Planning a new channel
Before filming anything, compare two or three topics you like and see how many views each would need to hit your income goal. The conclusion is often that a small, well-paid niche takes half the effort of a mass-market one.
Free · No sign-up · Updated 2026
Creator earnings calculator: what YouTube, TikTok and Shorts really pay
Enter your monthly views, pick a platform and a niche, and see what you would earn straight away. Compare all three platforms on a chart and download your projection as a PDF.
Your numbers
views/month
Every view you get on that platform in a month, added up.
Platform
Monetised long-form video with YouTube ads.
Each topic attracts advertisers who pay very different rates.
Estimated automatically for your niche and platform.
Approximate rate: 1 $ = 0.92 €.
Your estimate
Estimated monthly earnings
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Per year
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Per 1M views
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Per video (30/mo)
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Platform comparison
Chart comparing estimated earnings per platform. The same figures appear in the legend below.
With those same views and that same niche on each platform.
🔒 100% private — every calculation runs in your browser and no data is sent to any server.
Rough estimate based on 2026 market ranges. Real earnings vary with your audience country, video length and time of year. Sponsorships and affiliate income are not included.
How it works, in 3 steps
No account, no email, nothing to install. Under a minute from start to finish.
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1
Enter your views
Type the views you get in a month, or use the shortcuts from 10K to 10M. No channel yet? Try the target you want to hit.
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2
Pick platform and niche
YouTube, Shorts or TikTok, plus your content topic. Each niche applies its own RPM multiplier, because advertisers do not all pay the same.
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3
Read it and save it
You get monthly, yearly and per-million figures, plus the comparison with the other platforms. Set your real RPM with the slider and save the PDF.
What creators actually earn per view in 2026
Every creator asks the same thing before publishing their first video: how much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? The honest answer is that there is no single figure. Two channels with exactly the same view count can bill $700 and $7,000 in the same month, and the difference is almost never the subscriber count. It comes down to three things: the niche, the audience country and the format.
RPM is the metric that matters
RPM (revenue per mille) is what actually lands in your bank account per 1,000 views, after the platform takes its cut. Do not confuse it with CPM, which is what the advertiser pays and is always higher: between the advertiser's bid and your payout sits a platform commission — YouTube keeps 45% on long-form — and a good number of views that carried no ad at all. That is why this simulator always works in RPM: it is the realistic number.
Why the niche changes everything
An advertiser for an investment broker can afford to pay $40 to acquire a customer, because that customer will be worth thousands over the years. An advertiser for a free mobile game earns cents per install. That gap in commercial value feeds straight into the ad auction and, from there, into your RPM. It is why a finance channel with 200,000 views can out-earn a gaming channel with a million. The table further down shows the multiplier this calculator applies to each topic.
Long-form, Shorts and TikTok are not the same game
Monetised long-form video is by far the best-paid format: it takes mid-roll ads, holds the viewer for minutes and pays out 55% of the ad revenue. Shorts split a shared pool across all eligible short content, so their RPM is usually ten to thirty times lower. TikTok, through its Creator Rewards programme, sits somewhere low in the middle and demands minimum length and original content. That is why the comparison chart nearly always shows the same shape: one tall YouTube bar and two short ones beside it.
How to use this estimate well
Treat the result as your floor, not your ceiling. Platform advertising is only one of the five or six income streams of a mature channel: sponsorships, affiliate links, memberships, own products and services usually add two to five times that figure. If you already have a channel, open your analytics, copy your real RPM from the last 28 days and set it with the slider. From that point the yearly projection on screen stops being a market approximation and becomes your own forecast.
Use cases
What people actually open this simulator for.
Checking whether a niche pays
Change only the niche, keep the views fixed, and watch the yearly figure move. It is the fastest way to see whether pivoting toward finance, tech or business is worth it, or whether your current topic is already well placed.
Negotiating a sponsorship with data
A brand wants to know what a slot in your video is worth. Download the PDF with your views, your RPM and your yearly projection: showing the ad value your content already generates is the best argument for not taking the first offer.
