Education logo

How to make money from You-Tube.

Making money from You-Tube.

By tanvir AliPublished 3 years ago 7 min read

28 YouTube creators reveal how much they get paid per month for their videos

Creators who are a part of YouTube's Partner Program can monetize their YouTube videos with ads.

These ads earn a certain rate based on viewer demographics and the type of content made.

Insider spoke with 28 influence rs about how much they earn in a month on YouTube.

Loading Something is loading.

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app

This is the latest installment of Insider's YouTube money logs, where creators break down how much they earn.

Each month, YouTube creators earn money off the ads that play in their videos.

Many factors — like whether a video went viral or whether the audience that watches their content is valuable to advertisers — determine what a creator earns per paycheck. You Tubers are paid out monthly and either receive a check by mail or direct deposit.

To start earning money from YouTube's Partner Program, creators must have 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours in the past year or 3 million YouTube shorts views in the last 90 days. This qualifies them to earn from channel memberships, tips, and other sources. But to make money specifically from ad revenue (via YouTube's Ad Sense program) creators must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year.

Making money through YouTube programs isn't the only form of revenue for these digital stars. Creators on YouTube earn their money a number of ways, from sponsorship to selling merchandise.

Still, one of their main sources of revenue is often directly from YouTube. So how much do You Tubers generally make per month?

Insider spoke with 28 YouTube creators about how much money each of them earned in a month from the platform.

02

How many subscribers you need to start making money on YouTube

Jaime Fok is a creator who shares health and lifestyle contentJaime Fok

Creators who are part of YouTube's Partner Program can monetize their videos with ads and other features.

To join YPP, creators must have a set of metrics on either long form videos or shorts.

Creators shared how they started making money on YouTube. Learn how much money 28 You Tubers make in a month.

Creators on YouTube don't need hundreds of thousands of subscribers to start earning money or to turn the gig into a lucrative side hustle.

A creator must be a member of the YouTube Partner Program to qualify for the platform's monetization features. To start earning money directly from YouTube, creators must meet a threshold of 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours in the past year or 3 million YouTube shorts views in the past 90 days. Once accepted, eligible creators can earn money from features such as channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks, and the ability to promote their products with YouTube Shopping.

For Ad Sense, to start earning money from YouTube creators must have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year. That qualifies them to get a split of the ad revenue that comes from their videos.

In February, in place of the shorts fund, YouTube also began sharing revenue from shorts ads with creators.

Amanda Wan, who had 8,500 YouTube subscribers when she spoke with Insider, said that she filmed longer videos — between 10 to 15 minutes long — to help reach the required watch hours.

Check out how much money 28 You Tubers make per month

The most common way creators earn money directly from YouTube is through Google-placed ads

Even smaller creators can cash in. Jen Lauren, a creator who had 5,000 subscribers on YouTube when she spoke with Insider, said that in one month her channel made $349 from ads. (Read more about how Lauren makes money as a nano influencer.)

YouTube creator Shelby Church told Insider that she likes to include four ads on a single video that's over 10 minutes long, which helps increase her monthly revenue. (Here's how much she made from a video with 1 million views.)

Story continues

Some of the different types of ads you can include in your YouTube video are:

Display ads, which appear on the upper right side of your video, above the video suggestions list.

Overlay ads, which appear as a banner within the lower portion of your video.

Bumper ads, which are non-skippable ads that must be watched by a viewer before your video. These ads last 6 seconds or fewer.

Sponsored cards, which display relevant video content within the right side of your video.

Mid-roll ads, which can be placed in videos over 10 minutes long. They can be both skippable and non-skippable ads. A creator can decide whether they want mid-roll ads to be auto-generated by YouTube or manually placed.

Once those ads start earning money, the creator will receive a check in the mail from YouTube after they have earned at least $100.

"I think my first paycheck was like $124," said Zoe Pritchard, who had 23,000 subscribers when she spoke with Insider. "I was so excited. I went and bought a ring light with it."

Creators who earn money on YouTube must also keep in mind that they will need to pay taxes on any income they make from the platform.

Jen Lauren is a nano influencer with about 7,000 subscribers on YouTubeJen Lauren

So, how much money do creators make on YouTube?

