YouTube, owned by Google, announced on Monday that it will increase the view and watch-time requirements new creators must meet to earn money from ads and subscriptions on the platform.
New requirements and start date
Beginning February 1, 2026, new creators will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past 12 months or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to start monetizing. Under the current rules, creators must have either 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year, or 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days.
YouTube said the update will not affect creators already in the YouTube Partner Program.
Shorts Creators Pool: maintenance threshold
YouTube also said creators must maintain 10 million Shorts views over a rolling 90-day period to earn from the Shorts Creators Pool. Channels that fall below this threshold will remain in the Partner Program and continue earning from long-form content; Shorts revenue will resume once the channel again surpasses 10 million views in a 90-day span.
Rationale and likely effects
The company framed the changes as a response to platform growth: YouTube said it now sees over 200 billion daily Shorts views and more than a billion hours of watch time on TV every day. Raising the thresholds makes it harder for creators—especially those focused on Shorts—to access and maintain monetization, because they will need to consistently attract larger audiences before earning revenue.
Premium Lite expansion and revenue split
In the same announcement, YouTube said it is expanding the lower-cost Premium Lite subscription to all countries where YouTube Premium is available. Subscription revenue is shared with creators based on member watch time and views: 55% goes to long-form video creators and 45% to Shorts creators.
YouTube noted that with additional subscribers, creators can expect higher earnings, stating that when a user signs up for Premium partners, on average, earn more than when the user watched ads. Premium Lite offers an ad-free experience on most videos, downloads for offline viewing, and background playback.
Industry context
YouTube is not the only social platform revising creator payments. Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X changed its payout guidelines to reward only original content. Earlier this year, Facebook launched a new monetization program intended to attract creators from TikTok and YouTube.
