# How much does YouTube pay in 2026? Real rates per view, sourced

Ana Ibáñez Lario · Published 7 Oct 2026 · Research

_How much does YouTube pay in 2026? Sourced rates per view, per 1,000 views and per 1 million views for long videos and Shorts, what YouTubers earn by size, and when YouTube pays._

## The short answer

- YouTube publishes no rate per view. Creators report $1 to $30 per 1,000 views on long videos, and keep 55% of the ad revenue.
- Shorts pay about 1 to 7 cents per 1,000 views, so 1 million Shorts views is worth roughly $10 to $70.
- At long-video rates, 1 million views is worth about $1,000 to $30,000. Finance channels sit at the top and entertainment at the bottom.
- You need 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours, or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days, before ads pay anything.
- YouTube pays between the 21st and 26th of the month after you earn it, once you pass your payment threshold.

How much does YouTube pay? Creators commonly report $1 to $30 per 1,000 views on long videos, and they keep 55% of the ad revenue. Shorts pay far less, about 1 to 7 cents per 1,000 views. YouTube publishes no fixed rate, and ads only pay once you join the Partner Program at 1,000 subscribers.

**Last checked: 7 October 2026**, for US viewers.

YouTube doesn't publish a rate per view, so every per-view number below is reported creator earnings, and we say so each time. Where YouTube states a rule or a revenue share, we cite its own help pages. Every source has a name and a date.

## How much does YouTube pay? Every way at a glance

_How YouTube pays creators, by income source, October 2026_

| Income source | What you keep | Source and date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ads on long videos | 55% of net ad revenue. Typical RPM is $1 to $30 per 1,000 views | YouTube Help, checked 5 Oct 2026. Influencer Marketing Hub, updated 2 Oct 2026 |
| Ads in Shorts | 45% of your allocation from the Shorts Creator Pool. Creators report about 1 to 7 cents per 1,000 views | YouTube Help, checked 7 Oct 2026. Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026. Shopify, 9 Sep 2026 |
| Memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks | 70% of net revenue | YouTube Help, checked 5 Oct 2026 |
| YouTube Premium | A share of Premium revenue when Premium subscribers watch your videos. Shorts creators keep 45% of the Premium revenue allocated to Shorts | YouTube Help, checked 5 and 7 Oct 2026 |
| YouTube Shopping | Your own sales, or commission on other brands' products | YouTube Help, checked 5 Oct 2026 |
| Brand deals | Whatever you agree with the brand. YouTube sets no minimum for deals you find yourself | YouTube Help, checked 5 Oct 2026 |

Ads are one row in that table. This guide is about the numbers. For the steps to get paid, see our guide on [how to make money on YouTube](/blog/how-to-make-money-on-youtube).

## How much does YouTube pay per view

YouTube pays for the ads shown on your videos, so there is no single rate per view. Influencer Marketing Hub (updated 2 October 2026) puts typical long-video earnings at $1 to $30 per 1,000 views: $1 to $3 at the low end, $5 to $10 on average and $20 to $30 or more at the top. Shopify's guide (updated 9 September 2026) gives the same $1 to $30 range.

Divide by 1,000 and that is about $0.001 to $0.03 a view. A video with 5,000 views at the $5 to $10 average earns about $25 to $50.

The figure creators track is RPM, or revenue per 1,000 views. [YouTube Help](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9314357) says RPM is calculated after YouTube's revenue share, so it is the amount you keep. Your own RPM is in YouTube Analytics, and it is the number to plan with.

Shorts pay much less per view. Influencer Marketing Hub estimates $0.01 to $0.06 per 1,000 Shorts views, and Shopify's guide says creators report about 3 to 7 cents. At 7 cents per 1,000, one view is worth less than a hundredth of a cent.

## How much does YouTube pay per 1000 views

Here is the same range as a table, so you can find where your channel sits.

_YouTube earnings per 1,000 views, as reported by creators, 2026_

| Format | You earn per 1,000 views | Source and date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Long video, low RPM | $1 to $3 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| Long video, average RPM | $5 to $10 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| Long video, high RPM | $20 to $30 or more | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| Shorts | $0.01 to $0.07 (1 to 7 cents) | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026. Shopify, 9 Sep 2026 |

Influencer Marketing Hub says earnings vary a lot with audience location, niche and content format. The next section shows how far niche alone moves the number.

## How much does YouTube pay for 1 million views

At long-video rates, 1 million views is worth about $1,000 to $30,000. Niche decides most of that spread.

_Estimated YouTube earnings per 1 million views, by niche, October 2026_

| Niche | You earn per 1 million views | Source and date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Finance and investing | $15,000 to $40,000 or more | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| Software and AI | $10,000 to $30,000 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| Gaming | $2,000 to $8,000 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| Entertainment | $1,500 to $5,000 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |

Shorts are a different scale. At $0.01 to $0.07 per 1,000 views, 1 million Shorts views is worth about $10 to $70. Real accounts agree. Influencer Marketing Hub reports one creator who earned $15 from 1.3 million Shorts views, and another who earned $520 over a lifetime of 7.7 million views. TubeBuddy's 2026 case study says YouTube paid it $99.87 for 3.1 million views on one Short, about $32 per million.

All of these are estimates. Use the RPM in your own Analytics before you plan around any of them.

