How To Make Money on YouTube 2026

Making money on YouTube has become one of the most realistic ways to earn from content you enjoy making. The platform reaches more than 2.5 billion viewers, and the amount it pays creators has grown every year for over a decade. Metricool’s 2026 Social Media Study backs that up, finding that average views per YouTube video climbed 30% year over year, from about 16,587 to 21,587, with comments up 7%. That doesn’t mean money lands in your account the day you upload your first video, but the way to get there is clearer than it used to be.

This guide covers how YouTube monetization works in 2026, what you need to qualify, the main ways creators earn, and what you can realistically expect to make. Maybe YouTube is a side project for you, or maybe you’re working toward going full time. Either way, here’s how to get paid for your videos.

How YouTube Monetization Works

Most YouTube earnings flow through the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Joining gives you access to monetization features, dedicated creator support, content detection tools, and creator education. You don’t get paid just for uploading. You have to apply, get accepted, and follow YouTube’s monetization policies on every video.

The big change in recent years is that YouTube now has two entry points instead of one. A lower tier lets newer creators start earning through fan funding and shopping features sooner, and a higher tier unlocks ad revenue and YouTube Premium revenue once you’ve built a bigger audience. That means you can start making money well before you hit the old 1,000-subscriber milestone.

Ad revenue isn’t the only way to earn, either. Many of the highest earners combine several income streams, including memberships, merchandise, sponsorships, and affiliate links. We’ll walk through all of them below.

YouTube Partner Program Eligibility in 2026

Before you look at subscriber counts, your channel needs to meet a few baseline requirements:

• Be in good standing with YouTube and follow all monetization policies
• Live in a country or region where the YouTube Partner Program is available
• Have no active Community Guidelines strikes
• Turn on two-step verification for your Google Account
• Have access to advanced features on YouTube
• Have an active AdSense for YouTube account linked to your channel, or be ready to set one up in YouTube Studio

Once those are in place, you can apply at one of two tiers.

Tier 1: Early Access to Fan Funding and Shopping

This is the lower bar, and it’s a good target for newer channels. You’ll need:

• 500 subscribers
• 3 public uploads in the past 90 days
• Either 3,000 public watch hours on long-form videos (past 365 days) or 3 million public Shorts views (past 90 days)

At this tier you can earn through channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks, gifts, and YouTube Shopping. You won’t get a share of ad revenue yet, but these fan-funding features can add up.

Tier 2: Full Monetization with Ad Revenue

This is the threshold most people picture when they think about getting monetized. You’ll need:

• 1,000 subscribers
• Either 4,000 public watch hours on long-form videos (past 365 days) or 10 million public Shorts views (past 90 days)

Hitting this tier unlocks everything in Tier 1 plus a share of ad revenue and YouTube Premium revenue.

A couple of things worth knowing. Watch hours from Shorts don’t count toward the 4,000-hour requirement, so Shorts and long-form are two separate paths and you only need to meet one. And meeting the numbers doesn’t guarantee approval. YouTube reviews your whole channel for policy compliance, and it’s been cracking down on inauthentic or low-effort content, so original work matters.

How to Apply to the YouTube Partner Program

When your channel qualifies, you can apply from a desktop computer or the YouTube Studio mobile app, and it takes only a few minutes:

1. Sign in to YouTube and open YouTube Studio.
2. In the left menu, click Earn.
3. Select Apply now to get started.
4. Click Start to review and accept the base terms.
5. Click Start to set up an AdSense for YouTube account, or link an existing active one.

Once you’ve applied, you’ll see an “In progress” status in the “Be reviewed” step, which means YouTube has received your application. Reviews usually take anywhere from a few days to about a month, and you’ll get an email when there’s a decision. If your application is rejected, it’s usually because your channel doesn’t meet YouTube’s policies or community guidelines, and you can reapply 30 days after you’re notified.

8 Ways to Make Money on YouTube

1. Earn Ad Revenue from Your Videos

For most creators in the full tier, ads are the simplest place to start. When you turn on monetization for a long-form video, YouTube shows viewers a mix of pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads, some skippable and some not. You can’t choose the specific ads, but for videos eight minutes or longer you can decide whether to include mid-roll ads.

On standard long-form videos, creators keep 55% of the ad revenue and YouTube takes 45%. You can track earnings in the Revenue tab of YouTube Studio. One thing to keep in mind: you’re paid on monetized views rather than total views. A viewer generally has to click an ad or watch enough of a video ad for it to count, so your earnings can come in lower than a raw view count suggests.

To run ads you also need to be at least 18, or have a legal guardian over 18 who can manage your AdSense payments, and your content has to meet YouTube’s advertiser-friendly guidelines. Topics like graphic violence, drugs, and adult content won’t have ads placed against them.

The full tier also includes YouTube Premium revenue. Premium is a paid subscription that gives viewers ad-free, offline-capable playback, and when a Premium subscriber watches your videos, you earn a share of their subscription fee based on how much of your content they watch. You don’t have to subscribe or pay anything yourself to earn from it.

