YouTube Raises Monetization Thresholds, Puts Pressure on Creators

New creators will now need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days to start earning money on YouTube.

YouTube announced the changes on Monday, stating that the update won't affect creators already in the YouTube Partner Program. The new thresholds aim to keep pace with the growth of YouTube, which now sees over 200 billion daily Shorts views and over a billion hours of watch time on TV every day.

The changes make it harder for creators to enter and remain in YouTube's monetization program, especially for Shorts creators. By increasing thresholds, YouTube is putting more pressure on creators' ability to consistently bring in large audiences before being able to earn money on the platform.

"keep pace with the growth of YouTube, which now sees over 200 billion daily Shorts views and over a billion hours of watch time on TV every day."

• The new thresholds will go into effect starting February 1.
• Creators will need to maintain 10 million Shorts views over a 90-day period to earn money through the Shorts Creators Pool.
• Channels below this threshold will remain in the partner program and continue earning on long-form content, with Shorts revenue resuming once they cross 10 million views again.

YouTube is also expanding its more affordable Premium Lite subscription to all countries where YouTube Premium is available. Creators receive a share of subscription revenue based on member watch time and views, with 55% going to long-form video creators and 45% to Shorts creators.

"With these additional subscribers, creators can expect higher earnings: when a user signs up for Premium, partners, on average, earn more than when the user was watching ads."

Premium Lite offers an ad-free experience on most videos, along with the ability to download videos for offline viewing and play videos in the background.

YouTube's move to raise monetization thresholds is not the only change in the creator rewards landscape. Social media company X has also revamped its creator payouts by changing its guidelines to only reward original content.