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YouTube Shorts monetization runs on different rules from long videos. You don't earn from an ad on your own Short. YouTube pools the money from ads between Shorts, takes out music costs, splits the rest by views, and you keep 45% of your part.

Yes, AI can affect YouTube monetization in 2026, but the tool itself costs you nothing. YouTube pays AI-assisted channels and removes channels from the Partner Program when they mass-produce near-identical videos, with or without AI. Two separate rules decide where you stand: the inauthentic content policy, which governs earnings, and the AI label, which doesn't touch them.

On YouTube, CPM is what advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions on your videos, and RPM is what you earn per 1,000 views after YouTube's 45% share, counting the views that showed no ad. In our research of 300 channels (by MilX and AIR Media-Tech, May 2025 to May 2026), tech channels had a median CPM of $5.73 in YouTube Studio and a median RPM of $2.33, so the RPM came out at about 40% of the CPM.

You can monetize kids content on YouTube in 2026, but the made for kids label changes the math. Ads still run, just not personalized ones, and in our research of 300 channels by MilX and AIR Media-Tech, kids channels earned a median of $0.33 per 1,000 views, about a seventh of the all-niche median.