RPM is what actually lands in your AdSense account — not the CPM headline advertisers pay. This calculator uses YouTube’s own formula and current niche benchmarks so you can check your numbers or plan before you’ve published anything.
YouTube defines RPM as total estimated revenue — ad revenue, Premium revenue, channel memberships, and Super Chat combined — divided by total views, multiplied by 1,000. It sits next to CPM in YouTube Studio’s Analytics tab, and it will always read lower than CPM, because YouTube keeps roughly 45% of ad revenue and not every view serves a monetized ad.
The two metrics answer different questions. CPM tells you what advertisers were willing to pay for your audience. RPM tells you what you actually took home. If you only track one number, track RPM — it’s the one your bank balance agrees with.
| Category | RPM range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Long-form (blended average) | $1–$12 | per 1,000 views |
| Education & finance niches | $10–$25 | per 1,000 views |
| YouTube Shorts | $0.05–$0.5 | per 1,000 engaged views |
| Gaming / entertainment | $0.9–$5 | per 1,000 views |
Ranges are blended global averages. Audience geography moves this more than any single other factor — a Tier 1 (US/UK/CA/AU) audience typically earns 3–5x a Tier 3 audience at an identical view count.
For most niches, $2–$4 is a solid average. Education, finance, and B2B channels regularly clear $10, while music and pure entertainment channels often sit under $1. There isn’t a single "good" number — compare against your own niche and region.
CPM is the advertiser-side rate before YouTube’s cut and before accounting for views that never served a monetized ad. RPM reflects both of those, plus it includes non-ad revenue like memberships — which usually isn’t enough to close the gap.
Shorts revenue is reported separately in Studio and calculated per 1,000 engaged Shorts views from a shared revenue pool, not the standard ad-auction model long-form videos use — which is why Shorts RPM looks so much smaller.
The levers with the most evidence behind them: longer watch time (more ad slots), a niche with high advertiser demand, an audience concentrated in Tier 1 countries, and publishing ahead of Q4 when advertiser budgets typically rise 40–80%.