YouTube RPM by niche
What creators actually earn per 1,000 views — shown as honest ranges, never magic numbers. Pick where your audience lives and the whole table adjusts.
| Niche | US / Tier-1 base RPM | Est. RPM · United States |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Finance / Investing | $8–$30 | $8–$30 |
| Real Estate | $7–$25 | $7–$25 |
| Business / Make Money Online | $6–$22 | $6–$22 |
| Tech / Software / Reviews | $4–$15 | $4–$15 |
| Motivation / Self-Improvement | $4–$14 | $4–$14 |
| Education / How-To / Tutorials | $4–$12 | $4–$12 |
| Health / Fitness / Wellness | $3–$12 | $3–$12 |
| Science / Engineering | $3–$10 | $3–$10 |
| Beauty / Fashion | $3–$10 | $3–$10 |
| Automotive | $3–$10 | $3–$10 |
| Travel | $3–$10 | $3–$10 |
| News / Commentary | $3–$9 | $3–$9 |
| Food / Cooking | $2–$8 | $2–$8 |
| DIY / Crafts / Home | $2–$8 | $2–$8 |
| Lifestyle / Vlogs | $2–$7 | $2–$7 |
| Animation / Storytelling | $2–$7 | $2–$7 |
| Pets / Animals | $2–$6 | $2–$6 |
| Gaming | $1.50–$6 | $1.50–$6 |
| Entertainment / Comedy | $1.50–$6 | $1.50–$6 |
| Kids / Family | $1.50–$5 | $1.50–$5 |
| Music | $1–$4 | $1–$4 |
How these numbers are calculated
RPM (revenue per mille) is what YouTube pays you per 1,000 views — after YouTube has already taken its 45% share of ad revenue. It is not CPM, which is what advertisers pay before the split.
Est. RPM = niche base range × audience geo factor. The base ranges are curated from public industry benchmarks (aggregated creator-reported RPM data published by tools and analysts across the industry) for a primarily US / Tier-1 audience. The geo factor scales them for where your viewers actually are — a US viewer is typically worth around 3× an Indonesian viewer to advertisers.
Example: Animation / Storytelling has a Tier-1 base of $2–$7. For a United States audience (factor ×1.0) that stays $2–$7 per 1,000 views; for an Indonesian audience (×0.35) it becomes roughly $0.70–$2.45.
Treat every number here as a ceiling, not a promise.
Real RPM swings with seasonality (Q4 ads pay far more than January), video length (8+ minutes unlocks mid-roll ads), audience age, and advertiser demand — and typically only 40–60% of views are monetized at all. Your real number lives in your own YouTube Analytics; this table answers what a niche and audience typically pay.
- Ranges are creator-side USD per 1,000 views, conservative by design.
- Shorts monetize far lower than long-form — these benchmarks are for long-form views.
- High-RPM niches (finance, business) pay more because their viewers are worth more to advertisers — not because YouTube favors them.
Go deeper by sub-niche
Niche Lab breaks Finance, Tech, Business & Health into sub-niches with RPM and CPM — and ranks the best-paying combinations.
Open Niche Lab →Estimate your earnings
Put your niche, audience and monthly views into the calculator — plus an AI roadmap to monetize beyond AdSense.
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