YouTube Monetization Requirements
YouTube has two entry tiers, and the lower one does not include ad revenue. Here is exactly what each unlocks — and what changes in February 2027.
Most people think of YouTube monetization as a single finish line at 1,000 subscribers. It is actually two separate gates. The first opens at 500 subscribers and unlocks the fan-funding and shopping features — but not advertising. Ad revenue, the thing most creators are actually chasing, requires the full Partner Program.
Which matters more than it sounds: a channel sitting at 600 subscribers can already be earning from memberships, Super Thanks and affiliate commissions while still being months away from its first ad payout.
Expanded Access — 500 Subscribers
Fan funding and shopping, without ad revenue.
- 500 subscribers
- 3 valid public uploads in the last 90 days
- Either 3,000 valid public watch hours over 12 months or 3 million valid public Shorts views over 90 days
Unlocks: channel memberships, Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and the YouTube Shopping affiliate programme — which dropped from a 10,000-subscriber requirement to this tier in March 2026.
Full Partner Program — 1,000 Subscribers
The tier that includes advertising revenue.
- 1,000 subscribers
- Either 4,000 valid public watch hours over 12 months or 10 million valid public Shorts views over 90 days
Unlocks: everything in the expanded tier, plus ad revenue share and YouTube Premium revenue share.
Required for Both Tiers
- Two-step verification enabled on your Google account
- No active Community Guidelines strikes
- A linked AdSense account in a supported country
- Compliance with YouTube’s monetization policies
Watch time from Shorts viewed in the Shorts Feed does not count toward the watch-hour threshold. Shorts have their own separate qualifying pathway. This trips up a lot of creators who assume all view time pools together — if your growth is mostly Shorts, the Shorts view count is the number to track, not watch hours.
The Bar Doubles in February 2027
New Partner Program applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours over 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views over 90 days — double the current thresholds. The 1,000-subscriber requirement does not change.
If you are already in the Partner Program, you are grandfathered in and will not need to meet the new entry numbers. However, every channel in the programme will need 10 million qualified Shorts views per 90 days to remain eligible for Shorts ad and subscription revenue share.
If you are currently between 4,000 and 8,000 watch hours, this is the single most actionable deadline on this page. Qualifying before February 1 means entering under the old bar and keeping that status permanently. After that date, the same channel would need to roughly double its watch time to get in.
This is YouTube’s first significant change to Partner Program entry requirements since 2018.
Ways to Earn Once You Qualify
- Ad revenue — share of advertising shown on your videos. Full tier only.
- YouTube Premium revenue — a share of subscription fees when Premium members watch your content. Full tier only.
- Channel memberships — recurring monthly payments from viewers for perks. Available from the 500-subscriber tier.
- Super Thanks, Super Chat and Super Stickers — one-off viewer payments on videos and live streams. Available from the 500-subscriber tier.
- YouTube Shopping affiliate — commission on products you tag. Available from the 500-subscriber tier since March 2026.