There are over 2.5 million viewers on YouTube– making it one of the most used social media platforms. No wonder, people are willing to know how much does YouTube pay per view and whether it really generates bountiful income.
In short: Yes, but there are many intricate concepts to be familiar with. Though starting a YouTube channel is the first step in this direction, it doesn’t suffice for a steady flow of income. For that, you need to know how many subscribers you need to make money on YT, how to earn from memberships and product promotions and how many views can make you a millionaire, etc. Good thing for you this blog will touch on such aspects, so give it a read.
How To Get Paid On YouTube?
Like any other social media platform, YouTube too has certain criteria to determine whether or not a creator will get paid and how much. First of all, anyone willing to generate a nice chunk of change must get their YouTube channel monetized first. For this, a Google AdSense account has to be linked to your YouTube Channel, which asks for working in line with YouTube Monetization Policies.
Though this will give you a start, it doesn’t suffice for the requirement of an engaging community. Only a genuine user base can provide you with organic and real views and feedback about your videos. Now this also indicates that paid views and wrongful tactics can’t make you a competitive player in the long run.
Afterward, you need to sign up for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). The program allows you access to certain exceptionally lucrative monetization features. So if YPP is available on YouTube in your country, check out if you’re eligible for this-
- You have a linked Google AdSense Account +
- More than 1000 subscribers +
- 4000 Valid Public Watch Hours within the past 12 months OR 10 Million Valid Public Shorts Views in the past 90 days.
Undoubtedly, there are millions of viewers on YouTube, but rest assured because YouTube’s income and rewards are also huge. Most content creators rate YouTube as the best platform for earning money. But again how much do YouTubers make? It depends on a plethora of factors including the number of subscribers, views, location, etc.
We all hear and read that YouTube is a splendid source of income. But how much does YouTube pay is the question that keeps many over the fence.
There is no fixed monthly or yearly salary sort of thing that the platform provides. The creators on YouTube earn based on views, that’s what we discuss further.
How Much Does YouTube Pay Per View?
One crucial element for aspiring content creators to understand, especially those starting the journey on YouTube, is the importance of managing various income sources and planning effectively for tax responsibilities like when to estimate your quarterly tax payments. This consideration ensures financial health and stability, allowing you to focus on building your audience and maximizing revenue streams.
As we talked about earlier, crossing 1000 subscribers is a benchmark for enabling YPP so that you can opt for splendid monetization features.
When a creator fulfills the required conditions discussed in the previous section, joins the YPP program, sets the channel for monetization with an Adsense account, they can expect to earn from ad views on their YouTube video, not the video views. This is to say that regardless of video views a YouTuber earns when someone watches an ad shown at the start/in between or at the end of their video. The world’s second most-used search engine keeps a share of that revenue and transfers the rest to the creator’s account.
So this calls for understanding the difference between video views (which are the number of views a video garners) and ad views (which are the number of views an ad on your video garners). Video views reflect the popularity of a creator and people’s likeability for the content which advertisers check before they reach out to a creator. Advertisers, of course, willing to get maximum traction and exposure from the creator’s popularity, select a spot on YouTube that fits their budget.
But the question stands: how much YouTube pay per views exactly? YouTube pays 55% of the ad revenue to the creator and retains 45% share– this applies to long-form video content. However, for three-minute YouTube Shorts, the platform charges 55% of ad revenue and transfers 45% to the creators’ account due to Shorts music licensing fees.
Performance and revenue go hand-in-hand on YouTube, that’s why the platform clearly states– “There are no guarantees under the YouTube partner agreement about how much or whether you’ll be paid. Earnings are generated based on a share of advertising revenue from viewers watching your video.”
From average estimates, a YouTuber can expect to make somewhere between $10-$30 per 1000 views, this indicates– a creator receives between $0.01-$0.03 per ad view.
The table below summarizes how much does youtube pay per view:
1000 views | $10-$30 |
10,000 views | $100-$300 |
1,00,000 views | $1000-$3000 |
5,00,000 views | $5000-$15000 |
10,00,000 views | $10000-$30000 |
YouTube Pay Per View Examples
- Let’s see some examples- content creator Shelby Church revealed in an interview with the Business Insider that she raked in 30K USD for a video about Amazon FBA that received over 1.8 Million views, roughly around $0.017 per view.
