Clipping break-even.

Worked example

You want $15 an hour. Each clip takes 30 minutes, you make 10 a week, you spend 60 minutes of overhead and pay $10 a month for tools ($2.31 a week). Each clip must earn $15 x (0.5 + 0.1) + $0.23 = $9.23 in expected pay.

With a $1.00 rate per 1,000 views, 10% of views uncounted, an 80% approval rate and a 20% fee, one view is worth 0.8 x 0.8 x 0.9 x $0.001 = $0.000576 in expectation. The clip therefore needs about 16,026 views. At 10,000 views it is expected to pay $5.76, so you would need 15 / 5.76 = 2.60 clips an hour to hit $15, while a 30-minute clip is a pace of 2 an hour. That gap is the point of the exercise: it shows whether the target is realistic for the terms you entered.

Results vary. This page is arithmetic on the assumptions you enter. It is not a forecast, offer or guarantee of what any campaign, platform or account will pay, and it cannot say how many views a clip will get.

How it works

Start with the hourly pay you want. Convert it into dollars each clip must earn after covering its share of overhead and tool costs, then solve backwards through the pay terms to the views that produce that amount. If a cap, approval rate or minimum-views rule makes the target impossible, the tool says it is not reachable instead of showing a misleading number.

The pay terms are inputs, not claims. Clipping campaigns and platform programs set their own rates, caps, minimums and approval rules, and those change; copy them from the campaign brief or platform page you are actually working with. Variables: R is the rate per 1,000 counted views, V is views per clip, h is the share of views that are not counted, a is the share of submitted clips that are approved, f is the fee or cut taken from pay, F is a flat bonus per approved clip, a cap limits pay per clip, and a minimum-views rule pays nothing below it.

Clips per hour needed is the hourly target divided by expected pay per clip; compare it with your own pace of 60 / minutes per clip. It ignores overhead and tool costs, so it is a lower bound.

Methodology

Required net per clip r = W x (T / 60 + O / 60 / C) + S x 12 / 52 / C. Expected pay per submitted clip g(v) = a x (1 - f) x (min(cap, v x (1 - h) / 1,000 x R) + F) for v at or above the minimum, else 0. Break-even views solve g(v) = r in closed form: x = r / (a x (1 - f)) - F; if x is at or below zero the answer is the minimum-views rule; if a cap is set and x exceeds it, the target is unreachable; otherwise v = x x 1,000 / ((1 - h) x R), never below the minimum. The test suite checks the closed form against the forward calculation. A version that leaves out overhead gives a lower answer; this one includes it.

Tax note: money from clipping is usually self-employment income. This is general information, not tax advice. In the US the IRS describes a 15.3% self-employment tax and a filing threshold of $400 of net self-employment earnings; in Canada the CRA points to Form T2125 for reporting business income and expenses. Both sources are linked below. Figures on this page are before income tax.

What this does not cover

• Whether a clip can actually reach the break-even views; that depends on the content and audience and is not predicted here.
• Variation between clips: the tool assumes every clip gets the same views.
• Taxes, payment delays or the value of learning time.
• Non-view pay such as flat bonuses beyond the single flat amount you enter.

Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or stored.

Sources

No outside rate is applied; all pay terms are yours. Tax references are for general information: Pages checked 2026-10:

• Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes) - IRS
• Report business income and expenses - Canada Revenue Agency

FAQ

How many views do I need to make money clipping?

It depends entirely on the pay terms. Enter the rate per 1,000 views, approval rate, fee and your time, and the calculator returns the views a clip needs to reach your hourly target.

What does not reachable mean?

No number of views satisfies the target under the terms entered, usually because a per-clip cap limits pay below what your time requires.

Why include overhead and tool costs?

They are real time and money that clips have to cover. Leaving them out would make break-even views look lower than they are.

How many clips per hour do I need?

Hourly target divided by expected pay per clip. Compare it with 60 divided by your minutes per clip to see if your pace can meet it.