YouTube Shorts Monetization in 2027: The 10 Million Views Rule Explained

What changes on 1 February 2027

Three changes matter most for Shorts creators on 1 February 2027. Missing the new Shorts line pauses Shorts earnings only: “you will not be removed from YPP and this will not impact other YPP earnings, including long-form video.”

• A monthly view floor for Shorts revenue. YouTube’s changes page says: “To earn each month from the Shorts Creator Pool, creators will now need to maintain 10M qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days.”
• A higher bar to join. New applicants need 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. “If you are already in YPP, your status is not impacted by this update.”
• New terms to accept. Channels in YPP must accept updated terms in YouTube Studio by 31 January 2027, or “you’ll stop earning from the associated monetization features beginning February 1, 2027.”

Two things stay the same. Creators still keep 45% of the Shorts revenue allocated to them, and the 500-subscriber tier for fan funding and Shopping keeps its thresholds.

Today versus from 1 February 2027

The biggest change is a monthly test. Today any YPP channel that accepts the Shorts terms earns from its Shorts. From February, it also has to clear 10 million qualified views in each 90-day window.

Sources: YPP overview, Choose how you want to monetize, Shorts monetization policies and Changes to the YouTube Partner Program, all YouTube Help, read 25 October 2026.

YouTube’s changes page also says it is expanding Premium Lite to every country with YouTube Premium. Creators share a pool of 60% of Premium Lite’s net revenue, against 30% for Premium. YouTube’s blog post adds that creators receive 55% of what that pool allocates for long-form videos and 45% for Shorts. The Shorts share sits under the same 10 million rule.

How the 90-day count works

YouTube checks the line once a month, over a fixed window. Its Shorts monetization page says views “will be measured against this threshold over the 90 day period ending on the 15th day of the calendar month preceding the month for which earnings are being calculated.”

By our arithmetic, counting the 15th as the last day, February 2027 earnings depend on views from 18 October 2026 to 15 January 2027. So the views that decide the first month under the new rule are already being counted.

YouTube doesn’t say whether the 15th itself falls inside the window, so allow a day either way. Our reading: the rule counts views that happen inside the window, so an older Short still getting views in those 90 days helps too.

What counts as a qualified Shorts view

Our reading of YouTube’s pages: a qualified Shorts view is an engaged view of a public Short in the Shorts Feed, minus views YouTube rules ineligible. Four rules build that definition.

• Public, in the Shorts Feed. The YPP page counts “Qualified views from Shorts you’ve set public that appear in the Shorts Feed”. Views of private, unlisted or deleted Shorts, ad campaigns and Image Posts don’t count.
• Engaged views only. Since 31 March 2025 a Shorts view counts every start or replay. YouTube kept the older measure as engaged views, and says YPP eligibility and Shorts revenue sharing “will both be based on ‘Engaged Shorts views.’” (Get started creating Shorts).
• Watched past the first seconds. YouTube’s blog (19 August 2026) defines an engaged view as “clicking to watch or watching past the initial seconds”. It adds: “This has been, and will continue to be, how you qualify to earn (as long as the content is also public).”
• No paid views. “Views and watch time generated from paid ad campaigns don’t count toward thresholds for YouTube Partner Program eligibility” (monetization tiers page).

Views YouTube won’t pay for

The Shorts monetization page lists examples of ineligible Shorts views:

• “Non-original Shorts, such as unedited clips from others’ movies or TV shows, reuploading other creators’ content from YouTube or other platform, or compilations with no original content added”
• “Artificial or fake views of Shorts, such as from automated click or scroll bots”
• Views of Shorts that break YouTube’s advertiser-friendly guidelines
• Blocked Shorts: “Shorts over one minute in length that contain claimed content are blocked and not eligible for monetization.”

The channel monetization policies go further. “Our reused content policy applies to your channel as a whole.” They also rule out “AI-generated content made with generic or unoriginal templates giving the impression of mass production without adding the creator’s original, authentic insights or perspective.” Allowed examples include “Reaction videos where you comment on the original video” and “Content that primarily features the uploading creator in the video”. Our ranking shorts guide applies these rules to countdowns and clip compilations.

How Shorts revenue sharing works

Shorts earn from a shared pool. Ads play between Shorts in the feed, so YouTube adds that revenue up and divides it by views. Its Shorts monetization page describes four steps.

1. Pool the ad revenue. Each month, revenue from ads between videos in the Shorts Feed is added together “and used to both reward creators and help cover costs of music licensing.”
2. Set the Creator Pool. A Short with no music puts all of its revenue in the Creator Pool. With one music track, half goes to the pool and half to music licensing. With two tracks, a third goes to the pool.
3. Split the pool by views. Each monetizing creator gets the same share of the pool as their share of eligible engaged views on monetizing creators’ Shorts, country by country.
4. Apply the revenue share. “Monetizing creators will keep 45% of their allocated revenue, regardless if music was used or not.”

YouTube’s own worked example, which it calls hypothetical. Country A has 100 million engaged Shorts views and $100,000 in Shorts Feed ad revenue. Because 20% of those Shorts use one music track, the Creator Pool is $90,000. A Short with 1 million engaged views gets 1% of the pool, $900, and its creator keeps 45%: $405.

