If you've opened the Revenue tab in YouTube Studio, you've seen two numbers that sound alike and rarely agree: CPM and RPM. They describe the same money from two different sides. CPM is the advertiser's side. RPM is yours. This guide goes through what each one measures, why the gap between them is often large, and how to use both numbers to work out why your earnings moved.
Three metrics, three different questions
According to YouTube Help, YouTube Analytics reports three related numbers:
- CPM (cost per mille) is how much advertisers spend per 1,000 ad impressions, before YouTube's share.
- Playback-based CPM is what an advertiser pays for 1,000 video playbacks where an ad is shown.
- RPM (revenue per mille) is how much you earned per 1,000 video views, after YouTube's share, from all revenue sources.
| Metric | Whose money | Before or after YouTube's share | What it's divided by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | Advertisers' spending | Before | Ad impressions |
| Playback-based CPM | Advertisers' spending | Before | Playbacks that showed an ad |
| RPM | Your earnings | After | All views, with or without ads |
The last column is the one that matters most. CPM only looks at moments when an ad ran. RPM spreads your earnings across every view, including the ones that earned nothing.
Why RPM is lower: the chain from CPM to RPM
The quickest way to understand the gap is to follow the money from the advertiser to you. The numbers below are an illustration, made up to show the steps, not typical values.
- Advertisers pay per impression. Say CPM is $10, so 1,000 ad impressions bring in $10 of ad spend.
- Not every view shows an ad. Some viewers use ad blockers, some videos or views aren't eligible, and some sessions end before an ad plays. Say 1,000 views lead to 600 playbacks with an ad.
- Some playbacks show more than one ad. Longer videos can carry mid-rolls. Say those 600 playbacks produce 800 impressions, so the ad spend from 1,000 views is $8.
- YouTube takes its share. For long-form videos, according to YouTube Help, creators receive 55% of net ad revenue. That leaves about $4.40.
- Other revenue is added. RPM also includes channel memberships, YouTube Premium revenue, Super Chat and Super Stickers. Say they add $0.40 per 1,000 views.
In this example, CPM is $10 and RPM is about $4.80. Nothing went wrong. RPM is simply a different measurement. The steps also show where the gap can widen: fewer views with ads at step 2, fewer ads per view at step 3, and a different revenue share at step 4.
What moves CPM
YouTube Help names three things that change CPM:
- Time of year. Advertisers bid higher or lower depending on the season, and they often bid more just before holidays.
- Viewer location. Ad markets in different places have different levels of competition, so CPM varies by geography. If your audience shifts to another country, your CPM can shift with it.
- Ad formats. Different ad types have different CPMs, so the mix of formats that run on your videos matters.
Topic matters too, because some advertisers only want to appear next to certain kinds of content. YouTube doesn't publish rates by topic, so treat any table of "CPM by niche" as an estimate.
What moves RPM but not CPM
This is where the two numbers start to tell you different things. Some changes leave CPM alone and still move RPM.
- Unmonetized views. YouTube Help notes that your RPM may go down when unmonetized views increase, even if your revenue stays the same. An old video that suddenly gets traffic from a region with few ads, or a spike in views where no ad played, does exactly this.
- Video length and mid-rolls. According to YouTube Help, monetized videos of 8 minutes or longer can show mid-roll ads, and automatic mid-roll slots are selected by default. More ads per view raises RPM without changing the price of each ad.
- Shorts. Shorts ads play between Shorts in the feed, and the revenue is pooled and shared out, with creators keeping 45% of their allocation. A channel whose views shift toward Shorts will usually see its overall RPM fall, even if long-form CPM is unchanged.
- Made for kids. YouTube Help says personalized ads aren't served on content made for kids, which may reduce revenue for some creators.
- Non-ad income. A rise in memberships or Premium revenue lifts RPM without touching CPM.
Reading the two numbers together
Because CPM and RPM react to different things, comparing their movement is a useful diagnostic.
- CPM down, RPM down by a similar amount. The ad market moved. Look at the time of year and where your viewers are.
- CPM steady, RPM down. Something about your views changed. Look for more Shorts views, a jump in views from places with fewer ads, or traffic to videos with fewer ad slots.
- CPM steady, RPM up. You're showing more ads per view, or earning more outside ads.
- CPM up, RPM flat. Advertisers are paying more, but fewer of your views carry ads.
Look at weeks or months, not single days. Daily numbers are noisy.
How to find your own numbers
According to YouTube Help, sign in to YouTube Studio, choose Analytics in the left menu, then Revenue at the top. The Revenue tab only appears for channels in the YouTube Partner Program, and revenue takes about two days to show up.
A few habits make the numbers easier to read:
- Compare like with like. Compare a month with the same month last year, not with the month before, to take season out of the picture.
- Split long-form and Shorts. Mixed into one channel number, they hide each other.
- Open the per-video view. One video with an unusual audience can pull the whole channel's RPM up or down.
- Use Advanced mode under Analytics if you want to add revenue metrics to a custom report.
How our Earnings Calculator helps
If you don't have Studio numbers yet, or you're estimating for another channel, the Earnings Calculator works with RPM directly. It applies the formula views × RPM ÷ 1,000 and shows daily, monthly and yearly estimates as a low, expected and high range.
For long-form videos, the calculator starts from typical advertiser CPMs in the viewers' countries, leaves out views that don't show an ad, applies the 55% creator share and adjusts for topic. This is the chain above, in the same order. Shorts use their own RPM ranges. You can switch between long-form and Shorts to compare them, and paste a video or channel URL to fill in daily views from public counts.
The limits:
- These are estimates. YouTube doesn't publish CPM or RPM by country or topic, so our ranges come from public creator reports and ad market data.
- The calculator assumes the channel is in the Partner Program. If it isn't, its ad earnings are zero.
- Your real RPM is in YouTube Studio and nowhere else. Once you have it, trust it over any calculator.
Worth keeping in mind
- CPM is what advertisers pay. RPM is what you keep, per view.
- RPM counts every view, so more unmonetized views lowers it even when revenue holds.
- When RPM moves, check CPM first. Whether CPM moved too tells you where to look.
- Compare the same months year over year to keep season from fooling you.