- Even MrBeast reportedly garnered $500,000 with over 105 Million views on his video titled- Sold My House For $1. This gives about $0.0048 per view.
- Another creator Zach King also lays focus on earning through views on YouTube Shorts in his tweet. However, most YouTubers admit that the money generated per YouTube view is far from lucrative, they all agreed it did really well for their exposure and branding.
How Much Do YouTubers Make?
YouTube has a vast creator’s community which leaves everyone wondering how much money do YouTubers make. As per Forbes, YouTube is the second highest earning app globally with $111 Million in 2023.
With over 316 Million subscribers, MrBeast is the No.1 earning star on YouTube with an estimated earnings of $82 Million in 2023. He also received the YouTube 100 Million Play Button. Many other names joined the list after MrBeast.
5 Highest-Paid YouTubers
Below we have discussed the youtube earnings of the highest earning YouTubers in the world.
S. NO. | NAME | INCOME (in USD) |
1 | Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast) | 82 Million |
2 | Rhett & Link | 35 Million |
3 | Jack Paul | 34 Million |
4 | Mark Edward Fischbach (Markiplier) | 30 Million |
5 | Logan Paul | 21 Million |
(Source: Statista)
Jake Pual posts challenging videos more often watched for entertainment, whereas Rhett and Link are often seen making interestingly unusual vlogs and in their talk show- Good Mythical Mornings. Although all these YouTubers are working on different niches, there is one thing in common: they all started with zero audiences once. Their audience and view count gradually increased over time and so can yours– so keep trying!
Read more on who has the most subscribers on YouTube.
How Do You Make Money On YouTube?
YouTube supports several ways for creators to earn money. The list is big and engrossing. One thing that you already know is that YouTube earnings have a lot to do with vlogging. Apart from that there are plenty of methods that can fetch you a nice change for a chunk on YouTube.
Earn Through Supers
YouTube allows your fans to send you special super thanks in the way of monetary appreciation and in return they get their comment highlighted. Creators get a percentage (after deducting the local sales tax and App Store fees on iOS) of the amount.
Produce Premium Content
One way to get the lion’s share of money from YouTube is by producing premium content for premium subscribers. These subscribers pay to access special content without any ads and background play. As far as earnings are concerned, they’re reckoned based on watch hours from online users, downloaded videos, and background playback.
Go For Merchandising & Affiliate Marketing
Have you ever purchased a t-shirt, cup, backpack, or book from your favorite YouTuber’s merchandise? You can too sell your own merch when you cross the count of 1K subscribers and join the YT’s Partner Program.
Moreover, you can take up endorsement projects from small as well as huge brands so that they get exposure to your audience and you get paid for that. You can utilize YouTube Brand Connect for that.
Collaborate With Other Creators
Another way to bring up your YT’s earnings is to promote your channel through other creators with collaborative ideas. This can elevate your subscribers’ count, watch hours, and ultimately your ROI on YouTube.
Grab YouTube Ads Revenue
YouTube proffers many ad variations that can help in earning money. You can run skippable and non-skippable ads on YouTube videos and shorts. The criteria for both are different; in fact, YouTube doesn’t pay for one-minute Shorts. For earning ad revenue on Shorts you must create three-minute Shorts made using YouTube Studio on desktop or mobile app from 15 October 2024.
- Ad revenue from long-form Videos: creators receive 55% of total revenue.
- Ad revenue from Shorts: creators receive 45% of total revenue.
Give Membership Benefits
Your subscribers can join your YT channel memberships for which you’ll get some percentage of the subscription revenue minus tax and fees. Memberships can be offered at different levels with hierarchy-based perks. For that, you surely need to make a connection with your audience and make your video content optimized enough to make it rank well in YouTube searches.
Read our detailed blog on how to make money on YouTube.
Factors That Affect Your YT Earnings
Here are some crucial factors that directly affect your earnings from YouTube-
CPM & RPM
Firstly, CPM stands for Cost Per Mille (i.e., cost per thousand views on an ad in the case of YouTube) and RPM means Revenue Per Mille (i.e., revenue earned per thousand views on an ad on YouTube). Now these two metrics play a crucial role in deciding how much you’ll earn on YouTube.
