RPM (Revenue Per Mille)

RPM is what actually lands in your bank account per 1,000 views, after platform cuts, payment processor fees, taxes withheld at source, agency commission, and any production costs amortized over the deal. CPM is the headline number; RPM is the truth.

Creators conflate the two and end up working for 40-60% of what they thought they were earning. A $30 CPM Reel deal sounds great until you back out a 20% agency cut, a 30% tax provision, and $200 of editing — suddenly the RPM is closer to $15.

How to compute your true RPM

1. Start with gross deal value (CPM × views / 1,000).
2. Subtract platform / processor fees if the brand pays via Stripe, Wise, Lumanu, etc. — typically 2-4%.
3. Subtract talent-manager commission if applicable — 10-20% in 2026 per talent-manager norms.
4. Subtract direct production cost (editor, props, location, music license).
5. Subtract tax provision — 25-35% in the US, 30-40% in the EU/UK, 30% TDS for non-resident creators in India.
6. Divide the remainder by views/1,000.

2026 net RPM benchmarks

• Instagram in-app monetization (Bonuses where available, Reels gifts): $0.10-3 RPM. Below the floor of useful income for most creators.
• Brand deals, finance/B2B niche, no agency: $18-35 net RPM.
• Brand deals, lifestyle, with 20% agency cut: $4-10 net RPM.
• Affiliate-only Reels, top-tier products: highly variable — a single $300 commission on a 50K-view Reel = $6 RPM; a viral 1M-view Reel with no conversions = $0.

The point of tracking RPM, not CPM, is that you can compare a brand deal directly against an affiliate Reel or a lead-magnet capture — apples to apples, on a per-1,000-views basis.