To meet YouTube's monetization requirements, your channel must follow the channel monetization policies, you must live in a country where the YouTube Partner Program runs, the channel must have no active Community Guidelines strikes, and your account needs 2-Step Verification, advanced features and an AdSense for YouTube account. Then the channel has to reach an audience threshold: YouTube's eligibility page sets the ads tier at 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, and a lower fan funding tier opens at 500 subscribers in the countries on the expanded program list.
Those numbers are where most guides stop, but they are entry conditions, not a pass. Every eligible channel still goes through a review, several requirements have nothing to do with audience size, and some features stay closed in particular countries. This guide sets out each requirement as YouTube's help pages state it, shows where to check it in YouTube Studio, and flags the change for new applicants that is already scheduled.
The tiers at a glance
The table separates the thresholds that apply today from the ones YouTube has announced. Each row links the page that states it, because the figures appear on different help pages and are not always worded the same way.
| Tier | Audience threshold | What it gives you | Where to check in Studio | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fan funding tier (expanded program, listed countries only) | 500 subscribers and 3 public uploads in the last 90 days, plus 3,000 qualified long-form watch hours in the last 365 days or 3 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days | Channel memberships, Super Chat and Super Stickers, Super Thanks and Shopping | Earn tab, where Get notified sends an email once you qualify | Choose how you want to monetize |
| Ads tier, current rule | 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days | Watch Page ads, Shorts Feed ads and YouTube Premium revenue, as well as the fan funding features | Earn tab for eligibility; Analytics for watch time and engaged views | Partner Program overview and eligibility |
| Ads tier for new applicants from 1 February 2027 | 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days | The same ads and Premium revenue as today; channels already in the program are not affected | Earn tab once the change takes effect | Changes to the YouTube Partner Program |
| Monthly Shorts earning condition from 1 February 2027 | 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days | That month's share of the Shorts Creator Pool and Shorts Premium revenue | Analytics, engaged views on your Shorts | Shorts monetization policies |
The two dated rows matter if you are still building toward the ads tier. Our explainer on the YouTube monetization changes for new and existing partners covers who the new numbers apply to, the deadline for accepting updated terms, and what remains unclear.
Requirements that have nothing to do with audience size
These conditions are checked before or during review, and a channel with a large audience can still fail any of them.
- Policies. The channel monetization policies expect original, authentic content and cover reused content, repetitive or template-like content and creator conduct on and off YouTube. Compliance is part of the partner agreement, not a one-off test.
- Location. You must live in a country or region on the Partner Program availability list, which also notes that creators in Russia cannot complete new sign-ups.
- No active strikes. The eligibility page says a channel with active Community Guidelines strikes can apply once they expire or after a successful appeal, and that members already in the program are not removed for receiving a strike.
- Account security. 2-Step Verification must be on for the Google Account, a requirement listed on the eligibility page.
- Advanced features. YouTube's feature access page says established channels usually qualify through their history, and that you can verify with a valid ID or a video if you want access straight away.
- Payments. You need one active AdSense for YouTube account linked to the channel, created from inside YouTube Studio if you do not already have one; duplicate accounts under the same payee name are not approved.
- Age. For ad revenue, the earning requirements page says you must be at least 18, or have a legal guardian over 18 who handles payments through AdSense for YouTube, and the fan funding features list 18 as a minimum age.
- Feature rules. Some features exclude channels set as made for kids, and memberships and Super Thanks exclude certain music channels, so meeting a tier does not open every feature in it.
What counts toward the thresholds
Only qualified activity counts. The eligibility page counts watch hours from long-form videos you have set to public and excludes private, unlisted and deleted videos, ad campaigns, Shorts, and live streams that were unlisted, deleted or never converted to a regular video. Shorts views count only from public Shorts in the Shorts Feed, and image posts that appear in that feed are excluded.
Paid promotion is the trap most creators miss. YouTube's Promote help page says watch hours and subscribers gained through ad campaigns do not count toward the thresholds and that only organic subscribers are counted, although organic Follow-on Views after an Audience Growth promotion do count. Separately, YouTube's content performance page says that from 24 August 2026 Analytics counts a view the moment a video starts playing, while eligibility is still measured in qualified views and qualified watch hours, so the public view count is not your progress bar.