## How much do YouTubers make

Influencer Marketing Hub (updated 2 October 2026) estimates monthly ad income by channel size:

_Estimated monthly YouTube ad income by subscribers, October 2026_

| Subscribers | Monthly ad income | Source and date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1,000 to 10,000 | $20 to $1,000 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | $1,000 to $5,000 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |
| 100,000 to 1 million | From $5,000 to well over $50,000 | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2 Oct 2026 |

These cover ad income only. They leave out memberships, Shopping and brand deals, and they describe channels that already earn from ads, so read them as a guide to what is possible. They are not an average for a new channel.

## Long videos and Shorts: where the money is

Long videos pay more per view because creators keep 55% of the ad revenue on their own videos. Shorts ads work differently. YouTube pools the ad money from the Shorts feed each month, takes out music costs, and splits the Creator Pool by each creator's share of engaged views. You keep 45% of your allocation.

[YouTube Help](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/12504220) gives a hypothetical to show the mechanism: a Short with 1 million engaged views, in a country with $100,000 of Shorts feed ad revenue, gets $900 from the pool and earns $405. Real channels report far less, because actual ad revenue per Shorts view is much lower than that example implies. Our guide to [how to make money on YouTube Shorts](/blog/how-to-make-money-on-youtube-shorts) covers Shorts eligibility and the changes coming on 1 February 2027.

## What you need before YouTube pays you

Nothing pays until your channel is in the Partner Program. [YouTube Help](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851) lists two tiers today.

_YouTube Partner Program tiers and what they unlock, October 2026_

| Tier | What it takes | What it unlocks |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fan funding and Shopping | 500 subscribers, 3 public uploads in 90 days, and either 3 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days or 3,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months. Limited to certain countries | Memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks, Shopping |
| Ads | 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days | Ads on long videos and in Shorts, and Premium revenue |

Source: YouTube Help, checked 5 and 7 October 2026. YouTube also asks for 2-Step Verification, no active Community Guidelines strikes and a linked AdSense for YouTube account. From 1 February 2027, new channels need 20 million Shorts views in 90 days or 8,000 watch hours in 365 days to join the ads tier.

## When and how YouTube pays

Finalized earnings land in your AdSense for YouTube account between the 7th and 12th of the following month. YouTube then pays between the 21st and 26th, once you pass your local payment threshold, have no holds and have given U.S. tax info. YouTube's own example uses a $100 threshold (YouTube Help, checked 5 October 2026).

At the $5 to $10 average RPM, $100 takes 10,000 to 20,000 views in a month.

## Keep your YouTube posting steady with Postdom

Your share of the Shorts pool follows your share of engaged views, so steady posting matters. Postdom reads your website and makes short-form videos and slideshows in your brand. The videos it makes can be posted to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, and nothing posts until you approve it.

The Free plan is $0 with no card: 1 post a month on 2 accounts on any platform, with a Postdom watermark. See [pricing](/pricing) for the paid plans.

Postdom can't get you into the Partner Program, and YouTube's originality rules apply to everything you post, so approve only videos that add something. It is built for business owners who want YouTube to bring in customers, and it is a poor fit for channels whose main income is ad revenue.

## What to avoid

- Planning around someone else's RPM. A $30 RPM belongs to a finance channel, and yours may be a tenth of that.
- Buying views or subscribers. YouTube excludes artificial views, and paid ad campaign views don't count toward the thresholds either.
- Reused or mass-produced videos. YouTube's inauthentic content policy has covered repetitive or mass-produced content since 15 July 2025, and its reused content policy can remove monetization from a whole channel (YouTube Help, checked 7 October 2026).
- Counting Shorts toward the 4,000 watch hours. Shorts watch time doesn't count toward that route.
- Expecting a payout in your first month. YouTube says it typically takes about a month to review an application.

> **Post to YouTube without filming every video**
>
> Postdom reads your website and makes short-form videos and slideshows in your brand. Nothing posts until you approve it. The Free plan is $0 with 1 post a month on 2 accounts on any platform and no card. Free posts carry a small Postdom watermark, which paid plans can turn off.
>
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## Frequently asked questions

**How much does YouTube pay for 1,000 views?**

There is no fixed rate. Creators report $1 to $30 per 1,000 views on long videos (Influencer Marketing Hub, updated October 2026) and about 1 to 7 cents on Shorts. Your RPM in YouTube Analytics is the number to trust.

**How many views do you need to get paid on YouTube?**

There is no view count for long videos. The Partner Program asks for 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days (YouTube Help, checked October 2026).

**How much does YouTube pay for 100,000 views?**

About $100 to $3,000 on long videos at $1 to $30 per 1,000 views, and about $1 to $7 on Shorts at 1 to 7 cents. These are reported estimates, and your own RPM will differ.

**When does YouTube pay creators?**

Earnings are finalized between the 7th and 12th of the next month. YouTube pays between the 21st and 26th once you pass your payment threshold and have no holds (YouTube Help, checked October 2026).

**Is it free to join the YouTube Partner Program?**

Yes. YouTube's help pages list no fee to apply. You do need a linked AdSense for YouTube account, which you can set up in YouTube Studio.

**How long does it take to get approved?**

YouTube says it typically decides in about a month, and sometimes longer. If it says no, you can appeal within 21 days or reapply after 30 days.

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Canonical: https://postdom.com/blog/how-much-does-youtube-pay