Premium Revenue (YouTube Premium)

What is Premium revenue on YouTube?

Premium revenue is the share of YouTube Premium membership fees that goes to creators. Premium members watch without ads, so YouTube splits their monthly fee among the channels they watch. It is a second income stream alongside ad revenue, and the majority of the revenue goes to partners.

Why it matters

Ads are not shown to Premium members, so without this stream their views would bring no money at all. Premium revenue is driven by watch time from members rather than by ad impressions, which makes it steadier than ad income for channels with a loyal audience.

Premium members can also download videos for offline viewing and use background play. Both count toward your watch time, so a Premium audience adds hours that ad-supported viewing would not.

Who earns it

You need to be in the YouTube Partner Program and accept the right contract modules in YouTube Studio. For long-form videos, accept the Watch Page Monetization Module and turn on Watch Page ads. For Shorts, accept the Shorts Feed Monetization Module. This is part of standard YouTube monetization, and the same modules also unlock Shorts monetization from ads.

How to check it

Sign in to YouTube Studio, open Analytics and select the Revenue tab to see estimated earnings, including the YouTube Premium line. Finalized earnings for the previous month land in your AdSense for YouTube balance between the 7th and 12th of the month, and are paid out between the 21st and 26th once you pass the payment threshold. Subscription revenue follows the same schedule as ad revenue.

For a wider view of income sources beyond ads, see our guide to fan funding on YouTube.