Real pools change by country and month, and YouTube publishes no fixed rate per view. Using music doesn’t change your allocation from the pool, though music use across all Shorts shrinks the pool itself. Revenue tied to Shorts from channels that aren’t monetizing “will be used to cover the costs of music licensing and/or be retained by YouTube.”

YouTube Premium works in a similar way: YouTube pays “45% of the net revenue from YouTube Premium (including Premium Lite) that is allocated to monetizing creators for Shorts.” From February, both ad and Premium revenue from Shorts sit behind the 10 million line.

Who the 10 million rule affects

Reaching 10 million qualified views in 90 days takes an average of about 111,000 a day. Below, the same sum for each of YouTube’s view thresholds, then what it means per Short.

Invented channels, not real data. Totals are our arithmetic. Thresholds from YouTube Help, read 25 October 2026.

YouTube answers who is affected only in general: “Creators who already earn significant revenue from Shorts are unlikely to be impacted by these changes.” It has not published how many of its “over 3 million creators” in YPP fall below the line. By our reading of the rules, three groups feel it most:

• Long-form channels with Shorts on the side. Their long-form ads are untouched. Shorts pool earnings stop in any month their Shorts fall short.
• Shorts-first channels whose views have dropped since they joined. Joining took 10 million views in one 90-day stretch; earning will take that in every window.
• New Shorts creators. The Shorts path into YPP doubles to 20 million views in 90 days. The 500-subscriber tier stays at 3 million.

For wider context on what YouTube and other platforms pay, see our creator economy statistics.

What still pays below 10 million

A channel below 10 million loses Shorts pool earnings for that month and keeps everything else. YouTube’s monetization tiers page lists these YPP features, and its changes page says other YPP earnings are not affected:

• Long-form ads and Premium revenue on videos and live streams watched on the Watch Page.
• Channel memberships, monthly payments from fans for perks you offer.
• Super Chat and Super Stickers in live streams and Premieres, and Super Thanks on videos.
• Shopping, to promote your own products and products from other brands.
• YouTube Creator Partnerships, whose eligibility the changes page says is not changing.

Fan funding and Shopping open at a lower tier, which needs 500 subscribers, 3 public uploads in 90 days, and 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views. YouTube describes that tier as an expanded program offered country by country.

Announced, not yet detailed

YouTube’s blog post promises new incentive programs. In its words: “For channels below the 10 million view threshold, these initiatives introduce new ways to earn based on hitting certain milestones, like bonuses for YouTube Shopping, incentives for brand deals, and earnings boosts for starting and growing trends.” It adds: “We’ll share more details soon.” As of 25 October 2026 the changes page says eligible creators “will get direct notifications on how to opt-in as these programs launch.”

Targeted Shorts ads, aimed at 5 or fewer channels, pay “a direct 45% revenue share” to eligible creators. YouTube’s pages don’t say whether channels below 10 million can earn from them.

What to do before February

Steps that come from YouTube link to its pages. Where a step is our own suggestion, it says so.

1. Accept the new terms by 31 January 2027. YouTube’s steps: sign in to YouTube Studio, find the terms notification on the dashboard or in the Earn tab, select Review for each updated module, tick the box and select Next, then Submit. Menus may differ by app version.
2. Find your 90-day number. YouTube Analytics has an Engaged views metric, and Advanced Mode lets you pick data and export it (Get started with YouTube Analytics). Our suggestion: set the range to the last 90 days and read engaged views on your Shorts. Treat that as a ceiling.
3. Log it on the 15th. Our suggestion: write down your 90-day total each week and on the 15th, the day each window closes, with the gap to 10 million. The tracker below has columns for both.
4. Keep every Short original. Reuploads, unedited clips and compilations with nothing added earn nothing, and YouTube judges reused content across the whole channel. Your face, voice and opinions are what its policy lists as allowed.
5. Check music on Shorts over a minute. Claimed content blocks monetization on those Shorts, according to the Shorts policies. Pass 5 of our Shorts editing guide covers music rights.
6. Don’t buy views to reach the line. Bot views are ineligible, and YouTube’s monetization tiers page says views from paid ad campaigns don’t count toward thresholds. Only the organic views a promoted video leads to afterwards count. YouTube’s creator integrity rule bans artificially inflating views.
7. Earn the first seconds. An engaged view needs viewers to stay past the initial seconds. Our view: the opening is where editing helps most. The retention guide shows how to measure one change at a time.
8. Know what still pays. Long-form earnings and the features above don’t depend on the Shorts line. If your 90-day total is far from 10 million, those are the parts of YPP still open to you.

From February, uploading 5 Shorts every 90 days also keeps a channel counted as active in YPP, whatever its views.

Where EditorOP fits

EditorOP edits talking-head clips you filmed into a captioned vertical reel of up to 90 seconds that you can post as a Short. Its start screen also has Tier list and Wall of text formats. The footage, voice and opinions stay yours. It can’t change what YouTube counts or pays. See how the AI reel editor works.

YouTube Shorts monetization questions