28 YouTube creators reveal how much they get paid per month for their videos
- Creators who are a part of YouTube’s Partner Program can monetize their YouTube videos with ads.
- These ads earn a certain rate based on viewer demographics and the type of content made.
- Insider spoke with 28 influencers about how much they earn in a month on YouTube.
This is the latest installment of Insider’s YouTube money logs, in which creators reveal how much money they make.
YouTube creators earn money each month from the ads that appear in their videos.
Many factors can influence how much a creator earns per paycheck, such as whether a video went viral or whether the audience that watches their content is valuable to advertisers. YouTubers are paid monthly and can choose between a check in the mail or direct deposit.
To earn money through YouTube’s Partner Program, creators must have 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours or 3 million YouTube shorts views in the last 90 days. This qualifies them to earn money through channel memberships, tips, and other means. However, in order to profit specifically from ad revenue (via YouTube’s AdSense program), creators must have at least 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours in the previous year or 10 million valid public shorts views in the last 90 days.
YouTube began sharing ad revenue with short film creators in February. Unlike long-form videos, short-form video ad revenue is pooled and divided based on a variety of factors, including music licensing. YouTube then distributes 45% of the remaining balance to creators based on total shorts views on the platform.
Insider spoke with seven creators about how much money they made in the first month of the shorts program. In February, their earnings from short-form content on YouTube ranged from $3.15 to $4,207.31. Insider provided documentation to prove their income. (Learn more about how much money short film creators make here.)
Making money through YouTube programs isn’t these digital stars’ only source of income. YouTube creators make money in a variety of ways, including sponsorships and merchandise sales.
Nonetheless, one of their primary sources of revenue is frequently directly from YouTube. So, how much do YouTubers make per month on average?
Insider spoke with 28 YouTube creators to find out how much money they make per month on the platform.
Here’s what they had to say: Additional creators have been added to this article. JP Mangalindan helped with an earlier version.
Alasdair Mann: $2,500 to $24,200 (December 2022)
Alasdair Mann, a London-based creator, began posting short-form videos on TikTok and YouTube in the summer of 2021. His YouTube growth was slow at first, with only 600 subscribers in his first nine months compared to 40,000 TikTok followers. However, he began to gain traction on the platform in 2022.
When Insider spoke with him at the end of 2022, his YouTube channel, Alementary, had 300,000 subscribers.
Mann began securing significant brand partnerships for YouTube Shorts around this time. He also benefited from the YouTube Shorts Fund, a $100 million fund that paid eligible creators up to $10,000 per month based on the performance of their short-form videos (it has since been replaced by an ad-revenue-share program). And he made money by consulting on social media content and creative, as well as by content licensing, which is when Mann creates videos that he licenses to businesses for a set period of time.
Mann ended 2022 with a profit of more than $50,000 from his creator business.
From June to November, his monthly earnings ranged between $2,500 and $4,500, with a December high of $24,200 due to lucrative brand and consulting deals.
Reni Odetoyinbo: $1,880 to $25,800 (November 2022)
Reni Odetoyinbo is a full-time YouTuber from Ontario, Canada, who specializes in personal finance and career advice.
She began focusing on content creation full-time after posting about buying her first house at the age of 23 and receiving feedback from followers who wanted her to create a dedicated space about wealth building.
When she spoke to Insider in December 2022, she had approximately 19,300 YouTube subscribers, 14,000 Instagram followers, and 23,800 TikTok followers.
From January to November 2022, she earned between 2,502 and 34,352 Canadian dollars per month, or approximately $1,880 and $25,800, from seven sources. Google’s AdSense program, affiliate marketing, speaking engagements, professional consulting, grants, and a Buy Me A Coffee program where she earns tips from followers were among them.
Here’s a breakdown of her earnings from January to November 2022:
- January: CA$6,790
- February: CA$2,502
- March: CA$9,550
- April: CA$4,459
- May: CA$16,087
- June: CA$34,352
- July: CA$3,891
- August: CA$15,753
- September: CA$6,138
- October: CA$2,718
- November: CA$3,414
Ali Abdaal: $57,788 (November 2022)
Ali Abdaal is a former British doctor who went full-time on YouTube content creation in 2020, focusing on productivity and entrepreneurship.
His YouTube channel had 3.6 million subscribers as of December 2022.
Abdaal’s business has been steadily growing since 2020, and he earned $57,788 in November from ads on his videos.
As of December 8, 2022, the channel had earned $596,000, compared to approximately $414,000 in 2021.
According to Abdaal, some fluctuation in earnings from YouTube ads is normal. They are typically higher in the fall and early winter, when brands increase their advertising spending in preparation for the holidays.
