Transparency · Updated 2026-10-20
YouTube data sources and editorial policy
YTCPM is an independent calculation and education website. We are not affiliated with YouTube or Google, and we do not have access to a channel's private earnings.
What is documented and what is modeled?
Official sources below establish metric definitions, revenue-sharing context and access requirements. They do not endorse YTCPM or validate the numerical country and niche ranges on this website.
CPM and RPM tools perform arithmetic on your inputs. The homepage and benchmark tables use manually maintained planning assumptions. A per-record first-party source ledger and independently verified country averages are not currently available. Treat benchmark values as directional scenarios, not current market measurements or guaranteed payouts.
Primary documentation
- YouTube Help: Understand ad revenue analytics
CPM, playback-based CPM, RPM, ad impressions and monetized playbacks; Shorts RPM uses engaged views.
- YouTube Analytics API: Metrics
Gross versus estimated creator revenue and advertising metric definitions.
- YouTube Analytics API: Channel reports
Owner authorization and monetary-report access requirements; private channel data is not a public lookup.
- YouTube Help: Partner earnings overview
Watch Page and Shorts revenue-sharing rules. Different formats have different models.
- YouTube Data API v3: Reference
Public channels, playlist items, video statistics, tags and categories retrieved by the Channel Auditor. Public data only.
- YouTube Data API: Quota usage
How the API quota is calculated and why a large public channel scan consumes more requests than an overview.
How we publish and correct content
We distinguish a platform definition, a calculation from user inputs, a hypothetical worked example and an unverified benchmark assumption. Examples are labeled and do not imply typical earnings. We do not invent expert credentials, user reviews, performance claims or endorsements by search engines and AI services.
Content may be drafted with AI assistance. Publication here is not a claim of independent expert review. Check the linked primary documentation and your own Studio reports before making financial decisions. Dates describe content or dataset snapshots, not a live data feed; a date change alone does not establish a new market study.
Report a correction through our contact page. Include the page, disputed statement, source and date. Do not send account passwords, OAuth tokens or private analytics unless you choose to share a suitably redacted example.
What the Channel Auditor can and cannot show
The Channel Auditor reads public YouTube Data API responses: channel statistics, public video details, tags, categories and playlists. It never requests a channel login and cannot reach private, unlisted, deleted or owner-only content, ad impressions, audience-country mix, retention or a channel's real CPM, RPM or revenue. A creator who hides their subscriber count is reported as hidden. Read the Channel Auditor itself to see how every figure is labelled.
Phrases in an audit are inferred from public titles and tags and ranked by associated views. They are not verified search volumes, keyword difficulty scores or live search rankings. The revenue figures beside an audit are modelled scenarios with an audience-market assumption you control, and each one is labelled estimated.
Limits of the estimates
Country means audience location, not creator residence. Worldwide is an unweighted average of tracked market assumptions, not a measured traffic-weighted global CPM. Currency conversions are indicative snapshots. Seasonality multipliers are scenarios, not forecasts that a specific quarter will pay a guaranteed multiple.
Long-form ad forecasts assume the specified ad-fill rate, one ad impression per monetized view and a 55% creator share. They exclude taxes, sponsorships, affiliate income and other revenue. Studio RPM may include more revenue sources. Shorts have a different model; do not infer their payout from a Watch Page CPM.
Read the calculation methodology