YouTube Raises Monetization Thresholds, Making It Harder for New Creators

YouTube has announced higher eligibility requirements for creators seeking to earn money from ads and subscriptions, effective February 1, 2027.

Under the new rules, creators will need 8,000 qualified watch hours within 12 months or 20 million qualified Shorts views within 90 days.

Currently, creators need 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours within 12 months or 10 million Shorts views within 90 days.

However, the changes will not affect creators already enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program.

The new requirements could make monetization more difficult, particularly for creators who rely heavily on YouTube Shorts.

Tightening Shorts Monetization Rules

Additionally, YouTube will require creators to maintain 10 million Shorts views within 90 days to earn money through the Shorts Creators Pool.

Channels that fall below the threshold will remain in the YouTube Partner Program.

Creators will also continue earning money from their long-form content even if they temporarily lose Shorts revenue.

However, YouTube will restore Shorts earnings once a channel reaches 10 million qualified views within another 90 days.

YouTube says the changes will help the platform keep pace with its rapidly growing audience. The company reports that users now generate more than 200 billion Shorts views every day.

Furthermore, viewers watch more than one billion hours of YouTube content on television every day. Consequently, creators may face greater pressure to consistently attract large audiences before they qualify for monetization.

Also Read: Ruto Announces Plan to Allocate 30% of Govt Advertisements to Content Creators 

YouTube Expands Premium Lite

Meanwhile, YouTube announced plans to expand its more affordable Premium Lite subscription to every country offering YouTube Premium.

Premium Lite provides an ad-free experience on most videos, alongside offline downloads and background playback.

Creators receive a share of Premium subscription revenue based on member watch time and views. YouTube allocates 55% of this revenue to long-form creators and 45% to Shorts creators.Also Read: How Abel Mutua, ‘Mkurugenzi,’ Rose From Dreamer to Screen Star

The company expects creators to benefit as more viewers subscribe to Premium Lite.

According to YouTube, partners generally earn more from Premium subscribers than from users who watch advertisements.

Meanwhile, YouTube is not the only platform changing its creator reward system. Over the weekend, X, owned by Elon Musk, revised its creator payout program to focus on original content.

Earlier this year, Facebook also launched a new monetization program targeting creators from TikTok and YouTube.

Therefore, creators face an increasingly competitive digital environment as major platforms continue changing their monetization rules.
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Being a content creator. Photo/ getty images