YouTube channel membership perks

Channels with memberships turned on can create members-only perks. Members-only perks are only available to your active paid members. Perks include custom emoji, badges, and access to other perks you offer.

Note: All perks you offer must follow our channel membership policies.

Channel Memberships

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Channel membership levels

You can offer multiple membership levels which all have different prices. Keep in mind that if you have multiple levels, their perks build on each other. This means the highest-priced levels have access to perks offered at lower-priced levels.

See full pricing details for levels in available countries.

Add a level

You can add up to 6 levels at different prices. Each level must have between 1 and 5 perks.

Add membership levels

1. Go to studio.youtube.com using your channel with memberships.
2. In the left menu, select Earn.
3. On the main dashboard, click Memberships.
4. Click Edit in the box that says “Step 1: Add levels and perks”.
5. Follow the onscreen instructions. Once complete, click Publish.

Your levels and perks will need to be reviewed before going live. This process takes about a day.

How levels work with badges and emoji

Loyalty badges and custom emoji are unaffected by levels. All members receive the same badge based on loyalty and members of all levels have the same access to all emoji.

Remove a level

If you remove a level, you’ll delete all members at that level. All members at a removed level will lose access to perks immediately, and will be refunded their last month’s payment.

Remove a level

1. Go to studio.youtube.com using your channel with memberships.
2. In the left menu, select Earn.
3. On the main dashboard, click Memberships.
4. Click Edit in the box that says “Step 1: Add levels and perks”.
5. Click on the level you want to remove click the delete icon .
6. Follow the rest of the onscreen instructions. Once complete, click Publish.

Channel membership perks

You must create and publish at least one perk (and up to five perks) that you will offer to your members. Your perks must follow our policies and terms, and you must deliver all creator perks that you offer. YouTube does not take responsibility for your creator perks and you must carefully consider whether you can deliver what you offer to your members' satisfaction.

Members-only Community posts

You can use the community tab to share content only with your members. If you have levels on your channel, you can also share Community posts with members at specific levels.

Follow these steps to make members-only Community posts:

1. Click your profile picture  and select Your channel.
2. Click the Community tab.
3. In the dropdown menu, choose whether to make the post public or members-only. Public is the default setting.
4. Enter your post in the text field.
5. Click Post.

Members-only video

You can set a video that only your active members can watch. Anyone can find a members-only video, but only members at the right levels can watch it. You can set an existing video or a new upload as members-only on a computer or mobile device.

Members-only videos must be fully original content. Don’t offer videos that have copyright claims, including videos with claims from music partners.

Set a new upload as members-only

1. Upload a video.
2. For Visibility, select Members only.
   • If you have more than one level, select the levels that can watch your video.
3. Complete the rest of the upload process.

Set an existing video as members-only

1. Use a computer to go to YouTube Studio or open the YouTube Studio app on your mobile device.
2. Select Content.
3. Find the video that you only want to share with your members.
4. Select Edit  Visibility  Select Members only  Select Save.
   • If you have more than one level, select the levels that can watch your video.

Promote your members-only video

Your members can find members-only videos on the Memberships, Content, and Community tabs. These videos may also surface on members’ Home and subscriptions feeds. To let all of your viewers know that a video is available, you can share the URL publicly on:

• Cards
• Public community
• Playlists

Members at the right levels can immediately watch the members-only video. A note will surface for non-members, letting them know the video is only available to members, and ways they can become a member.

Members-only live streams

To share live streams exclusively with your members:

1. Sign into your Google account.
2. Go to Creator Studio.
3. Click on the camera .
4. Select “Go live.”
5. To allow all members to view the live stream, select “All paid members” in the visibility settings.
   • Or, select the level (and higher) that should be allowed to view.
6. To create a members-only Community post linking to the live stream, follow the prompts. If your members have their notifications turned on, they're told when you create a new members-only live stream.

Members-only live chat

During public live streams you can make the chat members-only. Everyone can still view the live stream, but only members will be able to post chats. Follow these steps on desktop to turn on members-only live chat:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. At the top right, click CREATE   Go live.
3. From the left, click Stream.
4. Create a stream:
   1. To copy a previous stream: Select a previous stream and click Reuse settings.
   2. To create a new stream: Enter your stream's info and click Create stream.
5. From the top right, click Settings .
6. Under "Live chat," select Enable members-only chat.
7. Click Save.

Member Milestone Chats

Channel members can send one special highlighted message per month in live chat to recognize and celebrate how long they’ve been a member. This feature is available to members who are in, at least, their 2nd consecutive month as a member. Messages can only be sent during live streams or Premieres, and are visible to all viewers. 

