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Research · read 1 November 2026

How YouTube pays.

Two pay systems, two bars to clear, and a handful of numbers that decide what a channel earns.

Long-form

55% of the ads on your video

  • Ads play before, during and after your video. You keep 55% of the net ad revenue.
  • At 8 minutes or longer, mid-roll ads switch on, so one film can carry several ads.
  • Long-form watch hours count toward the Partner Program.

Revenue share · Mid-rolls

Shorts

45% of your share of a pool

  • Ads shown between Shorts go into one monthly pool.
  • The pool is split by each creator's share of engaged views, country by country. You keep 45%.
  • Music costs share: no music keeps 100% of it, one licensed track halves it, two leave a third. Clapperboard's original score counts as no music.
  • YouTube's worked example: a $100k pool, $10k to music, 1% of views → $900 allocated, $405 to the creator.

Shorts monetization policies

The bars

Before anything pays

500subscribers, plus 3 uploads in 90 days and 3,000 watch hours or 3M Shorts views: fan funding (memberships, Super Thanks, Shopping). No ad money.
1,000subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours in 12 months, or 10M Shorts views in 90 days: ad revenue.
1 Feb 2027New channels need 8,000 hours or 20M Shorts views for ad revenue. Clapperboard plans against these.

How to join · 2027 update

Country and season

Money follows the viewer

YouTube says ad rates "vary by geography" and rise "just before holidays", but publishes no rates. A UK trend only pays UK rates if UK viewers watch.

Viewers inLong-form RPMShorts RPM
United States$5.11$0.33
United Kingdom$4.54$0.17
UAE$2.26—
India——

Per 1,000 views, in US dollars. Third-party, directional only: long-form from Dynamoi (pooled channel data, sample size not stated); Shorts from AIR Media-Tech (274 channels). India has no credible published figure. Third-party data also puts Shorts at 3–14% of long-form RPM in almost every niche. Our own RPM by country appears on the dashboard once the channel is in the Partner Program.

YouTube: ad revenue analytics · Dynamoi · AIR Media-Tech

What we grow

The metrics to watch

  1. 01

    Engaged views

    What Shorts are paid on. A view counts once it gets past the first frame or the viewer tapped play.

    YouTube Analytics (engagedViews) · source

  2. 02

    Watch hours

    The Partner Program counts long-form watch hours over 12 months. Shorts-feed watch time does not count.

    Dashboard · watch hours, 365 days · source

  3. 03

    Average view duration and percentage

    How much of each video people actually watch. The clearest sign a film holds attention.

    YouTube Analytics (averageViewDuration, averageViewPercentage) · source

  4. 04

    Subscribers gained per video

    The bars for getting paid start at 500 and 1,000 subscribers. Shows which videos build the channel.

    YouTube Analytics (subscribersGained) · source

  5. 05

    Impressions and click-through rate

    How often the thumbnail is shown and how often it is tapped. Tells us if titles and thumbnails work.

    YouTube Studio; via API only through the Reporting API (not built yet) · source

  6. 06

    RPM by country

    What we earn per 1,000 views, after YouTube's share. Money follows where the viewer is.

    Dashboard, once in the Partner Program (we compute it: revenue ÷ views × 1,000; engaged views for Shorts) · source

  7. 07

    Playback CPM

    What advertisers pay per 1,000 playbacks with ads. Shows which countries and seasons pay more.

    YouTube Analytics (playbackBasedCpm), Partner Program only · source

  8. 08

    Shorts vs long-form split

    Shorts bring reach and subscribers; long-form brings money and watch hours. We track both separately.

    Dashboard (creatorContentType) · source

How Clapperboard plays it

The rules

  1. Format follows the signal and the money. A fast viral moment becomes a Short, for reach. A topic people search to understand, in a well-paying area, becomes long-form, and long-form only becomes the money format at 8 minutes or more.
  2. Shorts lead to long-form. A 30–90 second Short links to the long film through YouTube's Related Video link, the only clickable link a Short can carry. source
  3. No third-party music, ever. It keeps 100% of the Shorts pool share, and a Short over 60 seconds with any copyright claim is blocked worldwide. source
  4. Label realistic AI. Disclosure doesn't limit reach or earnings; not disclosing can. source
  5. Never template-only. Generic, mass-produced AI videos aren't monetisable. Every film gets its own story and character. source
  6. Measure, then double down. The dashboard every Monday: what got watched, held and subscribed, by format and country.