New YouTube Partner Program applicants will need twice as many watch hours — or twice as many Shorts views — to share in ad revenue, starting February 1, 2027.

YouTube is raising the price of admission to its creator economy. On Monday, the platform announced that new applicants to the YouTube Partner Program will need 1,000 subscribers plus either 8,000 qualified public watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views over the past 90 days to unlock ad and YouTube Premium revenue sharing.

Both performance thresholds are exactly double the current requirements of 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views. The subscriber minimum stays at 1,000. Creators already in the program keep their access, though they must accept updated terms in YouTube Studio by January 31, 2027 to continue earning.

What Changes, And What Doesn't

The doubled thresholds apply only to the program's top tier — the one that shares advertising and subscription revenue. YouTube's lower tier, which unlocks fan funding tools like Super Thanks and channel memberships plus YouTube Shopping, remains unchanged at 500 subscribers, three public uploads in 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views.

Shorts creators face a separate new rule. Regardless of how a channel originally qualified, earning ad and subscription revenue from Shorts will now require a recurring 10 million qualified Shorts views over the trailing 90 days. Channels that dip below the mark stay in the program and keep earning on long-form content, with Shorts payouts resuming automatically once they cross the threshold again.

Existing partners also get ongoing activity requirements: at least 1,000 watch hours over the past year, 1 million Shorts views, or a minimum upload cadence of two long-form videos or five Shorts every 90 days.

The Wider Look: From Ad Splits To Incentives

YouTube says the higher bar reflects the platform's scale. Amjad Hanif, YouTube's VP of creator products, pointed to 200 billion daily Shorts views and more than a billion hours of daily watch time on TV screens as context for the updated benchmarks.

The company also says the change frees up resources for a different kind of support for smaller channels. Rather than relying on ad splits, YouTube plans milestone incentives for channels under 10 million views — including YouTube Shopping bonuses, brand deal rewards and trend-based boosts. It is simultaneously expanding Premium Lite, its cheaper ad-light subscription, to every country where Premium is available and says the additional subscribers should translate into higher per-creator earnings, since Premium viewers generate more revenue on average than ad-supported ones.

For marketers, the practical shift is this: the on-ramp for emerging creators is moving away from programmatic ad revenue and toward commerce and brand partnerships. A creator with 600 subscribers can still sell products and take memberships. What gets harder is the passive AdSense check — which was never large at that scale to begin with.

The Numbers Behind The Decision

The stakes are considerable. YouTube has paid out more than $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the past four years, a figure CEO Neal Mohan reiterated in his 2026 priorities letter . Roughly 5 million channels currently participate in the Partner Program, and Alphabet reported nearly $9.9 billion in YouTube ad revenue in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

Doubling the entry bar narrows the funnel into that revenue pool at precisely the moment the pool has never been bigger. For the creators grandfathered in, the announcement changes little. For everyone still climbing toward 4,000 watch hours this year, the finish line just moved to 8,000 — and the clock runs out February 1.