the way, now we can
[1:34] get into your first practical tip that
[1:35] has to do with those requirements. Eva
[1:37] had been building her channel for over a
[1:38] year. She was consistent. She was
[1:40] growing. And then one day, she hit her
[1:41] monetization requirements. She applied,
[1:43] she got approved, and then nothing.
[1:46] Signing up for YouTube AdSense and the
[1:48] YouTube partner program took me a little
[1:50] bit longer than I expected. You have to
[1:52] wait about 3 weeks to get a code from
[1:54] them in the mail that lets you finalize
[1:56] your AdSense signup.
[1:58] >> 3 weeks because of a letter and her
[2:00] videos are sitting there approved for
[2:02] monetization but earning no money. So,
[2:05] here's advice from someone who lived it.
[2:06] Once you reach 500 subscribers and 3,000
[2:09] watch hours, I would sign up for the
[2:10] YouTube partner program then and get
[2:12] approved and get your AdSense all in
[2:14] order so that when you hit 4,000 watch
[2:17] hours and 1,000 subscribers, you will
[2:19] immediately be able to start collecting
[2:21] that money and get your payout.
[2:22] >> Try not to leave weeks of earnings
[2:24] sitting there in the ether just because
[2:26] of an envelope. Maybe sort that out as
[2:27] early as you can. But, okay, how much
[2:30] money does YouTube actually pay
[2:31] creators? This is a question that I'm
[2:33] sure Google is tired of answering by
[2:34] now. Our first real life example today
[2:36] is Jess and Dave. They're a Canadian
[2:38] travel couple who quit their jobs to
[2:40] travel to Southeast Asia and document
[2:41] their journey on YouTube. In their first
[2:43] 6 months after being monetized, they
[2:45] were posting one video every 4 days, and
[2:47] they made $1,716
[2:49] Canadian, which is roughly $1,200 US.
[2:51] Not life-changing money, but real
[2:53] consistent and steadily growing. But
[2:55] here's something that $1,700 Canadian
[2:57] won't tell you. Not all views are
[2:58] created equal. And this comes down to
[3:00] something creators really don't think
[3:02] about a lot. Where in the world are your
[3:04] views actually coming from? Kinetic
[3:06] Passports proved exactly why. They're a
[3:08] travel channel very similar to Jess and
[3:09] Dave, and they had a video about their
[3:11] experience in Cairo, Egypt. It blew up.
[3:13] For them, that meant 15,000 views, which
[3:15] is no small moment for a channel of this
[3:17] size. However,
[3:18] >> even though we're higher in our view
[3:20] count and watchtime hours, because most
[3:23] of the viewers on that video are from
[3:25] Egypt, the RPM is lower. I believe we're
[3:28] just over $2 for RPM on that video. And
[3:32] that's why this month's earnings look
[3:34] pretty similar to June, even though all
[3:37] of the other parameters would indicate,
[3:39] you know, a higher earning for the
[3:41] month.
[3:42] >> So, practically speaking, what does this
[3:44] mean for you? It doesn't mean that you
[3:45] should pretend that only the US or
[3:48] Western audience exists. That would be a
[3:50] mistake. It does mean, though, that if
[3:51] you feel like you have healthy view
[3:52] counts on your channel and your earnings
[3:54] still feel suspiciously low, it probably
[3:56] has something to do with geography.
[3:58] We're going to talk more about that in a
[3:59] little bit because not only can this
[4:00] vary from channel to channel, but RPMs
[4:02] can fluctuate video to video. Before we
[4:04] get there, though, I want to talk about
[4:05] something that can be very confusing to
[4:07] a lot of creators, especially when it
[4:08] comes to making money on YouTube, and
[4:09] that is the difference between short
[4:10] form and long form. Specifically, the
[4:12] thing nobody warns you about. Now, by
[4:14] now, everybody knows that YouTube shorts
[4:16] don't pay nearly as much as long- form
[4:18] videos. But exactly how much less are we
[4:20] talking? Well, let's start with Adriel.
[4:22] In October 2025, he had a moment that
[4:24] every small creator dreams about.
[4:25] >> But I had one short that went ultra
[4:27] viral. It was a short about flying
[4:29] Singapore Sweets First Class. And you
[4:31] can see this purple line here showing
[4:32] that video jumping way up. For the
[4:34] month, I got just under 2 million views
[4:36] and 18,000 watch hours. And I gained
[4:39] over 3,000 subscribers.
