YouTube Ad Revenue Estimator

What is the YouTube Ad Revenue Estimator?

This tool gives a rough estimate of ad revenue from a video's view count, using either RPM (Revenue per Mille — what a creator actually earns per 1,000 views, after YouTube's cut and unmonetized views are already factored in) or CPM (Cost per Mille — the rate advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions, before those adjustments).

RPM vs CPM: why they're not the same number

These two terms get mixed up constantly. CPM is what an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad views — but not every video view shows a monetized ad (some viewers skip ads, use ad blockers, or watch from a region with lower ad demand), and YouTube takes its share before paying the creator. RPM already accounts for all of that and reflects real per-1,000-view earnings, which is why RPM is almost always meaningfully lower than CPM for the same video.

The math behind the CPM mode

When calculating from CPM, this tool applies your estimated monetized-view percentage, then YouTube's standard, publicly documented 55% creator revenue share (YouTube keeps 45% of ad revenue) — a split that has remained the same since the Partner Program began and applies uniformly to every creator: Views × (monetized% / 100) / 1000 × CPM × 0.55.

An honest accuracy note

Real RPM and CPM vary enormously by content niche, audience country, video length, and time of year, and YouTube doesn't publish exact rates. Treat this as a rough planning estimate, not a guaranteed figure — for real numbers, nothing beats a channel's own YouTube Studio analytics.