How Many Subscribers Do You Need to Make Money on YouTube?

• Creators who are part of the YouTube Partner Program can monetize their videos with ads.
• To join the YouTube Partner Program, creators must have a set of long-form or short-form video statistics.
• The creators explained how they started making money on YouTube.

YouTube creators don’t need hundreds of thousands of subscribers to start making money or turn their business into a lucrative side hustle.

A creator must be a member of the YouTube Partner Program to benefit from the platform’s monetization features. To start making money directly on YouTube, creators must reach a threshold of 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 watch hours in the past year or 3 million views of YouTube short films in the last 90 days. Once accepted, eligible creators can earn through features like channel memberships, Super Chats, Super Stickers, Super Thanks, and the ability to promote their products with YouTube Shopping.

For AdSense, to start making money from YouTube, creators must have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year. This qualifies them to get a share of ad revenue from their videos.

In 2023, in place of the short film fund, YouTube also began sharing revenue from short-form ads with creators.

Amanda Wan, who had 8,500 YouTube subscribers when she spoke with Business Insider, said she had been filming longer videos — between 10 and 15 minutes — to help meet the required watch hours.

Find out how much money 28 YouTubers make per month

The most common way for creators to make money directly on YouTube is through ads placed on Google.

Even small creators can benefit from it. Jen Lauren, a creator who had 5,000 subscribers on YouTube when she spoke with BI, said that in one month her channel made $349 from ads. (Learn more about how Lauren makes money as a nano-influencer.)

YouTube creator Shelby Church told BI that she likes to include four ads on a single video longer than 10 minutes, which helps increase her monthly revenue. (Here’s everything she earned from a video with 1 million views.)

Some of the different types of ads you can include in your YouTube video are:

• Show ads, which appear in the upper right corner of your video, above the list of suggested videos.
• Superimposed ads, which appear as a banner at the bottom of your video.
• Bumper ads, are non-skippable ads that must be viewed by a viewer before your video. These ads are six seconds or less.
• Sponsored cards, which display relevant video content on the right side of your video.
• Mid-roll ads, which can be placed in videos longer than 10 minutes. These may or may not be skippable ads. A creator can decide whether they want mid-roll ads to be automatically generated by YouTube or placed manually.

Once these ads start making money, the creator will receive a check in the mail from YouTube after earning at least $100.

“I think my first paycheck was about $124,” said Zoe Pritchard, who had 23,000 followers when she spoke with BI. “I was so excited. I went and bought a ring light with it.”

Creators who make money on YouTube should also keep in mind that they will have to pay taxes on any income they make from the platform.

So, how much money do creators make on YouTube?

For 1,000 ad views, advertisers pay YouTube a certain rate (CPM). For long-form videos, YouTube takes 45% and the creator gets the rest. YouTube’s central monetization metric is called revenue per thousand (RPM), which indicates the amount of revenue a creator earns per 1,000 views after YouTube removes them. Certain topics, like personal finance, can increase a creator’s publicity rate by attracting a lucrative audience.

Find out how much money 8 YouTubers make per 1,000 views

For payment for short films, YouTube first pools ad revenue on short films, then pays an undisclosed amount to record labels for music licensing, and creators receive 45% of the remaining money based on their percentage of total short film views on the platform.

BI spoke to six creators to find out how much they were paid for short films during the first month of ad revenue sharing.

Here’s how much these 6 YouTubers made in the first month of the short film monetization program

Overall, BI spoke with dozens of YouTube creators, ranging from fewer than 5,000 subscribers to more than 9 million, about how much they make.

Here’s our coverage of how much YouTuber creators earn monthly:

• Nas Daily, an education creator with 9 million subscribers
• Ali Abdaal, creator of productivity and entrepreneurship with 3.6 million subscribers
• Tiffany Ma, a lifestyle designer with 1.8 million subscribers
• Andrei Jikh has 1.7 million subscribers and films videos about cryptocurrency
• Nate O’Brien, a personal finance creator with 1 million subscribers
• Manny Ortiz, a photography creator with 663,000 subscribers
• Kelly Stamps, a minimalist lifestyle designer with 600,000 followers
• Bloo, a VTube channel with 504,000 subscribers
• Charlie Chang, a personal finance creator with 350,000 subscribers
• Joshua Mayo, a personal finance creator with 270,000 followers
• Charli Prangley, a web and graphic design creator with 200,000 subscribers
• Erin Winters, a business creator with 200,000 subscribers
• SemideCoco, an ASMR creator with 150,000 subscribers
• Levi Hildebrand, a zero waste creator with 125,000 subscribers
• Kelsey Rodriguez, a YouTube painter with 100,000 subscribers
• Sarah Lavender, an ASMR creator with 100,000 subscribers
• Chloe Tan, a university life creator with 80,000 subscribers
• Kelly Anne Smith, a personal finance creator with 50,000 followers
• Macy Schmidt, a lifestyle designer with 50,000 subscribers
• Marissa Lyda, personal finance creator with 50,000 followers
• Erica Boucher, creator with a DIY candle making line with 31,000 followers
• Aisha Beau Frisbey, a lifestyle designer with 30,000 subscribers
• Jake Tilk, an entrepreneurship YouTuber with 18,000 subscribers
• Meghan Pruitt, a university influencer with 6,800 subscribers
• Jen Lauren, a nano-influencer with 5,000 subscribers

This story has been updated to include new details and coverage.