YouTube Partner Program Requirements 2026: Everything You Need to Qualify

To join YPP in 2026, you need all of the following: (1) A minimum of 1,000 subscribers on your channel. (2) Either 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months (for long-form video) OR 10 million valid Shorts views in the past 90 days. (3) An active AdSense account linked to your YouTube channel. (4) Compliance with YouTube's channel monetization policies (no active strikes, no spam or deceptive content). (5) Two-step verification enabled on your Google account. (6) Living in a country where YPP is available. Once all criteria are met, you can apply in YouTube Studio under Monetization.

There are two distinct paths to YPP in 2026. The long-form path requires 4,000 watch hours — roughly 240,000 minutes of total viewing time over 12 months. A channel averaging 10-minute videos needs about 24,000 views to hit this threshold. The Shorts path requires 10 million Shorts views in 90 days, which sounds harder but is achievable for creators whose content goes viral on Shorts. Most new creators without a viral hit will reach 4,000 watch hours faster via long-form content. Creators in entertainment, comedy, and trending niches may find the Shorts path faster if one video takes off.

Average time to YPP varies widely by niche and content quality: Fast (3-6 months) — high-demand niches (finance, tech, health), strong hook and SEO optimization, consistent weekly uploads. Average (6-12 months) — moderate-competition niches, improving content quality, 2-3 uploads per week. Slow (12-24 months) — entertainment or gaming without a breakout video, inconsistent uploads. The fastest path is to find a repeatable content format that gets above-average watch time (70%+ retention), post 3-4 long-form videos per week, and optimize titles and thumbnails for click-through rate.

Once in YPP, YouTube's revenue share in 2026 is: 55% to the creator and 45% to YouTube for long-form ad revenue. For YouTube Shorts, creators receive 45% of the Shorts ad revenue pool allocated to their content (YouTube keeps 55%). This Shorts revenue share is lower than long-form because the Shorts ad pool is shared across all monetized Shorts content proportionally. For most creators, long-form videos earn significantly more per view than Shorts — typically 5-20x more RPM. Shorts are better as a growth funnel than a primary monetization vehicle for most creators.