Manage channel memberships

We’re making a few changes to how we collect and use data on kids content on YouTube.com. As a result, some of the instructions in this article may have changed. Learn more

Learn more about what you can offer your members and how your viewers experience memberships.

Each channel participating in memberships (including its offerings) is responsible for complying with our terms and policies, including YouTube's Community Guidelines, as well as all relevant laws and regulations.

There are different places in Creator Studio where you manage & track your memberships program:

Memberships Tab

Once you enable memberships, you can find this tab in Studio under Monetization > Memberships

Here you can track:

1. Total members: All current members who have access to perks. Includes members who have cancelled but have access to perks for the remainder of their billing period.
2. Active members: All members with active subscriptions only. (i.e. total members minus cancelled members)
3. Revenue: You can track earnings for the last billing period and compare with the previous billing period
4. Members by level: Track the number of members (total or active) by level over time
5. Sign-ups and cancellations: See how many users became members or cancelled a membership in the past billing period and compare with the previous billing period.
6. Cancellation Feedback: Some users provide feedback on why they cancelled, from our set of predefined multiple choice options. By hovering over ‘Cancellations’ you can see how users responded when cancelling on your channel.

Note: A billing period can be 28, 30 or 31 days depending on the current calendar month. For example, a membership purchased during September would provide 30 days of access before the next payment.

Managing your members

You can view a list of all your current members including:

1. Total duration as a member (includes time from all prior periods as a member)
2. Last update: Days since last time the member joined, re-joined, upgraded or downgraded their membership.

To export a snapshot of this information to CSV, click on the ‘Download’ icon at the upper right corner. This may take a few minutes to complete. You can close this window while you wait.

Collecting information from your members:

By using this 3rd party IFTTT integration, you can create a customized, secure, member-gated form with your channel members to collect info that will help you deliver perks. You are responsible for any data collected from members. YouTube cannot access this data.

Managing your perks, levels, and prices

Click on ‘Memberships Offer’ card to manage and edit your memberships perks, prices and levels. Here you’ll find suggestions and best practices for the types of perks you might want to offer at each price point.

Other cards and tools in the Memberships tab:

1. Resources: A dynamic card which will display best practices, links to other resources and memberships-specific experiments to opt-in and out of.
2. Recent videos that members joined from: Monitor the top performing videos which viewers became members on. 
3. Recent comments by members: Easily find the latest member comments so you can prioritize replying to them
4. Intro Video: Upload a video to display on your memberships ‘offer screen’. Viewers will see this when they click ‘JOIN’ to sign-up for memberships.

YouTube Analytics

You can also view more data about your members in YTA.

1. Audience: Click on YTA Analytics  Audience, and click on the ‘Total Member’ card to see total and active members over time. Clicking ‘See More’ will show further data about your members. You can adjust the time series to view how the following metrics performed during a custom time period:

• Total and Active members
• Members Gained
• Members Cancelled
• Members Lost (cancelled members who lost access to perks as a result of the end of their billing period)

2. Revenue: Click on Analytics  Revenue and click on the ‘Transactions Revenue’ card. Here you can see how many transactions occurred during a custom period. Transactions are either new sign-ups or recurrences.

See your members

If you get a new member while you're offline, you won't get a notification. You can see all of your active members, how long they've been a member, and their subscriber count on the Memberships tab in YouTube Studio. Members can cancel their membership at any time.

If you’re live streaming when a new viewer joins your channel membership, a bright green "New Member" message will be sent in live chat. This message will be pinned at the top of chat for 5 minutes.

You can also see the total number of members per day in the Audience tab in YouTube Analytics. The ‘key metrics card’ shows a chart of how many members were gained or lost over time.

Promote memberships

You can add /join to the end of your channel URL to link directly to your membership offer window.

You can add this link:

• To your video description.
• On cards and end screens in your videos.

Block members from commenting

You cannot remove anyone who has joined as a member, but you can block comments. To block comments from specific viewers, you’ll need to set up comment and live chat filters.

