YouTube Payment Metrics: CPM vs. RPM (2026)

Before diving into numbers its essential to know the difference between two key terms:

CPM (Cost Per Mille)What advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions.

RPM (Revenue Per Mille)What creators actually earn per 1,000 views—after YouTube takes its 45% cut and includes all revenue types ads memberships etc.

What Creators Actually Earn in 2026

General Averages

Hootsuite

reports that in 2026, a YouTuber can earn $5 to $15 per 1,000 ad views

DemandSage finds an average of $18 per 1,000 ad views, with per-view earnings ranging between $0.002 to $0.025

Creator Hero also aligns with the $18 average, but notes that high-paying niches (engineering, tech, finance) can reach up to $30 per 1,000 views, while entertainment or vlogs often hover around $5

By Niche and Content Type

Lenostube data shows average CPM around $3.50, with variations by content type

Education:$9.09

People & Blogs: $6.36

Gaming: $4.55

Music: $1.36

Shorts: extremely low CPM, sometimes as low as $0.02

By Country : CPM Variation

IsThisChannelMonetized reports median CPM of €2.50, ranging from €1.00 (2.5th percentile) up to €8.00 (97.5th percentile) globally Regional CPM examples:

USA: ($11)

Canada: ($6)

Pakistan:($0.39)

Additional insights from Livereacting (via their calculator tool):

Norway: $43

Germany: $39

USA: $13

Sweden & Canada : $18 & $13.50

In 2025 YouTube creators can generally expect to earn between $5 and $15 for every 1k views which serves as a solid baseline across most niches. However channels that focus on highvalue topics such as finance technology or business often see much higher returns sometimes reaching up to $30 per 1k views. On the other hand smaller niches and entertainmentbased content like lifestyle vlogs or casual videos usually stay closer to the $5 range. Shortform content especially YouTube Shorts pays significantly less compared to traditional long-form videos. Another important factor is geographyCPM varies widely from country to country with the United States averaging around $11 Norway going as high as $43 while countries like Pakistan see much lower rates.