Methodology

What we retrieve from YouTube

We use only the official YouTube Data API v3. For every channel we fetch:

• Title, handle, description, join date, country, thumbnail
• Subscriber count (or a “hidden” flag), total views, video count
• Uploads playlist id (used to fetch recent uploads)
• For each recent upload: title, published date, duration, views, likes, comments

No scraping is performed. No private analytics data is retrieved.

What we cannot see

YouTube channels have a lot of private data that only the channel owner can see. We do NOT have access to any of it:

• Actual RPM / CPM
• Audience geography breakdown (only the channel's primary country)
• Watch time and average view duration
• Ad fill rate and ad category mix
• Revenue from YouTube Premium subscribers
• Sponsorship, affiliate, and merchandising income

This is why exact earnings cannot be known. Any website claiming to show a real creator's actual earnings is guessing, including this one.

RPM vs. CPM

CPM (Cost Per Mille) is what advertisers pay per 1,000 monetized ad impressions, before YouTube takes its cut. It's an advertiser-side metric that creators do not directly see.

RPM (Revenue Per Mille) is what remains for the creator per 1,000 total views (not just monetized ones), after YouTube's share. RPM is always lower than CPM. When someone talks about “how much a creator earns per 1,000 views” they almost always mean RPM.

Monetized-view percentage

Not every view generates ad revenue — viewers may skip ads, use ad-blockers, or watch on YouTube Premium. Our niche and country RPM tables are calibrated for a channel that monetizes at the industry-typical rate of 90% of views.

Country and niche assumptions

Different countries and niches pay very different rates because advertisers value different audiences differently. We use per-country RPM tiers and per-niche multipliers derived from public creator-economy reports.

Shorts vs. long-form

Shorts monetize very differently from long-form videos. In practice Shorts RPM is roughly an order of magnitude lower than long-form RPM for a comparable channel. For Shorts we use a separate RPM table — not a multiplier on top of long-form.

Instagram Money Calculator

The Instagram Money Calculator uses a separate model tailored to Instagram's economics. It does NOT use RPM/CPM because Instagram creators are not paid an ad-revenue share on organic feed content the way YouTube long-form creators are. Instead we model five real revenue streams:

• Sponsored feed posts: priced per 1,000 post reach, adjusted for niche, country, follower tier and engagement.
• Sponsored reels: priced per 1,000 reel views; reels command the highest per-unit brand rates on Instagram.
• Sponsored stories: priced per 1,000 story views; substantially lower per view than posts or reels.
• Affiliate marketing: modelled as a funnel (engaged reach → clicks → conversions × AOV × commission).
• Instagram Subscriptions: paid subscribers × monthly price.

Base rates, niche multipliers, country multipliers, follower tiers and affiliate defaults are all documented in src/lib/instagram/config.ts in the repository, so anyone can audit the model. The Low / Expected / High bands (0.6× / 1.0× / 1.55×) reflect the wide real-world variance in Instagram sponsorship pricing.

The calculator never claims guaranteed income. Every result is clearly labelled as an estimate.

Known limitations

• Ad fill rate, seasonality, and category mix are unknown.
• YouTube's share of ad revenue is baked into RPM.
• Refunds, invalid traffic, and taxes are not modelled.
• Currency conversion uses a static approximate rate.
• Sponsorship rate estimates are always negotiable.
• We cannot see private analytics such as playback locations, watch time, or actual RPM.

In short: the numbers on this site are informed estimates. Treat them as a starting point, not as truth.