YouTube Is Raising the Bar to Get Paid — Here's What Changes in 2027
YouTube will raise the thresholds creators must hit to earn money through its YouTube Partner Program (YPP), effective February 1, 2027. New applicants will need 1,000 subscribers and either 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, according to The Verge. The current requirements are 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours in the past year or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.
Creators already in the YPP must accept YouTube's updated terms by January 31, 2027, to keep earning. Under the new rules, staying in the program requires ongoing activity: maintaining either 1,000 watch hours over the past year, 1 million Shorts views, or uploading two long-form videos or five Shorts every 90 days.
The 2027 update also changes how creators earn from the Shorts Creators Pool — the shared pot of ad revenue YouTube distributes to Shorts creators. To earn from the pool, creators will need to sustain 10 million Shorts views over 90 days. Falling below that number will not remove them from the YPP, which differs from the current policy that kicks creators out if they have not uploaded a video or posted to the Posts tab for six months.
Alongside the adjusted creator requirements, YouTube is expanding its cheaper Premium Lite subscription to every country where it offers full Premium. The platform splits subscription revenue to creators based on watch time and views, giving 55 percent to long-form video creators and 45 percent to Shorts creators. YouTube said creators can expect higher earnings from Premium signups, noting that partners on average earn more when a viewer subscribes to Premium than when that viewer was watching ads.
The changes arrive as YouTube builds out its position as a premium TV service alongside Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney Plus. In 2024, the platform struck deals to broadcast shows from creators like Trevor Noah, developing a content strategy that looks more like a traditional streaming network.
Raising the entry barrier while tightening ongoing activity requirements filters out low-effort, high-volume channel farming at the eligibility gate and pushes existing creators into a steadier upload cadence. The tiered maintenance thresholds for Shorts and long-form content acknowledge that keeping creators active requires some flexibility, though the 10 million Shorts views requirement for the Creators Pool is still a high bar for earning steady revenue.
The broader context here is a platform shifting its monetization mechanics toward a subscription-heavy future and away from pure ad-supported volume. Expanding Premium Lite gives viewers a lower-cost way to skip ads, which aligns with YouTube's push to compete with established premium TV services. As the revenue mix tilts toward subscription splits, creator incentives follow. In my view, the long-term stability of a platform that pays creators more per Premium subscriber than per ad view is a net positive, even if the immediate effect of higher eligibility thresholds narrows the field of monetized channels. Watching my own kids shift from passive, algorithm-driven Shorts consumption toward intentional, subscription-based viewing over the past few years, the consumer behavior YouTube is targeting is real. The platform is formalizing the economics to match.
