Creator benchmark · cited reference
Creator RPM Index 2026
YouTube CPM by content niche, cited from Hootsuite (2025-07-08, citing 2024 data), plus an estimated long-form creator RPM we derive by applying YouTube's own published 55% long-form revenue share. This is a single cited source, not a Toolminator-computed model like our Salary Index pages.
Revision Content revision: 2026-05 · 15 niches
Read this before citing
- CPM figures come from one source: How Much Does YouTube Pay Per View? (2025) by Chloe West (Hootsuite, published 2025-07-08). We checked a second source (vidIQ) and could not verify it returned consistent content, so it is intentionally not used here.
- "Estimated long-form creator RPM" is our own arithmetic (CPM × 55%), confirmed against YouTube's official Help Center revenue-share page—the source article did not publish RPM directly.
- YouTube Shorts use a different 45% Creator Pool mechanism, not a per-CPM split—Shorts RPM is not modeled on this page.
- TikTok Creator Rewards and Instagram Reels are deliberately excluded: we found no reliable niche-level public source for either platform.
- Real payouts vary heavily by audience country, season, ad demand, and channel-specific factors.
Download & cite
CC BY 4.0 with attribution to Toolminator and the underlying Hootsuite source.
YouTube niche CPM (cited) & estimated long-form RPM
| Niche | CPM (cited) | Est. long-form RPM (derived) |
|---|---|---|
| Making money online | $13.52 | $7.44 |
| Digital marketing | $12.52 | $6.89 |
| Personal finance | $12.00 | $6.60 |
| Education | $9.89 | $5.44 |
| Tech, cars & gadgets | $7.31 | $4.02 |
| ASMR | $3.50 | $1.93 |
| Lifestyle | $3.47 | $1.91 |
| Fashion | $3.13 | $1.72 |
| Beauty | $3.00 | $1.65 |
| Motivational | $2.50 | $1.38 |
| Cooking | $2.50 | $1.38 |
| Travel | $2.00 | $1.10 |
| Fitness | $1.60 | $0.88 |
| Gaming | $1.40 | $0.77 |
| Comedy | $1.00 | $0.55 |
Turn this into a content plan
Whatever your niche's CPM, output volume and consistency still drive total revenue. Run the same post-kit workflow we document on the Creator Format Benchmark:
YouTube long-form CPM figures are cited from a single third-party source (Hootsuite, 2025-07-08, citing 2024 data)—not a Toolminator model and not independently cross-referenced against a second reliable source. "Estimated creator RPM" is our own derivation (CPM × YouTube's official 55% long-form creator revenue share)—Hootsuite did not publish RPM directly. Actual payouts vary by audience country, season, ad demand, and format; Shorts use a different 45% revenue-pool mechanism, not shown here. TikTok and Instagram Reels are excluded: no reliable niche-level public source was found.
Cite & registry
Toolminator Creator RPM Index 2026 (2026) — permalink for citations and dataset metadata.