YouTube is rolling out new rules for its eligibility criteria for creators who want to join its Partner Program to get ads and YouTube Premium revenue.
The new rules will go into effect on February 1st, 2027, and will only be for creators who opt to join the program after that date.
New requirements call for creators to qualify for ad and Premium revenue with either 8,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 20 million Shorts views in the past 90 days.
The new eligibility thresholds will not impact existing YouTube Partner Program members.
The move comes as YouTube continues to grow rapidly and aims to better reward the platform’s active creators, the platform said.
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Presently, the company claims to have over 200 billion views of Shorts daily, and people watch over 1 billion hours of television daily.
The modifications are the biggest update to the eligibility guidelines for the Partner Program since 2018.
YouTube also has a new requirement for creators who make money on the Shorts Creator Revenue Pool.
To keep earning revenue, Channels will have to reach 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.
Creators who don’t meet the criteria will not be disqualified from the Partner Program and will still make money from long-form content.
If they reach the minimum viewing level again, monetisation of Shorts will be re-enabled.
Eligibility for Fan Funding and shopping features will stay the same in the meantime. YouTube also predicts that creators will be paid more in total in 2027 than in 2026.
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