What are the YouTube Partner Program thresholds and how is Shorts ad revenue shared, including the change announced for February 2027?

YouTube Help (captured 2026-10-23): YPP ad-revenue eligibility requires 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 qualified public watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days; Shorts-feed watch hours do not count toward the 4,000 hours; monetization is lost on policy violations regardless of counts. Shorts revenue: creators must accept the Shorts Monetization Module (only views after acceptance count); Shorts Feed ad revenue is pooled monthly, part pays music licensing (a Short with one music track sends half its view-associated revenue to music partners; no music = all to the Creator Pool), the Creator Pool is allocated by each creator's share of eligible engaged views per country, and creators keep 45% of their allocation. Ineligible views include non-original Shorts (unedited clips of films/TV, reuploads, compilations without original content), bot views, and non-advertiser-friendly content; Shorts over one minute containing claimed content are blocked. New: starting February 1, 2027, earning a monthly Creator Pool share will require at least 10 million qualified Shorts views in the trailing 90 days (measured to the 15th of the preceding month) - a materially higher bar for small Shorts creators. Ties to originality rules (C3-B335-01) and Mikkel's Shorts strategy (C3-B348-01). Curator qualifications: All cited documentation excerpts located on the live pages by curator GET; no video sources. Provider documentation as served 2026-10-23; models, limits and prices change without notice. Limitations: Expanded YPP (fan-funding tier) thresholds not captured; country availability not covered. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

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