[4:40] >> 2 million views. And for context, that's
[4:42] more views than most creators will get
[4:44] on a single video during their entire
[4:47] YouTube career. However, since it was a
[4:48] short form video, not a long- form
[4:50] video, even though it got way more
[4:52] views, the money paid out was still less
[4:55] because the payout rate for a short is
[4:57] not as high as a long form video. Want
[4:59] to see exactly how much less? Over 1.8
[5:01] million views. Estimated revenue $197.
[5:04] If we do the math, that works out to
[5:05] about 11 cents per thousand views. And
[5:07] here's the proof. This orange line is a
[5:09] single long- form video titled The Real
[5:11] Cost in 2025. It's 20 minutes long. It
[5:14] got almost 93,000 views, which is a long
[5:16] way from 2 million, but it earned him
[5:17] $727.
[5:19] That makes the RPM on this video $7.83
[5:23] per thousand views. Compare that to the
[5:24] short that made 11 cents per,000 views.
[5:26] And we're looking at a video that made
[5:28] 71 times more money with 20 times fewer
[5:31] views. And before you think, well,
[5:32] that's just one channel, I want you to
[5:34] meet Paul Stingray. He runs a gardening
[5:36] channel in Australia. And here's what
[5:37] happened in a single 48 hour window.
[5:39] >> I've got 1436 views. Most of those are
[5:43] shorts views. So I got 619 long form
[5:46] video views and 816 short form views. So
[5:50] technically you're only really going to
[5:51] be making money well enough to actually
[5:53] notice on the long form views.
[5:56] >> And what does that look like in actual
[5:57] dollars? Well, he breaks that down video
[5:59] by video.
[5:59] >> So my top video was growing corn in
[6:02] pots. Now in 7 days it got 1,700 views.
[6:05] So roughly about 4,000 views and it
[6:08] would have got about 48.
[6:10] Yes. terribly exciting. A whole 48
[6:13] cents. Now, my long form views, growing
[6:16] lotus from seed, roughly that would have
[6:19] got about 1,400 views and it's made
[6:23] $14.96.
[6:25] So, a little bit better than the shorts
[6:27] views. So, if that short was a long form
[6:29] view, we'd be making a lot more money
[6:32] about now.
[6:32] >> 4,000 shorts views for 48 versus 1,400
[6:36] long form views for $14.96.
[6:38] That's the same pattern. It's less than
[6:40] a third of the views and 30 times more
[6:42] money. But if you want the single most
[6:44] devastating number for this entire
[6:45] video, let's take a look again at Jess
[6:46] and Dave. They posted shorts
[6:48] consistently alongside their long- form
[6:49] content for six full months. In their
[6:51] own words,
[6:51] >> "We had posted a few shorts over this
[6:53] time, but the revenue from that was
[6:55] pretty negligible, earning us a whopping
[6:57] 62 over the 6 months."
[7:00] >> So, here's the verdict. Even though
[7:01] shorts make a little more money than
[7:02] they used to, they are still nowhere
[7:03] near a stable revenue stream. They might
[7:05] bring you some new eyeballs, but you're
[7:07] not going to be writing your meal ticket
[7:09] with them. So, if shorts are not the
[7:10] answer to making a living on YouTube,
[7:12] then what does it come down to? Well, in
[7:14] one word, inventory. Not all viewers are
[7:16] worth the same amount of money to
[7:17] YouTube. Unfortunately, the niche you're
[7:19] in determines how much money an
[7:20] advertiser is going to pay YouTube for
[7:22] advertising on your content. Think of
[7:24] YouTube niches like a leaderboard. On
[7:26] the top end, you have the channels that
[7:27] advertisers are willing to fight each
[7:29] other over, and on the lower end, you
[7:31] have the channels that they barely
[7:33] notice. So, using the data that has been
[7:34] provided by all the creators we're
[7:35] looking at today, I've gone ahead and
[7:37] set up the 2026 YouTube RPM tier list.
