How much does YouTube pay for Shorts?

Long videos earn from the ads that play inside them. Shorts work differently: no ad plays inside a Short. So the money reaches you another way, and it’s much smaller per view. Here’s how it moves, what creators actually report, and why Shorts are still worth making.

How the money moves

1. 1

   Ads play between Shorts

   Ads appear as people scroll the Shorts feed. Each month, YouTube adds up that ad money, country by country.

2. 2

   Music takes its share first

   If a Short uses songs, part of the money tied to its views pays for the music: half with one song, two thirds with two. Shorts without music send all of theirs to the creator pool.

3. 3

   The creator pool is shared by engaged views

   Your slice of the pool matches your slice of all engaged views from monetizing creators in that country. An engaged view is one where the person kept watching for a moment. Since March 31, 2025, the public view count counts every play, but pay still uses engaged views.

4. 4

   You keep 45%

   Of the money allocated to you, you keep 45%, whether or not your Shorts use music.

YouTube’s own example

YouTube explains the math with a made-up month in one country:

That works out to about $0.41 per 1,000 views, but it’s an example, not a rate. Real months are usually lower, and they move with the country, the season and how many Shorts people watch.

What creators actually report

RPM means what you earn for every 1,000 views, after YouTube’s share. YouTube doesn’t publish Shorts RPMs, but creators share theirs, and they agree on one thing: the numbers are small, and they vary.

The February 2027 rule

From February 1, 2027, Shorts money has a floor. To earn any share in a month, a channel needs at least 10 million qualified Shorts views in the 90 days ending on the 15th of the month before. Below that, Shorts ads pause; climb back over it and they return.

Joining gets harder too: from the same date, new applicants need 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views to earn from ads. Everything about it is in our guide to YouTube monetization requirements.

Where the money really is

Put the two kinds of views side by side:

So a short isn’t the paycheck; it’s the trailer. It reaches people who don’t know you yet, for free, and some of them go on to watch your long videos, where each view pays many times more. On YouTube, link every Short to its full video with the Related video option.