Become a channel member on YouTube

Through recurring monthly payments, channel memberships on the main YouTube site and app allow you to purchase public badges, emoji and access to creator perks offered by the channel from time to time.

Memberships may be priced differently depending on your country or region, and the platform that you use.

Join, change levels or cancel a membership

Become a channel member

Join a participating channel membership on the main YouTube site and app.

Visit youtube.com or open the YouTube app.
Go to the channel of, or a video uploaded by, the creator that you'd like to support and see if they've enabled memberships on their channel.
Click Join.
Follow the prompts to enter your payment information.
Click Buy.

You'll see a welcome announcement once your transaction is complete.

Purchase a prepaid membership

This is only available on certain channels and if you're in France, Germany, India, Spain or the US.

To purchase a prepaid membership:

Visit youtube.com or open the YouTube app.
Go to the channel page of, or a video uploaded by, the channel that you'd like to become a member of. If they have memberships available, see whether they've activated a non-recurring limited-time membership on their channel.
Click Join.
Follow the prompts to enter your payment information.
Click Buy.

Note: If you purchase a non-recurring limited-time membership, you won't be able to change levels.

You'll see a 'welcome' announcement once your transaction is complete.

Change your membership level

To upgrade

Go to the channel page of the membership that you want to change and click See perks.
Select the level that you want to join Change level.
Select Upgrade.
You'll immediately get access to the upgraded level upon purchase.
1. Pricing note: You'll only be charged the difference in the price of the levels, at a price adjusted depending on 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'll be charged (£9.99 - £4.99) x (0.5)= £2.50 for the remainder of the month.
Your monthly billing date will not change due to a level upgrade.

To downgrade

Go to the channel page of the membership that you want to change and click See perks.
Select the level that you want to join Change level.

Billing and access details for downgrades

Your monthly billing date will not change due to a level downgrade.
You'll get access to your original level until your next billing date.
You'll be charged the new lower price at your next billing date.
You'll retain any accumulated loyalty reflected in your badge if offered by the creator.

You'll retain any accumulated loyalty reflected in your badge if offered by the creator.

Cancel a channel membership

Open the membership management screen by clicking See perks on a channel page and then

Select Settings

Click End membership & perks.

You can also cancel your membership at any time by following the steps below on a computer:

Sign in to YouTube.
Go to youtube.com/paid_memberships.
Find the channel membership that you'd like to cancel and click Manage membership.
Select See perks.
Go to Settings.
Select End membership & perks.

Payment and billing information

Billing information

New and existing members

When you have an active paid membership, you'll automatically be charged at the start of each monthly billing cycle.

Cancelled memberships

When you cancel a paid channel membership, you will not be charged again unless you reactivate it. You'll continue to receive membership perks until the end of that billing period.

Reactivated memberships

You can reactivate your membership at any time. If you reactivate during the same billing cycle in which you cancelled it, you will not be charged until that current billing cycle ends.

Update your payment info

You can change the credit card used for a paid membership in the My subscriptions section of your Google Account. Note that you may need to add a new card to your Google Account first.

When you have an active paid membership, you'll automatically be charged at the start of each monthly billing cycle. You can view your next billing date and manage your membership at youtube.com/paid_memberships.

How paused channel memberships impact your payments

'Paused mode' explained

Sometimes, channel memberships are put in 'paused mode'. This may happen if a channel changes MCNs, sets their channel as Made for Kids or is unable to monetise. When 'paused mode' happens, it means that the channel cannot monetise with memberships – this is often a temporary state. If a channel is in 'paused mode', it means that they cannot deliver perks and other benefits.

Payment details

If you're an active paid member of a channel in 'paused mode', your monthly recurring payment, billing cycle and access to memberships will also be paused.

If membership is resumed by the channel, paid members who were active prior to the pause will resume receiving membership perks, and their monthly recurring payment will also be resumed.

Memberships can remain paused on a channel for a maximum of 90 days; after that point, memberships and members' monthly recurring payments will be cancelled.

How terminated channel memberships impact your payment

If a channel terminates or loses access to the memberships feature (e.g. if it's no longer part of the YouTube Partner Programme), all memberships monthly recurring payments and access to all membership perks will be terminated immediately. Viewers who were members at the time of termination will be sent a termination email with info on requesting a refund.

