As a YouTube content creator, I have access to offering my audience a channel membership.
That means my audience can support me directly by subscribing monetarily to my channel for exclusive content, features or to just simply support me.
So if you’ve been wondering whether YouTube channel memberships are worth setting up, you’re not alone.
In this guide, I’m breaking down exactly what they are, how they work, what you’ll actually earn, and a few alternatives that might put more money in your pocket.
First Up, What Are YouTube Channel Memberships Exactly?
Channel memberships are a monthly subscription service built directly into your YouTube channel.
They give your most loyal viewers a way to financially support you on a recurring basis in exchange for exclusive benefits and special access.
When someone becomes a member, they choose from different payment tiers that you set up, each with its own unique rewards.
Think:
- Special emojis
- Member badges that show up next to their names in comments
- Access to members-only live chats
- Exclusive video content (including shorts) that non-members never see.
- Early video access
- Discord access
For example, Caleb Hammer has the most subscribed membership currently and offers:
- $9.99/month — Hammer Elite (basic perks)
- $12.99/month — Hammer Elite Support Tier (additional benefits)
When you click on “join” a light box appears with the tiers for your audience to subscribe to, you can also setup a sales video to help with conversions.
In exchange for this, YouTube takes a 30% cut.
How Do Channel Memberships Work?
To unlock channel memberships, you’ll need to meet a few criteria before you get access to this feature.
Eligibility Requirements
- 500 subscribers
- Either 3,000 watch-time hours in the last 12 months or 3 million Shorts views in the last 90 days
- Be in an eligible country
- No content marked as made for kids
- Channel in good standing
- Accepted YouTube’s partnership terms
Setting Up Your Tiers
Once you qualify, you can create up to six membership tiers, each with its own monthly price point ranging from $0.99 all the way up to $499.
You control the pricing and decide what exclusive perks each level unlocks.
In practice from my experience you’ll want to leverage 3 tiers as the optimal amount. This is actually rooted in classic pricing research called the “goldilocks effect.”
When people see three options, they anchor to the middle one as the best deal. Too few choices (just 1) and you miss audience segments. Too many (6) and decision fatigue kicks in, people freeze and don’t join at all.
Have 1 tier your budget, entry level for people who like you want to send a dollar or two your way. The middle tier is where they unlock content and the third tier should be for superfans only.
Everything Stays on YouTube (The Unique Selling Point)
One of the strongest selling points of YouTube memberships is that everything happens on-platform.
YouTube handles payment processing, member management, and all the technical infrastructure so viewers can become paying members with just a few clicks without ever leaving the site.
No external redirects, no separate payment systems, no new accounts to create.
That seamless experience typically leads to higher conversion rates compared to driving traffic to an outside platform.
How Much Will You Earn?
As I already mentioned, YouTube keeps 30% of everything you earn through memberships. So let’s run the numbers. If you price your membership at $5/month and get 100 members:
| Revenue | YouTube’s Cut (30%) | Your Take-Home |
|---|---|---|
| $500 | $150 | $350 |
At $1,000/month in membership revenue, you’d keep around $700.
How to actually promote your memberships
Turning memberships on is the easy part. Here’s how to get people to sign-up:
1. Create a short “what members get” sales video.
Keep it 60–90 seconds, be specific about the perks on screen, tie it to why it matters for your content, and end with a direct CTA to hit Join.
YouTube lets you set this as your official membership intro video, so it plays whenever someone clicks the “Join” button, it’s essentially a free evergreen ad as you see with Caleb’s membership.
2. Mention it in your videos (duh!).
Talk about memberships in your public videos and live streams, and remind viewers they can become members by clicking Join. Not every video, but regularly.
3. Add a /join link to your video descriptions.
Add a join link to your default upload descriptions so it’s automatically there on every upload without extra effort. You can always delete it the link if you like, but it’s annoying to always manually add it in
4. Give non-members a preview
“Tomorrow, members get the full uncut Q&A, here’s a 15-second preview.”
5. Cross-promote on other platforms.
Share your memberships details casually on social media, email newsletters, and any other platform you use. Your audience exists outside of YouTube.
The key thing is to let your audience know you offer a membership and to remind them on a constant basis.
Alternatives to YouTube Channel Memberships
There are several creator-friendly platforms worth knowing about, each with a very different fee structure. This is worth knowing as a 30% fee is significant cut
Patreon (The Classic Choice)
Probably the most well-known alternative. Patreon charges new creators a 10% platform fee, significantly better than YouTube’s 30%.
You also get more control over your community, with advanced analytics and flexible content delivery.
The downside is that you have to drive your audience away from YouTube to sign up.
Ko-fi (Membership Light)
Ko-fi charges between 0–5% depending on your plan, and for just $6/month (Ko-fi Gold), you can eliminate transaction fees entirely. It lets you accept tips, sell products, offer memberships, and take custom commissions, all in one place.
Simple and creator-friendly.
Buy Me a Coffee (Donation Platform)
Built around making fan support as frictionless as possible. They charge a flat 5% on transactions with no monthly fees. It’s designed around the idea of fans sending you a small, casual tip, though this platform does support ongoing memberships.
How Much Do You Keep From Each Platform?
At $1,000/month in membership revenue, here’s what you’d actually take home after fees:
| Platform | You Keep (per $1,000) |
|---|---|
| YouTube Channel Memberships | ~$700 |
| Patreon | ~$870 |
| Buy Me a Coffee / Ko-fi (free) | ~$920 |
| Ko-fi Gold ($6/month plan) | ~$960 |
Now is this a fair comparison? A few thoughts…
First, you have to take into consideration your conversion percentages with each platform. YouTube channel memberships are built into YouTube and are easy to sign-up to when you’re logged in.
While you can technically keep more from Ko-FI and Buy Me a Coffee, your audience needs to navigate to those sites and create a separate account which is a barrier
Second, fees matter, but they’re not the only factor. Here’s a quick way to think about it:
- YouTube Memberships — Best if simplicity is your priority and your whole audience lives on YouTube
- Patreon — Best if you want deeper community tools and structured membership tiers
- Ko-fi — Best if you want flexible “support me” options (tips, products, commissions)
- Buy Me a Coffee — Best if you want casual one-off tips alongside memberships
You Don’t Need Elaborate Perks to Get Started
You can get started offering something as simple as a .99 cent subscription for access to private, members only short form content.
You also don’t even need to offer anything. You can just offer a channel membership where people who signup get emojis and priority response to comments.
Additional Things To know
- Taxes — the $700/$870/$960 take-home figures don’t account for income tax, so just be aware.
- Churn — Running a membership is not “set and forget.” People do cancel. You have to actively retain members (good perks, consistency) and set realistic expectations based on pricing.
- YouTube’s 30% actually covers payment processing — Patreon’s 10% is on top of payment processing fees (~3%), so the real gap between YouTube and Patreon for example is a bit smaller than it looks.
- You can run YouTube memberships AND Patreon/Ko-fi at the same time — There is no exclusivity rule. You can use both if you like. Just make sure to develop a unique selling point for each if you do so.
Executive Summary
Once you hit 500 subscribers and 3,000 watch-time hours, turn on YouTube channel memberships and give a go.
It’s one of the easiest ways to test whether your audience has an appetite to support you and whether there’s demand for exclusive content they’d actually pay for.
Once you know there’s real interest, you can stick with YouTube or migrate to one of the other platforms if better fees or more control matter to you.
The key is to start monetizing somewhere and start building that relationship with your most dedicated fans, rather than getting paralyzed trying to pick the perfect platform.
Till next time. Your man,
-David
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