Shorts channel profit calculator: is YouTube clipping profitable?

What this tool does

Stratos·Clip cuts your long videos into Shorts and posts them to your YouTube channel from a queue you set up once: fixed time slots or a number of posts per day. This tool answers one question: at that pace, what does each posted Short cost, and do your views earn it back?

You enter four values: Shorts posted per day on the channel, from 1 to 10, the length of one source video, from 10 to 600 minutes, your average views per Short and your Shorts RPM in dollars. The first two start at 2 Shorts a day and 60 minutes, and are enough for the cost, taken from our pricing grid and credit rules. The last two stay empty until you fill them in: YouTube publishes no benchmark RPM for Shorts, and the tool does not make one up. If the form does not load, the steps under “The formula” can be done by hand.

How YouTube pays for a Short

Each month, YouTube adds up the revenue from ads running between videos in the Shorts Feed; a share goes to creators, and music in a Short takes another share for music partners. The creators’ share is split by each creator’s engaged views, country by country, and the creator keeps 45% of what is allocated to them.

To qualify, the channel must join the YouTube Partner Program: 1,000 subscribers with 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days, or 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 watch hours in 12 months, where Shorts Feed hours do not count. Automated systems and human reviewers look at the whole channel, and a decision usually takes about a month. YouTube announces program updates for February 1, 2027, with new terms to accept by January 31. From that date, earning a share of Shorts revenue will take 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days.

Not every view counts. Non-original Shorts, reuploads of other creators’ videos and compilations with nothing added are left out of the split. The reused content guide covers what YouTube accepts.

Your RPM sums all of that up in one number: what you earned per 1,000 views, after YouTube’s share, counted on engaged views for Shorts. You read it in YouTube Studio, under Analytics, on the Revenue tab, with revenue split by format. That is the value to enter in the tool. Enter views on the same basis: the average engaged views of your Shorts, over the same period. Another view count would skew the estimated revenue.

How to read the result

• Shorts posted per month: your Shorts per day over 30 days. A channel is set to 1 to 10 posts a day.
• Videos to add per month: how many source videos fill that month, based on the Shorts detection targets in a video of that length.
• Credits per month: analysis and rendering of those videos.
• Plan that covers this volume: the first plan whose monthly credits are enough; the free plan only qualifies if your pace does not go past its cap of 2 Shorts a day. Credits left at the end of the month carry over to the next cycle.
• Plan cost per month and cost per posted Short: that plan’s price, then that price divided by the month’s Shorts. It is the price of the whole plan. The plan also serves the other channels of your space, which draw on the same credits.
• Estimated revenue per month and revenue minus cost: “enter your numbers” until views and RPM are filled in. Then, your average views times your RPM, divided by 1,000, for each Short of the month.

The formula

1. Shorts per month: Shorts per day times 30.
2. Shorts targeted per video: 5, plus 1 per block of 5 minutes beyond the first 5, 24 at most.
3. Videos to add: the month’s Shorts divided by Shorts targeted per video, rounded up.
4. Credits: per video, 1 credit per started block of 10 minutes, plus 1 credit per rendered Short; then that total times the number of videos.
5. Plan: the first one, from free to Studio, whose credits cover that total; the free plan also needs a pace of 2 Shorts a day at most.
6. Cost per Short: plan price divided by the month’s Shorts.
7. Revenue per month: average views per Short, times RPM, divided by 1,000, times the month’s Shorts.

To find your break-even point, divide the cost per Short by your RPM, then multiply by 1,000: you get the views a Short must reach, on average, to pay its part of the plan.

Worked example

At the defaults, the channel posts 2 Shorts a day from one-hour videos.

• Shorts posted per month: 60.
• Videos to add: one hour gives about 16 Shorts, so 4 videos.
• Credits: 22 per video, so 88 for the month.
• Plan: the free plan keeps the pace but not the credits, 30 a month. Starter, 180 credits, covers the month for $29.90, and what is left rolls over.
• Cost per posted Short: $29.90 divided by 60, so about $0.50.

The tool does not guess the revenue. If your Shorts get V views on average and your RPM is R dollars, the month brings in 60 × V × R ÷ 1,000 dollars. It covers the cost when V × R goes past about 500, so about 500 ÷ R views per Short. Replace V and R with your own Studio figures, over the same period.

Paid plans open with online payment. Until then, the “Notify me at launch” button on the pricing grid records your email and the plan you want, and the free plan already posts to one channel, up to 2 Shorts a day.

What the tool cannot see

• Rights to your sources. You remain responsible for the videos you add, and a Content ID claim targets the channel that posts. By default, each Short is capped at 58 seconds to stay under one minute; the blocked Shorts guide explains why.
• Reused content. Stratos·Clip cuts and edits what the source video contains; it does not judge your channel’s added value and guarantees no monetization. A channel that compiles other people’s videos with nothing added cannot be monetized.
• Your time. Finding sources, reviewing clips, pulling one from the queue: the tool puts no number on it. Clippers will find their case on the Stratos·Clip for clippers page.
• Several channels. The math assumes one channel. If your space runs several, the plan is shared, but their Shorts use the same credits, and the channels share a daily cap. The Manage multiple YouTube Shorts channels page covers that case.
• What one video yields. To know how many Shorts a video gives and how many days they cover, use the Shorts calculator.
• Other income and other networks. The tool only counts the Shorts share on YouTube. Stratos·Clip posts to YouTube Shorts only, and an RPM already blends several revenue sources.
• The language of your videos. The interface is in French, and detection and titles have only been measured on videos in French.