AdSense for YouTube

What is AdSense for YouTube?

AdSense for YouTube is the Google program through which creators in the YouTube Partner Program get paid. It holds your finalized YouTube earnings, stores your tax and payment details, and sends the money to your bank once the balance passes the payment threshold.

Why it matters

Without a linked AdSense for YouTube account a channel can earn but cannot be paid. Everything YouTube monetization brings in is settled through this account, and it also determines your tax withholding rate and how fast the money reaches you.

This is also the part creators most often outsource: a multi-channel network takes over the payout paperwork, the tax forms and the troubleshooting so the channel keeps earning while someone else deals with Google.

How to set up an AdSense for YouTube account

Create the account from inside YouTube Studio. An account opened on the AdSense homepage will not work: it gets disapproved and monetization is disabled for the channel.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.

2. In the left menu, select the Earn tab.

3. Click START on the “Sign-up for AdSense for YouTube” card.

4. Enter your YouTube account password and re-authenticate when asked.

5. Choose the Google account you want to use. If you already use AdSense, sign in with that account.

6. Check that the email address shown at the top of the page is the correct one.

7. Add your contact info and submit the application.

Approval can take up to several days. Only a single AdSense or AdSense for YouTube account is allowed per payee name, the same account can monetize several channels, and the linked account can be changed once every 32 days. A channel partnering with a multi-channel network still links its own account — using someone else’s breaks the terms of service.

The 5 revenue thresholds

Money leaves the account only after your earnings clear a series of thresholds. In US dollars they are:

• Tax info threshold — $0. Every creator in the partner program submits tax info, whatever the country.

• Verification threshold — $10. You verify your identity and your address.

• Payment method selection threshold — $10. You choose how you want to receive the money.

• Payment threshold — $100. A smaller balance rolls over to the next month.

• Cancelation threshold — $10. Close the account above this balance and you still get a final payment.

The amounts depend on the reporting currency of your account — see the full table by currency. Skip the tax step and Google may be required to deduct up to 24% of your total worldwide earnings; the SubSub guide to the W-8BEN tax form covers the paperwork.

When you get paid

Your finalized earnings for a month are added to your YouTube payments account between the 7th and the 12th of the following month. If the balance meets the payment threshold and there are no payment holds, the payment goes out by the 21st or the 26th.

YouTube earnings sit in their own payments account, separate from other AdSense earnings, and each account has to reach its own threshold before it pays. So a strong RPM in Studio does not always mean money moves this month. If you close the account, the final payment arrives approximately 90 days after the end of the month.

Where an MCN fits in

A multi-channel network — YouTube also calls these partners Creator Service Providers — runs the business side of a channel: monetization, rights, finance and strategy. SubSub is a YouTube MCN, so the paperwork around AdSense stops being your problem: filling in the W-8BEN tax form, unblocking address and identity verification, sorting out payment holds, and getting money out on your terms through the SubSub wallet, including an advance when a month comes in thin.

Your channel, your content and your own AdSense for YouTube account stay yours, and you can leave whenever you want. If a channel meets the Partner Program requirements, apply to the SubSub Network.