How can your videos make money?
When you submit a video that is eligible for monetization, YouTube will place ads inside or near the video. You will earn a share of the revenue that is generated from ad impressions occurring when these videos are viewed.
How much will I earn?
There's no precise answer, because your earnings will depend on a number of factors. The two key factors are the type of ads and the pricing of ads appearing with your videos. The best way to find out how much you'll earn is to sign up and start monetizing your videos. There's no cost, no obligation, and getting started is quick and easy.
What types of videos are eligible?
The basic guidelines are simple: for a video to be eligible, you must own worldwide distribution rights to everything in the video and it must abide by our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
This means you have created everything in your video yourself, and you did not sell exclusive commercial usage rights to someone else. If your video contains content created by someone else, you must have their written permission to use and make money from it.
Examples of videos that could be eligible
- You filmed your cat and there is no background music.
- Your video contains royalty-free music, and you can prove commercial rights using direct links to the song and applicable license.
- Your friend's band wrote and recorded a song for your video and states in writing that you can use and make money from it.
Which videos are NOT eligible?
Your video is not eligible if it contains content that you didn't create or get permission from its creator to use. You need to be able to show written permission for the following video elements:
- Audio: recorded music, live performances, cover songs, background music, etc.
- Visuals: images, logos, software, video game footage, etc.
- Any other content you don't own worldwide commercial usage rights to.
Examples of videos that are NOT eligible
- Your video contains a song you purchased for personal use (e.g., bought on iTunes or in a store) but didn't obtain a commercial license.
- You found a video on the Internet and you cannot prove that it's in public domain.
- You are only singing words of your favorite copyrighted song
- You haven't yet received a copyright notice on your video
- You edit together or "mash-up" other works
- You only use 30 seconds of a song or video clip
- Your video does not provide proper attribution or credits as required by a license.
If your video is not eligible, it may be removed from YouTube.
