Do YouTube Shorts pay less than long-form videos?
Yes — dramatically. YouTube Shorts pay from a shared revenue pool that works out to roughly $0.03–$0.10 per 1,000 views in 2026, versus $2–$8 RPM for equivalent long-form ad revenue. In practice, Shorts pay 30–100× less per view than long-form on the same channel.
Shorts vs long-form payout per 1,000 views
| Format | Typical RPM | 1M views ≈ |
|---|---|---|
| Long-form (all niches) | $2.00–$8.00 | $2,000–$8,000 |
| Long-form (finance) | $12–$40 | $12,000–$40,000 |
| Shorts (pool) | $0.03–$0.10 | $30–$100 |
| Shorts (finance skew) | $0.08–$0.20 | $80–$200 |
Context
Shorts payouts come from a fixed pool YouTube splits across all Shorts views, regardless of who watched what ad. That structure caps the per-view payout — no matter how valuable your audience is, Shorts RPM stays in the pennies-per-1K range. Shorts still make sense for audience growth funneling into long-form, but they're not a direct ad-revenue play.
Methodology
Long-form ranges from calculator medians; Shorts ranges from creator disclosures and YouTube's published Shorts fund methodology.
Model your own numbers
Related reading
More answers in this category
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- How much does YouTube pay for 1 million views?
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Last updated 2026-07-10.