Anastasiia Kyriienko

With over 3,000 channels analyzed, one thing is clear: YouTube Shorts CPMs are on the rise globally. But even with that growth, they’re still a few steps behind the payouts of traditional long-form content. So what’s the real story behind Shorts revenue in 2025? How much are top creators actually making per million views?

There’s a lot of noise out there. How much do YouTube Shorts actually pay? Can you cash out in crypto? Tons of questions, even more myths, and not nearly enough straight answers.

On YouTube, two key metrics will tell you how your content performs financially: CPM and RPM. One reflects how much advertisers are willing to spend to reach your audience, the other shows how much of that spend actually lands in your pocket.