Free tool
RPM Calculator
What does a thousand readers earn you? Enter revenue and traffic to get your RPM instantly — split ads from subscriptions, and see what a 10% lift is worth over a year.
How RPM is calculated
RPM — revenue per mille — is what a publisher earns per thousand pageviews or sessions:
RPM = revenue ÷ (traffic ÷ 1,000) example: $5,000 ÷ (400,000 ÷ 1,000) = $12.50 RPM
Don't confuse it with CPM. CPM is the price an advertiser pays per thousand ad impressions; RPM is the outcome you actually earn per thousand readers, across every revenue stream at once. One page can carry several ad units, not every impression fills, and — for a growing number of publishers — a meaningful share of revenue never touches the ad market at all.
That last part is why this RPM calculator splits the number: ad RPM tells you how hard your inventory is working, while subscription RPM tells you how much of your revenue per thousand readers is yours regardless of programmatic rates. The two always reconcile to your overall RPM because they divide by the same traffic.
How to use the RPM calculator
- 1
Pick the period and traffic metric
Monthly, quarterly, or annual — and pageviews or sessions, whichever your analytics reports. Consistency matters more than the choice.
- 2
Enter revenue and traffic
Total revenue and total traffic for the same period. RPM updates live: revenue ÷ (traffic ÷ 1,000).
- 3
Split revenue by source
Toggle the split to see ad RPM and subscription RPM side by side — the two always add up to your overall figure.
- 4
Read the lift line
The calculator shows what a 10% RPM improvement is worth per year at your current traffic — the number that makes monetization projects comparable.
Frequently asked questions
- What is RPM?
- RPM — revenue per mille — is total revenue per thousand pageviews or sessions: revenue ÷ (traffic ÷ 1,000). It's the metric publishers manage site revenue against because it rolls every monetization stream — ads, subscriptions, affiliate — into one number you can compare month over month and against industry benchmarks.
- What's the difference between RPM and CPM?
- CPM (cost per mille) is what an advertiser pays for a thousand ad impressions — a price. RPM is what you, the publisher, actually earn per thousand pageviews or sessions — an outcome. A page can serve several ad units, not every impression fills, and revenue can include non-ad sources, so RPM is usually the more honest health metric for a publishing business.
- How do I calculate RPM?
- Divide revenue for a period by the traffic in that period, then multiply by 1,000. Example: $5,000 revenue on 400,000 pageviews is $5,000 ÷ 400 = $12.50 RPM. This RPM calculator does the division live and, if you split revenue by source, shows ad RPM and subscription RPM side by side — the two always add up to the overall figure.
- Should I use pageviews or sessions?
- Either works — just be consistent. Session RPM runs higher than pageview RPM because one session usually spans several pageviews. Pick the denominator your analytics team reports against and use it every period, or trends become meaningless.
- What is a good RPM for a publisher?
- It varies enormously by niche, geography, and monetization mix — ad-only sites might see single digits, while publishers with subscription revenue routinely run several times that on the same traffic. That's the point of splitting the number: subscription RPM shows how much of your revenue doesn't depend on ad markets.
- How does subscription revenue change RPM?
- Subscriptions add revenue without needing more traffic, so every converted reader raises RPM directly. A publisher earning $10 ad RPM who converts even a small share of readers to a paid plan can add more per thousand sessions than years of ad optimization — which is why the subscription RPM line in this calculator is usually the interesting one.
- Is my data stored anywhere?
- Your inputs are saved only in your own browser's localStorage so they survive a refresh. Nothing is sent to a server unless you choose to enter your email.