November was one of Abdaal’s most profitable months. His lowest month was September, when he earned $43,068.
Joshua Mayo: $55,459.35 (October 2022)
In 2017, Joshua Mayo began posting vlogs and challenge videos on YouTube, but he never achieved the success he had hoped for.
Then, in February 2021, he switched to personal finance content, and his channel quickly grew in size. He was able to quit his job as a web developer just over a year later to focus solely on YouTube.
Mayo’s transition to personal finance videos was a success in terms of both subscriber growth and earnings.
When he spoke to Insider in November 2022, his channel had approximately 270,000 subscribers.
In 2022, his most profitable month was October, when he earned $55,459.35 from Google-placed ads.
His monthly ad revenue from YouTube is significantly higher than that of other creators with comparable subscriber counts with whom Insider spoke.
This is most likely due to the type of content he publishes.
Personal finance videos are typically profitable because their audience is regarded as more valuable by certain advertisers, particularly those in the finance industry willing to pay top dollar.
Aisha Beau Frisbey: about $400 (September 2022)
Aisha Beau Frisbey works as a full-time lifestyle designer. When she spoke with Insider in September 2022, she had approximately 34,000 Instagram followers and 30,000 YouTube subscribers.
The cost of a potential economic downturn began to weigh on Frisbey’s business as a creator in early 2022, she said.
Frisbey set out to diversify her revenue streams in response to the decline in order to stay “ahead of the curve.”
“I have to get even more creative and think outside of the box now on how I’m going to expand my personal platform and live up to being the mogul I was hoping to be,” she said in a statement.
Frisbey has built four revenue streams to protect her business in the event of a recession, including YouTube AdSense.
She earned $1,199.74 from ads on her YouTube videos in the second quarter of the year, which amounts to about $400 per month.
Nas Daily: $50,000 to $60,000 (August 2022)
Nuseir Yassin, the Israeli-Palestinian creator behind the popular “Nas Daily” social media accounts, started creating content on Facebook in 2016.
He’s since built a multimillion-dollar company with a massive audience.
When he spoke with Insider in August 2022, he had over 40 million followers across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.
According to Yassin, he and his team manage 13 Nas Daily pages on Facebook alone.
Yassin has created a diverse business with multiple revenue streams.
Ad revenue from social platforms is only a small portion of the pie; he estimates it accounts for about 20% of total revenue for the Nas Daily operation.
He earns between $50,000 and $60,000 per month on YouTube AdSense.
Manny Ortiz: $2,814.16 (August 2022)
Manny Ortiz, a self-taught photographer who used to shoot weddings on weekends while working full-time as a cop, started filming educational videos about photography elements like lighting and posing in 2017.
He has primarily worked as a YouTube video creator since then, with Instagram serving as a supplement to showcase his photography work.
He had 663,000 YouTube subscribers and 255,000 Instagram followers when he spoke with Insider in September 2022.
The majority of Ortiz’s income comes from three sources: brand sponsorships, digital-store sales, and ads on his YouTube videos.
Ortiz’s monthly income fluctuates, as it does for all creators. In August 2022, his channel earned $2,814.16 in ad revenue.
Kelsey Rodriguez: $4,542 (August 2022)
Kelsey Rodriguez, a 23-year-old impressionist painter from California, launched her YouTube channel as a junior in college in May 2020.
Her artistic endeavors were channeled through the channel. Her first videos were a combination of vlogs (“Where have I been…”) and painting tutorials (“Oil painting without toxic solvents”).
When she spoke to Insider in August 2022, the channel had 100,000 subscribers and had become a profitable business for Rodriguez — that month, she earned $4,542 through Google AdSense.
In the future, Rodriguez intends to continue with her YouTube channel, which she says she enjoys working on.
“The great thing about YouTube and the creator economy writ large is that it opens a lot of doors,” she told me.
Bloo: about $83,000 (August 2022)
Kwebbelkop, a Dutch gaming YouTuber with approximately 15 million subscribers, has spent a decade regularly uploading videos to the platform.
When the 27-year-old, whose real name is Jordi Maxim van den Bussche, was tired and burned out in 2020, he created a channel that could run without his direct involvement.
It was called Tiger, and it was hosted by Hassan, a former videographer. Van den Bussche controlled the channel, handling backend logistics and business transactions, and paid Hassan on a contractual basis with performance bonuses.
When Hassan left to launch his own company, van den Bussche launched Bloo, a VTube channel — short for “virtual YouTuber,” a channel hosted by an avatar rather than a human.
Bloo had 504,000 subscribers and had earned $250,135 in AdSense revenue over three months — about $83,000 per month — when he spoke with Insider in August 2022.
