To earn ad revenue on YouTube in 2026 you need 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days. A lower tier for fan funding opens at 500 subscribers with 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views. Those are the numbers. The rest of this guide covers what counts toward them, the requirements that are not numbers, and the higher bar YouTube has announced for new applicants from 1 February 2027.
Every figure here comes from YouTube's own Help pages, checked on the date at the bottom of this article. If you want to know whether a channel you do not own has made it in, the YouTube monetization checker reads the public signals and tells you how confident it is.
What are the YouTube monetization requirements right now?
The Partner Program has two levels. The lower one unlocks ways for fans to pay you directly. The higher one unlocks ads and revenue sharing, which is what most people mean by "monetized".
| Fan funding and Shopping | Ads and revenue sharing | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscribers | 500 | 1,000 |
| Long-form route | 3,000 public watch hours in 12 months | 4,000 public watch hours in 12 months |
| Shorts route | 3 million public Shorts views in 90 days | 10 million public Shorts views in 90 days |
| What it unlocks | Channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks, Super Stickers, YouTube Shopping | Everything above, plus ad revenue on long-form and Shorts, and Premium revenue |
You need the subscriber count and one of the two routes. You never need both routes. A channel with 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours qualifies with zero Shorts views, and a Shorts-only channel with 10 million views qualifies with zero watch hours.
What counts as a public watch hour?
Only watch time on long-form videos that are set to public counts toward the 4,000 hours. YouTube's list of what does not count is specific:
- Private, unlisted or deleted videos
- Views from ad campaigns you paid for
- Time spent watching Shorts in the Shorts feed
- Unlisted or deleted livestreams, and livestreams not converted to a video afterwards
Public livestreams that stay up as videos do count, which is why a long stream can move the number quickly.
Do Shorts views count toward watch hours?
No. Shorts feed time is excluded from the 4,000-hour total, and watch hours are excluded from the 10 million Shorts view total. The two routes are separate ledgers. The common mistake is a channel that posts both, sits at 2,000 watch hours and 2 million Shorts views, and assumes the halves add up. They do not. Pick the route you are closer to and push that one.
For the Shorts route, only public Shorts viewed in the Shorts feed count. Private and unlisted Shorts, ad campaign views and image posts in the feed are excluded.
The requirements that are not numbers
Hitting the thresholds gets you an Apply button, not an approval. YouTube also requires that you:
- Follow the channel monetization policies, which include the Community Guidelines, advertiser-friendly guidelines and the rules on original content
- Live in a country or region where the Partner Program is available
- Have no active Community Guidelines strikes
- Have 2-Step Verification turned on for your Google account
- Have access to advanced features on YouTube
- Have one active AdSense for YouTube account linked to the channel, or set one up during the application
Most rejections come from point 1, not from the numbers. YouTube reviews whether the channel's content is original and whether a human would see the value you added. Reuploads, compilations with nothing added, and mass-produced videos that differ only slightly from one another are the usual reasons a channel that cleared every threshold is still turned down.
How long does YouTube take to approve monetization?
YouTube says a decision typically comes about one month after your channel is reviewed, and warns that delays happen. Applications are queued, so the clock starts when a reviewer gets to you, not when you press Apply. During busy periods creators report waits beyond a month. There is no way to speed it up; uploading more during the wait is fine, but nothing you do in Studio moves you up the queue.
What happens if you are rejected?
The rejection email names the policy that was applied. From there you have two options:
- Appeal within 21 days if you believe the decision was wrong. This is for cases where the stated reason does not match your content.
- Keep uploading original content and reapply after 30 days if the reason was fair and you have fixed it.
If it is not your first rejection, or you have already reapplied once, the wait before the next application is 90 days. If you had an active strike, you can apply once it expires or is successfully appealed.
What changes on 1 February 2027?
YouTube has announced a higher entry bar for new applicants from 1 February 2027:
| Until 31 January 2027 | From 1 February 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscribers | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Long-form route | 4,000 watch hours in 12 months | 8,000 watch hours in 365 days |
| Shorts route | 10 million Shorts views in 90 days | 20 million Shorts views in 90 days |
| Fan funding tier | 500 subs, 3,000 hours or 3M views | Unchanged |
Three things matter about this:
- Channels already in the Partner Program keep their status. The new thresholds apply to applications, not to members.
- An application that reaches YouTube before the deadline is judged against the current bar. If you are close to 4,000 hours, the months before February 2027 are the time to apply.
- Existing members must accept the updated terms in YouTube Studio by 31 January 2027 to keep earning from the affected features.
The same update adds an activity requirement. From 1 February 2027 a channel counts as active if, in the relevant window, it has 1,000 watch hours in 365 days, or 1 million Shorts views in 90 days, or has uploaded 2 long-form videos or 5 Shorts in 90 days. A channel that falls below gets 90 days to recover. Today the rule is looser: YouTube may switch off monetization on a channel with no uploads or posts for six months or more.
How to check your own progress
Open YouTube Studio, choose Earn in the left menu, and the page shows your subscriber count, watch hours and Shorts views against the thresholds, with a Notify me button that emails you when you qualify. Those are the only exact numbers; everything a third-party tool shows about your channel is an estimate built from public data.
How to check someone else's channel
Watch hours are private, so no outside tool can see whether another channel has crossed 4,000. What is public is the subscriber count (rounded by YouTube to three figures), the upload history, whether recent videos are marked made for kids, and whether ads are served on the watch pages of recent uploads.
The monetization checker reads those signals and returns a verdict with a confidence score. Ads on recent uploads is the strongest signal, because only Partner Program channels carry them. When YouTube serves the checker an ad-free page, which happens, the tool says the ad check was unavailable and rates its confidence lower rather than guessing.
Meeting the requirements is the start, not the payday
A channel that crosses 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours is typically earning a small amount per month, because the same views that got it there are now the views being monetized. What those views are worth depends on the audience's country, the niche and the share that are Shorts. Our guide to how much YouTube pays for 1,000 views explains the range, and the YouTube money calculator runs it on any channel.
Frequently asked questions
How much does YouTube pay after 1,000 subscribers?
Nothing for the subscribers themselves. Payment is per thousand monetized views, at an RPM that is usually between $0.50 and $4 for long-form video and much lower for Shorts. A channel just past the threshold, with a few thousand views a month, typically earns a few dollars to a few tens of dollars monthly. The subscriber count only decides whether you can apply.
Can I get monetized with Shorts only?
Yes. The Shorts route needs 1,000 subscribers and 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days, rising to 20 million for new applicants from 1 February 2027. You do not need any long-form watch hours.
Do private or unlisted videos count toward watch hours?
No. Only public long-form videos count. Setting a video to unlisted removes its future watch time from the total.
Are the requirements different in my country?
The thresholds are the same everywhere the Partner Program is available. What differs by country is the payout, because advertisers pay very different rates to reach different audiences.
Can I lose monetization after getting it?
Yes. Breaking the monetization policies removes it regardless of subscribers or hours, and YouTube may switch it off on channels with no uploads or posts for six months or more. From February 2027 the activity rule above applies instead.