Estimate what a YouTube channel earns from ads. This calculator accounts for the two things most estimators leave out: the platform keeps 45% of ad revenue, and only a fraction of your views are actually monetized.
CPM is not what you earn
CPM is what an advertiser pays per thousand ad impressions. RPM is what lands in your account per thousand views of your video. The gap between them is large and catches almost every new creator out.
Two things create that gap. YouTube keeps 45% of ad revenue under the Partner Programme, leaving creators 55%. And not every view carries an ad — viewers with ad blockers, subscribers on the paid tier, and videos where advertisers declined to bid all count as views without producing ad income.
What moves CPM
- Topic. Finance, software, insurance and business content attract far higher bids than entertainment, gaming or vlogs. The difference can be several times over.
- Audience location. Viewers in the United States, United Kingdom, Gulf states and Australia are worth considerably more to advertisers than a global average.
- Video length. Longer videos can carry mid-roll ads, which raises revenue per view substantially.
- Time of year. Advertiser budgets peak in the final quarter and drop sharply in January.
Ads are rarely the main income
For most channels that earn a living, ad revenue is the smallest slice. Sponsorships, affiliate links, and the creator’s own products typically outweigh it — often by a wide margin. The sponsorship field above exists so you can model that properly rather than judging a channel on ad income alone.
Treat the output as an estimate. Real earnings vary month to month with seasonality, audience mix and the specific advertisers bidding on your content.