ytwise doesn't use the YouTube Data API and never asks you to sign in. Every result is built from the same public pages your browser loads when you open YouTube. This page explains where each value comes from, how we turn ad signals into a monetization verdict, and where our results can be wrong.
Our principles
- Public pages only. We read pages anyone can open without an account. Private data such as revenue, watch time and strikes is visible only to the channel owner in YouTube Studio, and we never claim to know it.
- Every value has a source label: YouTube public data, Estimate, Community estimate or Not available.
- Time and region are always shown. YouTube can return different data depending on when and where a page is loaded, so each result says when it was checked and from which region: the country YouTube served the page for, read from the page itself.
- Estimates are ranges, not promises. Calculated values come with the assumptions behind them.
- We describe signals, not people. Verdicts are written as likelihoods with a confidence level, never as facts about a channel.
What the source labels mean
- YouTube public data
- Read directly from a public YouTube page at the time shown, for example a view count or an upload date.
- Estimate
- Calculated by ytwise, for example estimated earnings, a monetization likelihood or a confidence level. The method is described on this page.
- Community estimate
- Comes from a third-party community project rather than YouTube, such as dislike counts from Return YouTube Dislike.
- Not available
- Can't be determined from public information, for example a hidden subscriber count or a private video.
Where the data comes from
We read the same YouTube pages anyone can open: the video page, the channel page and search results.
Technical details for developers
- The video watch page. It embeds
ytInitialPlayerResponse(player data such as title, length, view count, keywords, availability and ad settings) andytInitialData(page data such as the like count, the comment count and channel badges). - Channel pages: the channel ID, handle, subscriber count text, description, links, banner, profile picture and features such as the Join button.
- YouTube's public web endpoints (
youtubei/v1, also called InnerTube). These are the same requests the YouTube website makes in your browser, used when a page needs more data, such as search results or recent uploads. - oEmbed and the channel RSS feed (
feeds/videos.xml): lightweight public formats for basic video details and recent uploads. - YouTube's image servers (
i.ytimg.comfor thumbnails,yt3.ggpht.comfor profile pictures and banners). Your browser loads these images directly; we don't store them.
YouTube changes these pages without notice. We check our readers against a fixed set of videos and channels whose results we already know. When a field can no longer be read, we show it as Not available instead of guessing.
Monetization check: signals from a video
When a video page loads, YouTube sends ad settings along with the player data. These are the signals we read:
- Ad flag on this view
- Where it comes from:
yt_adin the player tracking parameters - What it tells us: Whether ads are switched on for this view
- Ad placements
- Where it comes from:
adPlacementsin the player response - What it tells us: Ads before the video (pre-roll), at set times (mid-roll) and after it (post-roll). This gives the ad count and the mid-roll times.
- Player ad config and ad slots
- Where it comes from:
playerAds,adSlots - What it tells us: More detail about the ad setup, used to confirm the placements
- Ad break heartbeat
- Where it comes from:
adBreakHeartbeatParams - What it tells us: A supporting sign that ad settings exist
- Availability
- Where it comes from: Playability status, age gate, allowed countries, made-for-kids settings
- What it tells us: Why signals may be missing: private, age-restricted, region-blocked or members-only
Monetization check: signals for a channel
- Ad signals on several recent public videos. This is the core signal.
- The Join button for channel memberships. Memberships are only available to YouTube Partner Program members, so this is a strong signal.
- A monetization tracking value in the channel page data, when present. We only use it after confirming its meaning on real channels.
- Subscriber and video counts compared with the public Partner Program thresholds. Meeting them doesn't mean a channel is monetized; it only tells us whether it could be.
How the verdict is decided
Each signal has a weight. Together they produce one of three verdicts and a confidence level:
- Ad signals, plus a Partner-only feature such as the Join button
- Likely monetized, with high confidence
- Ad signals only
- Likely monetized, with lower confidence. For a single video we say "Ads are showing", because YouTube can place ads on videos from channels outside the Partner Program.
- No ad signals on several recent videos
- Probably not monetized
- Signals can’t be read (private, age-restricted, region-blocked, members-only or removed)
- Can't tell
The exact weights and thresholds, such as how many recent videos we check and when confidence counts as high, are being calibrated against test channels whose status we know. We will publish them here, with the date of each change, before launch.
"Probably not monetized" is shown in a neutral color, not a warning color. Not being monetized isn't a fault, and a result on this site should never stigmatize a channel.
Why ads don't prove monetization
YouTube can show ads on videos from channels that aren't in the Partner Program, and the ads a viewer sees depend on their country, device and consent choices. That's why we report a likelihood instead of a yes or no. Only YouTube can confirm monetization officially.
How earnings are estimated
- Long-form videos
- views × long-form RPM ÷ 1,000
- Shorts
- Shorts views × Shorts RPM ÷ 1,000
- When you enter a CPM
- views × share of monetized playbacks × CPM × creator share (55% by default) ÷ 1,000
- Daily views from a link
- Video: views ÷ days since upload. Channel: total views ÷ days since the channel was created.
- RPM is revenue per 1,000 views after YouTube's share. CPM is what advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions, before YouTube's share.
- RPM depends mostly on the audience's country and the video topic, so we show low, expected and high values instead of one number.
- Shorts earn from a shared revenue pool, so their RPM is usually far lower than for long-form videos.
- Our RPM assumptions come from public third-party reports, which can differ widely. Each estimate lists the sources and dates of the assumptions it uses.
Estimate only. Calculated from public view counts and ytwise's RPM assumptions. Not provided or confirmed by YouTube; actual earnings may differ significantly.
How the shadowban check works
We search YouTube for the video's exact title and the channel's name from the region shown, and record whether and where the video or channel appears. We also check public signals that can limit reach: age restrictions, region blocks and made-for-kids settings.
YouTube does not publish any "shadowban" status, so no outside tool can confirm one. A low position can also come from normal ranking, a new upload that isn't indexed yet, or a very common title. We describe what we observed and suggest what to check.
Other tools
- Channel ID Finder reads the channel ID (starting with UC) from the channel page or from the video's owner, and derives the uploads playlist (starting with UU) and the RSS feed address from it.
- Thumbnail Downloader builds the standard thumbnail addresses on
i.ytimg.comfor every size, from 120×90 up to 1280×720, and checks which ones exist. - Image Downloader reads the profile picture and banner addresses from the channel page and requests the largest sizes YouTube serves.
- Tag Extractor reads the tags the creator set (
videoDetails.keywordsin the player data) and the hashtags in the title and description. - Data Viewer lists the public fields of a video or channel, each with its source label. Times are shown in your time zone.
Caching and freshness
To stay fast and avoid loading YouTube more than needed, we keep recent results for a short time: ad signals and verdicts for 6 to 24 hours, counts for 1 to 6 hours, and titles and descriptions for up to 24 hours (never more than 30 days). The time on each result is when the data was actually read, not when you opened the page.
Known limits
- A result reflects one moment and one region. The same video can look different an hour later or from another country.
- YouTube rounds subscriber counts to three significant figures, and channels can hide them.
- Creators can hide like counts.
- Private, members-only, age-restricted and region-blocked videos expose little or no data.
Corrections and requests
If you think a result is wrong, contact us with the link you checked and the time shown on the result. If you own a channel and don't want it shown on ytwise, you can ask us to stop showing it. We act within 7 days after verifying ownership.