Channel membership refunds

You may cancel your paid channel membership at any time. Once you've cancelled, you won't be charged again. You'll be able to use the badge and have access to creator perks until the end of the billing cycle. Note that you won't be refunded for the period of time between when you cancel and when your channel membership officially ends.

If you notice an unauthorised channel memberships charge on your account, follow these steps to report the unauthorised charge. If creator perks or other features of your paid channel membership are defective, unavailable or do not perform as stated, you may contact our support team to request a refund at any time. We do not provide refunds or credit for partially elapsed billing periods.

If you're a member who signed up via Apple, you'll need to contact Apple support to request a refund for your paid channel membership. Apple's refund policy will apply.

Channel membership revenue share with creators

Creators receive 70% of memberships revenue recognised by Google after local sales tax and other fees (depending on country and users' platform) are deducted. Payment processing fees (including credit card fees) are currently covered by YouTube.

YouTube Premium free channel membership (limited-time offer)

Redeem a free channel membership

Eligibility requirements

If you're a paying YouTube Premium member in Brazil, Ireland, Japan, South Korea or the United Kingdom, you may be selected to get an offer of one free non-recurring channel membership per month, until 31 December 2020. You must redeem the offer before it expires on 31 December 2020.

To check if you're eligible for this limited-time offer, visit this link on a computer.

More details:

You can be randomly selected for the offer if:
- You're a paying YouTube Premium member in Brazil, Ireland, Japan, South Korea or the United Kingdom.
- You're a YouTube Premium member on an individual or student plan, or a manager of a family plan (in countries/regions where student plans and family plans are available).
This limited-time offer excludes free trial members or members of a family plan that aren't the manager.

Channels that you can redeem a free channel membership on

You can redeem your free channel membership on any channel that has turned on channel memberships for any eligible level.

The value of eligible levels that can be redeemed for the free channel membership depends on where you are. See table below:

Country/Region	Value of highest eligible level that can be redeemed
Brazil	R$7.99
Ireland	€4.99
Japan	¥490
South Korea	₩4,990
United Kingdom	£4.99

Creators will earn the same amount from a free channel membership as they would from one month of a paid channel membership.

How to use a free channel membership

Visit youtube.com, or open the YouTube app.
Go to the channel or a video of your favourite creator.
If they've turned on memberships on their channel, click JOIN.
Select JOIN FOR FREE.

More about the free channel membership

The final day to redeem the last free channel membership is 31 December 2020.

A redeemed free channel membership is non-recurring, and will last for 1 month from the date of redemption. Once it expires, you may get an offer for another free non-recurring channel membership. You can redeem this offer on the same channel or on another channel with channel memberships turned on.

If they aren't redeemed, these free channel memberships don't add up and will expire.

Cancel your free channel membership

Once you've redeemed your free channel membership, you can't cancel the free channel membership.

If you receive another offer for a free non-recurring channel membership, you can redeem it on a different channel.

Change from a free to a paid channel membership

If you change your free non-recurring channel membership to a paid recurring channel membership at a higher level on the same channel:

Immediately: You'll be immediately charged the difference in price between the higher and current level, proportional to the time left on your free channel membership. You'll get access to perks from the higher level immediately.
On the next billing date: You'll be charged the full price of the higher-level channel membership on the next billing date, which is 1 month from the date on which you redeemed the free channel membership.
On following billing dates: You'll be enrolled in a recurring payment, so you'll be charged the full price of the higher-level channel membership for following billing dates.

If you change your free non-recurring channel membership to a paid recurring channel membership at the same level on the same channel:

Immediately: You won't be charged for the paid channel membership until your next billing date. You'll continue to get access to perks from the same level.
On the next billing date: You'll be charged the full price of the channel membership on the next billing date, which is 1 month from the date on which you redeemed the free channel membership.
On following billing dates: You'll be enrolled in a recurring payment, so you'll be charged the full price of the channel membership for following billing dates.

If you change a free non-recurring channel membership to a paid recurring channel membership at a lower level on the same channel:

Immediately: You won't be charged for the paid channel membership until your next billing date. You'll continue to get access to perks from the level of the free channel membership.
On the next billing date: You'll be charged the full price of the lower-level channel membership on the next billing date, which is 1 month from the date on which you redeemed the free channel membership.
On following billing dates: You'll be enrolled in a recurring payment, so you'll be charged the full price of the lower-level channel membership for following billing dates.

