YouTube raises Partner Program and Shorts revenue thresholds from February 2027

YouTube announced on August 10, 2026 that from February 1, 2027 it will raise the bar to join the YouTube Partner Program and add a separate threshold for earning from Shorts. Channels already in the program are not removed, but Shorts revenue will depend on reaching 10 million qualified Shorts views every 90 days.

What changes on February 1, 2027

Below 10 million Shorts views, a channel stays in the Partner Program and keeps earning from long-form videos; only its Shorts revenue sharing pauses, and it resumes automatically once the channel is back above the threshold. For those channels, YouTube says it will add milestone-based incentives — YouTube Shopping bonuses, brand deal incentives and boosts for starting or growing trends — with details to come.

Who it affects

• Channels not yet in the program: the entry thresholds roughly double — 8,000 watch hours instead of today's 4,000, or 20 million Shorts views instead of 10 million.

• Members earning a small amount from Shorts: most exposed. A channel with a few hundred thousand Shorts views a month won't reach 10 million in 90 days, so its Shorts revenue share would pause.

• Members with significant Shorts revenue: YouTube says they are "unlikely to be impacted".

YouTube says the update "won't impact creators already in YPP" as far as entry thresholds go, and that it expects to pay creators more in 2027 than in 2026. New terms can be reviewed and signed in YouTube Studio and take effect February 1, 2027.

What to do

• Sign the new terms in YouTube Studio when they appear for your channel.

• Check your last 90 days of Shorts views in YouTube Studio analytics against the 10 million line. That tells you whether Shorts will keep paying from February.

• If you're below it, weigh long-form. Long-form revenue is unaffected, and its RPM is many times higher than Shorts — see how much YouTubers make and estimate yours with the YouTube earnings calculator.

• Keep Shorts as a discovery channel. A Short that sends viewers to long-form videos still pays off indirectly. The rules for what counts as a Short are in YouTube Shorts length and size.

Source and updates

This news is based on YouTube's own announcement, read on October 17, 2026. Some third-party summaries mention a January 31, 2027 deadline to accept the terms; YouTube's announcement doesn't state one, so we don't either. We'll update this article when YouTube publishes the details of the new incentives.