YouTube Shorts now average 200 billion daily views, yet the creators behind them keep 45% of a shared revenue pool and report RPMs measured in cents rather than dollars (YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, January 2026; YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies). The platform is about to tighten the rules: from February 1, 2027, a channel will need 10 million qualified Shorts views in the previous 90 days, every month, to earn from the Shorts Creator Pool, and new applicants will face a doubled entry bar of 20 million Shorts views (YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026). Alphabet, meanwhile, says Shorts already earn more revenue per watch hour than traditional in-stream in the US, and YouTube ads brought in $11,055 million in Q2 2026 alone (Alphabet Q3 2025 earnings call; Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings release). For the viewing habits behind those numbers, see our short-form video caption statistics. We aggregated data from Alphabet’s SEC filings and earnings calls, YouTube’s help center and official blog, TikTok’s support documentation, Business Insider, Digiday, AIR Media-Tech, Goldman Sachs Research and IAB.
TL;DR
- Shorts average 200 billion daily views (YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, January 21, 2026).
- Monetizing creators keep 45% of the Shorts revenue allocated to them, versus 55% on long-form (YouTube Help; YouTube Official Blog, August 2026).
- A Short with one music track sends only half of its view-based revenue to the Creator Pool (YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies).
- From February 1, 2027, earning from Shorts requires 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days (YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026).
- New Partner Program applicants will need 20 million Shorts views in 90 days or 8,000 watch hours in 365 days (YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026).
- More than 25% of Partner Program channels earn through the Shorts revenue share (YouTube, via Digiday, February 2025).
- In the US, Shorts earn more revenue per watch hour than traditional in-stream (Alphabet Q3 2025 earnings call).
- Seven creators reported Shorts RPMs of $0.04 to $0.06 in the program’s first month (Business Insider, March 2023).
- A 274-channel study found Shorts RPMs of $0.02 to $1.48 depending on niche, roughly 3-14% of long-form (AIR Media-Tech, 2026).
- YouTube ads revenue reached $11,055 million in Q2 2026, up 13% (Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings release).
- YouTube paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in four years (YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, 2026).
- US creator ad spend is projected at $37 billion in 2025, up 26% (IAB Creator Economy Ad Spend report 2025).
1. Scale: 200 Billion Daily Views and Ten Million Daily Publishers
Shorts is no longer an experiment bolted onto YouTube; it is the largest supply of inventory on the platform. YouTube says Shorts now average 200 billion daily views (YouTube, From the CEO: What’s coming to YouTube in 2026), the same figure Sundar Pichai gave in his Q2 2025 earnings remarks and YouTube repeated in August 2026. The figure has stopped moving in YouTube’s public statements for more than a year, which suggests the growth story is shifting from reach to yield.
Supply is just as large. Alphabet said in Q1 2026 that “over ten million channels” now publish Shorts each day, which means the Creator Pool is split across an enormous number of uploaders. That is the structural reason per-view earnings stay low: the pool grows with Shorts ad revenue, but it is divided by engaged views across every monetizing channel in a country.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily Shorts views | Over 200 billion | YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, January 21, 2026 |
| Daily Shorts views reported in Q2 2025 | Over 200 billion | Alphabet Q2 2025 CEO remarks |
| Channels publishing Shorts each day | Over 10 million (as of March 2026) | Alphabet Q1 2026 earnings call |
| Logged-in monthly Shorts users | More than 2 billion, up from 1.5 billion a year earlier | Alphabet Q2 2023 results, via TechCrunch (July 2023) |
| Channels using YouTube AI creation tools daily | More than 1 million on average in December 2025 | YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, 2026 |
| Daily viewers watching 10+ minutes of autodubbed content | More than 6 million | YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, 2026 |
| View counting rule from August 24, 2026 | A view counts when any video starts to play (Shorts, long-form, live) | YouTube Help, engagement metrics |
Context note: the logged-in user figure is the most recent available data (Alphabet, 2023). The August 24, 2026 change to public view counts does not change pay: YouTube says Partner Program earnings are still based on “engaged views” and eligibility on “qualified views” (YouTube Help, view and engagement metrics). The 200 billion figure is from the Alphabet Q2 2025 CEO remarks.
2. How the Shorts Revenue Share Works: The Pool, the 45%, and the Music Cut
Shorts do not pay like long-form videos, where ads run against a specific video. Shorts ads run between videos in the feed, so YouTube pools them. Each month, revenue from those ads is added up, allocated to a Creator Pool “based on engaged views and music usage,” then distributed to monetizing creators by their share of engaged views in each country. Creators then keep 45% of their allocated revenue, regardless of whether music was used (YouTube Help, YouTube Shorts monetization policies).
