Make videos and Shorts for an audience and earn from ads, sponsors and fans. Most channels never get paid.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$0
Most channels
$0
Top few percent
$135,000
Job Bank has no wage figure for this because it is not a job with a wage. Most channels never earn a cent, so the typical income is zero, or a small loss after gear. Goldman Sachs estimates only about 4% of the world's creators earn over US$100,000, about $135,000 here.
About $1 to $45 per 1,000 long views
This is RPM (revenue per thousand views), what you keep after YouTube's cut
Gaming and entertainment sit at the low end. Personal finance, business and tech pay the most. YouTube pays in US dollars, and US viewers are worth more to advertisers than Canadian ones, so where your audience lives matters as much as your topic.
Cents per 1,000 views
Usually a few cents to about 40 cents per 1,000 Shorts views
Shorts ad money goes into a shared pool and you keep 45% of your slice. A million Shorts views often pays somewhere between $40 and $400. Shorts help people find you. They rarely pay the rent.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a phone you already own and free editing software, which is how plenty of successful channels started. The high end is a mirrorless camera, a good microphone, lights and a year of paid editing software, bought in Canada where gear usually costs more than in the US. Growth courses and faceless automation channel programs, often $700 to $2,700, are not counted: you do not need them, and selling them is often the seller's real business. The real cost is hundreds of unpaid hours.
Keep every receipt. Gear and software for the channel can be claimed as business expenses on your tax return.
Ad money alone rarely pays the bills. Channels that earn a living stack several of these.
Sponsorships
A brand pays for a mention. For many full-time Canadian channels this is the biggest slice.
Ad revenue
Only after you join the YPP (YouTube Partner Program).
Fan funding
Channel memberships, Super Chat and Super Thanks, open from 500 subscribers in Canada.
Affiliate links
A small commission when viewers buy through your link.
Your own products
Merchandise, courses, books or a service. This is where big channels make their real money.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
No degree, no licence. Just a long stretch of making videos before anyone pays you.
Pick a topic you can make 100 videos about
A few weeks
A narrow subject you know well beats general vlogging. Check that people search for it.
Make and publish, a lot
6 to 18 months
Your first 50 videos are practice. Study which ones held viewers and why.
Reach the first threshold
Often 1 to 2 years
500 subscribers, 3 uploads in 90 days and 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views opens fan funding.
Join the YPP (YouTube Partner Program) for ad money
Often 1 to 3 years
1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours in 12 months, or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. Review takes about a month.
Add sponsors and your own products
2 to 5 years in
This turns a paid channel into an income. Many keep a job until it reliably covers rent.
English
Every good video starts as a script. Clear writing is the hidden skill behind most big channels.
Communications technology or media arts
Camera, sound and editing, on school equipment.
Business or accounting
Invoicing sponsors, tracking expenses and filing taxes.
French
A bilingual channel can reach Quebec and French-speaking viewers worldwide, a smaller and less crowded market.
You need no licence. Taxes: the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) treats channel income, including free products, as self-employment income on form T2125. You pay both halves of CPP (Canada Pension Plan) contributions. Once you earn over $30,000 in four quarters you must register for GST and HST (federal and harmonized sales taxes). File a W-8BEN (a US tax form) with Google, or more of your US earnings can be withheld. Sponsors: the Competition Bureau requires you to disclose paid deals clearly.
Most YouTubers teach themselves. These programs help with the craft.
Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario
The RTA (Radio and Television Arts) School of Media, a well-known media production program.
Sheridan and Humber colleges, Ontario
Hands-on film, television and digital media diplomas.
Capilano University, British Columbia
Film and digital media programs near Vancouver's production industry.
Your channel analytics
Free, and the retention graph shows the second viewers left. The real teacher.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Scriptwriting and hooks
The first 30 seconds decide whether a video is watched.
Thumbnail and title design
They decide whether it is clicked at all.
Selling sponsorships
A media kit, a rate card and the nerve to negotiate in US dollars with US brands.
Editing
Doing it yourself saves money early. Paying an editor later frees your time.
A job or school schedule you can keep
Quitting to go full time before the channel pays is the most common mistake.
Real expertise in your topic
A nurse, an electrician or a teacher on camera has something nobody else can copy.
A savings cushion
Sponsors pay late, ad income swings by season, and there is no EI (Employment Insurance) when a channel dips.
Thick skin
Public comments are part of the job.
Some public funding exists. The Canada Media Fund has run programs for digital creators, and provincial arts and screen agencies sometimes fund web series. These grants are competitive, paperwork heavy and usually go to people who already have a track record. Treat them as a bonus, never as a plan.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Most of it is not filming. You check how yesterday's video is doing and reply to comments. You research and write the next script, which can take a full day. Filming might be two hours, editing six to twenty. Then a thumbnail, a title, maybe three versions of each. In between you answer sponsor emails, invoice, and set aside tax money. Full-time creators often work 50 to 60 hours a week.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Google says more than 90% of the views on Canadian channels come from outside Canada. A Canadian YouTuber is competing for, and earning from, a worldwide audience.
Oxford Economics estimated YouTube's ecosystem added about $2 billion to Canada's economy and supported more than 35,000 full-time equivalent jobs. That counts people working 8 or more hours a week on it, not 35,000 full-time YouTubers.
A study by Mathias Bärtl of a random sample of YouTube channels over 10 years found that about 3% of channels collected about 85% of all views. Attention, and so money, is extremely concentrated.
From February 1, 2027, YouTube says a channel needs 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to earn any Shorts ad money that month, even if it is already in the partner program.
Creators first, then the rest of the field. See all online and self-made careers.
Last checked October 2026. This is self-employment, so there is no government wage data for it. The income figures come from the studies and platform data listed above.