YouTube Partner Program Feb 1, 2027: terms and the Shorts path

YouTube's help page says that starting February 1, 2027 it is introducing updates to the YouTube Partner Program, and that you should review and accept the updated terms in YouTube Studio by January 31, 2027 to keep fully monetizing. Accepting terms is done in YouTube Studio; nothing in Sume does it for you.

Everything about YPP below is from the YouTube Help page as read 2026-10-01. Check it again before acting; it is not legal advice.

What are the two eligibility paths?

The page lists two ways to meet the audience threshold. Watch hours from Shorts views in the Shorts Feed do not count toward the 4,000-hour path, per the same page.

What can Sume do for a Shorts channel?

Sume makes the clips, not the audience. A series can be a queue of up to 100 Format runs with a concurrency of 1 to 16, per Bulk runs. Each finished run returns media with a durable URL. For plain clips, Auto create controls default to 720p and 8s, with 3 to 10 second clips at 16:9 or 9:16, per Video router.

The pattern for a numbered series is in Shorts series as batch Format runs.

What should I do before January 31, 2027?

Open YouTube Studio, read the updated terms and accept them if you want to keep monetizing. Then check your own channel's subscribers, watch hours and Shorts views against the two paths. A queue of generated clips does not by itself count toward either threshold.