Music is the hidden variable. When a Short uses one track, half of the revenue tied to its engaged views goes to the Creator Pool and half covers music licensing; with two tracks, only one third reaches the pool. A creator who uses licensed audio is therefore taking 45% of a smaller slice, which partly explains why music-heavy formats report lower Shorts RPMs. The music-rights side of that trade is covered in our music sync licensing statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Creator share of allocated Shorts revenue | 45% (with or without music) | YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies |
| Creator share on long-form videos | 55% | YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026 |
| Short with one music track | 1/2 of revenue to Creator Pool, 1/2 to music licensing | YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies |
| Short with two music tracks | 1/3 to Creator Pool, 2/3 to music licensing | YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies |
| Creator share of YouTube Premium revenue allocated to Shorts | 45% of net revenue (Premium and Premium Lite) | YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies |
| Premium creator pools | 30% of net subscription revenue for Premium, 60% for Premium Lite | YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026 |
| Shorts ads targeted to 5 or fewer channels (from February 1, 2027) | Creator keeps 45% of net revenue from the specific ad | YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies |
Context note: YouTube defines RPM as “total revenue (after YouTube’s revenue share) per 1000 views,” built from ads, memberships, Premium revenue, Super Chat and Super Stickers. For Shorts, the denominator is all engaged views (YouTube Help, RPM vs CPM). That makes Shorts RPM a blended number, not an ad rate.
3. Eligibility: Today’s Thresholds and the February 2027 Overhaul
The rules are about to concentrate Shorts money in fewer, larger channels. From February 1, 2027, a channel needs 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to earn ads and subscription revenue sharing on Shorts that month, and new Partner Program applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days (YouTube Official Blog, New opportunities to earn and changes to the YouTube Partner Program, August 10, 2026). Both entry paths double the current bar of 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views.
YouTube frames this as redistribution toward channels “who drive conversation and engagement,” and says it expects to pay more to creators in 2027 than in 2026. The open question is how many of today’s Shorts earners fall below 10 million views per 90 days; YouTube has not published that share. A YouTube representative told Digiday in February 2025 that more than 25% of Partner Program channels were earning through the Shorts revenue share, so the affected population is large.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Current YPP entry, Shorts path | 1,000 subscribers + 10 million qualified Shorts views in last 90 days | YouTube Help, YPP overview and eligibility |
| Current YPP entry, long-form path | 1,000 subscribers + 4,000 qualified watch hours in last 12 months | YouTube Help, YPP overview and eligibility |
| New-applicant thresholds from February 1, 2027 | 8,000 watch hours in 365 days or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days | YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026 |
| Monthly bar to earn from Shorts from February 1, 2027 | 10 million qualified Shorts views in last 90 days | YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026 |
| Creators in the YouTube Partner Program | Over 3 million | YouTube Official Blog, August 10, 2026 |
| YPP channels earning via Shorts revenue share | More than 25% | YouTube representative, via Digiday (February 2025) |
| Shorts-path joiners also earning from other features | Over 80% | YouTube representative, via Digiday (February 2025) |
| TikTok Creator Rewards entry, for comparison | 10,000 followers, 100,000 views in 30 days, videos of 1 minute or more | TikTok Support, Creator Rewards Program |
Context note: Shorts views in the Shorts Feed do not count toward the 4,000 public watch hour threshold (YouTube Help, YouTube Partner Program overview and eligibility). TikTok’s program also requires creators to be at least 18 (19 in South Korea) and says videos must reach 1,000 For You feed views before earning (TikTok Support, Creator Rewards Program).
4. Shorts vs In-Stream: What Alphabet Says About Monetization
Alphabet’s executives describe Shorts monetization as a solved problem at the platform level. In Q3 2025 Alphabet said that “in the U.S., Shorts now earn more revenue per watch hour than traditional in-stream on YouTube” (Alphabet Q3 2025 CEO remarks), one quarter after it said Shorts had reached parity in the US and exceeded in-stream in some countries. By Q4 2025 the claim had widened to “a number of countries,” including the US.
