How much does a YouTube sponsorship cost? What brands actually paid, by channel size
Real prices from more than 9,000 YouTube integrations booked through ThoughtLeaders, broken down by channel size, with the cost per thousand projected views. Also: why YouTube's August 2026 view-count change makes price comparisons tricky.
“How much does a YouTube sponsorship cost?” usually gets answered with a rule of thumb or a survey. We have a better source: the sponsorships brands actually bought through ThoughtLeaders. Here is what 9,002 of them cost, by channel size, and how to use the numbers without fooling yourself.
The numbers
These are sold YouTube integrations (a mention inside a creator’s video) that were booked before and scheduled between August 24, 2024 and August 23, 2026. We dropped deals with no price and one network we exclude for data-quality reasons.
| Channel size (subscribers) | Deals | Typical price (middle half) | Median price | Median cost per 1,000 projected views |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 100K | 1,365 | $370 to $1,000 | $600 | $36 (n=1,060) |
| 100K to 500K | 3,764 | $750 to $2,000 | $1,200 | $26 (n=3,047) |
| 500K to 1M | 1,987 | $1,050 to $3,000 | $2,000 | $21 (n=1,575) |
| 1M to 5M | 1,686 | $2,000 to $5,250 | $3,500 | $19 (n=1,369) |
| 5M and up | 200 | $2,475 to $10,500 | about $6,000 | $17 (n=164) |
The cost-per-view column uses only deals with a recorded projection of at least 1,000 views (the n in brackets), so it covers fewer deals than the price columns, especially for small channels.
Three things stand out:
- Price grows much more slowly than channel size. The median deal on a 5M+ channel costs about ten times one on a sub-100K channel, even though the channel is fifty or more times bigger. Subscriber counts overstate how many people see a new video.
- Smaller channels cost more per view. The median cost per thousand projected views falls from about $36 under 100K subscribers to about $17 above 5M. If you’re buying small channels, judge them on audience fit and renewals, not on cost per view alone.
- The range inside each band is wide. In the 100K to 500K band, the middle half of deals ran from $750 to $2,000. Channel size alone won’t tell you whether a quote is fair.
How we measured, so you can compare fairly
Views on YouTube are slippery, so here is exactly what’s behind the cost per thousand views:
- Views at a fixed age. The denominator is the channel’s projected views recorded when the deal was sold: what a new video was expected to reach at day 30, based on its recent uploads. Comparing a price against a video’s lifetime views, or its first-day views, would give a very different number.
- One counting rule. Every deal was bought before August 24, 2026, when YouTube changed how public views are counted, so every projection is on the old basis.
- Channel size is today’s size. Bands use each channel’s current subscriber count, which can differ from its size when the deal was booked.
- Integrations only. Dedicated videos were too few to report. Our data can’t separate Shorts from long-form integrations, so treat the table as a pooled benchmark, not an exact match for one format.
What YouTube’s August 2026 view-count change means for prices
On August 24, 2026, YouTube started counting a public view from the first frame. The old public number is what YouTube Studio now calls engaged views. In our measurement, long-form public view counts now run about 1.2 to 1.5 times the old basis in a video’s first week, with the biggest gap in the first few days and on smaller channels. Shorts didn’t change. We haven’t measured the gap at day 30 yet. For what changed and how to compare on the same basis, see YouTube’s new view count and your sponsorship math.
That matters when you use any price benchmark, including this one:
- Don’t compare across the change. If you divide a quote by today’s public views, the cost per thousand views can look cheaper than the same audience was under the old count. There is no validated day-30 conversion yet, so don’t apply the first-week range to day-30 numbers. Treat the table as a rough guide, and compare like with like where you can.
- Ask for engaged views. When you negotiate, ask the creator for engaged views from YouTube Studio at day 30 on recent videos, and write any views guarantee in engaged views at a fixed age.
Price is only half the question
Pricing hides the most useful signal we have: who comes back. Of the 382 brands that booked YouTube sponsorships through us in the same period, 133 (35%) booked the same channel again 60 to 365 days after an earlier booking. Bookings less than 60 days apart count as one. Brands don’t renew channels on vibes, so a channel that brands keep renewing is worth more than its cost per view suggests.
To place a quote against the medians above, use the YouTube sponsorship CPM calculator. Then check it against the channel itself, not just a band average:
- How to check a YouTube sponsorship quote with your AI assistant walks through the projected views, the fair-value estimate and what drives it.
- Which YouTube creators does your competitor sponsor? shows how to find channels that similar brands keep renewing.
See the numbers for any channel
The ThoughtLeaders Chrome extension shows projected views, detected sponsors and pricing right under any YouTube video. To ask these questions in plain language, connect the ThoughtLeaders CLI to your AI agent.