Change from a paid to a free channel membership

If you want to replace a paid recurring channel membership with a free non-recurring channel membership, you'll need to cancel the paid channel membership and wait for it to end.

Once the paid channel membership has ended, you can follow the steps to redeem a free non-recurring channel membership, if you're eligible.

Use and manage your memberships benefits

Channel membership benefits for all members

When you become a member, you'll gain access to certain benefits. You'll get different perks based on the different levels that you join at.

Exclusive public-facing membership badge next to your channel name in all comments and live chats that you make on the channel that you're a member of
- On some channels, the badge will reflect how long you've been a member of a channel, either through different coloured default badges or through different badges uploaded by the channel
If you become a channel member during a live stream on that channel, a bright green 'New Member' message will be sent in live chat and your profile picture will be pinned at the top of chat for five minutes
Access to members-only posts on the channel's Community tab (if offered by the channel)
Access to creator perks that may be offered by the channel and are subject to change
Exclusive access to members-only live chat (if offered by the channel)
Exclusive access to a channel's public-facing custom emoji in live chat (if offered by the channel)
'Slow mode' – which limits how frequently you can comment in live chat – does not apply to active paid members

By becoming a channel member, your exclusive membership badge will appear in all comments and live chats that you make on that channel.

Creator perks for different levels

Each level has its own price point. Your perks stack up as you go up each level. This means that if you join at the most expensive level, you'll get access to perks at all the lower levels.

What do I get for each level and how do I join?

This varies from channel to channel. You can see the different perks when you click Join.

I'm already a member, so how do I see the different perks available?

Go to the channel page which you've already joined and then Select See perks.

Subscribe to a channel that you've joined

If you're not already subscribed to the channel that you are a member of, then we'll subscribe you to that channel. This will allow you to see members-only creator posts in your Subscriptions feed. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Turn channel membership notifications on or off

When channels that you're a member of create members-only posts, you'll be notified about them in the Community tab and receive an email, unless you've opted out of receiving emails from YouTube.

Turn off notifications

If you don't want to know about new members-only posts, you can:

Opt out of notifications for individual channels that you're a member of.
Turn off all notifications on your account.

See exclusive content in the Community tab

Exclusive content is tagged as 'Members-only' in the Community tab. This includes text posts, GIFs, polls, videos and more.

Report inappropriate perks

If you see an offering that you believe is in breach of YouTube's Community Guidelines (including sexual, violent or hateful content, misleading offers or spam), you can report it by clicking Report perks in the offer screen upon clicking the Join button (or See perks, if you're already a member).

Privacy information

Visible membership status

Once you've joined a channel, the following info will be publicly visible on YouTube and may be shared by the channel with third-party companies:

Your channel URL
The name of your YouTube channel
A link to your profile picture
When you joined the channel as a member
The level that you're a member of

Note: The channel may share this info with a small, select group of third-party companies to provide the channel's perks.

How your information may be used

Your information above may be seen by other viewers in multiple ways, some of which may depend on the channel that you've joined. This list is not exhaustive:

All members have a visible badge that appears next to your channel name in comments and chat.
If you become a channel member during a live stream on that channel, a bright green 'New Member' message will be sent in live chat and your profile picture will be pinned at the top of live chat for five minutes which shows your channel name when hovered upon.
Some channels may add your information above to a list of 'thank yous' in their videos.
Some channels may share your information above to provide a service (for example, member-only access to a chatroom hosted by a third-party company).

Check and remove third-party site or app access

Remove third-party site or app access

If you gave account access to a site or app that you no longer trust, you can remove its access to your Google Account. The site or app won't be able to access any more info from your Google Account, but you may need to request that they delete the data that they already have.

Go to your Google Account.
On the left-hand navigation panel, select Security.
On the Third-party apps with account access panel, select Manage third-party access.
Select the site or app that you want to remove.
Select Remove Access.

Report a third-party site or app

Follow these steps if you believe that a site or app is misusing your data, for example, by creating spam, impersonating you or using your data in harmful ways.

Go to the Apps with access to your account section of your Google Account. You might need to sign in.
Select the app that you want to report Report this app.

Learn more about account access for third-party sites and apps.

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