10 Best YouTube Money Calculators for Estimating Your Income

Curious about how much money you could be earning as a YouTube creator? There’s a quick way to find out: use a YouTube money calculator.

YouTube money calculators are free to access, simple to use, and often only take a few seconds to generate an approximate dollar amount. Whether you already have a channel or are about to start one, this tool can give you a general idea of the amount of money you can expect to make on the platform, providing you meet certain engagement thresholds. 

We’ll explain what those thresholds are, as well as the factors that influence your YouTube income. Then we’ll share the 10 best YouTube money calculators, followed by helpful tips for boosting your earnings for your channel.

Let’s get to it!

10 Best YouTube Money Calculators

Here are the 10 best (and free to use) YouTube money calculators on the internet.

How YouTube Money Calculators Work?

First of all, it’s important to note that YouTube money calculators only account for your potential earnings from ad revenue. 

Creators earn ad revenue when companies pay YouTube to run advertisements on the platform. YouTube gives creators a 55% cut of the money they receive from those companies, typically per 1000 ad impressions. 

When you use a YouTube calculator, you must first input the average number of views that your videos generate on a daily basis. 

Next, you must input your average engagement rate. That’s the percentage of all the people who visit your channel who actually interact with your content via a view, like, comment, or share.

Alternatively, instead of or in addition to your engagement rate, the calculator may ask you to input the estimated cost per mile (CPM) that advertisers are paying to place ads on your videos. “Mille” means “one thousand,” and CPM refers to the cost per thousand impressions. Many companies only pay YouTube for every thousand impressions that their ad receives. 

Using two or more of the above factors, YouTube money calculators generate a round figure that tells you how much you can earn on the platform per day, month, or year. 

The resulting dollar amount is just a rough estimate, of course, and it doesn’t take other streams of YouTube revenue like fan funding and YouTube Premium into account (don’t worry, we’ll cover those ways to earn later).

Furthermore, CPM also differs based on several different factors, including the content category for the video, the level of competition in the market, the quality of your viewers, and more. With that in mind, there’s no one specific CPM that applies to all YouTube creators.

That said, YouTube money calculators can still be useful. They reveal, approximately, what you can expect to earn or should charge ad sponsors, as well as what thresholds of views, CPMs, or engagement rates you would need to meet to reach your financial goals.

Factors That Influence Your YouTube Income

Below are four factors that influence how high or low your YouTube income will be.

1. Number of Views

Earning ad revenue (as well as earning money from any other of YouTube’s monetization modules) is mostly dependent on views. 

When people watch your video, they also watch advertisements. Companies and brands pay to place their ads on high-performing videos in the hopes of converting new customers. They may also reach out to creators individually and offer to directly sponsor a specific video. The more views the ad or sponsorship gets, the more money you make.

That’s why it’s extremely important that your content gains a lot of views. It’s the top factor that impacts both your eligibility to earn ad revenue, as well as the amount of money you make as a YouTube creator.

2. Number of Subscribers

Subscribers are like a built-in source of income for your channel. The more subscribers you have, the more potential you have to earn money from ad revenue, fan funding, and YouTube Premium, as well as from brands who want to sponsor your videos because of your large following.

3. Cost Per Mille (CPM)

As we explained earlier, CPM is the amount of money that advertisers pay YouTube per one thousand ad impressions. The cost varies depending on the content niche, the level of competition in the niche’s marketplace, the popularity of the YouTuber and their global location, the complexity of the ad itself, and more.

In general, the higher the CPM, the higher the payout for the YouTuber. 

4. Engagement Rate

Finally, the engagement rate is important, as well. A high engagement rate means that your content is bringing in a lot of interactions, which translate to a lot of ad revenue-generating views and clicks, merchandise purchases, and other actions that help you earn money.

Simultaneously, a low engagement rate could translate to a lower payout on all your earnings.

YouTube Earning Eligibility: How To Start Earning if You’re Eligible

To start earning money on YouTube, you must first become eligible for monetization through the YouTube Partner Program (learn about YouTube’s latest monetization requirements here).

Once you’re eligible and YouTube has approved your YPP application, here’s how you can start earning.

Pros and Cons of YouTube Ad Revenue

Ad revenue is the most popular way to earn money on YouTube. But this method comes with a few potential pitfalls, as well.

To learn about those, read the pros and cons of YouTube ad revenue.

How Much Can You Earn in Different Content Categories?

To help you get an idea of how much you can earn as a YouTube creator, here are the typical low and high CPMs for some of the platform’s most highly competitive (and thus highest earning) content niches.

1. Email Marketing: $14.55-$50.00 CPM
2. Insurance: $15.63-$49.52 CPM
3. Sell House: $10.87-$47.31 CPM
4. E-commerce: $7.26-$17.99 CPM
5. Lawyer: $5.74-$24.43 CPM
6. Cryptocurrency: $2.26-$11.94 CPM
7. Drop shipping: $2.50-$11.82 CPM
8. Auto Repair: $3.00-$8.87 CPM
9. Personal Finance: $2.26-$6.97 CPM
10. Business Services: $1.95-$6.40 CPM

High Earning YouTubers

YouTubers who, through the quality and desirability of their unique brand of content, grow a large following and generate lots of engagement can make quite a huge paycheck. Here’s what the top 10 highest-earning YouTubers made in 2021, according to Forbes. 

1. Mr. Beast: $54 million
2. Jake Paul: $45 million
3. Markiplier: $38 million
4. Rhett and Link: $30 million
5. Unspeakable: $28.5 million
6. Nastya: $28 million
7. Ryan Kaji: $27 million
8. Dude Perfect: $20 million
9. Logan Paul: $18 million
10. Preston Arsement: $16 million

Tips To Boost Your YouTube Earnings

While it would take you quite some time to reach the high earnings of creators like Mr. Beast or Jake Paul, everyone has to start somewhere. You can take measures to boost your YouTube payday today by following these tips.

1. Create and Publish Consistent, High-Quality YouTube Content

Your starting point for making money on YouTube should always go back to creating high-quality YouTube content. Moreover, you should be consistent with publishing your videos on a regular, frequent basis. This way, you’ll always have fresh content in the pipeline to generate more engagement that can earn you the big bucks. 

2. Promote Your Videos on Other Social Media Platforms

Do you have followings on other social media accounts, like Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook? If so, promote your YouTube content there like there’s no tomorrow! This strategy will give you access to more people on the internet who might enjoy and engage with your videos.

3. Diversify Your Monetization Methods

Finally, don’t be afraid to try out multiple monetization methods. Remember that ad revenue is not your only recourse to earn money. You can also start a channel membership, sell products, and collaborate with brands and businesses. 

Use every monetization resource you have at your disposal, discard what doesn’t work, and pour your energy into what does. Eventually, you’ll find a combination that gets you closer to your earnings goals.

How Much Will YouTube Pay for 1000 Views?

According to HubSpot, YouTube pays around $0.38 for 1000 views in the US, but CPMs vary hugely from niche to niche and YouTuber to YouTuber.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

In case you’re considering a career as a YouTuber or are already in the middle of one, you can use a YouTube money calculator to see how much you can earn and what it will take to meet your earnings objectives for your channel. Use the calculators we mentioned and the tips we offered to help kickstart your earnings and make your YouTube career a lucrative one.