Kelly Anne Smith: $922.15 (March 2022)
Kelly Anne Smith is a personal finance YouTuber who focuses on budgeting and investing.
Smith’s YouTube channel, which she started in 2016, has nearly 50,000 subscribers.
“I still love my job, and I don’t have any intention of quitting, but now my 9-to-5 doesn’t have that hold over me that a job could if it was my only stream of income,” Smith told Insider.
Smith began her YouTube channel in 2016 as a way to hold herself accountable for debt repayment, she explained.
Her YouTube channel earned $922.15 in ad revenue in March 2022.
These earnings vary month to month: in January, her channel earned $1,116 from ads, while in February, she earned $878. With the documentation she provided, Insider confirmed her earnings.
Jake Tilk: $678 (March 2022)
Jake Tilk began regularly posting YouTube videos in 2020. He has since amassed over 18,000 subscribers and quit his day job to focus solely on YouTube.
Tilk started his YouTube channel when he was 14 years old, and while it never took off, he told Insider that he had always wanted to be a YouTuber.
During the pandemic, Tilk picked up the camera again and began posting weekly content about entrepreneurship.
“I was going to work, then coming back from work and doing YouTube until two, three o’clock in the morning,” he told me. “I’ve been grinding at it for the last couple of years, and at some point I was just waiting for the right moment to quit.”
The following is a breakdown of his ad revenue from January to April 2022:
- January: $761
- February: $662
- March: $678
- April: $1,691
Sarah Lavender: $5,995 (December 2021)
Sarah Lavender is an ASMR YouTuber who has over 100,000 subscribers.
She started uploading ASMR videos to YouTube at the end of 2019, and her channel has grown steadily since then. When she shared her earnings data with Insider in December 2021, she had 138,000 subscribers.
“One of the downsides of being an ASMR artist is that you can only put ads at the beginning, if you don’t want to wake up your audience,” Lavender told me. “That significantly reduces ad revenue.”
In 2021, her channel earned the following amount in ad revenue per month:
- January: $1,060
- February: $1,872
- March: $2,397
- April: $3,008
- May: $3,370
- June: $4,038
- July: $4,101
- August: $4,629
- September: $5,240
- October: $6,113
- November: $6,019
- December: $5,995
Jen Lauren: $213 (November 2021)
Jen Lauren is a part-time YouTuber who focuses on health and wellness.
Her channel contains dozens of videos in which she reviews workout classes — one in which she tries Sydney Cummings’ workout program has 119,000 views — and skincare products — a trial of rosacea solutions has 41,000 views.
Lauren was accepted into YouTube’s Partner Program at the end of July 2020, and she said it took a few weeks for her videos to begin earning money.
Lauren detailed her earnings from YouTube ads. Insider confirmed the details with screenshots from her analytics dashboard:
- January: $346
- February: $293
- March: $349
- April: $269
- May: $244
- June: $227
- July: $217
- August: $212
- September: $195
- October: $181
- November: $213
Macy Schmidt: $1,366 (July 2021)
Macy Schmidt is a YouTuber who documents her daily life in Las Vegas.
Schmidt’s first YouTube video was posted in 2020, and she now has around 50,000 subscribers.
As a YouTube creator, ads are also one of Schmidt’s primary sources of income.
She detailed how much she earned from YouTube ads in 2021, which Insider confirmed with documentation she provided:
- January: $1,418
- February: $3,523
- March: $2,515
- April: $1,766
- May: $2,087
- June: $1,909
- July: $1,366
Schmidt publishes three 12- to 18-minute videos per week. She estimates that she spends two to three hours planning out what to say, 45 minutes to an hour filming, and six to fourteen hours editing.
“Editing is where I think I spend the biggest chunk of time,” Schmidt went on to say. “I am a little bit of a perfectionist, and sometimes I will sit there and keep tweaking, so it can take a while.”
Charli Prangley: $400 (May 2021)
Charli Prangley is a YouTuber who makes videos about design and her everyday life.
Prangley began uploading videos to YouTube in 2013 and now has over 200,000 followers.
As a creator, her two main sources of income are usually money earned from brand sponsorships she negotiates herself and ad revenue from YouTube.
Prangley said she stopped monetizing her YouTube videos through the Partner Program in 2016 after seeing advertisements for companies that violated her personal morals.
However, her older videos continue to generate revenue for her channel.
She detailed how much her YouTube channel earned from Google-placed ads through the Partner Program in 2021. Insider confirmed her earnings using the following documentation:
- January: $602
- February: $575
- March: $495
- April: $495
- May: $400
Kelly Stamps: $20,703 (May 2021)
Kelly Stamps is a YouTuber who films videos about minimalist-lifestyle and personal-development.
