YouTube Shorts Creator Earnings 2026: Real RPM Numbers and What to Expect

Here are real earnings benchmarks for YouTube Shorts creators in 2026 based on view count, assuming primarily US audience: 100,000 views/month: $3-$8. 500,000 views/month: $15-$40. 1,000,000 views/month: $30-$80. 5,000,000 views/month: $150-$400. 10,000,000 views/month: $300-$800. For India-based audiences, divide these numbers by approximately 5-10. For UK/Australia, the numbers are roughly 60-70% of US figures. These are from the 45% Shorts revenue pool share and do not include supplemental income from brand deals, affiliates, or merchandise.

YouTube Shorts RPM is much lower than long-form for structural reasons. Shorts ads appear between videos in the feed — they are not shown on specific Shorts from specific creators. All ad revenue from the Shorts feed goes into a pool, and creators share 45% of that pool. In contrast, long-form ads are tied directly to specific videos, letting advertisers target audiences on specific channels with specific demographics — which they pay much more for. Long-form RPM averages $1-$30+ in the US vs $0.03-$0.08 for Shorts. A 10-minute long-form video with 100,000 views earns roughly 10-30x more than 100,000 Shorts views.

The most financially successful Shorts creators in 2026 do not rely on Shorts revenue share as their primary income. Instead they use Shorts as a low-cost audience acquisition channel. The common models: Shorts → long-form YouTube (Shorts subscribers watch 10+ minute videos that earn $3-15 RPM). Shorts → brand deals (large Shorts audiences attract sponsorships paying $500-$10,000+ per Short). Shorts → external products (courses, coaching, SaaS tools promoted in Shorts descriptions). Shorts → affiliate revenue (Amazon Associates, software affiliates linked in descriptions). A Shorts creator with 500,000 subscribers and 2M monthly views earning $60-$160/month from Shorts revenue share could earn $2,000-$10,000/month from a single brand deal on the same channel.

To meaningfully increase Shorts earnings: grow view volume by posting 1-2 Shorts per day consistently (every additional 1M views adds $30-80/month at US RPM). Target high-CPM audience geographies by creating English-language content on high-value topics. Supplement Shorts revenue with brand deals — at 100K+ subscribers, even micro-niches attract $200-$1,000 per sponsored Short. Build a content funnel that drives Shorts viewers to long-form videos or external products. FluxNote makes posting 1-2 Shorts daily sustainable by cutting per-Short production time to under 10 minutes — the volume increase directly translates to proportionally higher pool share earnings.