YouTube does not pay a fixed amount per view. Monetized creators earn a share of the money advertisers and YouTube Premium members pay, and YouTube does not publish an average rate. Your own pay per view is your RPM divided by 1,000: if YouTube Studio shows an RPM of $4, each view earned you about $0.004 on average.
Why there is no single rate
A view is not paid like a ticket. Advertisers bid to show ads to certain viewers, on certain topics, at certain times. YouTube then shares the resulting revenue with the creator. So the value of a view depends on things like:
- the topic of the video, which decides which advertisers are interested;
- the viewers’ countries, since ad prices differ between markets;
- the season, as ad budgets rise and fall through the year;
- whether ads were actually shown, and to how many of the viewers;
- the format: long videos and Shorts are paid in different ways.
Any site that gives you one figure for “YouTube pay per view” is giving you an average from somewhere else. It may be far from what your channel earns.
RPM: the number that answers the question
YouTube Help defines RPM (revenue per mille) as what you earned per 1,000 video views. Three details make it the right measure:
- it is calculated after YouTube’s share, so it is what you actually receive;
- it counts all views, including those where no ad was shown;
- it includes several sources: ads, channel memberships, YouTube Premium, Super Chat and Super Stickers.
Divide your RPM by 1,000 and you get your average earnings per view. Multiply it by your views divided by 1,000 and you get an estimate of your income, which is exactly what the money calculator does.
RPM vs CPM
CPM (cost per mille) is the other number you will see. YouTube Help describes it as what advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions, before YouTube’s share, counting only views where ads ran. CPM tells you how valuable your audience is to advertisers. RPM tells you what you take home. RPM is usually lower than CPM.
How Shorts are paid
Shorts do not carry ads inside each video. According to YouTube Help, ads run between Shorts in the feed; the revenue is pooled every month, divided according to each creator’s share of engaged views, and monetizing creators keep 45% of what is allocated to them. That is why a Shorts view and a long-form view rarely earn the same, and why YouTube Studio shows them separately.
From February 1, 2027, YouTube says Shorts revenue sharing will be limited to channels with 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days. Channels below that line keep earning from long-form videos.
Where to see your own rate
Your RPM appears in YouTube Studio, in the revenue part of Analytics, once your channel is in the YouTube Partner Program. Before that, YouTube does not pay for views at all: check where you stand with the monetization checker.
Sources: YouTube Help on RPM and CPM, on Shorts revenue sharing, and the YouTube Official Blog. Checked on October 11, 2026.
FAQ
Does YouTube pay for every view?
No. Only channels in the YouTube Partner Program earn from ads, and only views that bring in revenue add to your earnings. RPM already averages this out over all your views.
How much is 1,000 views on YouTube?
Exactly your RPM. If your RPM is $3, 1,000 views earn about $3. See what 1 million views pay for the same calculation at a larger scale.
Do likes or comments pay?
No. YouTube does not pay for likes or comments. They can help a video reach more people, but the revenue comes from ads, memberships, Premium and other paid features.