How Much Do Clippers Really Make Per View? What Reddit Creators Report

On Reddit, the clearest numbers come from small creators: one reported $348.60 from 579,706 views in a month, which works out to about 60 cents per 1,000 views.

Another clipper reached 10 million views on YouTube Shorts and earned about $1,500 in a month, but nothing at all from Instagram, even on clips with millions of views there. Both posts are below with links, along with the questions people asked under them, and where a per-view program for your own Reels fits.

What did the 16-year-old clipper make?

In April 2026 a 16-year-old posted a month of results in r/passive_income (the thread). They spent their school holidays posting cinematic and car clips on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, through a content rewards platform that pays based on reach.

Their numbers for 30 days:

• Views: 579,706
• Payout: $348.60
• Clips submitted: 72, of which 58 were approved

Their own lesson was that it is not passive at the start: the edits take consistent work, and the views come once the accounts have a following.

Why did 10 million views pay nothing on Instagram?

In February 2026 a clipper in r/socialmedia shared their first full month of payouts after four months of posting three to five clips a day (the thread).

• YouTube Shorts: they had passed 10 million views and 60,000 subscribers, and earned around $500 from Shorts revenue share.
• Facebook: about $1,000 from Reels.
• TikTok and Instagram: nothing yet, even though some clips there did better, with 500,000 to 4 million views.

Their read on Instagram: "ig bonuses seem inviteonly". That is the gap most people hit. Instagram does not pay you for views by default, so a Reel can go viral there and earn nothing unless someone else is paying for those views.

What did people ask under these posts?

The replies were mostly questions:

• "Where can i find people hiring for clipping? is it an app or website"
• "Which campaign is this?"
• "Who's paying 350 for 500k views?"
• "How do you go around the issue of copyright?"
• "Can you give an overview of how to do this"
• "Which platform paid out first for you?"

And one reply was simply "Bot. Scam. Reported.", which says a lot about how much people trust per-view money they can't check.

The YouTube comments under clipping tutorials ask the same things, with hundreds of likes: whose account the clips go on, whether you need a new account per campaign, whether it works from your country, and whether there is a cap on payouts.

What do these numbers mean per 1,000 views?

Our own math from the 16-year-old's post: $348.60 divided by 579,706 views is about 60 cents for every 1,000 views. That is one person's month on one platform, not an average, but it is a real, checkable number.

For the clipper with 10 million Shorts views, the money came from each platform's own revenue share, which you only get once you meet that platform's requirements. Before that, the views paid nothing.

Two lessons stand out in both threads:

• Views alone don't pay. Someone has to be paying for them: a platform's own program, or a brand.
• Clips of other people's videos raise the copyright question. It came up in the replies, and nobody in the thread had a clear answer.

Is there a way to get paid per view for your own Reels?

Yes. Ootto runs a creator program that pays per 1,000 views on your own Instagram Reels about Ootto. It answers the questions above directly:

• Who pays: Ootto does, for Reels about Ootto.
• Rate: from $1.00 per 1,000 views, rising to $3.00 as your counted views grow.
• Whose account: your own Instagram creator or business account. No second account.
• Copyright: you make your own Reels about a product, so you are not reposting anyone's video.
• Where from: almost anywhere, except Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
• Cap: no monthly cap by default.
• How views are counted: Instagram's own organic view count, read once a day, with the newest two days held while Instagram's numbers settle.
• Joining: free, no Ootto plan needed. One Reel on your account with more than 2,000 views, on any topic, gets you in right away.

Every rule, including how payouts and fake views are handled, is in Can you get paid per view to post Reels about an AI tool? and on the creator program page.

If you don't edit yet, Ootto can make the Reels too; How are these AI motion graphics reels made? shows how.

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