YouTube Partner Program 2026: Tiers, Requirements and Revenue Share
The YouTube Partner Program (YPP) is how creators get paid by YouTube. Once your channel is accepted, you can turn on ads, memberships, Super Chat, Shopping and other features, and YouTube shares the revenue with you. In 2026 there are two ways in: a lower tier at 500 subscribers that opens fan funding and Shopping, and the full tier at 1,000 subscribers that adds ad revenue. Both need a minimum amount of watch time or Shorts views, and both go through a manual review.
Everything below comes from YouTube's own Help pages, checked on October 19, 2026. Links are inline so you can confirm the current wording yourself.
The two tiers of the YouTube Partner Program
YouTube calls the lower tier the expanded YouTube Partner Program. It is only open in certain countries and regions, and the US is one of them.
| Lower tier (expanded YPP) | Full tier (ad revenue) | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscribers | 500 | 1,000 |
| Recent uploads | 3 public uploads in the last 90 days | No upload minimum to join |
| Long-form route | 3,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months | 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months |
| Shorts route | 3 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days | 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days |
| What you get | Memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks, Shopping | Everything in the lower tier plus ad revenue and YouTube Premium revenue |
The full-tier numbers are on the YouTube Partner Program overview. The lower-tier numbers and features are on the expanded YPP page.
You only need one route per tier, watch hours or Shorts views, not both. Shorts views don't count toward watch hours, and private or unlisted videos don't count at all. We go through what counts in more detail in our post on YouTube monetization requirements.
The basic requirements for any channel
On top of the numbers, the YPP overview lists these minimums:
- Follow YouTube's channel monetization policies
- Live in a country or region where the program is available
- Have no active Community Guidelines strikes
- Turn on 2-Step Verification for your Google account
- Have access to advanced features on YouTube (usually a phone verification)
- Have one active AdSense for YouTube account linked to the channel, or set one up in YouTube Studio
The AdSense account is how you get paid, so set it up before you apply if you can.
What changes in February 2027
YouTube announced in August 2026 that the full tier gets harder to enter. From February 1, 2027, new applicants will need 1,000 subscribers plus either 8,000 watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million Shorts views in the last 90 days (Music Business Worldwide, August 11, 2026).
A few details matter here:
- Channels already in the program keep their status.
- The same report says every partner channel will need 10 million Shorts views in 90 days to earn revenue share on Shorts. Channels under that keep earning on long-form videos.
- The lower 500-subscriber tier is not changing, according to the same article.
- If you are already a partner, the YPP overview says you need to review and accept the updated terms in YouTube Studio by January 31, 2027 to keep fully monetizing.
If your channel is close to 4,000 hours now, applying before February 1 is the cheaper path. Our free YouTube monetization checker shows how far you are from each threshold.
YouTube Partner Program revenue share
Getting in doesn't pay anything by itself. You earn through modules you switch on in the Earn tab, and each one has its own split. From the YouTube partner earnings overview:
| Income source | Your share |
|---|---|
| Ads on long-form videos (watch page) | 55% of net ad revenue |
| Ads in the Shorts feed | 45% of the revenue allocated to you from the creator pool, based on your share of views |
| Memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks | 70% of net revenue |
| YouTube Premium | A share of Premium revenue when members watch your videos (no fixed percentage stated on that page) |
If you'd rather make videos than read about it, VidPuff turns a title into a faceless video. No waitlist, cancel anytime.
The 55% figure is what most long-form channels live on. How much that comes to per view depends heavily on your niche. In the Studio data we compiled, the median was about $2.30 per 1,000 views, with education near $10 and kids' content near $0.33. See how much YouTube pays per view for the full table.
Which tier should you aim for?
The lower tier sounds attractive because it comes sooner, but think about what it pays. Fan funding only works when viewers care enough to pay you directly. That happens on channels with a personality, live streams, or a tight community. A faceless channel that gets most of its views from search usually earns very little from memberships and Super Thanks.
For those channels, the full tier is the real goal, because ad revenue applies to every monetized view without anyone choosing to pay. Treat the 500-subscriber tier as a milestone on the way, and turn on Shopping if you have products to link. We compare the two in more depth in how many subscribers you need to make money on YouTube. For scale, YouTube says more than 3 million channels are in the Partner Program, out of the tens of millions counted in how many YouTube channels there are.
How to apply
- Open YouTube Studio and go to the Earn tab. If you're not eligible for the lower tier yet, you can select Get notified there to get an email when you are (expanded YPP page).
- Accept the base terms.
- Link or create your AdSense for YouTube account.
- Wait for the review. The YPP overview says a decision usually comes in about a month, though it can take longer.
- Once approved, accept the module terms for each income type you want and turn on ads for your videos.
Reviewers look at the channel as a whole, not only your latest upload. Reused or repetitive content is the most common problem for faceless channels. If you use AI tools, the question is whether each video adds something original, which we cover in will YouTube demonetize AI faceless videos?
If you get rejected
The YPP overview gives two options after a first rejection:
- Appeal within 21 days, if you think the reviewers got it wrong.
- Keep uploading and reapply after 30 days, once you've fixed what the rejection pointed to.
After a second rejection, or if you've already reapplied, the wait goes up to 90 days. So it pays to clean up the channel before the first application: remove or rework videos that are mostly someone else's footage, and make sure titles describe what the video actually contains.
Staying in the program
Getting accepted is not permanent. The same Help page says YouTube may turn off monetization on channels that haven't uploaded a video or posted to the Posts tab in 6 months or more. Strikes and policy problems can also remove you. Keep uploading on a schedule you can hold.
That schedule is where most new channels stall. If editing time is the bottleneck, VidPuff turns a title into a long-form faceless video (script, narration, a visual per scene, music and captions) and lets you review and change each stage before it renders, so you can keep publishing while you build toward the thresholds.
FAQ
What is the YouTube Partner Program?
It's YouTube's program for paying creators. Accepted channels can earn from ads, memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks, Shopping and YouTube Premium, with YouTube keeping a share of each.
How many subscribers do you need for the YouTube Partner Program?
500 for the lower tier (with 3 recent uploads and 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views), or 1,000 for the full tier with ad revenue (with 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views). From February 1, 2027, new full-tier applicants need 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views.
How much does the YouTube Partner Program pay?
YouTube pays 55% of net ad revenue on long-form videos, 45% of your allocated share of the Shorts creator pool, and 70% of memberships and Supers. The dollar amount depends on your views and niche.
When does the YouTube Partner Program pay you?
Earnings go to your AdSense for YouTube account, and Google pays out once the balance reaches the payment threshold: $100 for accounts paid in US dollars. If you also have a separate AdSense account for a website, each one has to reach the threshold on its own (Google AdSense Help).
How long does YouTube Partner Program approval take?
YouTube says reviews usually take about a month. If you're rejected, you can appeal within 21 days or reapply after 30 days.
See how it works →