Yes. YouTube Shorts have carried ad revenue sharing since February 2023. To earn from them a channel must be in the YouTube Partner Program and must accept the Shorts Monetization Module in YouTube Studio. The usual way in for a Shorts channel is 1,000 subscribers and 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days, though a channel that qualified through long-form watch hours earns from its Shorts too.
What surprises most creators is not whether Shorts can be monetized but how the money is worked out. Shorts are not paid per video like long-form. The revenue is pooled and shared. This guide explains the rules as YouTube publishes them; our separate article covers how much Shorts actually pay.
What are the Shorts monetization requirements?
Two routes lead to the same Partner Program, and either one monetizes your Shorts:
| Route | Subscribers | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Shorts | 1,000 | 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days |
| Long-form | 1,000 | 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months |
Then, inside the Partner Program, you accept the Shorts Monetization Module. Shorts views from before you accept it do not earn; sharing starts from the acceptance date.
A lower tier at 500 subscribers and 3 million Shorts views unlocks fan funding (memberships, Super Thanks, Super Chat) and Shopping, but not ad revenue. The full list of YouTube monetization requirements, including the rules that are not numbers, is in our main guide.
Which Shorts views count?
Only views of public Shorts in the Shorts feed. Excluded:
- Private, unlisted or deleted Shorts
- Views from paid ad campaigns
- Image posts shown in the feed
- Views that YouTube judges artificial, such as bot plays or automated scrolling
Time spent watching Shorts in the feed also does not count toward long-form watch hours. The two thresholds are separate, and progress on one never transfers to the other.
How does Shorts ad revenue sharing work?
Ads in the Shorts feed run between Shorts, not inside any one video, so YouTube cannot attribute an ad to a creator. Instead, each month:
- Ad revenue from the Shorts feed is pooled. YouTube calls this the Creator Pool.
- Music licensing is paid from it first. A Short with no music sends all of its associated revenue to the pool. A Short with one licensed track sends half; with two tracks, a third. The rest goes to the music rights holders.
- The pool is divided by share of engaged views, country by country. If your Shorts had 1% of the engaged views in a country, you are allocated 1% of that country's pool.
- You keep 45% of your allocation. YouTube keeps 55%. Using music does not change your 45%; it changes how much reached the pool in step 2.
YouTube's own worked example: $100,000 of feed ad revenue, 20% of Shorts using one track, and a creator with 1% of engaged views. The creator is allocated $900 and is paid $405.
Premium revenue works the same way: creators receive 45% of the net Premium revenue allocated to their Shorts views.
Which Shorts cannot be monetized?
Being in the Partner Program does not make every Short eligible. YouTube excludes:
- Non-original Shorts: unedited clips from films or TV, reuploads of other creators' work, and compilations with nothing original added
- Artificial views from bots, click farms or auto-scrolling
- Shorts that break the advertiser-friendly guidelines
- Shorts longer than one minute that carry a content claim, which are blocked from monetization
The first one is where most rejections and demonetizations come from. If you narrate, edit, react with substance or build something new on top of a clip, that is original. A clip with a caption is not.
Why does a Short earn so much less than a long video?
Because of steps 2 to 4 above. A long-form view carries its own ad and the creator keeps 55% of that ad's revenue. A Shorts view is one of an enormous number sharing one pool, after music is paid, at 45%. Two videos with identical view counts can therefore differ in revenue by ten times or more. This is why we do not publish a "Shorts RPM" figure: it is a fraction of long-form RPM that moves with your music use and your audience's countries. How much YouTube pays for Shorts goes through the arithmetic.
What changes for Shorts in February 2027?
YouTube's announced update, effective 1 February 2027, changes three things for Shorts:
| Until 31 January 2027 | From 1 February 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Shorts route for new applicants | 10 million views in 90 days | 20 million views in 90 days |
| Earning from the Creator Pool each month | Partner Program membership | 10 million qualified Shorts views in the previous 90 days |
| Targeted Shorts ads | Pooled | Ads targeted at 5 or fewer channels pay a direct 45% share, on top of the pool |
Channels already in the program keep their membership, and missing the Shorts threshold does not affect long-form earnings. To keep earning from the affected features you must accept the updated terms in Studio by 31 January 2027.
How to tell whether a Shorts channel is monetized
Your own channel: open YouTube Studio, choose Earn, and the page shows your Shorts views against the threshold.
Someone else's channel is harder, and here the honest answer matters. Feed ads are not attached to a video, so there is no watch page to inspect for ad placements the way there is with long-form. The monetization checker therefore leans on the public eligibility signals for a Shorts-only channel (subscribers, upload activity, made-for-kids status) and reports lower confidence than it would for a channel with long-form uploads it can check for ads. A tool that gives you a confident yes or no for a Shorts-only channel is guessing.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need 4,000 watch hours to monetize Shorts?
No. The Shorts route needs 1,000 subscribers and 10 million public Shorts views in 90 days, with no watch-hour requirement. Watch hours are the alternative route, not an extra one.
Does using music stop a Short being monetized?
No. The Short still earns, but part of its revenue goes to the rights holder before the pool is shared: half with one track, two thirds with two. Your own audio keeps the whole amount in the pool.
Can Shorts over 60 seconds be monetized?
Shorts up to three minutes are eligible, with one exception YouTube states: a Short over one minute that carries a content claim is blocked from monetization.
Do Shorts views count toward the 4,000 watch hours?
No. Shorts feed time is excluded from watch hours, and watch hours are excluded from the Shorts view count.
How much do monetized Shorts pay?
A small fraction of long-form per view, because of the shared pool and the 45% share. Our Shorts earnings guide explains the range and the YouTube money calculator estimates it for any channel.
By Nasir Uddin, founder of Passive Array. Rules and figures checked Oct 26, 2026.