Earnings Estimator
Estimate how much a YouTube Short earns based on views and niche.
How Much Do YouTube Shorts Pay? Estimate Your Earnings
YouTube Shorts revenue depends on several factors: your view count, the geographic location of your audience, your content niche, and whether you're part of the YouTube Partner Program. Shorts earn money primarily through the Shorts Fund and ad revenue sharing, though CPM rates for Shorts are significantly lower than long-form content.
This estimator calculates a low, mid, and high earnings range based on your view count and niche. CPM (cost per thousand views) for Shorts typically ranges from $0.01 to $0.15, with niches like finance and technology at the higher end and entertainment and gaming at the lower end.
Keep in mind that Shorts revenue is just one income stream. Most successful Shorts creators use their content to drive traffic to longer videos (higher CPM), build an audience for sponsorships, or sell products. The real value of a viral Short often isn't the direct ad revenue — it's the subscribers and brand deals that follow.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does YouTube pay per 1,000 views on Shorts?
- YouTube Shorts CPM typically ranges from $0.01 to $0.15 per 1,000 views, depending on your niche and audience location. Finance and tech niches tend to earn on the higher end, while entertainment and gaming earn less. This is significantly lower than long-form video CPM, which can range from $2-$12.
- How many views do you need to make money on YouTube Shorts?
- You need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program (1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views in 90 days, or 4,000 watch hours of long-form content). Once eligible, even modest view counts generate some revenue, though meaningful earnings typically start at 100K+ views per Short.
- Which YouTube Shorts niche pays the most?
- Finance, business, technology, and health niches tend to have the highest CPM rates because advertisers in these categories pay more. A finance Short with 1 million views might earn 3-5x more than an entertainment Short with the same views.
- Why are Shorts earnings so low compared to regular videos?
- Shorts have lower CPM because they're consumed rapidly (higher volume, lower attention per piece), ad formats are more limited, and the revenue sharing model is different. YouTube allocates a pool of ad revenue across Shorts creators based on view share rather than placing individual ads on each Short.