[7:39] Keep in mind these numbers are going to
[7:40] shift around based on season and where
[7:42] viewers live, but this is the current
[7:44] map of the money. In the Dtier, we have
[7:47] gardening and Paul Stingray is going to
[7:49] be our benchmark. In his first two weeks
[7:51] being monetized across all of his
[7:52] videos, he made $36.92 Australia. That's
[7:55] roughly $24 in US at the time of
[7:57] recording. And remember, this is the
[7:59] same channel that got 4,000 shorts views
[8:01] and only earned 48 cents. Long form
[8:03] helps, but if you're in this niche,
[8:04] hopefully you're doing it for the love
[8:05] of the craft because it doesn't feel
[8:07] like AdSense is where it should be. In
[8:08] the C tier is going to be the fitness
[8:10] niche. And for that, we're going to look
[8:11] at a channel like Justin Lie, who after
[8:14] 11 months of being monetized, made a
[8:16] total of $79,6.68.
[8:18] His RPM range from $2 on his muscleup
[8:20] video all the way to $6 on his marathon
[8:23] content. As far as this list goes,
[8:24] fitness does sit a rung higher than
[8:26] gardening, but it is on the lower half
[8:28] of the spectrum. And in a little bit,
[8:29] we'll get back into that $2 and $6
[8:31] difference between those videos. But
[8:33] next is the B tier. I'm going to call
[8:34] the B tier our wild card because we're
[8:36] going to be looking at travel channels.
[8:37] And travel channels are just notoriously
[8:40] inconsistent. As we already discussed,
[8:41] geography can very much determine your
[8:43] RPM, and it really just comes down to
[8:44] where your viewers are watching from.
[8:46] You have Kinetic Passports, who made
[8:48] $87.36
[8:49] in their first two months. You have Eva,
[8:51] who made $433 Canadian in 9 months
[8:54] despite barely posting. And then Jess
[8:56] and Dave, our most datarich channel.
[8:57] They averaged a $6.77 RPM across their
[9:01] first 6 months for a grand total of
[9:03] $1,716
[9:05] Canadian. So, while the potential in
[9:06] this niche can be pretty high, there's
[9:08] just too many factors to account for
[9:10] when it comes to travel. It just really
[9:11] depends on what part of the world you're
[9:12] focusing on. And now we get to the A
[9:13] tier, which is pretty interesting
[9:14] because this niche is going to surprise
[9:16] you. Kids and family, in essence, is a
[9:19] kids channel. They started back in
[9:20] August of 2023 and they were monetized
[9:22] by November. How much money do you think
[9:24] they made?
[9:24] >> My first YouTube paycheck was $957.18.
[9:33] I know, right? And keep in mind this is
[9:36] me as a new YouTuber. First time, just
[9:40] started this page 6 months ago.
[9:42] Children's page. Wasn't sure what I was
[9:45] doing, but I was just doing it. and I
[9:47] made close to $1,000. I would say that's
[9:50] pretty good for a journey to passive
[9:52] income
[9:53] >> for a brand new channel. That's a really
[9:55] strong number. So, I'm putting in
[9:56] essence in the A tier because at least
[9:58] with the way they're approaching kids
[9:59] content, this is a pretty high potential
[10:01] niche. However, they will tell you
[10:03] themselves that seasonality plays a role
[10:05] here.
[10:05] >> If you going to start your channel, try
[10:07] and get it started like now. It's
[10:09] February currently when I'm making this
[10:10] video. So that by December time, you can
[10:13] put out your Christmas content and then
[10:15] you, you know, you can see that step up.
[10:17] >> The holiday bump is a real thing
[10:18] basically for every niche on YouTube. So
[10:20] that is something to look out for. An
[10:22] even stronger niche, though, still
[10:23] remaining in the A tier is going to be
[10:24] filmography and photography. First up,
[10:26] we'll look at Tracy Flynn's channel.
[10:28] She's from New Zealand and covers
[10:29] photography and creative businesses, and
[10:31] she made $86.99 Australian in her first
[10:34] month. And then you have Dallas and
[10:36] Jill. They're a Canadian filmmaking
[10:38] channel with a CPM ranging from 15 to
[10:40] $42 per thousand views. The upper end of
[10:43] that gets into some really serious
[10:45] money. And in a little bit, we're going
[10:46] to explore the spikes that happen within
[10:48] different niches. But then we get into
[10:49] the S tier. And if you looked at
[10:51] different YouTube niches in the past to
[10:52] determine how much makes the most money,
[10:54] this probably won't surprise you. At the
[10:56] top end of the spectrum, you have Adriel
[10:58] from earlier in the video. He breaks
[11:00] down his entire 2025. In this video,
[11:02] >> I uploaded 33 long form videos and 111
[11:06] short form videos. I racked up 6.9
[11:09] million views and 117,000 watch hours
[11:12] combined between my long form videos and
[11:14] my shorts.
