YouTube Affiliate Earnings Calculator

1. Enter the monthly views on the videos that carry your link, then your own link click rate and conversion rate from the affiliate dashboard.
2. Enter the average order value and the commission rate from your programme terms. Add the share of orders that get reversed.
3. Read the net commission, clicks, orders and earnings per click. Add Programme B or C, a recurring period, or your RPM for the comparison.

What each result tells you:

YouTube affiliate income is the commission a creator receives when a viewer follows a tracked link from a video and places an order. The link usually sits in the video description or a pinned comment. An affiliate programme, run by a retailer or a network, records the click, matches the order and pays a percentage of the sale.

Affiliate income is separate from platform revenue. YouTube Help states that RPM does not include revenue made outside the platform, so commission from an outside programme never appears in the Revenue tab. The exception is the YouTube Shopping affiliate program, where eligible creators tag products and review earnings in YouTube Studio.

Why this page lists no programme rates: each programme sets its own commission, tracking window and reversal rules, and it changes them. Your signed terms and your dashboard are the only reliable figures, so every rate here is an input.

The formula is a chain of four multiplications followed by one subtraction, and each step uses a number you can read in a report.

1. Clicks = views x link click rate.
2. Orders = clicks x conversion rate.
3. Gross commission = orders x average order value x commission rate.
4. Net commission = gross commission x (1 - reversal rate).
5. Earnings per click = net commission / clicks. Earnings per 1,000 views = net commission / views x 1,000.

Programmes B and C run the same steps on the same views, and the calculator adds the three results. A recurring period multiplies one month of Programme A commission by the months a referred customer keeps paying.

Example values only, not benchmarks. A channel gets 50,000 monthly views on videos with links. Its own reports show a 1.2% link click rate, a 3.0% conversion rate, an average order of 80 and a 6.0% commission. Reversals run at 5.0%.

Meaning: the links add about 1.64 for every 1,000 views. Against an RPM of 3.20, that equals 51.3% of platform revenue per 1,000 views.

Five inputs drive the result, and each one moves it in direct proportion.

Link Click Rate

Doubling the click rate doubles commission. Link position, the spoken call to action and how closely the product matches the video topic all move this rate.

Conversion Rate

The retailer page, the price and stock levels decide how many clicks become orders. This rate belongs to the programme as much as to your audience.

Order Value and Commission Rate

Commission per order equals order value x commission rate. A low rate on a large order can beat a high rate on a small one.

Tracking Window

Every programme credits an order only inside its own attribution window. The window is already inside your measured conversion rate, so this tool adds no separate factor for it.

Reversals

Returns and cancellations remove commission after the sale. YouTube Help says Shopping affiliate commissions are paid 60 to 120 days after purchase to allow for returns.

Affiliate commission pays per order and ad revenue pays per monetized view, so the two respond to different things.

Comparing Two Programmes

Use earnings per click. With 600 clicks, a 3% conversion on an 80 order at 6% pays 86.40. A 1.2% conversion on a 300 order at 20% pays 432.00. The second programme earns more per click with fewer orders.

For the advertiser side of the 1,000-view maths, see the CPM calculator.

Before Joining a Programme

Enter the offered commission with your current click and conversion rates to see what the programme adds per 1,000 views.

Reviewing a Month

Enter the month as it happened, then change one rate at a time to see which step lost the most. The conversion rate calculator helps when you only have raw counts.

Planning Income Mix

Compare affiliate income with memberships in the membership revenue calculator and with product sales in the merch profit calculator.

1. Using Channel Views

Views on videos with no link produce no clicks. Use views on linked videos only, or your click rate will look lower than it is.

2. Mixing Up the Two Click Rates

The click-through rate in YouTube Studio measures thumbnail impressions that became views. It says nothing about description links.

3. Using a Published Average

Average rates in articles come from other channels and other products. Your dashboard is the only source that matches your audience.

4. Ignoring Reversals

Pending commission is not paid commission. Leave the reversal rate blank only when your reports already show approved commission.

5. Skipping the Disclosure

The FTC says a creator should disclose an affiliate relationship both in the video and in the description near the links. YouTube also asks creators to tick the paid promotion box for endorsements.

6. Treating X 12 as a Forecast

The 12-month figure repeats one month. Views, stock and commission terms change through the year.

The arithmetic is exact, so the result is as accurate as the rates you enter.

Yes. The YouTube external links policy states that affiliate content does not violate the Terms of Use. It adds that excessively posting affiliate content in dedicated accounts may break the spam policy.

No official figure exists, and this page does not publish one. Divide the clicks in your affiliate dashboard by the views on the linked videos, then track that rate from month to month.

Not for outside programmes, which have their own entry rules. The YouTube Shopping affiliate program is different: YouTube Help lists Partner Program membership, the subscriber threshold and an eligible country among its requirements.

Earnings per click equals net commission divided by link clicks. In the example, 82.08 divided by 600 clicks gives 0.1368 per click.

The order count is clicks x conversion rate, which is an average. A result of 7.5 orders means about 7 or 8 orders in a normal month.

Enter the months a referred customer usually keeps paying. The tool multiplies one month of Programme A commission by that number to show what those referrals pay over time.

Each programme sets its own schedule. For the YouTube Shopping affiliate program, YouTube Help says commissions are paid through AdSense for YouTube within 60 to 120 days after purchase, and returns reverse the commission.

Yes, in the United States. FTC guidance says to disclose the relationship in the video and near the links. Other countries have their own rules, so check your local regulator.

No, not for outside programmes. YouTube Help says RPM leaves out revenue generated indirectly through the platform. This calculator shows affiliate earnings per 1,000 views so you can set the two side by side.

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent to our servers. Anything you choose to Save stays in this browser only.

• External links policy: affiliate content and spam (YouTube Help).
• YouTube Shopping affiliate program overview and eligibility (YouTube Help).
• Understand ad revenue analytics: what RPM leaves out (YouTube Help).
• Endorsement Guides: disclosing affiliate links in videos (Federal Trade Commission).
• Add branded content restrictions and disclosure labels (YouTube Help).