That metric is per watch hour and measured on YouTube’s side of the ledger. It does not mean a creator earns the same per 1,000 views on a Short as on a long video: a Shorts view is short, the pool is shared, and music takes a cut before the 45% split. The gap between the platform metric and the creator metric is the central tension in Shorts economics, and it is why the creator-reported RPMs in section 5 look so different from Alphabet’s statements.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US Shorts revenue per watch hour vs in-stream, Q2 2025 | ”As much” as traditional in-stream | Alphabet Q2 2025 CEO remarks |
| Other countries, Q2 2025 | In some countries, Shorts exceed in-stream’s rate | Alphabet Q2 2025 CEO remarks |
| US Shorts revenue per watch hour, Q3 2025 | More than traditional in-stream | Alphabet Q3 2025 earnings call |
| Countries where Shorts out-earn in-stream per watch hour, Q4 2025 | ”A number of countries,” including the US | Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings call |
| YouTube ads growth drivers, Q2 2026 | Direct response and brand | Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings call (CFO) |
| YouTube ads growth drivers, Q4 2025 | Direct response; growth held back by lapping 2024 US election spend | Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings call (CFO) |
Context note: Alphabet does not break out Shorts revenue in its filings. The quotes above come from CEO and CFO remarks, and the Q4 2025 and Q2 2026 statements are from Alphabet’s official Q4 2025 call transcript and Q2 2026 call transcript. In Q2 2026, Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said Shorts “continues to deliver high-performing opportunities for social and video buyers alike.”
5. Creator-Reported Shorts RPM: Cents per Thousand Views
Because YouTube publishes no average Shorts RPM, every per-view figure is a third-party estimate or a creator’s own screenshot. Treat them as samples, not benchmarks. In the first month of the revenue share, seven creators told Business Insider their Shorts RPMs ranged from $0.04 to $0.06, with the largest, Kaz Sawyer, earning $4,207.31 on 115.9 million views (Business Insider, March 2023).
Two years later the numbers had improved but remained far below long-form. Creators interviewed by Digiday reported Shorts RPMs “consistently beneath $0.20” against $3 to $6 for long-form; one creator, Maldhound, earned $0.18 on Shorts versus roughly $5.50 on 20-to-30-minute videos (Digiday, February 25, 2025). The largest recent dataset, AIR Media-Tech’s analysis of 274 channels and 3,044 channel-months, puts Shorts at $0.02 to $1.48 RPM depending on niche, roughly 3-14% of long-form per 1,000 views (AIR Media-Tech, What Is YouTube Shorts RPM in Your Niche in 2026).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Creator-reported Shorts RPM, February 2023 (7 creators) | $0.04 to $0.06 | Business Insider, March 2023 (third-party, creator-reported) |
| Largest creator in that sample | $4,207.31 on 115.9 million views | Business Insider, March 2023 |
| Mediacube client average RPM, March 2023 | Shorts $0.01 vs long-form $0.802 vs live $0.446 | Mediacube data, via Business Insider (May 2023) |
| Creator-reported Shorts RPM, 2025 | Consistently beneath $0.20 (long-form $3 to $6) | Digiday, February 2025 (third-party, creator-reported) |
| Dedicated Shorts channels, 2025 | $0.15 to $0.30 | Digiday, February 2025 |
| Shorts RPM range by niche, 2026 (274 channels) | $0.02 to $1.48, roughly 3-14% of long-form | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 (third-party estimate) |
| Highest Shorts RPM niche, 2026 | Music, small channels: $1.48 (Content ID revenue) | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 |
Context note: these are not official figures. Mediacube’s March 2023 sample was skewed: over 70% of its 2,461 creator clients were based in Europe and 18% of views came from Russia, where monetization is unavailable (Business Insider, May 2023). The 2023 figures are the most recent available data from those sources. AIR Media-Tech’s dataset comes from channels in its own network, accessed through the YouTube Analytics API.
6. Does Posting Shorts Hurt Long-Form Earnings?
The cannibalization question matters more than the headline RPM, because most channels earn the bulk of their money on long-form. AIR Media-Tech found entertainment channels’ long-form RPM fell from $4.99 with no Shorts to $1.15 at 21 or more Shorts per month, the sharpest effect in its data, while gaming channels barely moved ($3.42 without Shorts vs $3.29 with) (AIR Media-Tech, 2026). The study’s suggested balance is a Shorts-to-long-form ratio between 0.28 and 0.40, about one Short for every two to three long videos.
