Profit per channel

Profit puts each channel's income beside what it cost you, month by month: what you paid ChannelForge for its work, the costs you add yourself, YouTube's revenue as YouTube reports it, and the income you add yourself — sponsorships, affiliate payouts, other platforms' payouts. It answers the question a channel network lives by: which channels pay for themselves, and since when.

What it does#

Spend: what you paid for the channel's work#

Spend is the credits charged on each channel's work — episodes, translations, compilations, kits, brand suites, film templates, films (charged once, at their price), released held shorts, X posts, topic plans — by the month they were charged. Work that charged nothing, and credits reserved but not yet charged, are not in it. A job that made several episodes shares its charge equally between them.

Credits are valued at your own price per credit: what your credit packs and plan periods cost you, after any coupon, divided by the credits they bought. With no purchase yet to work that out from, credits count at the list price of $0.10, and the page says which. Free credits — the trial's, promotions, referrals — count at the same price, so a channel's cost does not change with how its credits came to you.

Income: YouTube's figure and your lines#

• YouTube's figure — the channel's estimated revenue (ads and YouTube Premium) as YouTube Analytics reports it, read once a day where the channel's connection allows revenue. YouTube reports it in US dollars; it is never changed, only converted into the workspace's currency like every amount, and always labelled as YouTube's. YouTube revises each month at its end, so the latest month can still move.
• Your lines — every income and cost ChannelForge cannot see.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, X and LinkedIn give ChannelForge no payout figure it may read: add their payouts as lines (Platform payout).

One currency for the totals#

Each amount keeps its own currency. The totals are in the workspace's currency — US dollars unless an admin changes it, from 30 currencies — converted at the European Central Bank's euro reference rate of each amount's month (the latest rate for the month that is running). An amount in a currency with no rate stored yet stays out of the totals, and the page says so.

What the page shows#

Choose a channel's name to see that channel alone: its own figures and chart, Where the credits went (episodes, translations, kit builds…), and Per episode — each episode or film whose income is known (YouTube's revenue read for it, or a line you added for it), with what it cost and its profit.

How to use it#

1. Open Profit in the sidebar (or the Profit card on a channel's page).
2. To read YouTube's revenue, press Connect under "Connect YouTube with revenue to see this channel's earnings" for each YouTube channel. Google asks once for read-only access to the channel's revenue reports. The first reading comes within the hour, then once a day.
3. Add your own income and costs under Your lines:
   1. What it is — an income or a cost, and its kind;
   2. Platform (for a platform payout) — only read for a platform payout;
   3. Name, Amount, Currency and Month it counts for (this month or earlier);
   4. Channel — or The whole workspace for a cost no single channel owns;
   5. optionally Episode (a line for one episode counts for its channel) and Note;
   6. press Add the line.
4. Press CSV at the top for your books (the whole workspace, or the channel you are looking at).

An example: a brand pays EUR 250 for a dedicated short on your "Steel and Stone" channel in October. Add an income line — Sponsorship, "Brand deal — one dedicated short", 250, EUR, October, channel "Steel and Stone", the episode — and October's profit for that channel includes it at the euro's reference rate for October, converted into the workspace's currency.

Every member can read Profit. Editors, admins and owners add and remove lines and connect YouTube with revenue; admins and owners choose the currency and can delete the stored YouTube revenue.

Settings#

The CSV#

One row per channel and month with anything in it, then a row per month for All channels, in the workspace's currency:

month,channel,spend_credits,spend,costs,youtube_revenue_youtubes_figure,other_income,profit,currency,credit_valued_at
2026-10,Steel and Stone,1412,141.20,35.00,58.31,270.64,152.75,USD,list price 0.10 USD
2026-10,All channels,2655,265.50,35.00,58.31,270.64,28.45,USD,list price 0.10 USD

The YouTube column is YouTube's own figure, labelled as such; every other number is ours. The last column says how a credit was valued (your own price, or the list price). The file opens as UTF-8 in spreadsheets and no cell is read as a formula. A member can download it 20 times an hour.

Credits and plans#

Profit costs nothing: the daily readings and the page hold and charge no credits. It is on the Creator plan and above; on the Trial the page explains it and links to the plans.

Limits and good to know#

• Projections need history: they start once two complete months have income or spend in them. Next month is the average of the last three complete months; the trend is rising or falling when it moves by more than 5 % of the average a month, else flat.
• YouTube's revenue needs the Partner Program. A channel outside it reads "not available from YouTube"; one whose connection lacks the revenue permission says "revenue not allowed" and offers Connect — never an error.
• Kept while the channel allows it. YouTube's revenue is deleted when its connection is removed, a week after it is revoked or refused, 30 days after its sign-in last worked, and at once when the connection loses the revenue permission or you delete it — our copy only; YouTube's own is never touched. It is kept 36 months at most; a video's months go when they have not been read again for 30 days.
• A YouTube channel linked to one of your channels counts for it whole; one linked to several counts each of our videos for its own channel and the rest as not tied to one channel.

Troubleshooting#

Related#

• Monetization tracker
• Sponsorship media kit
• Credits and plans
• Billing
• Agency mode — statements for client workspaces