[11:15] >> 6.9 million views. And how much did that
[11:18] earn him?
[11:19] >> So, in all of 2025, my total YouTube ad
[11:22] revenue was $4,471.
[11:26] Now, that might sound low for 6.9
[11:28] million views, but don't forget that 111
[11:30] of those videos were just YouTube
[11:32] shorts. So, we need to strip those out
[11:34] because in terms of revenue, they barely
[11:35] move the needle. Adriel mentioned that
[11:37] the majority of the $4,471
[11:39] came from only two long- form videos
[11:41] that took off. Real estate and
[11:42] construction advertisers, mortgage
[11:44] companies, building suppliers,
[11:45] contractors are all willing to pay pay
[11:47] to reach that audience. And finally, at
[11:49] the very top end, you have the business,
[11:51] finance, and online education niche. And
[11:53] this is where the numbers get pretty
[11:54] staggering. Mark on business made
[11:56] $877.36
[11:58] cents in AdSense and that was with his
[11:59] revenue suppressed due to an invalid
[12:01] traffic bug that was happening around
[12:03] that time. This artificially lowered his
[12:04] earnings. George Alexander, a creator
[12:06] education channel, tells it best
[12:07] himself. You
[12:08] >> can see that when I got monetized, my
[12:10] RPM was $2.73.
[12:14] And this number is pretty low. But you
[12:17] can see that over the course of the next
[12:20] 6 months, my RPM slowly but surely
[12:23] improves all the way up to $658,
[12:28] which is crazy because that means I'm
[12:29] making 2 to three times more money for
[12:32] every 1,000 views that I get on my
[12:34] videos.
[12:34] >> Hi. Myers in the YouTube education niche
[12:36] gained 50,000 views, which made him $218
[12:39] in AdSense in his first 90 days, as well
[12:41] as $43 through supers and another $14
[12:44] through memberships. Advertisers in this
[12:46] space include software companies,
[12:47] financial products, investment
[12:49] platforms, and online course providers.
[12:51] They're all competing for the same
[12:53] audience. In that niche, your viewers
[12:55] are people who are actively trying to
[12:56] make andor save money. And that is an
[12:59] incredibly valuable viewer to an
[13:00] advertiser, and RPMs are going to
[13:02] reflect that. But here's the thing most
[13:03] highest paying niche videos miss every
[13:06] time. Where you sit on this list is only
[13:08] half the story. You could have an S tier
[13:10] niche like finance but still be in the D
[13:12] tier in terms of revenue depending on
[13:14] the topic you cover. And that's what I
[13:15] want to look at next. How two videos on
[13:17] the same channel can have a 500%
[13:20] difference in pay. So far in this video,
[13:22] we've talked a lot about niches and your
[13:24] potential earning ceiling that you could
[13:26] hit depending on which niche you're in.
[13:27] The thing is, each video you post has
[13:30] its own ceiling in terms of revenue. It
[13:32] just kind of depends on what topic
[13:33] you're covering that determines how high
[13:35] that ceiling is. Let's take a look again
[13:36] at Jess and Dave, for example. two
[13:38] videos, same channel, same month. One
[13:40] video exploring Koron in the Philippines
[13:42] had an RPM of $4.87. The other, Incat
[13:45] Trail to Machu Picchu, had an RPM of
[13:48] $24.70.
[13:50] And to be clear, that's the RPM. That's
[13:51] the money that they're earning per,000
[13:53] views on that video. This is a five
[13:55] times difference. Two very similar
[13:57] videos attracting two very different
[13:59] audiences. So, what's going on? Well,
[14:01] the people who are searching for Incat
[14:03] Trail are probably folks in the US, UK,
[14:05] and Australia. in which case those would
[14:07] be higher income countries which have
[14:10] higher advertising budgets and thus
[14:11] higher RPMs. Meanwhile, the video about
[14:14] Cororon, which I'm not sure I'm saying
[14:15] correctly, is a destination that may
[14:17] attract viewers from Southeast Asia.
