YouTube Shorts Calculator
Enter your monthly Shorts views and audience mix. You get an estimated revenue range for the month, the yearly figure at the same pace, and what that works out to per million views.
Estimated monthly revenue
$42.5 to $128
Ad revenue share only. Sponsorships and your own products are separate.
Midpoint per month
$85
At this pace per year
$1,020
Per 1 million views
$85
Useful for sanity checking against what other channels report.
Per day average
$2.83
What the numbers mean
Shorts RPM is small on purpose
The Shorts pool is split across every creator whose video played in the feed. Expect $0.02 to $0.25 per thousand views, not long form numbers.
Location does most of the work
The same million views can pay four times more from a US heavy audience than from a low CPM one. Check the geography tab before setting expectations.
Use Shorts as the front door
The reliable version of this is Shorts bringing new viewers in, and a longer video built around one specific problem doing the earning. That video keeps getting found long after the Short stops circulating.
Common questions
How much does YouTube pay for 1 million Shorts views?
Most channels report somewhere between $40 and $250 per million Shorts views, with $100 to $150 being a common middle. The number depends on where your viewers are, the topic, and how much of your traffic is monetised, which is why this calculator uses a range instead of one figure.
What is a normal Shorts RPM?
Roughly $0.04 to $0.25 per thousand views. Long form on the same channel is typically 10 to 40 times higher per view, which is the main reason Shorts work better as a discovery layer than as the income itself.
Do Shorts count toward monetisation requirements?
Yes, through the Shorts route: 1,000 subscribers plus 10 million valid public Shorts views in 90 days, as an alternative to the 4,000 watch hours path. Both routes unlock the same programme.
Does a Shorts view still require watch time?
Not for view counting. Since March 2025 a Shorts view is counted when playback starts. Engaged views, the ones that matter for revenue and for whether the format keeps pushing your video, still depend on people actually watching.
Are Shorts worth making if the RPM is that low?
As an income source on their own, rarely. As a way to get the first viewers onto a channel and into a longer video, often yes. Treat the Shorts number as an acquisition cost you are being paid for, not the business.
How accurate is this estimate?
It is a range, not a forecast. Actual payouts vary month to month with advertiser demand and audience location. Compare the output to your own YouTube Studio RPM once you have 30 days of data and tighten the inputs from there.
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