How to make money on YouTube: a step-by-step guide

To earn from YouTube itself, you join the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP). As of October 2026, the ads tier asks for 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 qualified watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. A lower tier, which opens memberships, Super Chat and similar tools, asks for 500 subscribers, 3 valid public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views. India is named on YouTube’s list of regions where the expanded programme is available. Affiliate links, sponsors and your own products need no YouTube minimum at all.

Nobody can tell you how long it takes, and YouTube doesn’t promise a timeline. The answer depends on your topic, how long people watch and how often you upload. What the same views pay also varies, because ad revenue depends on advertisers and viewers. Expect the first months to be about learning. These are the figures on YouTube’s help pages on 6 October 2026, and YouTube has announced higher entry thresholds for new applicants from 2027, covered in the last section.

Watch hours come from people who keep coming back, so choose a subject with a steady supply of questions: tutorials, recipes, exam preparation, repairs, product comparisons. Before you commit, search the topic on YouTube and look at how many videos exist, how recent they are and what they leave out. The questions still being asked in the comments of existing videos are your first three videos.

Pick a rhythm you could keep for a year. One 8-minute video a week is 52 videos a year, and a Short a day is 365. The watch-hour threshold looks back over 12 months, so a pace you can sustain beats a burst of 30 videos followed by silence.

Tip: Don’t chase the topic with the biggest view counts. Choose the one where you know something others get wrong, can keep making videos for a year, and can connect to something you sell or recommend.

YouTube counts only qualified watch hours and Shorts views, so read your progress in the Earn (monetisation) section of YouTube Studio instead of adding up your own totals. Menus change, but that section shows how close you are to each threshold.

Turn the targets into something you can plan around. 4,000 hours is 240,000 minutes. If the average viewer watches 5 minutes of a video, that is 48,000 views over the year, and at 2 minutes it is 120,000. The Shorts route is far larger: 10 million views in 90 days is about 111,000 views a day. For most new channels, long videos are the more realistic route to the ads tier. That Shorts figure is a very high bar, and one viewer who watches a whole tutorial adds more hours than a swipe past a Short.

Don’t buy shortcuts. Buying subscribers, views or watch hours breaks YouTube’s rules on fake engagement, and an active Community Guidelines strike keeps you out of the programme while it lasts.

Do these before you reach the numbers, because some take time. Besides the audience thresholds, YouTube’s eligibility page asks for:

• No active Community Guidelines strikes on the channel.
• 2-Step Verification switched on for your Google Account.
• Advanced features access on YouTube. You can check it in YouTube Studio (menus vary).
• One active AdSense for YouTube account, linked to the channel. YouTube asks you to set this up when you apply.
• Living in a country or region where the programme is available. India is named on the list.
• A channel that follows YouTube’s channel monetisation policies, covered below.

Use your real name and address, the way they appear on your bank account, so nothing needs correcting when payments start.

1. Open YouTube Studio and go to the Earn (monetisation) section once your numbers are in range.
2. Accept the Partner Programme terms and link or create your AdSense account.
3. Wait for the review. YouTube says it typically takes about a month.
4. If you are accepted, switch on the earning tools your tier opens. If you are rejected, you can appeal within 21 days of a first rejection or reapply after 30 days. After a later rejection, you wait 90 days to reapply.

A rejection is not the end. Use the wait to fix what a review would flag, and keep uploading. YouTube also says it may turn off monetisation for channels that don’t meet the programme’s activity requirements, so don’t let the channel go quiet once you are approved.

YouTube pays ad revenue through Google AdSense. These steps follow Google’s help pages as of 6 October 2026. Check them again when you apply, because payment options differ by country and change.

1. Link your AdSense account when YouTube asks, using your real name and an address you can verify.
2. Verify your address. Google asks for this once your earnings reach US$10 or the local equivalent, and payments can’t be made until you do.
3. Add tax information if Google asks. Its AdSense page says tax information is required depending on your location.
4. Add a payment method once your balance reaches the payment method selection threshold, which is lower than the payment threshold.
5. Choose wire transfer. For India, Google’s table lists it as the only method, with no cheque and no EFT. Your bank, or its branch, must be in the same country or region as the address in your payment settings, and the payment currency can’t be changed.
6. Wait for the payment threshold. AdSense pays when your balance reaches it and your account has no holds. Google’s page lists thresholds by currency, with US$100 for dollars, and when we checked it showed no rupee figure, so read the threshold in your own account.

This is general information only. How YouTube income is treated for income tax and GST depends on your situation, so ask a chartered accountant, and see our income tax guide for creators for the general picture.

Fan funding at the lower tier

Memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks, Jewels and gifts, and Shopping features open at the lower tier. They pay when viewers choose to give, so they follow loyalty more than reach. A small channel with regular viewers, such as students following one teacher, can do better with them than a larger channel of one-off visitors. Each tool has its own extra rules, so read its Help page before you plan around it.

Affiliate links and sponsors

Neither needs the programme. Put affiliate links in the description, join retailer or brand programmes directly, and say on screen and in the description when a link pays you. YouTube also has a setting in the video details for declaring paid promotion, so use it when a brand pays you or sends you the product. Sponsors buy a fit rather than raw views: a channel that reviews laptops for students is a clearer buy for a laptop brand than a general entertainment channel with ten times the views.

Your own products

A tutorial channel can sell the file it uses on screen, a recipe channel a meal-plan PDF, an exam-preparation channel its notes. Mention the product in the video where it solves the problem being shown, and link to it in the description. A payment link that accepts UPI keeps buying simple on a phone, and our guide to selling digital products in India covers delivery.

Getting in is only half of it. YouTube says breaking its channel monetisation policies may mean monetisation is suspended or permanently disabled, on any or all of your accounts. A channel must follow the Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, copyright policies, AdSense programme policies and advertiser-friendly content guidelines, plus the Commerce Products policies for fan-funding tools.

Two parts of the policy matter most if your videos use other people’s material or follow a template. On 15 July 2025 YouTube renamed its “repetitious content” policy “inauthentic content”, to make clear it covers repetitive or mass-produced videos. It describes the problem as similar videos with low educational value, commentary or narrative and minimal variation, including AI-generated content built on generic templates with no original insight. The other part is reused content. These are YouTube’s own examples:

The policy page doesn’t single out faceless channels, and a voiceover channel isn’t a problem in itself. The test is whether each video adds something of your own.

On 10 August 2026 YouTube published a post on changes to the Partner Programme. It says new creators applying will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. That is double the figures in the table above. It adds that new programme terms take effect on 1 February 2027, which creators can review and sign in YouTube Studio, and that from that date creators with 10 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days will be eligible for ads and subscription revenue sharing on Shorts.

The post doesn’t mention the subscriber minimums or the lower tier, so treat YouTube’s eligibility page as the rule until it says otherwise, and check it again before you apply. Describing how Premium subscription revenue is shared, the post says creators receive 55% for long-form videos and 45% for Shorts. For the ad revenue share that applies to you, read the programme terms in YouTube Studio.

Tip: If you already meet today’s thresholds, there is no reason to wait to apply. If you are still building, plan around the higher figures, since those are the ones YouTube has announced.