YouTube is set to launch its new YouTube monetization policy for potential partners who wish to become part of the Partner Program. These new requirements will come into force on February 1, 2027, and will make joining this program much more difficult for those interested in earning from ads and Premium revenue.
What's Actually Changing
The new policy states that those creators who wish to get into YouTube’s Partner Program, which generates income from ads and Premium, should meet one of the two benchmarks: 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days.
It is necessary to mention that the new benchmarks apply exclusively to creators joining the Partner Program after its introduction. The creators who are already members of YouTube’s Partner Program should not be concerned about the changes.
Why YouTube Is Making This Move
As per the explanation of YouTube on this update, the reason for doing so is to identify the real creators on the platform better, while also considering the size of the platform. Just to understand the magnitude, as per YouTube, there are over 200 billion Shorts viewed and over 1 billion hours of TV-format viewed every single day on YouTube.
Considering these figures, it would be pertinent to state that the importance of the new rules cannot be ignored. This update is actually the biggest update since 2018, in terms of the criteria of the eligibility for the program.
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New Rules for Shorts Creators Too
However, this is not where it ends for creators; they will also be required to sustain a total of 10 million Shorts views per every 90 days period in order to keep on receiving revenue from the Shorts Creator Revenue Pool.
YouTube has provided a safeguard for creators on this one though; those who do not meet this requirement will not lose access to the Partner Program altogether but will be able to keep earning revenue off their long-form videos. Monetization through Shorts will not be permanently halted though and will resume automatically when the view requirement is met.
What Stays the Same
But not everything is changing. YouTube announced that qualification for Fan Funding and shopping tools will be the same as they have been today and that nothing will change because of this update. What is more, the company expects to pay more to the content creators in 2027 compared to 2026, which means that this is a move aimed at raising the bar.
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