For every 1,000 ad views, advertisers pay a certain rate to YouTube (CPM). For long-form videos, YouTube then takes 45% and the creator gets the rest. YouTube's central monetization metric is called revenue per mille (RPM), which shows how much revenue a creator earns per every 1,000 views after YouTube's cut. Some subjects, like personal finance, can boost a creator's ad rate by attracting a lucrative audience.

Check out how much money 8 YouTubers make per 1,000 views

For shorts payments, YouTube first pools revenue from ads on shorts, and then pays an undisclosed amount to record labels for music licensing, and creators receive 45% of the remaining money based on their percentage of the total shorts views on the platform.

Insider spoke with six creators about how much they were paid for shorts in the first month of ad-revenue sharing.

Here's how much those 6 YouTube rs made in the first month of the shorts monetization program

Overall, Insider has spoken with dozens of YouTube creators, from under 5,000 subscribers to over 9 million, about how much money they make.

Here's our coverage of how much You Tuber creators earn monthly:

Nas Daily, an education creator with 9 million subscribers

Ali Abdaal, a productivity and entrepreneurship creator with 3.6 million subscribers

Tiffany Ma, a lifestyle creator with 1.8 million subscribers

Andrei Jikh has 1.7 million subscribers and films videos about cryptocurrency

Nate O'Brien, a personal-finance creator with 1 million subscribers

Manny Ortiz, a photography creator with 663,000 subscribers

Kelly Stamps, a minimalism-lifestyle creator with 600,000 subscribers

Bloo, a VTube channel with 504,000 subscribers

Charlie Chang, a personal-finance creator with 350,000 subscribers

Joshua Mayo, a personal-finance creator with 270,000 subscribers

Charli Prangley, a web and graphic design creator with 200,000 subscribers

Erin Winters, a business creator with 200,000 subscribers

SemideCoco, an ASMR creator with 150,000 subscribers

Levi Hildebrand, a zero-waste creator with 125,000 subscribers

Kelsey Rodriguez, a YouTube painter with 100,000 subscribers

Sarah Lavender, an ASMR creator with 100,000 subscribers

Chloe Tan, a college life creator with 80,000 subscribers

Kelly Anne Smith, a personal-finance creator with 50,000 subscribers

Macy Schmidt, a lifestyle creator with 50,000 subscribers

Marissa Lyda, personal-finance creator with 50,000 subscribers

Erica Boucher, a creator with a DIY candle making channel with 31,000 subscribers

Aisha Beau Frisbey, a lifestyle creator with 30,000 subscribers

Jake Tilk, an entrepreneurship YouTuber with 18,000 subscribers

Meghan Pruitt, a college influencer with 6,800 subscribers

03

YouTube makes it easier for new creators to earn money

The top YouTubers make eye-watering sums of money, with a Forbes list released last year revealing that the top 10 highest earners on the video streaming platform raked in a colossal $300 million between them in the space of a year.

But while the top YouTubers grab all the headlines, there are millions of other creators on the platform working diligently to build up loyal followings with carefully produced content. And while they may have fewer subscribers than YouTube’s big hitters, and get fewer views for each video, they can still earn a tidy sum that allows them to give up the day job, or at the least supplement their main income.

The good news is that the Google-owned platform has just made it even easier for up-and-coming YouTubers to start earning cash from their work after it lowered the bar for entry to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).

Before the changes, a YouTube creator needed at least 1,000 subscribers to apply to join YPP, but now you only need 500.

You also need to have done three public uploads in the last 90 days, and clocked up either 3,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 3 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.

Before, you needed either 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.

Joining YPP under the lower bar will give new creators access to various fan-funding features such as channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks, and more.

However, to earn money from ads, creators will still need to adhere to the old rules. YouTube explains: “As these creators continue to grow their channel, they’ll automatically become eligible to earn revenue sharing from ads and even more benefits once they reach the existing YPP eligibility criteria, without having to go through the full YPP application process again.”

The new eligibility criteria for YPP applies first to creators in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea, with other countries getting the same changes “over time,” YouTube said.

YouTube is also expanding its Shopping affiliate program to all eligible U.S.-based creators who are in YPP and have more than 20,000 subscribers. The Shopping affiliate program lets creators feature products from other brands and creators and offers commission on the sales of products tagged in their videos and Shorts.

how to

About the Creator

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2026 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.