RPM, CPM and why the numbers differ
CPM is what advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions. RPM is what you, the creator, earn per 1,000 video views after YouTube takes its share and counting every revenue source, so it is almost always lower than CPM and is the number that matters for planning income. RPM changes a great deal between channels because the same view is worth more or less depending on who is watching and what is being advertised.
What drives RPM
- Niche: finance, business and software attract advertisers who pay more per viewer than entertainment or music.
- Audience country: viewers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are generally worth more to advertisers than viewers in lower-spending markets.
- Video length and format: long-form videos can carry several ads, while Shorts earn a small fraction per view.
- Season: advertiser budgets peak in the fourth quarter and dip early in the year.
- Audience age and content suitability: made-for-kids and limited-ads content earns less.
How this estimate is built
The calculator starts from a typical RPM range for the niche you pick, scales it by a multiplier for your main audience country, and applies it to your monthly views. Shorts use a separate, much lower range. The sponsorship figure is a rough guide to what a brand might pay per 1,000 views for an integration, scaled by niche. All of these inputs are approximations from commonly reported creator figures and are not published by YouTube.
Using it well
Use the range, not a single number, and compare it with your own Studio revenue report once you are monetised. If your real RPM sits well outside the range, trust your own data. The niche table below the result shows how the same audience would earn in other topics, which is useful when deciding what to make next.