YouTube has announced that new creators will have to meet higher thresholds to start earning money from ads and subscriptions.

New eligibility thresholds:

• Subscribers: Remains at 1,000 subscribers for the full partner program (with lower tier fan-funding available at 500 subscribers).
• Long-form watch hours: Increasing from 4,000 to 8,000 public watch hours over the past 12 months.
• Shorts views: Increasing from 10 million to 20 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days (ad sharing on Shorts individually unlocks at 10 million views).

According to YouTube official blog, the change is going into effect starting February 1, 2027.

The Google-owned company says the update will not impact creators already in the YouTube Partner Program.