How Much YouTube Pays for 1,000 Subs

[00:00] I did not make life-changing money on

[00:02] YouTube in 2025. Neither did most of the

[00:05] creators in today's video. I went

[00:07] through the real revenue numbers of all

[00:09] of these channels to figure out what was

[00:10] actually going on. Because here's what's

[00:12] strange. One creator with 2 million

[00:14] views made less money than a creator

[00:15] with 19,000 views. And what's even more

[00:17] wild is that a creator with 1,200

[00:19] subscribers made $18,000 while a creator

[00:22] with double that made $71. And that's

[00:25] exactly why I'm making this video today.

[00:26] Because whenever you watch these videos

[00:28] of people saying, "I made this much

[00:29] money as a small channel in this amount

[00:30] of time." The numbers are always wildly

[00:32] different and I wanted some answers.

[00:34] Before we get into the numbers here, let

[00:36] me just explain two concepts that you

[00:38] need to know so you understand all the

[00:39] nuances about how money moves around on

[00:41] YouTube. First, it's the difference

[00:42] between CPM and RPM. And this is pretty

[00:44] simple. Let's say it cost an advertiser

[00:46] $100 to put an ad on your video, which

[00:48] is not a realistic number, but I just

[00:49] want want to work with a nice round

[00:51] number here. The $100 is the CPM. That's

[00:53] how much it costs the advertiser. you

[00:54] get $55 because that's the cut YouTube

[00:57] shares with creators. That's the RPM,

[00:59] cost per millie, revenue per millie.

[01:01] It's pretty simple. The second thing you

[01:02] need to know is that YouTube has two

[01:04] different levels of monetization. The

[01:06] first is unlocked when you hit 500

[01:08] subscribers and 3,000 hours of watch

[01:10] time. And when you unlock this level of

[01:11] monetization, you're not earning ads

[01:13] just yet. But you can do things like

[01:15] start up a YouTube membership program

[01:16] and have super chats, super thanks,

[01:18] things like that. But once you've hit

[01:19] 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of

[01:21] watch time, that is when you hit YouTube

[01:23] AdSense and you will start getting money

[01:25] from the YouTube ad campaigns that run

[01:27] all across the platform. And just a

[01:28] quick note, those 4,000 hours have to

[01:30] come from long form videos or live

[01:31] streams. They can't come from shorts.

[01:32] So, with that out of the way, now we can

[01:34] get into your first practical tip that

[01:35] has to do with those requirements. Eva

[01:37] had been building her channel for over a

[01:38] year. She was consistent. She was

[01:40] growing. And then one day, she hit her

[01:41] monetization requirements. She applied,

[01:43] she got approved, and then nothing.

[01:46] Signing up for YouTube AdSense and the

[01:48] YouTube partner program took me a little

[01:50] bit longer than I expected. You have to

[01:52] wait about 3 weeks to get a code from

[01:54] them in the mail that lets you finalize

[01:56] your AdSense signup.

[01:58] >> 3 weeks because of a letter and her

[02:00] videos are sitting there approved for

[02:02] monetization but earning no money. So,

[02:05] here's advice from someone who lived it.

[02:06] Once you reach 500 subscribers and 3,000

[02:09] watch hours, I would sign up for the

[02:10] YouTube partner program then and get

[02:12] approved and get your AdSense all in

[02:14] order so that when you hit 4,000 watch

[02:17] hours and 1,000 subscribers, you will

[02:19] immediately be able to start collecting

[02:21] that money and get your payout.

[02:22] >> Try not to leave weeks of earnings

[02:24] sitting there in the ether just because

[02:26] of an envelope. Maybe sort that out as

[02:27] early as you can. But, okay, how much

[02:30] money does YouTube actually pay

[02:31] creators? This is a question that I'm

[02:33] sure Google is tired of answering by

[02:34] now. Our first real life example today

[02:36] is Jess and Dave. They're a Canadian

[02:38] travel couple who quit their jobs to

[02:40] travel to Southeast Asia and document

[02:41] their journey on YouTube. In their first

[02:43] 6 months after being monetized, they

[02:45] were posting one video every 4 days, and

[02:47] they made $1,716

[02:49] Canadian, which is roughly $1,200 US.

[02:51] Not life-changing money, but real

[02:53] consistent and steadily growing. But

[02:55] here's something that $1,700 Canadian

[02:57] won't tell you. Not all views are

[02:58] created equal. And this comes down to

[03:00] something creators really don't think

[03:02] about a lot. Where in the world are your

[03:04] views actually coming from? Kinetic

[03:06] Passports proved exactly why. They're a

[03:08] travel channel very similar to Jess and

[03:09] Dave, and they had a video about their

[03:11] experience in Cairo, Egypt. It blew up.

