How to earn money from your videos

On January 16, 2018, we announced new eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program. Once a channel reaches 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers it will be reviewed to join the program.

This is part of an effort to strengthen our requirements for monetization so spammers, impersonators, and other bad actors can’t hurt our ecosystem or take advantage of creators, while continuing to reward those who make our platform great. Get more details on the YouTube Creator Blog.

The YouTube Partner Program lets creators monetize their content on YouTube. Creators can earn money from advertisements served on their videos and from YouTube Premium subscribers watching their content.

You must complete the 4 steps below before you can earn money from your videos. Learn about eligibility and the program threshold.

Set up your channel to earn money

Updated July 3, 2018: We’ve finished reviewing all eligible applications that were submitted before June 1, 2018. You should have received an email from us with details on the status of your application. If not, you can expect an email over the next few days. You can also find more about your status on the Monetization Page in Creator Studio.

There are some channels we reviewed that we’d like to look at more closely before accepting at this time. Once we have more information to ensure they comply with our policies, we’ll send another update directly to these channels.

Step 1: Read and agree to the YouTube Partner Program terms

Sign in to YouTube.
In the top right, select your account icon > Creator Studio.
In the left menu, select Channel > Status and features.
Under "Monetization," click Enable.
Follow the on-screen steps to accept the YouTube Partner Program Terms.

Step 2: Sign up for AdSense

Create a new AdSense account or connect an existing one to your channel. You need an AdSense account to earn money from your videos and get paid. Follow these steps to set up an AdSense account.

In order to receive payments, you need to log into your AdSense account and ensure you have resolved any payment holds. Once any holds are resolved, you'll be paid when your earnings reach your local payment threshold (as long as monetization is not suspended for your channel and you're in compliance with our policies).

Step 3: Set monetization preferences

Set what types of ads you want to run on your videos and automatically turn on monetization for all your existing and future videos.

When you set this up, you will start earning money as soon as your channel is approved.

Confirm you want to monetize for all your existing and future videos.
Check the boxes under Ads formats to choose the types of ads you want to show.
Click Save.

You can always change these setting in your monetization default so that every upload is automatically monetized or not monetized, or choose the specific videos you want to monetize.

Step 4: Get reviewed

Once your channel meets the program threshold, we'll review your application to make sure your channel activity adheres to the YouTube Partner Program policies, YouTube Terms of Service, and our Community Guidelines. We'll let you know as soon as the process is complete.

If you don't have enough views for a review yet, keep making original content and growing your audience.

This view count threshold gives us enough information to determine the validity of a channel. It also allows us to confirm if a channel is following our community guidelines and advertiser policies.

Get pro tips on earning money on YouTube through advertising.