She received her first AdSense paycheck for $52 in September 2019.
Stamps broke down her monthly YouTube ad earnings for 2021 (Insider verified her earnings with documentation she provided):
- January: $11,134
- February: $13,959
- March: $15,562
- April: $12,369
- May: $20,703
“It’s crazy how with my computer, and some WiFi, and my cell phone, I can make an entire living,” she said. “I thought it would be temporary and never my full-time job.”
Nate O’Brien: $14,600 (May 2021)
Nate O’Brien is a YouTuber who makes videos about personal finance, investing, and business.
In 2017, he began uploading videos to YouTube. He had approximately 1.1 million subscribers when he spoke with Insider in June 2021.
“It definitely had a lot more potential than I expected, because I didn’t imagine finance YouTube or finance influencers would explode to this level,” O’Brien said in a statement. “I thought maybe the cap would be 100,000 subscribers for finance YouTubers.”
O’Brien detailed how much his channel earned through the Partner Program in 2021. Insider confirmed his earnings with the following documentation:
- January: $54,600 (2.7 million views)
- February: $39,200 (1.7 million views)
- March: $31,500 (1.6 million views)
- April: $25,700 (1.2 million views)
- May: $14,600 (680,000 views)
Overall, from from May 2020 to May 2021, his channel’s estimated revenue earned through YouTube’s Partner Program was about $444,000, according to documentation he provided.
Tiffany Ma: $5,700 (April 2021)
Tiffany Ma is a full-time social media influencer with 1.8 million YouTube subscribers.
She started her channel in 2010, and several of her videos have over 1 million views. Her most watched videos include a 2016 school survival guide (7.6 million views), a 24-hour food challenge (3.6 million views), and a 24-hour pregnant challenge (2.9 million views).
Ma earns money from her YouTube channel every month through Google ads that play in her videos, affiliate marketing, brand sponsorships (her main source of income), and her Shopify store, where she sells used clothing.
Ma detailed how much her channel earned from Google-placed ads through the Partner Program in 2021. Insider confirmed her earnings using the following documentation:
- January: $4,500
- February: $11,500
- March: $10,500
- April: $5,700
“To really optimize your audience, I think YouTubers should definitely put three to four ads within a video,” Ma said.
Charlie Chang: $23,300 (March 2021)
After his YouTube channel was accepted into the Partner Program last year, Charlie Chang realized it could be a business.
In April 2020, he shifted away from real estate content and toward personal finance videos after finding success with videos about trending topics such as stimulus checks.
“Luckily, I had the right type of content to actually be ranked in searches and that really grew my channel,” Chang said in an interview with Insider.
When Chang spoke with Insider in April 2021, his YouTube channel had nearly 350,000 subscribers.
Chang’s two main sources of income are usually money earned from advertisers: both through YouTube’s Partner Program (where Google places ads in videos and pays creators a cut) and brand sponsorships negotiated by Chang himself.
Chang detailed how much his YouTube channel has earned so far from Google-placed ads through the Partner Program in 2021. Insider confirmed his earnings using documents provided by Chang:
- January: $34,900
- February: $33,200
- March: $23,300
Chang edits most of the videos on his main channel, and he also hired a video editor to help him produce content for two new YouTube channels he is building.
Marissa Lyda: $1,200 (February 2021)
Marissa Lyda is a full-time YouTube creator who focuses on budgeting and motherhood. In 2016, she launched her YouTube channel.
Lyda’s YouTube channel has gained approximately 1,000 new subscribers since speaking with Insider in March 2021, when she had approximately 52,000 subscribers.
She makes the majority of her money as a YouTube creator from brand sponsorships, ads placed in her videos through YouTube’s Partner Program, affiliate marketing, and the sale of a budget template on Etsy.
Her YouTube channel earned $15,700 in 2020 from ads through the Partner Program. (An insider confirmed her earnings using documentation supplied by Lyda.)
She revealed how much money her channel had made in the previous two months in March 2021:
- January: $1,400
- February: $1,200
Instead of relying on what she’ll earn each month from her online business, Lyda built out a reserve within her business checking account so that she can pay herself a steady salary each month and stay within her budget.
Meghan Pruitt: $82 (February 2021)
Pruitt started her YouTube channel in 2018, and her most popular videos include a prom “get ready with me” video with over 430,000 views and a college-apartment move-in vlog with 60,000 views.
On YouTube, Pruitt is known as a “nano” influencer.
When Pruitt spoke with Insider in March 2021, her YouTube channel had nearly 6,800 subscribers.