[03:13] For them, that meant 15,000 views, which

[03:15] is no small moment for a channel of this

[03:17] size. However,

[03:18] >> even though we're higher in our view

[03:20] count and watchtime hours, because most

[03:23] of the viewers on that video are from

[03:25] Egypt, the RPM is lower. I believe we're

[03:28] just over $2 for RPM on that video. And

[03:32] that's why this month's earnings look

[03:34] pretty similar to June, even though all

[03:37] of the other parameters would indicate,

[03:39] you know, a higher earning for the

[03:41] month.

[03:42] >> So, practically speaking, what does this

[03:44] mean for you? It doesn't mean that you

[03:45] should pretend that only the US or

[03:48] Western audience exists. That would be a

[03:50] mistake. It does mean, though, that if

[03:51] you feel like you have healthy view

[03:52] counts on your channel and your earnings

[03:54] still feel suspiciously low, it probably

[03:56] has something to do with geography.

[03:58] We're going to talk more about that in a

[03:59] little bit because not only can this

[04:00] vary from channel to channel, but RPMs

[04:02] can fluctuate video to video. Before we

[04:04] get there, though, I want to talk about

[04:05] something that can be very confusing to

[04:07] a lot of creators, especially when it

[04:08] comes to making money on YouTube, and

[04:09] that is the difference between short

[04:10] form and long form. Specifically, the

[04:12] thing nobody warns you about. Now, by

[04:14] now, everybody knows that YouTube shorts

[04:16] don't pay nearly as much as long- form

[04:18] videos. But exactly how much less are we

[04:20] talking? Well, let's start with Adriel.

[04:22] In October 2025, he had a moment that

[04:24] every small creator dreams about.

[04:25] >> But I had one short that went ultra

[04:27] viral. It was a short about flying

[04:29] Singapore Sweets First Class. And you

[04:31] can see this purple line here showing

[04:32] that video jumping way up. For the

[04:34] month, I got just under 2 million views

[04:36] and 18,000 watch hours. And I gained

[04:39] over 3,000 subscribers.

[04:40] >> 2 million views. And for context, that's

[04:42] more views than most creators will get

[04:44] on a single video during their entire

[04:47] YouTube career. However, since it was a

[04:48] short form video, not a long- form

[04:50] video, even though it got way more

[04:52] views, the money paid out was still less

[04:55] because the payout rate for a short is

[04:57] not as high as a long form video. Want

[04:59] to see exactly how much less? Over 1.8

[05:01] million views. Estimated revenue $197.

[05:04] If we do the math, that works out to

[05:05] about 11 cents per thousand views. And

[05:07] here's the proof. This orange line is a

[05:09] single long- form video titled The Real

[05:11] Cost in 2025. It's 20 minutes long. It

[05:14] got almost 93,000 views, which is a long

[05:16] way from 2 million, but it earned him

[05:17] $727.

[05:19] That makes the RPM on this video $7.83

[05:23] per thousand views. Compare that to the

[05:24] short that made 11 cents per,000 views.

[05:26] And we're looking at a video that made

[05:28] 71 times more money with 20 times fewer

[05:31] views. And before you think, well,

[05:32] that's just one channel, I want you to

[05:34] meet Paul Stingray. He runs a gardening

[05:36] channel in Australia. And here's what

[05:37] happened in a single 48 hour window.

[05:39] >> I've got 1436 views. Most of those are

[05:43] shorts views. So I got 619 long form

[05:46] video views and 816 short form views. So

[05:50] technically you're only really going to

[05:51] be making money well enough to actually

[05:53] notice on the long form views.

[05:56] >> And what does that look like in actual

[05:57] dollars? Well, he breaks that down video

[05:59] by video.

[05:59] >> So my top video was growing corn in

[06:02] pots. Now in 7 days it got 1,700 views.

[06:05] So roughly about 4,000 views and it

[06:08] would have got about 48.

[06:10] Yes. terribly exciting. A whole 48

[06:13] cents. Now, my long form views, growing

[06:16] lotus from seed, roughly that would have

[06:19] got about 1,400 views and it's made

[06:23] $14.96.

[06:25] So, a little bit better than the shorts

[06:27] views. So, if that short was a long form

[06:29] view, we'd be making a lot more money

[06:32] about now.

[06:32] >> 4,000 shorts views for 48 versus 1,400

[06:36] long form views for $14.96.