Choosing between long-form, Shorts and TikTok
The comparison chart answers in one second where your editing hours should go. You will see how many short-form views it would take to match what a single well-monetised long video already brings in.
Setting quarterly targets
Use the 12-month cumulative view to set realistic revenue goals and split them by quarter, instead of working without knowing how fast your channel's ad income actually builds up.
Explaining your numbers to a partner or accountant
The PDF report sums up inputs, result and comparison on one clean, dated page. It works for a meeting with your video editor just as well as for backing up forecasts with your accountant.
Estimated RPM by niche and platform
Reference values used by the calculator, in dollars per 1,000 views. Mixed US, Latin American and European audience.
| Niche | YouTube | Shorts | TikTok |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance and investing | $9.89 | $0.34 | $0.79 |
| Business and marketing | $8.75 | $0.30 | $0.70 |
| Technology and software | $7.23 | $0.25 | $0.58 |
| Health and wellness | $5.71 | $0.20 | $0.46 |
| Education and training | $5.14 | $0.18 | $0.41 |
| Home and DIY | $4.57 | $0.16 | $0.37 |
| Travel | $4.18 | $0.14 | $0.33 |
| Fashion and beauty | $4.00 | $0.14 | $0.32 |
| Food and recipes | $3.61 | $0.12 | $0.29 |
| Vlogs and lifestyle | $3.23 | $0.11 | $0.26 |
| Sport and fitness | $3.04 | $0.10 | $0.24 |
| Gaming | $2.66 | $0.09 | $0.21 |
| Entertainment and comedy | $2.28 | $0.08 | $0.18 |
| Music | $2.09 | $0.07 | $0.17 |
| Kids content | $1.71 | $0.06 | $0.14 |
Ranges built from public figures shared by creators and agencies during 2025 and 2026. Your real RPM may sit above or below: if you know it, set it with the slider in the calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the Finance niche pay more than Gaming?
Because an advertiser trying to reach someone interested in investing, mortgages or insurance can recover hundreds of dollars if that person becomes a customer, so they bid far higher per thousand impressions. In Gaming the audience is enormous, but the commercial value per viewer is low, there is a huge amount of available inventory, and the audience skews younger with less spending power. The result: the same view is worth three to five times more in finance than in gaming.
How much does YouTube pay for 1 million views?
For monetised long-form video the usual range is $700 to $7,000 per million views. A finance or software channel with a mostly US audience can beat that; a gaming or entertainment channel with a global audience usually sits at the bottom. On Shorts the figure falls sharply, typically between $40 and $350 per million.
What is RPM and how is it different from CPM?
CPM is what the advertiser pays per thousand ad impressions. RPM is what actually reaches your pocket per thousand views of your content, after the platform's cut and counting the views that carried no ad. RPM is always considerably lower than CPM, and it is the realistic metric for estimating earnings.
Are these numbers accurate?
They are estimates based on market ranges. Real earnings depend on your audience country, video length, how many ads the platform inserts, the time of year — December pays far better than January — and the ad auction itself. If you know your real RPM, set it with the slider: from there the result becomes very reliable, because the arithmetic is exact and the RPM was the only estimated part.
Why does TikTok pay less than YouTube?
YouTube shares the revenue from the ad shown inside your video and hands you 55% on long-form. TikTok distributes a fund tied to its Creator Rewards programme across all eligible content, with length and originality requirements, so the amount per thousand views is much smaller and swings more from month to month.
Does the simulator include sponsorships and affiliate income?
No. It only calculates platform ad revenue. On most mid-sized channels, sponsorships, affiliate links, memberships and own products add two to five times the ad revenue, so treat the result as your floor and not your ceiling.
How many views do I need to live off this?
It depends entirely on the niche. To reach around $2,000 a month from ads alone, a finance channel might need roughly 250,000 monthly views, while a gaming channel could need well over a million. Put your target in the views field and switch niches: the gap shows up in seconds.
Do I need to sign up or hand over any data?
No. The tool works the moment you land, with no account and no email. Every calculation runs inside your browser; neither your views nor your RPM leave your device, and the PDF is generated locally too.