[14:19] There advertiser budgets are just going
[14:20] to be lower and therefore RPMs are going
[14:22] to reflect that. But here's where it
[14:23] gets more interesting because this isn't
[14:25] just a travel thing. That fitness trend
[14:26] we looked at earlier, Justin Lie,
[14:28] noticed something in his own analytics.
[14:30] >> For my marathon videos, they tend to do
[14:31] really high. So you got $6 here, whereas
[14:34] my muscle up video is only on $2. So
[14:37] even though my marathon video has 19,000
[14:40] views and my muscle up video has 42,000
[14:43] views, the marathon video still pays me
[14:46] more because it's got a higher RPM. And
[14:48] I think that's super interesting because
[14:50] it means that views don't necessarily
[14:52] equal money.
[14:52] >> Think about what you just said there.
[14:54] 42,000 views on one video and it earned
[14:56] less than a video with 19,000 views on
[14:58] the same channel. So what's the
[15:01] difference? Well, marathon content
[15:03] attracted viewers who were researching
[15:04] running gear, race entries, nutrition
[15:06] supplements, basically higher value
[15:09] customers for advertisers. The general
[15:11] workout content may be more broad and
[15:13] attract a lot more new eyeballs to the
[15:15] channel, but because it's so broad, it's
[15:16] less commercially specific. Then you
[15:18] have Dallas and Jill, our Canadian
[15:20] filmmaking and photography channel.
[15:21] >> My average cost per thousand as a film
[15:23] making photography-ish channel is is in
[15:25] the $15 to $16 per,000 views. That's
[15:28] Canadian dollars. Some videos that's as
[15:30] low as $8 per thousand views. And on the
[15:33] Flash video, which was the one video we
[15:35] got published the month after being
[15:36] monetized, it got as high as $42 per,000
[15:40] views. $8 Canadian on one video and $42
[15:43] Canadian on another video on the same
[15:45] channel. And that is no small swing.
[15:47] This is a different earning bracket and
[15:49] it all depends on what your video is
[15:51] about. So, after looking at all this, my
[15:53] big takeaway here was basically that
[15:55] it's not enough to just pick a niche
[15:57] with a high RPM and hope for the best.
[16:00] The specific topic of each video you
[16:02] make determines how many advertisers are
[16:04] going to show up and how much money
[16:06] they're willing to shell out. And when
[16:07] you think about it, this makes a lot of
[16:09] sense when you consider how much money
[16:11] brand deals can go for on YouTube in
[16:13] general with some of the largest
[16:14] creators on the platform. There are
[16:16] creators who make thousands of dollars
[16:18] off of a brand deal where they take
[16:20] maybe 60 seconds out of their video.
[16:22] They look at the camera and they speak
[16:23] directly about one product for that
[16:26] entire minute. When it comes to hypersp
[16:27] specific targeted advertising,
[16:29] advertisers pay more money for that. So,
[16:31] it stands to reason that even if you
[16:33] don't have a sponsorship on that video
[16:34] about your marathon, it's a very
[16:36] specific audience that you're targeting
[16:38] and therefore the advertisers are going
[16:40] to pay more money to have ads on that
[16:41] video. Meanwhile, your more broad
[16:43] fitness content isn't going to do as
[16:46] well in terms of advertising dollars,
[16:47] but it could introduce a lot of new
[16:49] people to your channel. Meanwhile, a
[16:50] travel video about Peru is going to
[16:51] attract a different wallet than a travel
[16:52] video to the Philippines. Once you
[16:54] understand all this, it helps you stop
[16:56] focusing on your channel as one thing
[16:58] all by itself. And instead, you can
[17:00] focus on how each video is an
[17:01] opportunity to target different
[17:03] advertisers and different viewers.
[17:04] YouTube can monetize your content, but
[17:06] only you can monetize your audience
[17:08] because AdSense is real. It's great.
[17:10] It's genuinely there. and it's like
[17:12] passive money for showing up and doing
[17:13] the work that day, but it's not the full
[17:16] picture. If you want to set up your
[17:17] channel the correct way for monetization
[17:18] beyond just AdSense, I'm going to
[17:20] encourage you to watch this video next,
[17:21] which will set you off on the right path
[17:23] when it comes to getting monetized in
[17:25] the first