YouTube Doubles Monetization Requirements for New Creators

YouTube is raising the requirements for creators who want to earn advertising and subscription revenue from the platform.

Starting February 1, 2027, new creators will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views within 90 days.

The new requirements double YouTube’s current thresholds of 4,000 watch hours and 10 million Shorts views. The existing 1,000-subscriber requirement was not mentioned as changing.

However, creators already in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) will not face the new entry requirements.

YouTube is also changing how Shorts revenue sharing works. From February 1, creators will need to maintain 10 million qualified Shorts views over a rolling 90-day period to receive Shorts advertising and subscription revenue.

Channels that fall below the threshold will remain in YPP. They can also continue earning from long-form videos. Shorts revenue sharing will resume automatically if they reach the threshold again.

The company said creators already earning significant Shorts revenue are unlikely to be affected. It did not disclose how many channels could lose Shorts revenue under the new rule.

Meanwhile, the company is expanding its Premium Lite subscription to every country where YouTube Premium is available. The cheaper plan offers uninterrupted viewing of most content, as well as offline downloads and background playback.

YouTube will allocate 60% of net Premium Lite subscription revenue to a creator pool. Full Premium subscriptions will contribute 30% of net subscription revenue to a separate pool.

Creators will then receive 55% of the allocated revenue from long-form videos. Shorts creators will receive 45%.

As of now, they record more than 200 billion daily Shorts views and over 1 billion hours of TV viewing each day.

The company is also promising new income opportunities for smaller creators. These include YouTube Shopping bonuses, incentives for brand partnerships and payments for creators who start or grow trends.

However, the company has not disclosed the value or launch dates for those incentives.

The changes represent the first major YPP overhaul since 2018. YouTube said it expects to pay creators more in 2027 than it did in 2026.