YouTube Is Making It Harder for New Creators to Start Earning Money
YouTube is doubling the requirements for new creators to begin earning money from their videos, the platform announced on August 10, 2026. Starting February 1, 2027, creators who want to join YouTube's Partner Program — the system that pays creators a share of ad and subscription money — will need at least 8,000 hours of people watching their videos over the previous year, or 20 million views on their short videos (called Shorts) within a 90-day period (TechCrunch).
Under the old rules, creators needed 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 watch hours over the past year or 10 million Shorts views over the past 90 days. The subscriber requirement was not mentioned in the new announcement. Both the watch-hour and Shorts-view numbers have been doubled (TechCrunch).
Creators who are already in the Partner Program will not be affected. The new, tougher requirements apply only to people who apply on or after February 1, 2027 (TechCrunch; Mashable).
YouTube said the changes are meant to keep pace with how much the platform has grown. The company now sees more than 200 billion Shorts views every day and more than a billion hours of watch time on TV screens daily (TechCrunch).
At the same time, YouTube expanded its Premium Lite subscription to all countries where its full Premium service is available. Premium Lite is a cheaper option that removes ads but does not include all the features of the full Premium plan. Creators get a share of that subscription money — 55% goes to creators of regular-length videos and 45% goes to Shorts creators (TechCrunch).
Think of it like a toll road. YouTube is raising the toll for new drivers to get on, while also widening the road for the people already driving. The cheaper Premium Lite plan could bring in more subscription money overall, which gets shared with creators who are already in the program. But new creators face a longer wait before they can earn anything at all.
In my view, YouTube is making a calculated trade-off. The higher requirements could filter out low-quality channels that post copied or repetitive content just to earn a quick dollar. But they also make things harder for genuine new creators who now have to put in more time and effort before seeing any income from their work.
The good news for current creators is that they keep their existing access, and the expansion of Premium Lite could mean more subscription money coming their way. Whether that actually happens depends on how many people sign up for the cheaper plan — something YouTube has not yet shared.
The February 1, 2027 start date gives new creators about six months to reach the current, lower requirements before the bar goes up. For anyone working toward that goal right now, that six-month window is what matters most.
YouTube's announcement was also covered by Tubefilter on August 10, 2026, confirming the reporting across multiple outlets (Tubefilter). The original announcement appeared on YouTube's official blog (YouTube Blog).
