YouTube doubles its Partner Program entry thresholds on February 1, and Shorts creators will need 10 million qualified views per 90 days to be paid
YouTube's Partner Program rewrite lands February 1, 2027: entry thresholds double for new applicants, Shorts payouts need 10 million qualified views every 90 days, and every monetizing channel must accept the updated terms by January 31, 2027.
The terms of the YouTube Partner Program change on February 1, 2027, and one deadline lands a day earlier: every monetizing channel has to review and accept the updated terms in YouTube Studio by January 31, 2027. A channel that misses that date stops earning from the affected features the next day. 1
YouTube announced the update on August 10, 2026. Several parts of the program move at once on February 1: Premium Lite expands to every country where Premium is sold, Shorts revenue sharing gains a minimum performance bar, and the entry thresholds for new applicants double on both tracks. 2
Which change reaches your channel
| Where you stand today | What February 1, 2027 changes | What to do before then |
|---|---|---|
| In YPP, earning from Shorts | The monthly Shorts Creator Pool and Premium payouts require 10 million qualified Shorts views in the trailing 90 days; long-form earnings continue through any gap 6 | Read your trailing 90 days in Analytics, then accept the updated terms by January 31, 2027 |
| In YPP, long-form only | Your status and revenue share stay as they are, and the new activity test applies to the channel 6 | Accept the updated terms by January 31, 2027 |
| Not in YPP yet, close to the current bar | The entry thresholds double for new applicants 6 | Compare your numbers against the bar now in force: 4,000 qualified watch hours or 10 million qualified Shorts views 7 |
| On fan funding or Shopping only | Fan funding and Shopping keep their current thresholds: 500 subscribers with 3,000 qualified watch hours or 3 million qualified Shorts views 6 | Accept the Commerce Product Module if you enabled fan funding before 2023 |
The floor under Shorts payouts
A channel needs at least 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to draw its share of Shorts ad revenue from the Creator Pool, and of YouTube Premium revenue, for that month. 36
The measurement window is the 90-day period ending on the 15th day of the month before the month being paid, so a January payout is settled on views counted through mid-December. 8
Qualified views are narrower than the public view count. A qualified Shorts view has to come from a public Short and be an engaged view, meaning the viewer stayed past the initial seconds, with loops excluded. 4 For payment, YouTube then removes the engaged views it finds ineligible: non-original Shorts, artificial or fake views, and views of Shorts that sit outside the advertiser-friendly guidelines. 8
Private, unlisted, deleted, and ad-served Shorts fall outside the count as well, along with long-form views and image posts that appear in the Shorts feed. 9
A channel that lands under 10 million stays in the Partner Program and keeps its long-form earnings, and Shorts revenue sharing resumes automatically once the trailing 90 days cross back above the floor. 6
A second Shorts change arrives with the floor. When an advertiser targets an ad at a group of five channels or fewer, those creators keep a direct 45% share of that placement, paid on top of their normal Creator Pool allocation. 68
Entry thresholds double for new applicants
New creators applying to YPP from February 1, 2027 will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, alongside the 1,000 subscribers that YouTube already requires. 6
| Track | Today | From February 1, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Long-form | 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months 7 | 1,000 subscribers with 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days 6 |
| Shorts | 1,000 subscribers with 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days 7 | 1,000 subscribers with 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days 6 |
Qualified watch hours come from public long-form videos, podcasts included, and from archived livestreams. Private, unlisted, deleted, and ad-served videos add nothing, and Shorts watch hours belong to the Shorts track. 9
Channels already in YPP keep their status; the doubled thresholds govern new applications. 610
Staying active becomes its own test
From the same date, a channel counts as active if it holds 1,000 qualified watch hours in the past 365 days, or 1 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, or has published two long-form videos or five Shorts in the last 90 days. YouTube says most channels in the program already clear this. 6
A channel that falls below all three gets a 90-day window to reach either 1,000 qualified watch hours or 1 million qualified Shorts views, and hitting one of those numbers keeps the channel in the program. 6
Premium Lite joins the pool
Premium Lite becomes available in every country where Premium is sold. It is the cheaper tier: most videos play without ads, while ads continue on music content, Shorts, and search. 5
Each subscription tier funds a creator pool from net subscription revenue: 60% for Premium Lite and 30% for regular Premium. From the pool, the revenue shares are the familiar ones: 55% to long-form watch time and 45% to Shorts. 10
Premium Lite earnings appear inside the existing YouTube Premium line in Analytics rather than as a separate line. 6 YouTube's own comparison is that partners earn more, on average, when a user signs up for Premium than when that user was watching ads, measured on 2026 performance. 10
What holds steady
Revenue shares hold at 55% of the pool for long-form and 45% for Shorts. Fan funding, YouTube Creator Partnerships, and YouTube Shopping keep their thresholds: 500 subscribers with 3,000 qualified watch hours in the last year, or 3 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. 610
What YouTube has yet to announce
For channels under the Shorts floor, YouTube says it is building other ways to earn: bonuses for YouTube Shopping, production credits for brand deals, and earnings boosts for cultural trend activations. 10 Eligibility rules, opt-in criteria, and start dates are unpublished; YouTube's page says eligible creators will get direct notifications as the programs launch. 6
The one action with a deadline
Accept the updated terms in YouTube Studio by January 31, 2027. Sign in, find the terms notification on the dashboard or in the Earn tab, and review each updated module: Watch Page Monetization, Shorts Monetization, and the Commerce Product Module where it applies. Creators can accept some or all of them. 6
A channel that skips the deadline keeps its place in YPP and stops earning from the features attached to the modules it leaves unaccepted, beginning February 1, 2027; accepting later restores access to them. 6
Two groups have a different route to the same deadline. Creators who enabled fan funding before 2023 move from the older Commerce Product Addendum to the current Commerce Product Module, with eligibility, product behaviour, and revenue share unchanged. 6 Channels inside a multi-channel network split by arrangement: the network accepts on behalf of owned-and-operated channels, and affiliate channels accept for themselves. 6
References
- 1YouTube Help: Changes to the YouTube Partner Program
support.google.com
- 2
- 3YouTube Help: YouTube Shorts monetization policies
support.google.com
- 4
- 5YouTube Help: Get a Premium Lite membership on YouTube
support.google.com
- 61|YouTube Help: Changes to the YouTube Partner Program
- 75|YouTube Help: YouTube Partner Program overview & eligibility
- 83|YouTube Help: YouTube Shorts monetization policies
- 94|YouTube blog: What are qualified watch hours and Shorts views for the YouTube Partner Program?
- 102|YouTube blog: New opportunities to earn and changes to the YouTube Partner Program
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