YouTube has announced the biggest change to its Partner Program in years, and if you are a small creator the details matter more than the headlines. The new rules start on 1 February 2027, which sounds far away. It is closer than it looks if you are planning to apply, or if you are already earning and need to do something before January ends.
Here is what YouTube has actually said, in plain terms, and what to do about it.
What is changing on 1 February 2027
YouTube announced the changes on 10 August 2026 in its official blog post. The main points:
Higher entry bar for new creators. To join the Partner Program, you will need 1,000 subscribers (unchanged) plus either 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. The previous thresholds were 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views, so the bar is roughly double.
Existing members are not affected by the new entry thresholds. But you have a task to do, covered below.
Shorts revenue sharing gets its own bar. From 1 February, you need 10 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days to earn from Shorts ads and subscription revenue.
If you are already in the Partner Program
According to YouTube's help page on the changes, existing members must accept the updated terms in YouTube Studio by 31 January 2027. If you don't, your monetisation features stop generating revenue from 1 February, although your place in the program is not removed and you can regain access by accepting later.
The easiest fix is dull but effective: put a reminder in your calendar for December, and accept the terms as soon as they appear in Studio.
The help page also lists what keeps a channel counted as active. Meeting any one of these is enough:
1,000 qualified watch hours in the past 365 days
1 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days
2 long-form videos or 5 Shorts uploaded every 90 days
Inactive channels have a 90-day window to be restored.
What the Shorts threshold means in practice
Missing the 10 million Shorts view mark does not take you out of the Partner Program, and it does not affect earnings from long-form videos, according to YouTube's help page. It only means that Shorts stop paying you until you cross the line again.
For a small channel, this changes what Shorts are for. Short videos can still bring in viewers, subscribers and search visibility, but they should not be the only income plan unless you are getting close to that threshold.
If you are not in yet
You have two clear options.
Work out where you stand now. Open the monetisation tab in YouTube Studio and note your subscribers, watch hours and Shorts views. The new thresholds apply from 1 February 2027, so confirm in Studio which criteria apply to you at the time you apply.
Plan for the higher bar if you are far away. If you are a few hundred hours from the old threshold, the next few months matter. If you are far from either, treat 8,000 hours as your real target and build a schedule around it.
Whichever route you take, be wary of any service that promises to "guarantee" subscribers or watch hours. The thresholds are about qualified, real watch time, so read YouTube's policies before paying anyone for growth.
One change that is not about money
SocialPilot's roundup of August and September updates notes that public views on YouTube now count from the first frame, with no minimum watch time. View counts will rise faster, but the report says monetisation eligibility is unchanged. That means a higher view count is not a sign that you are closer to the Partner Program requirements.
A simple plan for the next four months
October: check your numbers in Studio and decide whether you are aiming at watch hours, Shorts views or both.
November and December: publish on a schedule you can keep, and look at which videos bring the most watch time, not just the most views.
December: if you are already a partner, accept the new terms in YouTube Studio.
Whole period: build somewhere else people can find you, such as a newsletter or a community, so your income does not depend on one platform's rules.
Thresholds are as published by YouTube on 10 August 2026 and may be updated, so check YouTube's help page for the latest.