Estimate what a mobile app earns from ads. Ad revenue depends on daily active users and impressions per session, not on download count, which is why apps with impressive install numbers often earn almost nothing.
Downloads do not earn money. Sessions do.
An app with fifty thousand downloads and two hundred daily active users earns roughly what an app with two hundred daily active users earns, regardless of how the install number looks in a screenshot.
Ad revenue is impressions multiplied by eCPM. Impressions come from people opening the app and staying long enough to see ads. Every step in that chain is retention, not acquisition.
What eCPM depends on
- Ad format. Rewarded video typically earns several times more per impression than a banner. Interstitials sit in between.
- User location. Users in the United States, Gulf states, United Kingdom and Australia carry far higher advertiser bids than a global average.
- App category. Finance and shopping apps attract higher bids than utilities or casual games.
- Seasonality. Advertiser budgets peak toward the end of the calendar year and fall away in January.
ARPDAU is the number to optimize
Average revenue per daily active user strips out the size of your user base and tells you how well the app monetises each person. It is the figure to compare across changes, because it does not move when your install numbers do.
If ARPDAU is very low, adding more users multiplies a small number. Fix the monetization or the session length first, then acquire.
A caution on ad frequency
Raising impressions per session is the easiest way to increase the number this calculator produces, and the fastest way to destroy the business behind it. More ads reduce session length, hurt retention, and attract one-star reviews, all of which lower revenue within weeks.
Model an increase here, then ask whether the app can survive it. Usually the better lever is a higher-value ad format rather than more of them.
If you are still working through launch, our guide on publishing an app on Google Play covers the requirements that come before any of this matters.