The three at a glance
The programme that pays, how you get in, where it runs and what it asks of a video:
| YouTube | TikTok | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Programme | Partner Program | Creator Rewards Program | Content monetization |
| How you get in | Reach the bar, apply, get reviewed | Meet the bar in one of 8 countries | Invitation only |
| The bar | 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in 12 months, or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days | 18+, 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in 30 days | Not published |
| Where | 138 countries and regions | 8 countries | About 70 countries |
| Video rules | Shorts up to 3 minutes; original, not mass-produced | Over a minute, original, 1,000 For You views | Reels at least 10 seconds; original |
Each platform decides what a view earns and none publishes a rate, so this guide compares the rules, not the money. Also left out: brand deals, sponsorships, affiliate links and selling your own products, which work on all three and do not need a monetization programme.
YouTube: the widest map, and a review
To join the Partner Program a channel needs 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days, and then a review of the whole channel. From February 1, 2027, new channels need 8,000 hours or 20 million Shorts views, and earning from Shorts in a month takes 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.
YouTube lists 138 countries and regions where the programme runs, among them Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Brazil, Portugal and the United States. Creators keep 55% of ad revenue on long videos and 45% of the Shorts revenue allocated to them. What gets channels turned down is repetitive or mass-produced content, which YouTube calls inauthentic.
TikTok: 8 countries, and long videos only
The Creator Rewards Program is open only in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Mexico and Brazil. You need a personal account, to be 18 or older, and 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the last 30 days.
A video earns only if it is original, over a minute long and gets at least 1,000 views on the For You feed. TikTok's account reviews count copied content as unoriginal and slide videos, split screens and low-quality images as low quality. Elsewhere, LIVE Gifts is a separate feature for people 18 and over, where TikTok offers it.
Facebook: by invitation, in about 70 countries
Meta ended in-stream ads, Ads on Reels and the Performance bonus on 31 August 2025. Facebook now pays through content monetization, which rewards how public reels, photos, stories and text posts perform. It is invitation-only; the interest form in the Professional dashboard is not an application.
It runs in about 70 countries, among them Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Brazil, Portugal and the United States, and in languages that include Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and English. Reels must be at least 10 seconds long, and Meta demonetizes accounts that post mostly unoriginal content.
What is open where you live
Put the three maps together and your country decides most of the plan:
- In the United States, Mexico or Brazil, all three programmes are open to you.
- In Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Morocco, YouTube's Partner Program and Facebook's content monetization are open, and TikTok's Creator Rewards is not.
- In Spain, Argentina, Colombia or Portugal, the same: YouTube and Facebook, not TikTok's Creator Rewards.
Everywhere, being open is only the start: YouTube reviews your channel, Facebook has to invite you, and TikTok checks every video. What each one rewards is the same thing, your own work. The rules follow where you live, not where your viewers are. Instagram pays another way, through gifts and subscriptions in 49 countries with no Arab country among them; our Instagram guide has the details.
One video that fits all three
The rules overlap more than they look. A vertical video of one to three minutes is a Short on YouTube, long enough for TikTok's Creator Rewards and well past Facebook's 10-second minimum for reels. Make it original, with your own idea, script and voice, and it meets the one rule all three share.
Two things differ. TikTok counts only videos over a minute, so short clips earn there only through other features, and Facebook pays for photos and text posts too, not only video. Our guide to video sizes has the shapes and lengths each platform takes.
Before you pick where to post
- You know which of the three programmes run in your country.
- Your videos are your own: no reposts, no templates with new topics.
- They are one to three minutes long, vertical, if you want them to count everywhere.
- You have checked each platform's own page, because these rules change.