Set and manage your intro video

Set an intro video for potential members

You can create a video that will be seen by anyone who clicks the Join button.

Intro Videos

What to know before adding an intro video

• Ads will not run on intro videos
• Your intro video must follow YouTube’s Community Guidelines
• Your intro video can’t have 3rd party copyright claims
• Your intro video can’t have music claims against it
• Your intro video can’t be set as made for kids
• If you want to mention specific prices of your levels, be mindful that prices can vary depending on platform and country

How to add an intro video if you’re new to memberships

1. Create your intro video and make sure you publish as Unlisted.
2. Go to studio.youtube.com.
3. In the left menu, select Monetization  click Memberships.
4. In step 3 under  “Add videos that encourage fans to join” click Start.
5. Click Select intro video  click Next.
6. Choose your intro video from the options.

How to add an intro video if you’re already using memberships

1. Create your intro video and make sure you publish as Unlisted. Go to studio.youtube.com.
2. In the left menu, select Monetization  click Memberships.
3. Click Add intro video in the “Improvements you can make” box.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to upload your intro video.

Edit or delete an intro video

Edit your intro video

1. Go to studio.youtube.com.
2. In the left menu, select Monetization  click Memberships.
3. At the bottom right of the page, click Edit in the “Your intro video” box.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to edit your intro video.

Delete your intro video

1. Go to studio.youtube.com.
2. In the left menu, select Monetization  click Memberships.
3. At the bottom right of the page, click Edit in the “Your intro video” box.
4. Click the delete icon  next to your memberships offer video.
5. You can then replace your video, using our set an intro video instructions.

Channel membership revenue, pricing, and refunds

Revenue share

Creators receive 70% of membership revenue after applicable taxes and fees are deducted. All transaction costs (including credit card fees) are currently covered by YouTube.

Revenue share for creators in MCNs

If you are a part of an MCN, you should consult with your network. Some MCNs may take an additional revenue share, meaning your revenue from memberships may be lower than 70% if you’re part of an MCN.

You and your MCN (as applicable) are responsible for complying with all tax laws applicable to your membership revenue.

Revenue reporting

You can see revenue reports in the YouTube Analytics > Transaction Revenue Report. You'll receive membership revenue in the same way that you receive ad revenue with AdSense.

Cancellations, terminations, and refunds

Members can cancel their membership at any time.

If a member requests a refund, YouTube has sole discretion as to the validity of that claim, and may deduct from the channel the channel’s share of the revenue to be refunded. Learn about YouTube’s refund policy for paid memberships.

If membership is terminated on a channel because of termination by the channel, removal from the YouTube Partner Program, or as a result of abuse, fraud or breach of our terms or policies, all active paying members will get a refund of their last month's payment. The channel's share of the revenue to be refunded will be deducted from the channel.

FAQs

My viewers say they can't see the "Join" button. Why not?

There could be a number of reasons for this, including:

• The feature is not launched on your channel.
• The feature is not launched in all countries.
• Your video is set as made for kids.
• The "Join" button is not yet launched on some platforms. Viewers can, however, become members on desktop. You can still get access to perks on all available platforms if you sign up on desktop.
• The "Join" button will only appear on eligible video watch pages of participating channels. For example, watch pages of videos claimed by certain music partners are not eligible.

If your viewers can’t see the join button, you can always remind them of these workarounds:

• Remind viewers they can become a member by clicking on the Join button on your channel homepage.
• Viewers can add /join to the end of your channel URL to link directly to your membership offer window.
• You can also add to your /join link to your video descriptions.

How can I get more data about my members?

We have a Members API that gives you access to the following info about your members. If you use a 3rd-party company to offer perks, you can share this info about your members with them so you can deliver memberships benefits.

• The member's channel URL 
• The name of the member's channel
• A link to the member's profile picture
• When the member joined your channel 

Note: The Sponsorships API Service currently does not provide information about a member’s level.