What This Calculator Tells You
Enter your average viewers, subscriber count, weekly stream hours, and ad CPM, and this tool breaks your Twitch income into the three pieces that hit your payout: sub revenue, bits, and ads. Subs do most of the work, because your half of a $4.99 Tier 1 sub is about $2.50, so a channel with 200 subs is already near $500 a month before anything else. It's built for streamers, not spreadsheets, so you get a monthly total and an effective per-hour rate in one click.
A Worked Example
Picture a channel holding 300 Tier 1 subs. At roughly $2.50 each that's about $750 a month. Add 50,000 bits cheered over the month, which is another $500 since every bit is worth a penny to you, plus a modest chunk of ad revenue at a $3.50 CPM, and the total lands near $1,300. Cut the subs to 100 and skip the bits, and the same channel is closer to $250-$300. Seeing those numbers side by side is usually more honest than the 'streamers are rich' headlines.
What It Leaves Out
This covers the money Twitch pays you directly, which is only part of the picture for most working streamers. Donations through PayPal or StreamElements, brand sponsorships, YouTube revenue, and merch all land outside Twitch's payout and often add up to more than subs and ads combined. Treat the total here as your Twitch baseline, then stack those other streams on top when you're deciding whether the numbers add up to a living.
Twitch Earnings Calculator
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter Your Average Viewers: Use your concurrent-viewer average from your Twitch dashboard, not your peak. This drives the ad revenue estimate.
- Add Subs, Hours, and CPM: Enter your current subscriber count, how many hours you stream in a typical week, and an ad CPM (start at $3.50 if you're unsure). Subs move the total the most.
- Click Calculate: Hit Calculate to see sub revenue, ad revenue, and bits broken out, plus a monthly total and a per-stream-hour rate.
- Test the Scenarios That Matter: Re-run it with the sub count you're aiming for, or a bigger audience, to see what it would take to hit a full-time number.
How It Works
The calculator adds up the three ways money actually reaches your Twitch payout: subscriptions, bits, and ads. Sub revenue is the big lever, so it drives most of the total.
The basic rule:
- Sub Revenue = Subscribers × $2.50 (your half of a $4.99 Tier 1 sub under the standard 50/50 split)
- Ad Revenue = (Viewers × Hours × Ads/hr × CPM) / 1000, using a ~$3.50 CPM baseline
Bits are counted separately at $0.01 each, since a viewer cheering 100 bits puts $1 in your pocket. Donations and sponsorships sit outside these numbers because they don't run through Twitch's payout at all.
Tips & Considerations
- Subs are the lever: gaining 50 Tier 1 subs adds about $125 a month, far more than most realistic ad-revenue gains.
- Use your average concurrent viewers from the Twitch dashboard, not your all-time peak, or the ad estimate will run high.
- Prime subs pay you the same ~$2.50 as a paid Tier 1, so count them in your subscriber total.
- Ad CPM climbs in Q4 (holiday advertising) and dips in January, so nudge the CPM field up or down by season.
- Add bits and donations mentally on top of this number, since they often rival sub revenue on an engaged channel.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a streamer make per subscriber?
Under the standard 50/50 split, a $4.99 Tier 1 sub sends you about $2.50. So 200 Tier 1 subs is roughly $500 a month before bits and ads. Tier 2 ($9.99) pays you around $5.00 and Tier 3 ($24.99) around $12.50. Prime subs (the free monthly sub Amazon Prime members can give) pay the streamer the same ~$2.50 as a paid Tier 1.
What is a bit worth to the streamer?
One bit equals one cent to you. When a viewer cheers 100 bits you get $1.00, and 10,000 bits works out to $100. Viewers pay a bit more than that to buy bits, but the streamer's side is a clean penny each. In this calculator, 50,000 bits cheered in a month adds about $500 to your total.
Do Twitch streamers split subs 50/50 or 70/30?
The default is 50/50, which is where the ~$2.50-per-sub figure comes from. A 70/30 split (about $3.50 per Tier 1 sub) was historically limited to larger partners and specific programs, and Twitch has moved most creators to a flat 50/50 or a 70/30 tier that caps at $100,000 in sub revenue. Unless you've been told otherwise, plan around 50/50.
When do ads actually pay, and how much?
Ads pay per thousand impressions (CPM), typically around $3.50 but swinging from roughly $2 to $10+ depending on your game, audience country, and time of year (Q4 pays best). With 100 average viewers running a couple of ad minutes an hour across 20 hours a week, ad revenue usually lands in the tens of dollars per month, not hundreds. It's real, but it's the smallest slice for most mid-size streamers.
Can you put a worked example together?
Say you hold 300 Tier 1 subs: that's about $750 a month. Add 50,000 bits cheered ($500) and a few dozen dollars of ad revenue, and you're near $1,300 for the month before any donations or sponsorships. Drop the subs to 100 and the same math falls closer to $350.
How many viewers do you need to go full-time on Twitch?
To clear $30,000-$40,000 a year from Twitch alone, most streamers need somewhere around 200-500 average concurrent viewers plus a steady sub base and regular bits. Many full-time streamers actually get there faster through donations, sponsorships, and YouTube on the side than through subs and ads by themselves, so treat this calculator's total as the Twitch-payout floor, not your whole income.
Do Twitch streamers pay taxes on this?
Yes. Twitch income is taxable and you'll get a 1099 once you clear the reporting threshold. Most streamers are self-employed, so you owe income tax plus self-employment tax (15.3% for Social Security and Medicare) on your net earnings. Set aside a chunk of every payout so it isn't a surprise in April.