(To turn off this feature, go to Studio Earn  Memberships and set ‘Membership Milestone Chat’ to ‘Off’.)

Note: Since all eligible members can use Member Milestone Chats, you may observe high usage the first few times you live stream after this feature is enabled. The rate should smooth out over time as each member can redeem a Member Milestone Chat once per month.

Member Recognition Shelf

To publicly recognize your channel members, you can feature their avatars in a shelf at the top of your channel page. This shelf is a way for you to thank your channel members and show others how much you appreciate your members. Featured members are randomly selected and will change often to give more members the chance to shine. Members viewing your channel page will always find their own avatar on the shelf. If a member cancels their membership, they’ll no longer be featured on the shelf.  

Note: When your channel has 8 or more members this feature will automatically be turned on. 

Members must be active and recurring to be featured in the shelf.

To turn off the member recognition shelf:

1. Use a computer to sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Go to Earn  Memberships.
3. Switch the “Member Recognition Shelf” to off.

Custom channel badges

Members will stand out in live chat, comments, and the Community tab via exclusive members-only badges.

Custom channel badges overview

There are eight different badges, and each one highlights how long a viewer has been a member of your particular channel. The badge times count how long each member has cumulatively paid for a membership. For example, if an active member joined your channel a year ago, but only paid for a total of 9 months out of the past 12 months, their badge will show that they have been a member for 9 months.

Here are the durations associated with each of the 8 badges:

• New
• 1 month
• 2 months
• 6 months
• 1 year
• 2 years
• 3 years
• 4 years

Upload custom channel badges

There are default badges, but you should upload and customize your badges on the Memberships page  Loyalty Badges.

If you don’t upload a different badge into each available slot, any empty slots will be filled by the highest custom badge that you have uploaded, or the default YouTube badge for that duration (if you have only uploaded custom badges at higher durations).

Custom channel badges specifications

File format: JPEG, or PNG files.
File size: Less than 1MB.
Image dimensions: Minimum 32px x 32px.

Badges will render at 14px x 14px in comments and the Community tab and 16px x 16px in live chat.

Custom emoji

Upload custom emoji

Members will gain access to one or more exclusive custom emoji that can be sent via YouTube in video comments. It can also be sent in any of your live chats. By default, there are no custom emoji.

To upload custom emoji, go to the Memberships page and select Edit on “Your badges and emoji” card.

Family Name

When you upload your first emoji, you’ll create a prefix name for all of your emoji, called a 'family name'. Members will use this name to auto-complete your emoji. You can also autocomplete your channel’s emojis with :_ .

Family names aren’t unique across YouTube and must be 3–10 characters.

As a best practice, we recommend picking a family name that is easily recognizable as your brand.

Emoji Name

Each emoji will have a name that members can use to autocomplete in live chat. To change the emoji name, you must delete and re-upload the emoji. Emoji names must be 3–10 alpha numerical characters and unique within their emoji family (but not across YouTube).

Number of custom emoji you can upload

As you gain more members, you will unlock additional slots for more custom emoji. You will not be notified when new slots are unlocked.

# Members	# Emojis
0	4
2	5
5	6
10	7
15	8
20	9
30	10
40	11
50	12
75	13
100	14
125	15
150	16
175	17
200	18
225	19
250	20
300	21
350	22
400	23
450	24
500	25
600	26
700	27
800	28
900	29
1000	30
1200	31
1400	32
1600	33
1800	34
2000	35
2200	36
2400	37
2600	38
2800	39
3000	40
3200	41
3400	42
3600	43
3800	44
4000	45
4200	46
4400	47
4600	48
4800	49
5000	54

Custom emoji specifications

File format: GIF, JPEG, and PNG files are preferred. Note: GIFs will be displayed as a static image, not an animation.

File size: Less than 1MB.

Image dimensions: 48px x 48px (preferred) to 480px x 480px.

Device differences

Emoji will show up in different sizes on mobile devices and on computer monitors. Here’s how to make sure your emoji look good on both platforms:

On mobile devices: Emoji show at 24x24 points. The image is scaled to match the pixel density of the device.

On most monitors: Emoji show at 24x24 points. On Retina and HiDPI devices, the images show at 48x48 points or higher.

What can I design?

Emoji are a way for your to express your creativity. Learn more about designing emoji.

Keep in mind that all members-only perks — including badges, emoji, perks you offer, videos, live chats, and other content — offered through YouTube memberships are also subject to membership policies.

If you've got extra footage, you can offer it as a memberships perk. It's a quick way to reward your members.