There’s no fixed amount, because YouTube doesn’t pay per subscriber. Partner Program creators get a share of the ad revenue their views earn: 55% on long-form videos and 45% of the revenue allocated to them from the Shorts pool (YouTube Help). A 2026 study of 300 channels put the median RPM at about $2.30 per 1,000 views, so a 100K channel whose videos get 200,000 views in a month would make about $460 from ads.
YouTube pays for views, not subscribers
Subscribers matter because they watch. The money comes from the views and the ads shown on them. RPM, the revenue per 1,000 views that YouTube shows you in Studio, counts all views, including ones that didn’t earn anything (YouTube Help).
AIR Media-Tech, a company that sells services to creators, studied 300 channels from May 2025 to May 2026. It found a median RPM of about $2.30, about $2.14 for channels with 10K to 100K subscribers and about $2.04 for channels with 100K to 10M. Its conclusion: a million subscribers doesn’t make a single view worth more (AIR Media-Tech).
What 100K subscribers can earn from ads
A rough formula: views divided by 1,000, times your RPM. At the $2.30 median:
- 50,000 views a month: about $115
- 200,000 views a month: about $460
- 1,000,000 views a month: about $2,300
YouTube doesn’t publish how many views a 100K channel usually gets, so start from your own view count. Creators interviewed by Digiday in 2025 reported long-form RPMs of $3.33 and $5.50, and $0.15 to $0.30 on Shorts (Digiday). For a per-view breakdown, see how much YouTube pays for 1 million views.
Other ways a 100K channel earns
- Memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks: creators get 70% of the net revenue (YouTube Help). Super Thanks works on Shorts and long-form videos (YouTube Help).
- YouTube Shopping: sales from your own store are paid through your merch retailer or platform, and affiliate products are available only in some countries (YouTube Help).
- Brand deals: mark paid promotions in the video details (YouTube Help), and disclose them in the video itself, because a mention in the description alone isn’t enough (FTC). We found no reliable, recent public rates for sponsorships.
What YouTube gives you at 100K subscribers
A Silver Creator Award, not money. YouTube reviews the channel first and gives awards at its sole discretion: you need uploads in the last six months, no active Community Guidelines violations in the past 365 days, original content, and a channel that wasn’t rejected or suspended from the Partner Program. If you qualify, a redemption code appears in YouTube Studio within about 10 days, and the award takes two to four weeks to make and ship (YouTube). The next levels are Gold at 1 million, Diamond at 10 million and Red Diamond at 100 million subscribers.
Getting into the Partner Program
- Memberships, Supers and Shopping: 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours in 12 months or 3 million Shorts views in 90 days (YouTube Help).
- Ad and Premium revenue: 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 public watch hours in 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. Hours watched in the Shorts feed don’t count. You also need 2-Step Verification and an AdSense account, and the review takes about a month (YouTube Help).
The bar goes up on February 1, 2027. New applicants will need 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views, still with 1,000 subscribers. Channels already in the program keep their status, and to get Shorts pool pay for a month a channel will need 10 million Shorts views in the previous 90 days (YouTube Help).
AdSense pays once your balance reaches the payment threshold, $100 for accounts paid in US dollars (AdSense Help).
Why earnings differ between 100K channels
- Niche: in AIR’s data, median RPM ran from $0.33 for Kids and Teens to $10.22 for Education and Science.
- Monetized views: the median channel in the study earned money on 53% of its views (AIR Media-Tech).
- Season, viewer location and ad formats all change ad rates (YouTube Help).
- Long-form versus Shorts: the revenue share and the RPMs differ.
For how views are counted in the first place, see how YouTube counts views.
FAQ
Does YouTube pay you for reaching 100K subscribers?
No. You may get the Silver Creator Award after a review, but no payment.
How much does YouTube pay per view?
There’s no fixed rate. At a $2.30 RPM, one view is worth about $0.0023.
Do Shorts pay less than long videos?
Usually. Creators get 45% of their Shorts pool allocation instead of 55%, and reported Shorts RPMs are much lower.
How much has YouTube paid creators overall?
Over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in four years, according to YouTube (YouTube Blog).