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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.

YouTube Shorts pay successful creators far less from ads than their view counts suggest, and the biggest Shorts channels earn most of their money elsewhere. In our research of 274 channels (by MilX and AIR Media-Tech), Shorts RPM was 3–14% of long-form RPM in almost every niche, and Shorts brought in under 2% of total revenue for most channels. Below are the 2026 Shorts RPM benchmarks, how successful creators build their Shorts income, and the rule change YouTube has announced for February 2027.

Monetizing on YouTube in 2026 is trickier than ever. The good news? There are now more ways to make money than just ads. But to unlock it all, you need to meet the right requirements and avoid the mistakes.