How to Check If a YouTube Channel Is Monetized

YouTube doesn't publicly label which channels earn money, but several public signals let you make an informed estimate. Whether you're researching competitors, vetting a creator for a sponsorship, or checking your own progress, here's how to read those signals.

The YouTube Partner Program requirements

To earn ad revenue, a channel must be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). The baseline thresholds are:

• 1,000 subscribers
• 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or 10 million valid Shorts views in 90 days
• An active AdSense account and no active Community Guidelines strikes

Meeting these does not guarantee monetization — a channel still has to apply and be approved — but falling short of them is a strong sign a channel is not yet monetized.

Public signals you can check

• Subscriber and total view counts (does the channel clear the basic bar?)
• Whether a Join / membership button is present, which indicates an active monetized partner
• Channel age and upload consistency, which affect watch-hour accumulation

Check any channel in seconds

Rather than gathering these signals by hand, paste any channel URL or @handle into our Monetization Checker. It evaluates the YPP thresholds and looks for monetization indicators, then summarizes whether the channel is likely monetized.