[06:38] That's the same pattern. It's less than

[06:40] a third of the views and 30 times more

[06:42] money. But if you want the single most

[06:44] devastating number for this entire

[06:45] video, let's take a look again at Jess

[06:46] and Dave. They posted shorts

[06:48] consistently alongside their long- form

[06:49] content for six full months. In their

[06:51] own words,

[06:51] >> "We had posted a few shorts over this

[06:53] time, but the revenue from that was

[06:55] pretty negligible, earning us a whopping

[06:57] 62 over the 6 months."

[07:00] >> So, here's the verdict. Even though

[07:01] shorts make a little more money than

[07:02] they used to, they are still nowhere

[07:03] near a stable revenue stream. They might

[07:05] bring you some new eyeballs, but you're

[07:07] not going to be writing your meal ticket

[07:09] with them. So, if shorts are not the

[07:10] answer to making a living on YouTube,

[07:12] then what does it come down to? Well, in

[07:14] one word, inventory. Not all viewers are

[07:16] worth the same amount of money to

[07:17] YouTube. Unfortunately, the niche you're

[07:19] in determines how much money an

[07:20] advertiser is going to pay YouTube for

[07:22] advertising on your content. Think of

[07:24] YouTube niches like a leaderboard. On

[07:26] the top end, you have the channels that

[07:27] advertisers are willing to fight each

[07:29] other over, and on the lower end, you

[07:31] have the channels that they barely

[07:33] notice. So, using the data that has been

[07:34] provided by all the creators we're

[07:35] looking at today, I've gone ahead and

[07:37] set up the 2026 YouTube RPM tier list.

[07:39] Keep in mind these numbers are going to

[07:40] shift around based on season and where

[07:42] viewers live, but this is the current

[07:44] map of the money. In the Dtier, we have

[07:47] gardening and Paul Stingray is going to

[07:49] be our benchmark. In his first two weeks

[07:51] being monetized across all of his

[07:52] videos, he made $36.92 Australia. That's

[07:55] roughly $24 in US at the time of

[07:57] recording. And remember, this is the

[07:59] same channel that got 4,000 shorts views

[08:01] and only earned 48 cents. Long form

[08:03] helps, but if you're in this niche,

[08:04] hopefully you're doing it for the love

[08:05] of the craft because it doesn't feel

[08:07] like AdSense is where it should be. In

[08:08] the C tier is going to be the fitness

[08:10] niche. And for that, we're going to look

[08:11] at a channel like Justin Lie, who after

[08:14] 11 months of being monetized, made a

[08:16] total of $79,6.68.

[08:18] His RPM range from $2 on his muscleup

[08:20] video all the way to $6 on his marathon

[08:23] content. As far as this list goes,

[08:24] fitness does sit a rung higher than

[08:26] gardening, but it is on the lower half

[08:28] of the spectrum. And in a little bit,

[08:29] we'll get back into that $2 and $6

[08:31] difference between those videos. But

[08:33] next is the B tier. I'm going to call

[08:34] the B tier our wild card because we're

[08:36] going to be looking at travel channels.

[08:37] And travel channels are just notoriously

[08:40] inconsistent. As we already discussed,

[08:41] geography can very much determine your

[08:43] RPM, and it really just comes down to

[08:44] where your viewers are watching from.

[08:46] You have Kinetic Passports, who made

[08:48] $87.36

[08:49] in their first two months. You have Eva,

[08:51] who made $433 Canadian in 9 months

[08:54] despite barely posting. And then Jess

[08:56] and Dave, our most datarich channel.

[08:57] They averaged a $6.77 RPM across their

[09:01] first 6 months for a grand total of

[09:03] $1,716

[09:05] Canadian. So, while the potential in

[09:06] this niche can be pretty high, there's

[09:08] just too many factors to account for

[09:10] when it comes to travel. It just really

[09:11] depends on what part of the world you're

[09:12] focusing on. And now we get to the A

[09:13] tier, which is pretty interesting

[09:14] because this niche is going to surprise

[09:16] you. Kids and family, in essence, is a

[09:19] kids channel. They started back in

[09:20] August of 2023 and they were monetized

[09:22] by November. How much money do you think

[09:24] they made?

[09:24] >> My first YouTube paycheck was $957.18.

[09:33] I know, right? And keep in mind this is

[09:36] me as a new YouTuber. First time, just

[09:40] started this page 6 months ago.

[09:42] Children's page. Wasn't sure what I was

[09:45] doing, but I was just doing it. and I

[09:47] made close to $1,000. I would say that's

[09:50] pretty good for a journey to passive

[09:52] income

[09:53] >> for a brand new channel. That's a really

[09:55] strong number. So, I'm putting in

[09:56] essence in the A tier because at least

[09:58] with the way they're approaching kids

[09:59] 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