whatisrpm.com

Revenue wing / head-to-head

Mediavine vs Raptive

Reviewed10·2026

Raptive cut its bar to 25,000 pageviews in October 2025 and Mediavine moved to a $5,000 annual-revenue bar, so the two premium networks now gate on different units. The published terms are unusually symmetrical; the differences worth deciding on are the bases, the geo rules and the toolsets.

By Oliver Wakefield-Smith. Oliver Wakefield-Smith runs a portfolio of ad-monetized publisher sites and reads these dashboards weekly.

Published terms, side by side

Mediavine vs Raptive published terms, checked 2026-10-21
DimensionMediavineRaptive
Entry$5,000 annual ad revenue Mediavine2026-1025,000 monthly pageviews Raptive2026-10
Geo rulesReviewed at application; no printed percentage50% US/CA/UK/AU/NZ at 25k-99,999 PV; 40% at 100k+ Raptive Help2026-10
Published share75% base; to 85% legacy tiers; 75-90% on 2026 programs Mediavine Help2026-1075%; Net 45, paid on the 15th Raptive Help2026-10
Reporting basisSession RPMPageview RPM
Recent structural newsRevenue-based entry; earnings-keyed shares for sites launched after 1 Jan 2026Threshold cut (Oct 2025); AlchemyAI acquisition (Jun 2026)

Who qualifies for which, in practice

The units decide most cases. Raptive counts pageviews; Mediavine now counts a year of ad revenue Mediavine2026-10. Put them on one line with your own page RPM:

page RPM needed for Mediavine at Raptive's bar = 5,000 ÷ (25,000 × 12) × 1,000
= 5,000 ÷ 300,000 × 1,000 = $16.67

Below that RPM, a 25,000-pageview site clears Raptive first; above it, both doors are open at once. The geo gate cuts the other way: Raptive prints a hard traffic-mix requirement Raptive Help2026-10, while full Mediavine's requirements page asks for clean, human, brand-safe traffic without a printed country percentage. A site whose traffic is mostly outside the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand can clear Mediavine's revenue bar and still fail Raptive's mix.

Beyond the numbers

Both publish 75% at the base, which moves the decision to what is not identical: Mediavine prints a climb path to 85-90% Mediavine Help2026-10, publishes its requirements culture openly, and reports on sessions; Raptive pays Net 45 with published payment dates Raptive Help2026-10, reports on pageviews (directly comparable with your AdSense history), and is investing visibly in AI-era publisher tooling. Neither publishes per-site uplift, so the final tiebreak belongs to your own test, priced with the what-if dial. Two 75% shares can still pay differently; the needle only settles on your own dashboard.

Questions this page keeps getting

Which is easier to qualify for, Mediavine or Raptive?

They measure different things. Raptive asks for 25,000 monthly pageviews plus geo rules (50% US/UK/CA/NZ/AU traffic at 25k-99,999 pageviews). Mediavine asks for $5,000 in annual ad revenue. At 25,000 pageviews a month, Mediavine's bar needs a page RPM of about $16.67 (5,000 divided by 300,000 pageviews a year, times 1,000), so a lower-RPM site usually clears Raptive first, while a site with mostly non-tier-1 traffic can clear Mediavine's revenue bar and fail Raptive's mix.

Who pays a higher revenue share?

Published bases match at 75%. Mediavine publishes climbs to 85% (sites launched before 2026, by ad impressions) or 80-90% (sites launched after 1 January 2026, by annual earnings); Raptive's published figure is 75% with payment Net 45. Beyond the printed numbers, differences are per-site.

Can I compare their RPM figures directly?

No. Raptive reports per 1,000 pageviews and Mediavine per 1,000 sessions, so Mediavine's number reads higher on identical earnings. Convert with your pages-per-session before comparing anything.