Some of the most successful YouTubers make millions of dollars a year and get millions of views. Hitting 1 million views is a huge milestone for any YouTuber and no easy task by any means.

But will just 1 million views be enough to put you in league with those YouTubers who make millions of dollars every year? You may be surprised.

Let’s explore how much YouTube pays for 1 million views based on average RPMs and what actual YouTubers make.

How Much Does YouTube Pay for 1 Million Views in 2024?

How much can you really make from 1 million views on a YouTube video? Is it hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of dollars?

It all depends on a few key things:

During certain times of the year, like the holiday season, advertisers are willing to pay more because they want to get their ads in front of more holiday shoppers. Earnings are higher for many YouTubers during this time of year.

But the two main factors that influence your earnings are your niche and your audience’s location. Some niches pay more than others because advertisers are willing to pay more to advertise their products or services on these channels.

Location also matters because advertisers are willing to pay more to have their ads shown to certain audiences. Countries with the highest RPMs include Norway, Germany, Australia, Canada and the UK.

With so many variables, it’s hard to know how much your channel would make off of 1 million views without knowing the key things we just talked about.

But here’s what we do know: YouTube’s RPM ranges, on average, from $5-$7. So, for 1 million views, you could earn:

Remember that these are just estimates. How much are people really making off of 1 million views? Let’s find out.

What Real Creators Earned From 1 Million Views on YouTube

The best way to find out how much you can make off of 1 million views is to see what people are actually earning. Let’s see what YouTubers have made off of their videos that got 1 million views.

1. Swell Entertainment

Swell Entertainment’s niche is – you guessed it – entertainment. She shares commentary on products, events, media and people.

She has over 443K subscribers, and her channel has gotten over 71 million views since she launched Swell Entertainment in 2014.

Her first video to hit over 1 million views was “i was a Little Late with Lilly Singh audience member.” How much did that video earn her?

That video had an RPM of about $3. While her RPM isn’t super high, the massive number of views this video got earned her a nice amount of money.

2. Kate Theo

YouTuber Kate Theo creates content related to personal finance, entrepreneurship and real estate flipping.

Her “Top 10 Side Hustles You Can Start Right Now” video got over 1 million views over the course of two years. How much did that video make? Even she was shocked when she saw her earnings, which reached:

Her RPM for this video was $13, which is still pretty average for the finance niche. That’s not a bad thing, however. It shows you that even with an average RPM, you can make a lot of money off of 1 million views.

Kate has 487K subscribers and has uploaded 274 videos. Since launching her channel in 2013, her content has gotten over 18 million views.

3. Liz Chaderton

Liz Chaderton is an artist who creates gorgeous paintings and shares her tips and techniques for painting on her YouTube channel.

She has more than 43K subscribers, 314 videos and over 2 million channel views.

A few months ago, she shared how much YouTube paid her for one million views. That video has since become her most popular one and now has over 200K views.

From 1 million views, Liz earned:

Keep in mind that this is for all of 2023, so her entire channel got 1 million views total that year. On average, she earns about £400 per month.

4. Tayo Aina

Tayo Aina is a filmmaker and storyteller who travels all over Africa, sharing stories and different perspectives.

Some of his most popular videos are of him traveling in Nambia, surviving Africa’s deadliest lake and taking an inside look at Voodoo. His content is really high-quality and documentary-style.

But what’s really interesting is the video that got Tayo over 1 million views had nothing to do with travel.

It was his video featuring J Cole rapping KOD that got over 1 million views. How much did he make off of that video?

Why so little? Because that video featured copyrighted content, so there’s a cap on his earnings and he has to split his earnings with the copyright holder.

One of his other videos, which was a travel video with all original content, got over 120K views and earned him just over $500.

Tayo does caution aspiring YouTubers that maintaining a travel channel is expensive. Along with the planning, you have to cover the cost of hotels, flights, transportation and everything else that goes along with traveling.

While you can make a nice amount of money off of 1 million views in this niche, those high costs of production will eat into your profits.

5. Budget Treasures

Budget Treasures is a channel that’s all about budgeting, saving money and getting out of debt. Jazmine is the face of this channel, which now has over 54K subscribers and more than 3 million views.

So, how much did YouTube pay her channel for 1 million views?

That’s an RPM of $10.4, which is a great RPM for any channel.

Budget Treasures is a finance-related channel, so this explains why her RPM is so high.

6. Greg Preece

Greg Peece did some investigative work to see how much YouTube is paying people in 2021. He researched 40 separate YouTube channels to see how much YouTubers are making.

According to him, the average amount paid for 1 million views is:

That’s the average across the board for all types of channels and is just an estimate.

He also shares how much he actually made off of 1 million views, which was:

His earnings were higher than average because of his niche: finance and business.

Greg also shares a list of niches and estimated earnings for 1 million views in each one:

As you can see, your niche plays a huge role in how much you earn.

Summary

Getting 1 million views on YouTube is a huge accomplishment, and for many creators, it really pays off. You can easily earn thousands of dollars off one million views if you’re in the right niche. But it’s important to be mindful of not having copyrighted content in your video (it can leave you with no earnings) and to focus on creating the best quality content possible. If you’re consistent, you may just be able to make YouTube your full-time job.