Pruitt’s YouTube channel earned $1,920 with 744,000 views in 2020. With screenshots of her analytics dashboard, Insider confirmed her earnings.
In March, she revealed how much money her channel had made in the previous three months:
- December: $505
- January: $108
- February: $82
She added that her earnings fluctuated seasonally, with typically higher ad rates toward the end of the year.
Levi Hildebrand: $1,156 (December 2020)
In 2017, Hildebrand launched his YouTube channel. Hildebrand’s YouTube channel features videos about urban farms, compostable phone cases, and living a zero-waste lifestyle.
His channel’s slogan is “You don’t need to be a hero to save the planet.”
When Hildebrand spoke with Insider in January 2021, his YouTube channel had approximately 125,000 subscribers.
He provided a detailed breakdown of how much money his channel made from AdSense in 2020, including:
In October, $1,444 was spent. January: $1,549 January: $1,156
With screenshots of his analytics dashboard, Insider confirmed his earnings.
Hildebrand stated that in 2021, he will donate to One Percent for the Planet the entire revenue generated by his YouTube AdSense channel this year.
Jen Lauren: $195 (December 2020)
Lauren is a part-time influencer who earns money as a creator from sponsorships and advertisements placed in her videos via YouTube’s Partner Program.
She falls into the category of “nano influencers,” which are creators with fewer than 5,000 YouTube subscribers and between 2,500 and 10,000 Instagram followers.
She works full-time in public relations and treats her social media pages as a side hustle. In 2018, she launched her YouTube channel.
Lauren had about 1,900 subscribers on her YouTube channel when she spoke with Insider in January 2021.
Her channel earned $195 in December 2020. With screenshots of her analytics dashboard, Insider confirmed her earnings.
She tries to film timely, searchable videos and uploads at least two videos per week to YouTube. She recently reviewed Apple Fitness Plus classes after the service launched in December, and the video has received over 4,000 views.
Erin Winters: $5,439 (October 2020)
Erin Winters is a full-time YouTuber who films videos about business, video production, social media marketing, and her everyday life in Michigan.
Winters launched her YouTube channel in 2018 after her one-year contract with National Geographic expired.
When Winters spoke with Insider in December 2020, her YouTube channel had approximately 219,000 subscribers.
She made a career out of her YouTube channel by monetizing it with ads and brand deals.
Winters actually turned off her channel monetization for the first four months, fearing that having ads on a channel with only 1,000 subscribers would turn away new followers. (She added that, in retrospect, she does not recommend waiting.)
Her first YouTube paycheck was around $200 when she turned monetization back on after those months, she said.
Winter’s YouTube channel earned $5,439 in October. With screenshots of her analytics dashboard, Insider confirmed her earnings.
She attributes her early YouTube success to timing, her background in journalism, and a little luck.
She claims that posting searchable content on YouTube, such as her videos on money-saving tips, how to grow a YouTube channel, and productivity apps, has increased her overall traffic and helped her reach a new audience.
Erica Boucher: $3,961 (October 2020)
Erica Boucher works as a soy wax candle maker in California.
Boucher quit her job in 2020 after being accepted into YouTube’s Partner Program and decided to sell candles full-time.
“The pandemic happened and I wasn’t working at my full-time job, but I didn’t know how long that would last,” she told me. “I had a little more time to work on my business, and it exploded.” To be honest, my YouTube channel and Instagram have brought me a lot of traffic and have helped me grow my shop.”
Boucher now claims that her YouTube channel is her most profitable revenue source. She makes videos about how she prices her candles, how much materials cost, and how she got her business started.
When Boucher spoke with Insider in November 2020, her YouTube channel had around 36,000 subscribers.
She earned $3,961 from YouTube’s AdSense program in October, she told Insider in November.
According to screenshots of her creator dashboard viewed by Insider, she saves 25% of every YouTube check for taxes, and she’s earned $14,320 from YouTube ads year to date.
Taylor Hawkes: about $1,600 (September 2020)
Taylor Hawkes works as a real estate associate and a part-time YouTube creator.
When Hawkes spoke with Insider in October 2020, her YouTube channel had around 20,000 subscribers.
In October of 2019, Hawkes began regularly uploading videos to her YouTube channel, Taylor Made Style, and posts “Come Thrift with Me” videos about thrift shopping and how she styles her finds. She began monetizing her growing channel through AdSense revenue and brand partnerships within a few months.
According to screenshots of her Creator Dashboard obtained by Insider, she earned approximately $1,600 in pre-tax income from Google-placed ads in September. In October, she stated that she earned around $1,000 on average.
Hawkes also makes money from brand sponsorships on her videos, charging $500 for a 60-second mention.
