Join, change, cancel, or gift a channel membership

Channel memberships let you join a Creator’s channel membership program through monthly payments and get exclusive perks that may include badges, emoji, community posts, content and more.

If you’re in one of the available countries/regions you can become a member of participating channels. Channel memberships may be priced differently depending on your country/region, and the platform you use to sign up.

Once you’re a channel member, explore how to use and manage your membership benefits.

 

Become a channel member

Become a channel member

To join a channel’s membership program:

1. Visit youtube.com or open the YouTube app.
2. Go to the channel of, or a video uploaded by, the creator you'd like to support. Check if they've turned on memberships for their channel.
3. Select Join.
4. Follow the instructions to enter your payment info.
5. Select Buy.

You’ll get a welcome announcement when your transaction is complete.

Troubleshoot issues joining a channel

There could be various reasons you can’t find the JOIN button for a channel, including:

• The creator hasn’t turned on memberships for their channel.
• You or the creator are not in a country/region where memberships are available.
• The "Join" button isn’t available on all platforms yet. The "Join" button only appears on eligible watch pages. For example, watch pages of videos claimed by certain music partners are not eligible.

Here are some workarounds if the issue is platform-related:

• You can select the Join button on the channel homepage.
• You can add /join to the end of the channel URL to link directly to their membership window.
• You can join the channel using a computer, and still have access to perks on all available platforms.

Change your membership level

Upgrade your membership level for a channel

 To upgrade your membership level:

1. Go to the channel homepage of the membership that you want to change.
2. Select See perks.
3. Select the level you want to join  Change level.
4. Select Upgrade.
5. You immediately get access to the higher level upon purchase.
   1. Pricing note: You’re only charged the difference in price in levels, at an adjusted price, for the days remaining in your current billing cycle.
   2. Example: If you’re paying $4.99 and you upgrade to the $9.99 level with half a month left until your next payment, you’re charged ($9.99-$4.99) X (0.5)= $2.50.

Learn more about how changing channel membership levels affect your billing.

Downgrade your membership level for a channel

To downgrade your membership level:

1. Go to the channel homepage of the membership that you want to change.
2. Select See perks.
3. Select the level that you want to join  Change level.

Learn more about how changing channel membership levels affect your billing.

 Cancel a channel membership

Cancel a channel membership

You can cancel a channel membership at any time. Once you cancel, you won’t be charged again. You have access to creator perks, including the badge, until the end of your billing cycle.

You can cancel your membership from a channel’s homepage:

1. On a channel’s homepage, select See perks.
2. Select Settings   End memberships & perks.

You can also cancel a channel membership from the “Purchases and memberships section”:

1. Select your profile picture .
2. Select "Purchases and memberships".
3. Select the membership that you want to cancel.
4. Select DEACTIVATE.
5. Select END MEMBERSHIP.

If you're having trouble canceling your paid channel membership, learn how to troubleshoot issues.

Note: You don’t get a refund for the time between when you cancel and when your channel membership officially ends.

Gift memberships

Gift memberships let the creator or viewers buy the opportunity for others to access the perks of a channel membership for one month. Viewers must opt-in to be eligible for gifted memberships from a channel. Once you opt-in, you’re eligible to receive gift memberships from eligible channels that you’ve interacted with recently.

Note: If you’ve opted-in to allow gift memberships from a specific channel in the past, you may need to opt-in globally to be eligible for gift memberships on other channels.

Memberships Gifting

Gift a membership

Gift memberships are offered at the closest highest price level available up to and including $5. To gift a membership, you have to watch a live stream or Premiere on a channel with gift memberships turned on. If gift memberships are available for the channel, you can gift memberships to others during the live stream or Premiere:

1. Sign in to YouTube on the Android app.
2. Go to the eligible channel that you want to gift memberships on.
3. Join the channel’s live stream or Premiere.
4. Within the Live chat, tap .
5. Tap Membership gifting .
6. Select the number of viewers that you want to gift memberships. 
7. Complete the transaction.

Once you gift memberships, a countdown ticker will highlight your purchase in live chat for a limited amount of time. The amount of time depends on your purchase amount. The creator may end the live chat or live stream before your gift is announced, but it will still be distributed.

Note: The number of gifted memberships, your channel name, and your profile picture are visible to the public. This info may also be available to the channel through our YouTube Data API Service and the channel may share this info with third-party services. Your purchase is considered fulfilled once YouTube gifts the first membership to a viewer.

Opt-in or out of gift memberships

How to buy and get Gift Memberships

To opt in for gifted memberships, you must be signed in with a YouTube channel that isn’t a Brand Account. Check if you’re on a Brand Account. Right now, channel members aren’t eligible to receive gifted memberships.

Opt-in through live chat

1. Go to an eligible channel’s live stream or Premiere.
2. Within the Live chat: 
   1. Select ALLOW GIFTS, or
   2. Select the pinned Membership gifting .
3. Confirm you’d like to opt in by turning on the “Allow gifts” switch.

Opt-in through a channel or watch page

1. Go to an eligible channel's page or the watch page of a video.
2. Tap JOIN  More  ”Gift Settings.”
3. Confirm you’d like to opt in by turning on the “Allow gifts” switch.

Note: If you’re selected for a gift membership, your channel name is visible to the public. This info may also be available to the channel through our YouTube Data API Service and the channel may share this info with third-party services.

Opt-out of gift memberships

To opt-out of receiving gift memberships from any channel:

1. Open “Gift Settings” by tapping JOIN on any channel or watch page with memberships turned on. 
2. Toggle “Allow gifts” off.

You will no longer be eligible to get gifted memberships from any channel. 

Get a memberships gift

When a creator or viewer gifts memberships to others, it’s announced in the live chat. If you’ve been selected for a 1-month membership, a notification will surface in the live chat and we’ll send you an email notification.

Gift memberships are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged for cash value. All gift memberships give up to 1 month of access to channel membership perks and expire thereafter.

To view your membership benefits and access perks:

• Select the ‘Memberships’ tab on the channel that you have become a member of, OR 
• Select SEE PERKS on any video page of that channel.

Gift memberships are non-recurring and you will not be charged after it ends. If you wish to end your membership early, contact support. You will lose access to the membership benefits.

Troubleshoot issues joining, changing, or canceling a membership

I get an error message that my YouTube couldn’t verify my country when I try to join a channel. How do I fix this?

If you get an error message that says, “We couldn’t verify your country” then we need to verify your country before we can show you the plans and levels available to you. To fix this issue, you can try to:

• Connect to a different network.
• Use a different device.
• Join the channel through the YouTube mobile app.

Note: If you’re actively using a VPN or proxy service, refer to the service’s website for info on how to turn off the service.