If watch hours are your gap, our guide on how to earn and track qualified watch hours includes a tracker that separates counted from excluded sources and an audit for finding the videos that carry your watch time.
What the subscriber milestone does and does not pay
On its own, reaching 1,000 subscribers pays nothing, because YouTube does not pay per subscriber: its partner earnings overview describes earnings as shares of advertising revenue and of revenue from features such as memberships and Premium, and says the partner agreement makes no promise about how much, or whether, you will be paid.
The milestone is one half of the ads tier. You still need the watch-hour or Shorts-view figure, a successful review and the accepted module terms before any ad revenue is shared. Until then, the eligibility page explains that YouTube may still show ads on your videos under its Terms of Service without paying you a share.
After you join, what you receive depends on revenue generated on your content, not on the subscriber count. Subscribers help only because they watch, and the published shares, such as the 55% of net Watch Page ad revenue in the earnings overview, apply to whatever that viewing earns. Any page that converts subscribers into a fixed dollar amount is guessing. For the full list of streams and how each one switches on, see our map of how to make money on YouTube.
Region caveats
- The Partner Program itself is limited to the countries and regions on its availability page.
- The fan funding tier is only offered in the countries on the expanded Partner Program page, a list that currently includes Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Elsewhere, entry starts at the ads tier.
- Individual features can be missing even inside an eligible country. The earning requirements page warns that some features may be unavailable because of local legal requirements.
- The Shopping affiliate program has its own short country list on the affiliate program page, and Australia and the United Kingdom are not on it.
- Memberships, Supers and gifts each publish a separate availability list, so check the feature page rather than assuming the tier covers you.
Application readiness checklist
- Review the channel the way reviewers do. The monetization policies say they may focus on your main theme, most viewed videos, newest videos, the videos with the biggest share of watch time, video metadata and the About section.
- Fix or remove videos built mainly on other people's material with little added commentary or editing, because the reused content rule applies to the channel as a whole.
- Confirm you live in an eligible country and, for the fan funding tier, that your country is on the expanded list.
- Check for active Community Guidelines strikes; YouTube's strike basics page says each strike expires 90 days after it was issued.
- Turn on 2-Step Verification, which the eligibility page lists as a requirement, and confirm advanced features in YouTube Studio.
- Find out whether you already hold an AdSense or AdSense for YouTube account before creating one. The AdSense set-up page suggests searching your inbox for mail from adsense-noreply@google.com.
- Make sure the person who will hold the AdSense account meets the age rule, or that a parent or guardian will.
- Open the Earn tab, confirm which threshold you meet and select Get notified if you are not there yet.
- Once you apply, leave video privacy settings alone and do not delete videos, which the eligibility page says can affect your application.
- If you are near the current ads threshold, weigh the rise for new applicants on 1 February 2027 set out on the changes page.
- Plan for the review period. Our guide to how long YouTube monetization takes lists each stage and what each Studio status means.
- Know your options if the answer is no: our page on what to do when YouTube monetization is rejected compares appealing with reapplying.
Where YouTube's own pages disagree
The fan funding tier is described in slightly different words across YouTube's pages. The help centre's monetization page asks for 3 public uploads in the last 90 days, YouTube's creator site says 3 qualified uploads, and the changes page describes the same tier by subscribers, watch hours and Shorts views without mentioning uploads at all.
The main eligibility page is also written for channels outside the expanded program, so it describes only the ads tier, and it measures watch hours over 12 months where the monetization page says 365 days. None of these differences changes the substance, but they explain why third-party summaries disagree. When they do, treat the Earn tab for your own channel as the final word, because it applies whichever rule YouTube has set for your country.
Limitations of these requirements
This guide reflects YouTube's help pages as they read on 1 October 2026. Meeting every requirement makes a channel eligible to be reviewed, not certain to be accepted: the review looks at the channel as a whole against policies that involve judgment, and YouTube keeps checking channels after they join. Country lists and feature rules change, and the update already announced shows that thresholds do too.
The guide does not estimate earnings, because YouTube publishes no fixed rate per subscriber or per view and income depends on audience, content and region. It also does not replace the terms you accept in YouTube Studio, which govern your channel. If anything here conflicts with what Studio shows you, follow Studio, and contact Creator Support once you are in the program.