YouTube sponsorship cost calculator

This page publishes no typical price per view or per subscriber. Prices depend on things one number can't hold: the niche, the format (an integration, a dedicated video or a Short), the usage rights and exclusivity you ask for, timing, and the creator.

What you can do is put every quote on the same scale and know the most you can afford. That's what the three parts of the calculator are for. Pick $, £ or € in the calculator; the arithmetic is the same in any currency.

1. Fee from a CPM

Enter the views you expect and a CPM you choose. It gives fee = views / 1,000 x CPM. For expected views, use the median views of the creator's recent videos. The CPM is up to you: what you've paid before, or the break-even from part three.

2. Check a quote

Enter the creator's quoted fee and the expected views. It gives the effective CPM = fee / views x 1,000, putting large and small channels on one scale.

3. Break-even

Enter your profit per sale and the sales you expect per 1,000 views, from your own past campaigns or a cautious guess. It gives the break-even CPM (profit per sale x sales per 1,000 views) and the break-even fee at your expected views. Pay more than that and the sponsorship loses money on tracked sales.

These numbers are made up to show the method. Say a creator's last 12 long-form videos have a median of 40,000 views, and they quote £1,200 for an integration.

1. Check the quote. £1,200 / 40,000 x 1,000 gives an effective CPM of £30.
2. Work out your break-even. You make £25 profit per sale, and a past campaign brought about 1.5 sales per 1,000 views. The break-even CPM is £25 x 1.5 = £37.50, so at 40,000 views the break-even fee is 40 x £37.50 = £1,500.
3. Compare. The £1,200 quote is below the £1,500 break-even, so it pays for itself if the video does as well as a typical one.
4. Counter-offer, if you want to. If you'd rather pay a CPM of £25, part one gives 40,000 / 1,000 x £25 = £1,000.

If your sales figure is a guess, run it again at half. At 0.75 sales per 1,000 views the break-even fee falls to £750, and the same quote looks expensive.

• Expected views: median, recent, same format. Use the median of the last 10 to 20 long-form videos, leaving out any from the last few days. For a Short, use Shorts only.
• Profit per sale, not price. Take off product cost, shipping, payment fees and the discount the creator's viewers get.
• Sales per 1,000 views from your own data. Use past sponsorships if you have them. If not, make a cautious guess and treat the first sponsorship as the way to get a real figure. See how to measure YouTube sponsorships.
• Count the whole cost. Add free product, shipping and any usage rights to the fee before comparing.

Break-even on tracked sales is a cautious test, since some buyers never use a code or link. For what goes into a fair offer, read how much to pay YouTubers, and for the term itself see CPM.

Nakodo works out median views for every creator it finds, from up to 20 recent uploads at least 3 days old, preferring long-form over Shorts. That gives you the expected views without counting by hand. It doesn't suggest fees or negotiate; the method is on how it works.