2. Monetize YouTube Shorts

Short-form video has become a revenue stream of its own, on top of helping new viewers find your channel. The Shorts feed pulls in billions of daily views, and YouTube shares ad revenue from that feed with creators.

The Shorts model works differently from long-form. Ad revenue from the Shorts feed is pooled, then split between a creator pool and a music licensing fund depending on whether you used music. Your share depends on how many Shorts views you contributed in your region. After the split, creators receive 45% of eligible Shorts earnings.

Per-view rates for Shorts are lower than long-form, often just a few cents per thousand views, and they vary a lot by country. The upside is reach. A single Short can find a huge audience with very little extra work, especially if you clip moments from your longer videos. Shorts are great for growing an audience quickly, and long-form videos tend to be the stronger choice if your goal is steady income.

Metricool’s 2026 Social Media Study shows the trade-off. Shorts still pull the widest reach, which makes them good for finding new viewers, but their growth has slowed, with views up just 5% year over year and interactions and likes both down more than a third. Long-form videos grew the most in 2025: views rose 41% and engagement climbed across every type, including comments and likes. Since the watch hours and community that long-form builds are what carry you toward steadier earnings, a mix works best. Use Shorts to bring people in, and long-form to keep them watching.

3. Channel Memberships and Fan Funding

Fan funding lets your most dedicated viewers support you directly, and it’s available at the lower 500-subscriber tier.

Channel memberships let fans pay a recurring monthly fee for perks you set up across as many as six tiers. Common perks include custom badges and emoji, members-only posts and videos, early access to uploads, and members-only live chats. You control the price and what each level includes.

Alongside memberships, the Supers features let viewers pay in the moment. Super Chat and Super Stickers highlight a fan’s message or animation during a live stream, and Super Thanks lets viewers tip on a regular video or Short. Viewers choose how much to spend, usually anywhere from about $1 up to $500, and creators keep around 70% before taxes. The more you engage with the fans who use these, the more others tend to join in.

Most fan-funding features ask you to be at least 18, and the Supers are available in countries where the feature has rolled out, so double-check your region before you count on them.

If you’d rather build a funding base outside YouTube, platforms like Patreon, Ko-fi, and Buy Me a Coffee work well for recurring support, often with lower fees.

4. Sell Products and Merchandise

YouTube Shopping lets eligible creators sell directly from their content. You can open a storefront on your channel, connect an existing online store, and tag your own products (or products from other brands) in videos, Shorts, and live streams.

Merch works best when it fits your channel. A cooking creator selling kitchenware makes sense, while music-themed apparel would confuse the audience. If you don’t want to hold inventory, print-on-demand services handle production and shipping per order, which keeps your risk low while you test what sells. You can even poll your audience to find out what they’d actually buy.

5. Try Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the least restrictive ways to earn, which makes it a strong fit for newer channels and anyone making review or tutorial content. You join a brand’s affiliate program, get a unique tracking link, and earn a commission when a viewer clicks through and buys.

Popular programs include Amazon Associates, plus networks like Awin, ClickBank, ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, and Rakuten. You can also check whether your favorite brands run their own programs. Add your links to video descriptions, pinned comments, or end cards, and always disclose the affiliate relationship clearly.

The thing that matters most is relevance. Promote products your audience would genuinely use, and stay inside your niche. A woodworking channel recommending a trampoline out of nowhere just erodes trust.

6. Get Brand Deals and Sponsored Content

As your audience grows, brands may pay you to feature their products, or you can pitch them yourself. Deals can take the form of a flat fee, commission per sale, free product, or a mix.

A common way to set a baseline rate is to look at the typical view count on your videos and multiply by a per-view figure, often somewhere between 5 and 15 cents per view, then adjust based on your niche and audience quality. When you pitch a brand, lead with your subscriber count, average views, audience demographics, and a specific collaboration idea that helps them.

Two rules keep sponsorships working: only endorse products you actually believe in, and always disclose paid partnerships by ticking the box in your video details. YouTube’s built-in BrandConnect tool and platforms like Shopify Collabs can help match you with sponsors. BrandConnect uses data about your channel to surface brands that fit your audience, then leaves it to you to reach out and build the relationship.

7. Crowdfund Your Projects

When a bigger idea needs funding before it can happen, crowdfunding lets your audience and community chip in. Platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe suit one-off projects, while a recurring model fits ongoing support.

People back projects they’re excited about, so a short pitch video that shows what you’re making and what their support unlocks goes a long way. Reward tiers like early access, exclusive content, shoutouts, or merch give backers a reason to give more.

8. License Your Content

If a video takes off, news outlets, morning shows, and other creators may want to use it, and they’ll pay a fee for the rights. To make this easy, put a clear business contact email in your channel description and on your site. You can also list clips in a video rights marketplace like Jukin Media, where media buyers can find and license your content directly.

