On 10 August 2026 the YouTube Team posted the first large Partner Program change since 2018. From 1 February 2027, Shorts ad and subscription pay goes to channels with 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. A channel under that line stays in the program and keeps long-form pay. Shorts pay starts again once the channel crosses 10 million views again. The post names no country.
What changes for Shorts money on 1 February 2027?
The source is New opportunities to earn and changes to the YouTube Partner Program, by the YouTube Team, dated 10 August 2026. More than 3 million creators are in the program. YouTube expects to pay creators more in 2027 than in 2026.
From 1 February 2027, a creator needs 10 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days to stay eligible for ads and subscription revenue sharing on Shorts. Channels below that line remain in the Partner Program and keep earning on long-form video. Shorts revenue sharing resumes on its own once they cross 10 million views again. Creators who already earn significant Shorts revenue are unlikely to be impacted, YouTube says.
The Help Center page Changes to the YouTube Partner Program puts the same bar on a monthly clock. To earn from the Shorts Creator Pool that month, keep 10 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days. Missing it does not remove the channel from the program, and it does not touch other Partner Program earnings, including long-form video.
Under 10 million, YouTube is adding incentive programs so earning is not only the ad pool. The blog names bonuses for YouTube Shopping, incentives for brand deals, and earnings boosts for starting and growing trends, and says details are coming. The Help page calls the brand-deal piece production credits, and the trend piece earnings boosts for cultural trend activations. Eligible creators get a direct opt-in notice when a program opens. Neither page publishes an amount or a milestone list. This article does not invent them.
A separate Help-page line, not the 10 million pool: if an advertiser targets an ad to five or fewer channels, an eligible creator can earn a direct 45 percent share on those placements, on top of the Shorts Creator Pool.
Which views actually count toward 10 million?
On 12 August 2026, YouTube Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie posted What are qualified watch hours and Shorts views for the YouTube Partner Program?. Qualified Shorts views come from public Shorts, and they are engaged views. An engaged view means the viewer stayed past the initial seconds. Loops do not count. The per-video number is in YouTube Analytics.
What does not count: private Shorts, unlisted Shorts, deleted Shorts, Shorts viewed as an ad, long-form video views, and image posts in the Shorts feed. A raw view total on the Shorts shelf is a different number.
Qualified watch hours, used by the other bars in this package, come from public long-form videos, including podcasts, or from archived livestreams. They leave out private, unlisted, and deleted videos, videos watched as an ad, Shorts watch time, and livestreams that are not archived.
Does a current partner face the new entry test?
No. The blog says the entry update will not impact creators already in the Partner Program. New applicants for ads and Premium revenue sharing need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Fan Funding and shopping entry thresholds stay as they are.
The Help page adds the subscriber figure the blog sentence skips: new applicants still need 1,000 subscribers, plus the 8,000 hours or the 20 million Shorts views. A channel already in the program keeps its status.
The earlier door is unchanged, and the numbers are on the Help page. Fan funding, YouTube Creator Partnerships, and YouTube Shopping still open at 500 subscribers and either 3,000 qualified watch hours in the last year or 3 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. A channel can already earn from memberships or shopping and still sit under the 10 million Shorts line.
Activity is a third test, and the bar is lower. From 1 February 2027 a channel is active with any one of these: 1,000 qualified watch hours in the past 365 days, 1 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days, or 2 long-form videos or 5 Shorts uploaded every 90 days. Drop below that and there is a 90-day window to hit either 1,000 hours or 1 million Shorts views and stay in the program. YouTube says most partners already clear this. One million Shorts views can count as active and still sit under the line that pays the Shorts pool.
What has to be accepted before 31 January 2027?
The blog says creators review and sign the new terms in YouTube Studio, effective 1 February 2027. The Help page names the cutoff. Accept the updated terms by 31 January 2027 to keep earning from the features those terms cover. Leave them unsigned and, from 1 February, earnings from those features stop. The channel stays in the Partner Program. Signing later turns the features back on. Signing or refusing does not change program status.
The modules are the Watch Page Monetization Module, the Shorts Monetization Module, and, where it applies, the Commerce Product Module. A creator can accept some or all. YouTube asks for all of them if the creator wants the full set of earnings. In Studio, on desktop or mobile, open the terms notice on the dashboard or the Earn tab, review each module, check the box, choose Next, and Submit at the end.
Creators who turned on channel memberships or Super Chat before 2023 may still be on an older Commerce Product Addendum. YouTube is moving everyone to the current Commerce Product Module. The Help page says this does not change eligibility, how the products work, or the revenue share. That module also has to be accepted by 31 January 2027, or those earnings stop on 1 February.
Networks need their own reading. For an owned-and-operated channel, the managing network accepts by 31 January 2027. For an affiliate channel, the network does not accept on that channel's behalf. The affiliate accepts in its own Studio. Miss the date and those feature earnings stop on 1 February. Accept later and they can come back.
What does a Jakarta channel do with a rule that names no country?
Neither page gives Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, or the Philippines a different date. Read it as the same date for a channel in Jakarta as for a channel anywhere else the Partner Program already pays.
Keep three numbers apart. The Shorts pool needs 10 million qualified views in 90 days, or Shorts ad and subscription sharing pauses until the channel crosses that line again. Long-form pay continues, and program membership continues. The new entry test, 8,000 hours or 20 million Shorts views, is only for people not in the program yet. The Studio signature has its own clock: accept the modules by 31 January 2027, or the earnings on the unsigned modules stop on 1 February even when the view count is fine.
The same blog expands Premium Lite to every country where YouTube Premium is already sold. Creators share a pool set at 30 percent of net subscription revenue for Premium and 60 percent for Premium Lite. From that distribution they receive 55 percent on long-form and 45 percent on Shorts. When a viewer signs up for Premium, partners on average earn more than when that viewer was watching ads, based on 2026 performance. The post prints no country list, so this piece does not announce a Premium Lite date for Indonesia. The scale figures in the post, over 200 billion daily Shorts views and over a billion hours of TV watch time every day, are global.
On this Shorts line alone, a channel under 10 million does not lose the Partner badge, Super Chat, memberships, or long-form ads. Shopping and brand-deal incentives have no published rates yet. The Shorts ranking change from 1 October 2026, already on this site, is a recommendation change from a different post. This one is the money line.