How much does YouTube pay per 1,000 Shorts views?

There is no set figure. Shorts Feed ad revenue is pooled each month, split with music partners, allocated to creators by their share of engaged views in each country, and then the creator keeps 45%. In YouTube’s own worked example that chain ends at $405 for a million views, or about 40 cents per thousand.

What revenue share do creators get on YouTube?

55% of net revenue for long-form videos and 45% for Shorts, on both ads and the subscription pools. YouTube states both figures directly: the long-form share covers Watch Page ads, and the Shorts share is applied after the Creator Pool has been allocated.

What do I need to start earning on YouTube?

Today: 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days. From 1 February 2027 new applicants need 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views, and earning a share of Shorts ad revenue requires 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days.

Why is my RPM lower than other creators’?

Because the pool is split by country and by advertiser demand. The same video shown to viewers in different countries earns different amounts, and Shorts revenue is allocated per country before your 45% share is applied. Music also matters: a Short with one track sends half of its associated revenue to music licensing before the Creator Pool is calculated.

BlogPayouts4 min

Does YouTube pay $1 per 1,000 views?

Q: Does YouTube pay $1 per 1,000 views?

Not as a rate, and not on Shorts. YouTube’s own published example pays a creator $405 for a million engaged Shorts views, which is about 40 cents per thousand. On long-form, YouTube pays 55% of net Watch Page ad revenue, and what that comes to per thousand views depends on who is watching and what advertisers bid.

Not on Shorts. YouTube’s own worked example pays $405 on a million engaged Shorts views — about 40 cents per thousand. Long-form is a 55% share of net Watch Page ad revenue, where a dollar per thousand is ordinary rather than promised. Neither is a rate YouTube offers.

Published 11 September 2026

A dollar per thousand views is the figure that circulates, and unlike most creator-payout numbers it has an official answer attached — because YouTube publishes a worked example of the Shorts calculation, with real arithmetic, in its own help centre. Follow it to the end and the answer is about 40 cents.

YouTube’s own example, step by step

This is YouTube’s hypothetical, not ours. It describes one month in one country, for a creator who uploaded a Short with one music track.

Step	Figure
Engaged Shorts views in the country	100,000,000
Shorts Feed ad revenue that month	$100,000
Share of those Shorts using one music track	20%
Creator Pool after music licensing	$90,000
Your engaged views	1,000,000 — 1% of the total
Your allocation from the pool	$900
Your share of the allocation	45%
What you earn	$405
Per 1,000 engaged views (our arithmetic)	$0.405

Every row but the last is quoted from YouTube’s Shorts monetization policies. The last divides YouTube’s own result by its own view count.

Two features of that chain matter more than the number it lands on. First, you are paid a slice of a pool, not a price per view: if the month’s ad revenue is lower, so is your cheque, at identical views. Second, the split is done per country. A million views spread across markets is a million views paid at several different rates.

Long-form is a different number

On the Watch Page, YouTube pays 55% of net ad revenue, and 45% on Shorts — figures YouTube states directly in its August 2026 announcement. That is a share of what advertisers actually paid against your video, which is why long-form RPM swings by topic and audience in a way the Shorts pool does not. A dollar per thousand views is an ordinary long-form outcome. It is not a floor, and nothing guarantees it.

Shorts views also do not help you qualify on the long-form path: YouTube excludes watch hours earned in the Shorts Feed from the 4,000 qualified public watch hours threshold.

What changes on 1 February 2027

YouTube announced the first significant change to the Partner Program since 2018 on 10 August 2026. Three parts of it change the payout arithmetic above:

Shorts revenue sharing gets a floor. From 1 February 2027 you need 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to be eligible for Shorts ad and subscription revenue. Below it you stay in the program and keep earning on long-form, and Shorts sharing resumes automatically when you cross back over.
Entry gets harder. New applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days — double each of today’s thresholds. Creators already in the program are not affected.
Targeted Shorts ads start paying directly. Ads aimed at groups of five channels or fewer will earn direct revenue at the same 45% share, on top of the pool.

The comparison people actually want

Against TikTok, the shape is the same and the transparency is not. TikTok publishes no rate at all — the $600-per-million figure is an inference from creator reports, and TikTok pays only on qualified views from eight countries, on videos over a minute long. YouTube’s 40 cents is lower than that band and it is published.

One thing that does not move either number is when you upload. The best time to post on YouTube is the one platform where the timing tables are close to meaningless, for the same reason the payout tables are: the system is a pool and a recommendation engine, not a schedule. If you are cutting Shorts, the Shorts size checker has the dimensions and duration limits, including the three-minute ceiling.

What is worth tracking is your own RPM over time rather than anyone else’s. ViewPrinter records views, likes, comments, shares and saves per post as a series rather than a single current number, as of the last sweep, so a month where earnings fell can be checked against whether the views fell with them.

Sources

Each page read on 16 September 2026.

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