What is RPM on YouTube and TikTok?

RPM answers the question creators actually have: for every 1,000 views, how much did I make? Each app works it out a little differently:

• YouTube long videos. Your total revenue after YouTube's share (it pays creators 55% of the net ad revenue), from ads, YouTube Premium, channel memberships, Super Chat and Super Stickers, per 1,000 views. It counts every view, including the ones that showed no ad.
• YouTube Shorts. The same idea, per 1,000 engaged views: times people stayed past the first seconds, not counting loops. Shorts are paid from a pool of the ads between Shorts, and creators keep 45% of what's allocated to their engaged views. Public views have counted from the first play since August 24, 2026, so per public view a Short earns less than its RPM suggests.
• TikTok. In the Creator Rewards Program, TikTok defines RPM as “average gross revenue per 1k qualified views.” A qualified view is watched for at least 5 seconds, counted once per account, from a country where the program runs, and not followed by a “not interested” tap. Only videos at least a minute long earn.

None of them publishes a rate, so the numbers below are what creators and agencies report:

The gap between long videos and Shorts is the one to notice. AIR Media-Tech, tracking 274 channels in September 2026, found Shorts' RPM was 3 to 14% of long videos' in almost every niche. That's why so many channels cut Shorts from their long videos: the Short reaches new viewers, and the full video, where a view pays far more, is where some of them go next.

YouTube Studio shows both, and they measure different sides of the same ad:

• CPM is the cost per 1,000 ad impressions, before YouTube's share. It's what advertisers pay, and it counts only views that showed an ad.
• RPM is your revenue per 1,000 views, after YouTube's share, across every view and every source of money.

YouTube's own example: an advertiser pays $7 for 2,000 ad impressions on a video, a CPM of $3.50. Your RPM on that video is lower, because it's after the share and spread over the views that showed no ad as well. YouTube says it directly: your revenue won't equal your CPM times your views. Estimate with RPM.

In clipping, the word CPM means something else again: the rate a campaign pays you per 1,000 views on your clips. From the clipper's side that's closer to an RPM, and it's set in advance. See CPM in clipping.

• Where viewers are, and the time of year. YouTube notes that advertisers bid by country and bid higher before holidays. On TikTok, the Standard Reward depends on viewers' regions and the content's language.
• Views that earn nothing. On YouTube, a rise in views without ads lowers RPM even when revenue is the same. On TikTok, views under 5 seconds and videos under a minute don't qualify.
• Watch time. TikTok's Additional Reward, part of what sets your RPM, moves with average watch time, retention, completion rate and search value. On Shorts, people who swipe away don't become engaged views at all: see swipe-away rate.
• Clips of other people's videos. YouTube counts Shorts that re-upload other creators' content as ineligible views, and TikTok's Creator Rewards pays for original videos. Clippers earn from campaigns instead: at $1.00 per 1,000, a million views pays $1,000.