Early adoption data show how quickly creators moved anyway. Mediacube counted 129 of its creators earning from Shorts in January 2023, 730 in February and 755 in March, with total earnings rising to $198,400 in March and an average of $262.78 per creator. The incentive to post Shorts is real; the evidence on what they do to a channel’s overall yield is mixed and depends heavily on niche.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Entertainment long-form RPM, no Shorts vs 21+ Shorts per month | $4.99 vs $1.15 | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 (third-party) |
| Gaming long-form RPM, without vs with Shorts | $3.42 vs $3.29 (4% difference) | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 |
| Education and science long-form RPM | $14.97 to $18.23 (highest in dataset) | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 |
| Suggested Shorts-to-long-form upload ratio | 0.28 to 0.40 | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 |
| Mediacube creators earning from Shorts, January / February / March 2023 | 129 / 730 / 755 | Mediacube data, via Business Insider (May 2023) |
| Mediacube total Shorts earnings, March 2023 | $198,400 (average $262.78 per creator) | Mediacube data, via Business Insider (May 2023) |
| Example creator: long-form vs Shorts RPM | Roughly $3.33 vs roughly $0.20 (LordDraconical) | Digiday, February 2025 |
Context note: the AIR Media-Tech comparisons are observational. Channels that post many Shorts may differ in format, audience and geography from channels that do not, so the RPM drop is a correlation, not proof that Shorts caused it. Creators juggling both formats often lean on live and fan-funded revenue as well, a pattern visible in our VTuber Super Chat and agency statistics.
7. The Money Behind the Pool: YouTube Ads, Subscriptions and Payouts
The Creator Pool is funded by YouTube’s ad business, and that business keeps growing. YouTube ads revenue was $11,055 million in Q2 2026, up 13% from $9,796 million a year earlier (Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings release, SEC Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1). Adding Alphabet’s four 2025 quarterly figures gives about $40.4 billion of YouTube ads revenue for 2025 (8,927 + 9,796 + 10,261 + 11,383 = $40,367 million), and Alphabet says YouTube revenue across ads and subscriptions exceeded $60 billion for the year (Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings release).
Subscriptions are the second engine, and they now feed Shorts too through the Premium pools in section 2. Alphabet reached 350 million paid subscriptions across its consumer services in Q1 2026, with YouTube and Google One the key drivers. On the payout side, YouTube says it has paid over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the past four years. The wider market context: IAB projects US creator ad spend at $37 billion in 2025, and Goldman Sachs Research sized the global creator economy at $250 billion in 2023 with a path to $480 billion by 2027.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube ads revenue, Q2 2026 | $11,055 million (+13% from $9,796 million) | Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings release |
| YouTube ads revenue, Q1 2026 | $9,883 million (Q1 2025: $8,927 million) | Alphabet Q1 2026 earnings release |
| YouTube ads revenue, Q4 2025 / Q3 2025 | $11,383 million / $10,261 million | Alphabet Q4 2025 and Q3 2025 earnings releases |
| YouTube revenue across ads and subscriptions, 2025 | Exceeded $60 billion | Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings release |
| Alphabet paid subscriptions | 300 million (Q3 2025), 325 million (Q4 2025), 350 million (Q1 2026) | Alphabet earnings releases |
| Paid to creators, artists and media companies | Over $100 billion in the past four years | YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, January 2026 |
| US creator ad spend | $29.5 billion (2024), $37 billion projected (2025, +26%), $44 billion projected (2026) | IAB Creator Economy Ad Spend report, November 2025 |
| Global creator economy | $250 billion (2023), up to $480 billion by 2027; 50 million creators, about 4% professional | Goldman Sachs Research, April 2023 |
Context note: the 2025 ads total is our sum of four quarterly figures read in Alphabet’s earnings releases, not a figure Alphabet reported as a single line in the pages we read. The IAB projections are from its 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy report, and Goldman Sachs’ sizing is the most recent available data from that source (Goldman Sachs Research, April 19, 2023). Music creators who rely on licensing income should also read our PRO royalties statistics.
