YouTube has become a major source of income for countless people worldwide. But how much does YouTube pay its creators per view, per subscription, and per month? Let’s find out here as we explore the YouTubers’ earnings, revenue channels, and more to determine if it’s worth the effort.
According to the list published by Forbes last year, Mr. Beast, Jake Paul, and Markiplier were the highest-paid YouTubers, and rightly so, considering their fanbase. However, these big players make loads of money from YouTube and collaborations, sponsorships, and other deals.
It’s important to know how much an average YouTube makes, what the requirements are to get paid by YouTube, and how long it will take to start earning from your YouTube videos. This would help you decide whether to become a YouTuber or change your fortune.
How Much Does YouTube Pay Per View?
YouTube doesn’t pay a fixed amount for ads that appear on your videos. Several factors affect creators’ revenue on the platform. On average (from reliable sources such as Forbes, Influencer Marketing Hub, and others), YouTube pays around $0.018 per ad view.
This rate can range from $0.01 to $0.30 per ad view. It calculates to $10 to $300 per thousand views. There are also two types of ads on YouTube that can be shown on your videos. The first is CPC (Cost-per-Click), and the other is CPM (Cost per Milestone/ Thousand Users).
For the first type, you earn money when a viewer clicks on an ad placed on your video, but for the second type, you will generate revenue when 1,000 users have only seen the ad for a certain period. YouTube also takes a 45% commission of your ad earnings from the platform. You don’t get to keep it all.
Factors Affecting YouTube Revenue:
Several factors affect a creator’s revenue on YouTube, such as the reach, quality of ads, niche, length of videos, and more. In the United States, YouTube content creators earned around $1,154 per week on average last year. This calculates to a monthly income of $4,616 per month.
A survey by Forbes revealed an average income of $5 per 1,000 views in 2022. However, the data size may not genuinely reflect the true amount. The creators in the Western world earn more than those in other regions. It’s widely known that the ad revenue is more from the audience in the U.S. or the UK than from the audience from Indonesia, Malaysia, or other Asian nations.
Here are some key factors that directly or indirectly affect the amount of money you’ll earn from YouTube ad revenue:
- The niche of your channel
- The number of views your video gets
- The number of clicks an ad gets
- Ad Quality
- Ad blockers
- Length of your videos
- Average CPM of your region
If you plan to become a full-time YouTuber, you must take care of all these factors.
Eligibility Criteria to Get Paid by YouTube:
Every person posting videos on YouTube isn’t eligible to earn money. A creator must join the “YouTube Partner Program” to get a share of their videos’ ad revenue. For that, there are certain requirements you need to meet. Let’s take a look at them:
- Have at least 1,000 subscribers
- Reach 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months (not including short views)
Or
- Have at least 1,000 subscribers
- Reach 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.
Once you meet the following requirements, you can apply for the YouTube Partner Program. You must follow a collection of policies and guidelines and live in a country where the program is available. Finally, you’ll need an active Google AdSense account to link with your channel.
Alternative Revenue Options for YouTubers:
Apart from the ad revenue on YouTube, there are several other ways for YouTubers to make money on the platform. Brand collaborations and sponsorships are the most common option, followed by merchandise selling and affiliate income. Let’s have a look at all possible options to earn money on YouTube:
- Sponsorships & Collabs: If you have a strong audience base on YouTube, brands will be willing to collaborate with you and sponsor your videos. They’ll pay you to review or promote their products and services.
- Merchandise sales: Popular YouTubers create and sell their merchandise on digital platforms, including their exclusive stores. Their loyal fans purchase them to help their favorite creators.
- Affiliate Links: Placing affiliate links in your videos, their descriptions, or in your channel’s bio is another way of making money on YouTube. Brands pay you to promote their products as an affiliate marketer. You’ll be paid when a user clicks on the link or makes a purchase using it.
- Fan Donations: Many YouTubers ask for donations from their fans and some of them even run crowdfunding campaigns for their upcoming projects. You can try this medium too.
- Channel Memberships: YouTube allows you to offer subscription packages for extra content and exclusive perks to your loyal fans for a monthly price. However, they take a 30% commission for that.
- Live-Streaming: When you live stream on YouTube, viewers can send money to you directly as Superchats. However, YouTube takes a 30% cut from your Superchat earnings too.
These are the most likely ways you can make a living from being a YouTuber. Having a loyal base of fans who enjoy your content is a must to enable these.
Highest Paid & Profitable YouTube Niches:
Choosing the niche is the first step if you’re serious about being a successful YouTuber. Some niches are easier than others to work on but they may not be very lucrative financially while other niches could be hard to work, they’ll help you earn a significantly larger sum of money.
Some of the most profitable and common YouTube niches are finance, business, and technology. Gaming is another rising niche that has made a lot of millionaires in recent years. Here are the top 15 most profitable YouTube niches to earn more money with their average CPM:
- Make Money Online: $13.52 CPM
- Digital Marketing: $12.52 CPM
- Personal Finance: $12 CPM
- Education: $9.89 CPM
- Tech, Cars, and Gadgets: $7.31 CPM
- ASM & Satisfying Videos: $3.50 CPM
- Lifestyle: $3.47 CPM
- Fashion & Try-On Hauls: $3.13 CPM
- Beauty & Makeup: $3 CPM
- Motivational & Spiritual Videos: $2.54 CPM
- Cooking: $2.50 CPM
- Travel: $2 CPM
- Fitness & Building: $1.60 CPM
- Gaming: $1.40 CPM
- Comedy & Humor: $1 CPM
You can pick any of these but remember that only focusing on the CPM won’t work in long-term. You must pick a niche that interests you and where you can educate yourself to provide valuable content to your fans.
Final Verdict: Does YouTube Pay Good?
YouTube pays well when working with the right strategy for a long time. For beginners and starter channels, the amount that YouTube pays isn’t enough to survive on that alone. You must find alternate ways to generate revenue and not rely on the money you earn from ads shown in your videos.
If you combine the money you earn from YouTube and from alternative sources such as brand deals, affiliate marketing, merchandise sales, donations, and others, you’ll make a good living. Persistence and discipline are two qualities that will help you to take your YouTube channel to new heights.
Focus on earning a fan base that stays loyal to you and then you don’t have to worry about how much YouTube pays. They’ll help you earn a good amount from YouTube, and even from other platforms such as Instagram, Twitch, X (formerly called Twitter), and more.
Frequently asked questions:
According to an average by Forbes, YouTube pays around $5 for every 1,000 views. This means YouTube pays around $5,000 for a million views. However, this amount could vary based on factors such as ad quality, ad blockers, average CPM for the region that generates views, and more.
You must get at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the past 90 days to get paid on YouTube. Once you have either of these, you can apply for the YouTube Partner Program and earn money for your videos.
Yes, Google (the owner of YouTube) pays eligible YouTubers in the Partner Program monthly through AdSense. Usually, they are paid between the 21st and 26th of every month. You must exceed the minimum $100 payment threshold to receive monthly payments. If it’s less than that, it automatically gets rolled over to the next month.
Yes, YouTube pays for Shorts views. Initially, the Shorts weren’t paid and then Google introduced a creator fund that allowed Shorts creators to get a fixed share of the ad revenue. However, now Google pays Shorts creators a part of the ad revenue just like regular videos. Creators keep 45% of their revenue share.
The average annual salary for a YouTuber in the United States is $60,004. They earn around $29.05 per hour or around $1,161 per 40-hour work week. This data is the courtesy of ZipRecruiter and may vary for different regions.
