How Many Subscribers Do You Need to Monetize YouTube?
The YouTube Partner Program thresholds, checked against YouTube Help.
Aditya Challa1 min read
Summary
To earn ad revenue on YouTube you need 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days. YouTube also offers earlier access to some features, such as fan funding, at a lower threshold in many countries.
Full YouTube Partner Program thresholds
- 1,000 subscribers, and
- 4,000 qualified public watch hours in the last 12 months, or
- 10 million qualified public Shorts views in the last 90 days
Watch hours from Shorts in the Shorts feed do not count toward the 4,000-hour threshold.
Other requirements
You must live in an eligible country, follow YouTube's channel monetization policies, have two-step verification on your Google account, and link an AdSense account.
Lower tier for fan funding
In available regions, YouTube opens memberships, Super Thanks and similar features at a lower subscriber and activity threshold. Check the YouTube Help page for the current numbers in your country.
Sources
Lab evidence
What I found running this
Facts in this draft were checked on 12 Oct 2026 against the primary sources listed in the body (official docs, release schedules or Google/YouTube help pages). No benchmarks or timings were run, so the post makes no performance or measurement claims; dates are quoted as published by the maintainers, and any estimate is labelled as such.
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