Summary: YouTube Shorts RPM and Monetization by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily Shorts views | Over 200 billion | YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, January 2026 |
| Channels publishing Shorts daily | Over 10 million | Alphabet Q1 2026 earnings call |
| Creator share of allocated Shorts revenue | 45% | YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies |
| Creator share on long-form | 55% | YouTube Official Blog, August 2026 |
| Revenue reaching the pool when a Short uses one music track | One half | YouTube Help, Shorts monetization policies |
| Shorts earning bar from February 1, 2027 | 10 million qualified views in 90 days | YouTube Official Blog, August 2026 |
| New-applicant Shorts threshold from February 1, 2027 | 20 million qualified views in 90 days | YouTube Official Blog, August 2026 |
| New-applicant long-form threshold from February 1, 2027 | 8,000 watch hours in 365 days | YouTube Official Blog, August 2026 |
| Creators in the Partner Program | Over 3 million | YouTube Official Blog, August 2026 |
| YPP channels earning from Shorts revenue share | More than 25% | YouTube, via Digiday (February 2025) |
| US Shorts revenue per watch hour vs in-stream | Higher | Alphabet Q3 2025 earnings call |
| Creator-reported Shorts RPM, first month | $0.04 to $0.06 | Business Insider, March 2023 |
| Creator-reported Shorts RPM vs long-form, 2025 | Beneath $0.20 vs $3 to $6 | Digiday, February 2025 |
| Shorts RPM by niche, 274 channels | $0.02 to $1.48 | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 |
| Entertainment long-form RPM with heavy Shorts posting | $4.99 to $1.15 | AIR Media-Tech, 2026 |
| YouTube ads revenue, Q2 2026 | $11,055 million (+13%) | Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings release |
| YouTube ads + subscriptions revenue, 2025 | Over $60 billion | Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings release |
| Paid to creators, artists and media companies | Over $100 billion in four years | YouTube, Neal Mohan letter, 2026 |
| TikTok Creator Rewards entry bar | 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in 30 days | TikTok Support |
| US creator ad spend, 2025 projection | $37 billion | IAB, November 2025 |
Methodology and Sources
Every figure above was read during research for this article in an SEC filing, an official earnings call transcript or CEO remarks, a YouTube or TikTok policy page, a YouTube blog post, a research firm’s published report or a named press outlet’s reporting of creator data. Third-party RPM figures are labelled as such and are never presented as official YouTube data.
- Alphabet, SEC filings: Q2 2026 earnings release (8-K Exhibit 99.1, July 22, 2026), Q1 2026 earnings release (April 29, 2026), Q4 2025 earnings release (February 4, 2026), Q3 2025 earnings release (October 29, 2025)
- Alphabet, earnings calls and CEO remarks: Q2 2026 transcript, Q1 2026 transcript, Q4 2025 transcript, Q3 2025 CEO remarks, Q2 2025 CEO remarks
- YouTube Official Blog: New opportunities to earn and changes to the YouTube Partner Program (August 10, 2026), From the CEO: What’s coming to YouTube in 2026 (January 21, 2026)
- YouTube Help Center: Shorts monetization policies, YouTube Partner Program overview and eligibility, RPM vs CPM, view and engagement metrics
- TikTok Support: Creator Rewards Program
- Digiday: How YouTube Shorts revenue compares to long-form video revenue for creators (February 25, 2025)
- Business Insider: 7 YouTubers on their first month of Shorts monetization (March 2023), Mediacube data on Shorts earnings (May 2023)
- AIR Media-Tech: What Is YouTube Shorts RPM in Your Niche in 2026 (updated September 17, 2026)
- TechCrunch: Google says 2 billion logged-in monthly users are watching YouTube Shorts (July 25, 2023)
- IAB: 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report (November 2025)
- Goldman Sachs Research: The creator economy could approach half a trillion dollars by 2027 (April 2023)
- Data watch: YouTube does not publish an average Shorts RPM, and Alphabet does not break out Shorts revenue, so per-view figures come only from creators and creator-services firms with their own sample biases (Mediacube’s 2023 client base was over 70% Europe-based; AIR Media-Tech analyzes channels in its own network). Alphabet’s “revenue per watch hour” statements measure YouTube’s monetization, not creator RPM per 1,000 views, so the two should not be compared directly. Creator-reported RPM ranges differ across sources ($0.04 to $0.06 in 2023, beneath $0.20 in 2025, $0.02 to $1.48 by niche in 2026) because samples, niches, geographies and years differ. The Goldman Sachs sizing (2023) and the logged-in user count (2023) are the most recent available data of their kind. The 2025 YouTube ads total is our sum of Alphabet’s four quarterly figures. YouTube has not disclosed how many channels fall below the 10 million views per 90 days bar that takes effect February 1, 2027; a reported figure of 2 billion monthly Shorts hours on TV screens could not be traced to a primary YouTube page and was excluded. The Goldman Sachs page returned a 403 error and was read through a text mirror; the Alphabet transcripts are PDFs read through a text extraction service. Web search was unavailable for this session, so sources were located through direct fetches and news feeds.
Last updated: October 3, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when Alphabet reports Q3 2026 results and YouTube publishes further detail on the February 1, 2027 Partner Program changes.