Monetrix

How to track YouTube income: ads, memberships and sponsors

YouTube Studio shows what YouTube pays you. Your real creator income is usually bigger. Here’s how to track all of it.

Updated 24 October 2026 · 6 min read

What YouTube Studio covers

In YouTube Studio, Analytics → Revenue shows your estimated revenue from the YouTube Partner Program. Depending on your channel, that can include:

  • Watch page and Shorts ads — your share of ad revenue.
  • YouTube Premium — a share of subscription revenue when Premium members watch your content.
  • Channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks.
  • Shopping income where available.

Remember that revenue figures are estimates, usually arrive with a delay of a day or two, and are finalised after the month ends. Payment comes through your linked AdSense for YouTube account — see when AdSense pays.

What YouTube Studio doesn’t cover

Many creators earn as much again outside YouTube’s own systems:

  • Brand sponsorships and integrations paid directly by the brand.
  • Affiliate commissions from links in descriptions.
  • Your own products, courses, Patreon or similar memberships.
  • Ad revenue elsewhere — a blog on AdSense or an app on AdMob.

RPM is your best YouTube metric

YouTube shows both CPM (what advertisers pay) and RPM (what you earn per 1,000 views, across all revenue types). RPM is the one that reflects your income. See RPM vs CPM explained.

A simple tracking routine

  1. Daily or weekly: glance at estimated revenue to catch spikes and drops early.
  2. When a deal pays: record sponsorship and affiliate income the day it lands, with the date and amount.
  3. Monthly: once YouTube finalises the month, note your payout and compare totals by source.
  4. Yearly: keep a lifetime total for tax time and for pitching sponsors.

Doing it in Monetrix

Monetrix reads your YouTube revenue through the official API and lets you add manual entries for sponsorships and other income, so everything sits next to your AdMob and AdSense earnings in one total — on iPhone, Android and Apple Watch.

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