When an advertiser wants to run an ad on a creator’s YT Channel, they make a specified investment in the ads ascertained by CPM. In other words, they set the particular amount they are willing to pay per thousand views. A specified percentage of this CPM gets transferred to the creator’s pocket. That’s why higher CPM will generate higher revenues or RPM for a creator.
At times, an advertiser can also choose to run YouTube Ads based on Cost-Per-Click (CPC or PPC) Model. In such a case, instead of views, clicks will be counted as a key performance indicator.
Time View
Most people tend to skip and get past ads on YouTube as quickly as possible. But YouTube doesn’t consider a view until an ad is watched for at least 30 seconds (the duration is different for YT Shorts). Moreover, YouTube has a cut of 45% in total ad revenue which means a creator gets to have the remaining 55%.
Subscribers’ Count
By now we know that YouTube only allows joining YouTube Partner Program (YPP) after crossing 1k Subscribers. This means one needs to maintain a certain number of subscribers to be able to generate income from YT and that count must go up with time to upscale those earnings. Moreover, the subscribers’ count will also establish you as a renowned and authentic YouTube Creator and you can get Creators Awards-
- Silver Play Button: For 100k Subscribers
- Gold Play Button: For 1 Million Subscribers
- Diamond Play Button: For 10 Million Subscribers
- Red Diamond Play Button: For 100 Million Subscribers
S. NO. | PLAY BUTTON (PB) | NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS MANDATORY | YEAR OF ADDITION IN CREATOR AWARDS |
1 | Silver PB | 100k | 2013 |
2 | Gold PB | 1 Million | 2012 |
3 | Diamond PB | 10 Million | 2015 |
4 | Custom Creator PB | 50 Million | No Information Available (Now missing from Creator Awards FAQ since 2020) |
5 | Red Diamond PB | 100 Million | 2020 |
(Source: Wikipedia)
Check out this video for more details regarding eligibility.
Multiple Channels & Merch
Many YouTubers like Gustavo Tosta and Stevin John have made several million dollars from multiple YouTube channels apart from their mainstream channel. Not just that, these YouTubers also earn through merchandising their signature products.
Undoubtedly how much does YouTube pay depends on several factors. But to create the buzz around your video content is something that Mind Mingles can do for you so that it can reach out to a larger audience base. Our Social Media Marketing Packages will not only work on your video thumbnails, title, description, etc. but will also promote it on other social media handles. This way, we’ll get you more video views and increase your subscriber count. Get in touch with us today and reach multiple YouTube milestones quickly.
Conclusion
Most people who wish to earn from YouTube first search for how much does YouTube pay. YouTube pays you for ad views and holds a 45% cut in the revenue for longform videos, and 55% cut for three-minute Shorts. The above blog has tried to lift the curtains and answered several questions that can pop up in the mind of many already and would-be YT creators. There are distinct criteria for earning on YouTube and you must follow the protocols and guidelines rigorously.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How Much Views On YouTube To Make Money?
To make money on YouTube, ad views matter, not video views. Although video views are a way to get exposure from a large audience base, you can only make money through advertising revenue, memberships, premium subscriptions, etc., not from video views. On an average, YouTube is estimated to pay a creator between $10 and $30 per 1000 ad views. However, there is no hard-and-fast rule, and many factors can affect this amount.
How Does YouTube Pay?
Creators on YouTube share their generated revenue with the platform. The usual source of revenue generation on YouTube is advertising, premium subscriptions, merchandising, super chat, etc.
How Much Money Do YouTubers Make 1 Million Views On YouTube Money?
YouTube pays 55% of the ad revenue to creators which means you can expect to earn between $1000-$3000, however this amount is highly variable.
How Many Subscribers Do You Need To Make Money YouTube?
To earn money on YouTube, you need to have more than 1000 Subscribers and join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).
How Much Does A YouTuber Make?
With consistent efforts and quality content, many YouTubers are generating enormous money from YouTube. For instance- Jimmy Donaldson, widely known as MrBeast is earning over $50 Million from his YT Channel.
How Do You Make Money On YouTube Through Ads Revenue On Shorts?
YouTube has a cut of 55% (including fees for music licensing) in total ad revenue on three-minute Shorts which means a creator earns the remaining 45%.