Estimate what your site could earn from Google AdSense, or flip it around and see how much traffic you need to hit a monthly income goal.
Don't know your RPM? Work it out from CTR and CPC
RPM = CTR × CPC × 1,000. Impressions (views of ads that never get clicked) also pay a little, so real RPM is often a bit higher.
Find your real Page RPM in AdSense under Reports. It changes a lot by topic, visitor country, season and how many ads each page shows, so use a few months of your own numbers when you can.
How the calculation works
AdSense earnings come down to two numbers: how many page views you get and how much you earn for every thousand of them. That second number is called Page RPM.
Monthly earnings = (monthly page views ÷ 1,000) × Page RPM
So 30,000 page views a month at a Page RPM of 3 is 90 a month. Doubling either number doubles the income, which is why both traffic growth and RPM improvements matter.
Finding your real RPM
Every estimate is only as good as the RPM you put in. If your site already runs AdSense, open Reports, look at Page RPM for the last 90 days and use that. If you are not approved yet, RPM depends heavily on:
- Topic. Finance, insurance, software, hosting and marketing pages attract advertisers who pay more per click than entertainment or general news.
- Visitor country. Visitors from the US, UK, Canada and Australia usually earn several times more than visitors from countries with smaller ad markets.
- Season. RPM climbs through November and December as advertisers spend for the holidays, then drops sharply in January.
- Layout. Ads that people actually see earn more. Long, well-structured articles with ads between sections usually do better than short pages.
If you only know your click-through rate and cost per click, open “Work it out from CTR and CPC” in the calculator to turn them into an RPM.
Ways to raise your AdSense income
- Get more search traffic to the pages that already earn. Look at AdSense reports by page and update or expand the top earners.
- Write for higher-value searches. A guide that helps someone choose software or hosting attracts better-paying ads than a news recap.
- Fix ads.txt and page speed. A missing ads.txt can cut earnings, and slow pages lose readers before ads load. See our guide to setting up ads.txt for AdSense on WordPress.
- Add a second income stream. Most content sites earn more from affiliate links or their own services than from ads alone, and AdSense is happy to run alongside both.
Common questions
How much does AdSense pay per 1,000 views?
There is no fixed rate. Page RPM can be well under 1 dollar for some topics and countries and over 20 dollars for others. Use your own AdSense reports for the most accurate figure.
What is the difference between RPM and CPM?
CPM is what advertisers pay per thousand ad impressions. Page RPM is what you earn per thousand page views, after Google’s share, and it counts every ad on the page together. RPM is the number that matters to publishers.
How much traffic do I need for AdSense approval?
Google doesn’t publish a minimum. Approval depends on original, useful content, clear navigation and policy compliance. Sites with a few dozen solid articles and steady visitors are usually in a good position.
Why are my real earnings lower than the estimate?
Common reasons are a lower RPM than you assumed, ad blockers, invalid traffic being filtered out, and ads not loading on slow pages. Use your real Page RPM from the last few months for the best estimate.