YouTube Content ID royalties calculator: pay per stream in 2026

What YouTube Content ID pays per view in 2026

Money from other people's videos that use your track, claimed through Content ID; ad-supported only, so it pays a fraction of a YouTube Music play. The table shows what that range means for common totals and three typical distributor cuts.

Rate: $0.00069 per view ($0.69 per 1,000), sources 1 2. Distributor cuts: 0% is DistroKid's subscription model 1, 9% is CD Baby 1, 15% is RouteNote Free 1 and AWAL 1. All checked 15 October 2026. If you are signed to a label, multiply the last columns by your royalty rate.

How Content ID money works

Your distributor registers your recordings with Content ID. When someone uploads a video that uses one, YouTube can run ads on it and share the ad money with you. It is all ad-supported, so it pays far less than a YouTube Music stream. The only per-view figure we found is a 2022 rate of $0.69 per 1,000 (Producer Hive), which is old, so treat it as a rough guide and check your own statements.

Shorts are different again. When a Short uses one track, half of its revenue goes to the Creator Pool and the rest to music licensing; with two tracks, two thirds go to music (YouTube Help). YouTube publishes no per-view music rate for Shorts.

Why it is a range, not one number

No source measures every YouTube Content ID payment, and each one covers different countries, years and plans. Here is what each says, word for word. The low end of our range is the lowest credible recent figure and the high end the highest.

Distributors often take more on YouTube

Check your distributor's YouTube terms, because they are often not the same as its streaming terms. TuneCore charges no commission on streaming but a 20% fee on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube money 1 2. Amuse's Artist plan keeps 0% except a 15% fee on YouTube Content ID 1. ONErpm says it pays 70% for YouTube 1.

Worked examples

• 1 million views on YouTube Content ID pays about $690 to the rights holder. After a 15% distributor cut you keep $587.
• 100,000 views pays about $69; 10,000 pays about $6.90.
• $1,000 takes about 1,450,000 views with a 0% cut.
• Rent of $1,500 a month takes about 2,170,000 views every month, before tax.
• A 50/50 split with a producer on 1 million views: each of you gets about $345. Add collaborators in the calculator to see each person's share.

What these figures leave out

Every number here is the recording (master) side: what the platform pays the account that owns the recording, usually your distributor account. Songwriting money is separate. Mechanical and performance royalties for the composition go to the publisher, collection society or PRO, and US radio-style plays also earn SoundExchange money. None of that is in these figures, so a songwriter who owns their masters earns more than the table shows.