Making Money on YouTube without Going on Camera

You can earn well without ever showing your face. These faceless channels rely on screen recordings, voiceovers, stock footage, animation, or audio, and every monetization method above still applies to them. A faceless channel can hit the Partner Program thresholds and earn from ads, affiliate links, memberships, and shopping the same way any other channel does.

Formats that work well without you on screen include:

• Tutorials and how-to videos built from screen recordings, with a voiceover walking through the steps
• Top-10 lists, explainers, and educational deep dives narrated over visuals or simple graphics
• Product reviews and roundups that pair on-screen footage with affiliate links
• Relaxation and audio content like ambient sounds, white noise, meditation tracks, or ASMR
• Gaming videos and livestreams, where the gameplay is the focus and your voice carries the commentary
• Podcasts posted as long-form video, which double as Shorts once you clip the highlights

One word of caution worth taking seriously in 2026: faceless can’t mean low-effort. YouTube has tightened its rules around inauthentic content and is cracking down on AI-generated spam, recycled clips, and lazy compilations. If you’re building on other people’s footage or AI tools, you need to add real value through your own commentary, editing, or perspective. Original, useful content gets monetized, while mass-produced filler doesn’t.

How Much You Can Make on YouTube

This is the question everyone asks, and the honest answer is that it varies widely. Earnings depend on your niche, your audience’s location, ad demand, content format, and which monetization methods you use. A few useful benchmarks from across the industry:

• Per 1,000 views: estimates commonly fall between $2 and $10 in RPM (revenue per thousand views) for long-form content, though figures from $1 to $30 show up depending on the source and niche. Shorts pay far less per view, often just a few cents. As a reference point, one analysis put the 2024 average RPM at roughly $3 for long-form videos and about 5 cents for Shorts.
• CPM: what advertisers pay to reach a thousand viewers sits roughly in the $15 to $30 range, but remember YouTube keeps its share and you’re paid only on monetized views.
• Niche matters: categories like finance, tech, and education tend to attract higher advertiser rates than broad entertainment, and money-focused content such as affiliate marketing or side-hustle videos often sits at the top of that range, with CPMs of $20 or more.

Views on their own don’t equal revenue. If a video gets thousands of views but nobody engages with the ads, you won’t earn from those views, which is why a video’s earnings can look very different from its view count.

At the top end, the best-known creators reportedly pull in tens of millions of dollars a year. Those numbers grab headlines, but they’re outliers, and almost all of them come from a mix of ads, merchandise, sponsorships, and outside ventures rather than ad revenue alone. Plenty of mid-sized creators with engaged niche audiences earn a solid living, and many more make useful side income. YouTube pays off over time, so it helps to plan for months of steady work rather than a fast result.

Tips to Grow Your YouTube Revenue Faster

Once you understand the ways to earn, a few habits help the money come sooner.

Know your audience. Your demographics, watch time, and the keywords people use to find you all live in YouTube Analytics, and the better you understand who’s watching, the better you can serve them and the more appealing you become to brands.

Pick a focused niche. A clear topic attracts viewers who subscribe and keep coming back, and it makes your channel an easy match for sponsors targeting that audience.

Stay consistent. A predictable upload schedule, weekly or biweekly, keeps viewers engaged and signals to YouTube that your channel is active. Consistency also gets you to the watch-hour threshold faster, and it’s more achievable than you might think. One way to protect that cadence is to schedule your videos and Shorts ahead of time in Metricool, so a busy week doesn’t turn into a gap on your channel. Metricool’s 2026 Social Media Study found that YouTube’s barrier to entry is lower than its reputation suggests, with creators posting 170% more content per week than on TikTok and 34% more than on Instagram. If you want a starting point for timing, the same study points to Tuesday around midday as YouTube’s busiest posting window.

Repurpose into Shorts. Clip highlights and single tips from your long-form videos into Shorts, which widens your reach and adds a revenue stream with very little extra work.

Diversify your income. Relying only on ads is risky, since demonetization can cut earnings overnight, so combining ads with memberships, merch, affiliate links, and sponsorships builds a steadier creator business that depends less on the algorithm.

Promote beyond YouTube. Share clips and links on Instagram, TikTok, and your other channels to send new viewers back to your videos. Planning all of that from one place keeps a cross-platform schedule manageable, which is where a tool like Metricool helps: you can draft, schedule, and publish to YouTube and your other platforms from the same calendar.

Start Earning on YouTube

Making money on YouTube takes real effort, but the steps are clear. Build an audience, apply to the Partner Program at 500 subscribers to unlock fan funding and shopping, then reach the 1,000-subscriber tier to add ad revenue. From there, add the methods that fit your content and your viewers.

Focus on what you can control: a niche you care about, content worth watching, and a steady schedule. That last part is where Metricool fits in. You can plan and schedule your videos and Shorts ahead of time, manage YouTube alongside your other platforms, and keep an eye on what’s actually earning, including views, watch time, and revenue per video, all in one place. It’s the kind of setup that turns a scattered posting habit into a routine you can keep.

Create a free Metricool account and start planning your YouTube content with more calm and less guesswork.