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YouTube Channel Memberships and Super Thanks are two separate ways viewers can pay a creator directly, with no advertiser or brand involved. Channel Memberships is a recurring monthly subscription (up to 6 price levels); Super Thanks is a one-off tip on a single video. Both require only the low "fan funding" threshold — 500 subscribers, not 1,000 — and per several independent sources YouTube keeps 30% of both revenue types. Denmark is a supported location for Channel Memberships, confirmed directly on YouTube's own pricing page.
YouTube Channel Memberships and Super Thanks are two separate ways viewers can pay a creator directly, with no advertiser or brand involved. Channel Memberships is a recurring monthly subscription where the creator sets the price across up to six levels; Super Thanks is a one-off tip a viewer can leave on a single video — including a video uploaded years earlier. Both features require only the low "fan funding" threshold of 500 subscribers, not the YouTube Partner Program's ordinary 1,000-subscriber bar for ad revenue. Per several independent sources, YouTube itself keeps 30% of both revenue types; that figure isn't stated on YouTube's own help pages. Denmark is a supported location for Channel Memberships, confirmed directly on YouTube's own pricing page for Danish memberships. Below: eligibility, how each feature actually works, and how they differ from YPP ad revenue and from an ordinary brand deal.
Both features belong to what YouTube itself calls "fan funding" — tools where money moves directly from a viewer to a creator, with no brand or advertiser involved. They matter to a brand because they say something about a creator's total income mix and independence from sponsorship revenue: a creator with a working membership base is less financially dependent on any single brand deal, which can affect negotiating position and how quickly they respond to a brief.
The features sit structurally apart from YouTube Partner Program ad revenue from Shorts (the Creator Pool model) and from YouTube Shopping's affiliate program, where a merchant — not an ordinary viewer — pays commission on an actual purchase. None of the three systems requires the others, and a channel can easily have access to one without the rest.
Channel Memberships and Super Thanks share the same low entry bar, which YouTube's own Help Center calls the minimum requirements for fan funding features. This threshold is already documented as the "early access" tier in the Academy's own YouTube Shorts monetization article, and was re-confirmed directly against YouTube's own help pages for this article:
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Subscribers | At least 500 |
| Views or watch hours | 3 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days OR 3,000 watch hours in the last year |
| Public uploads | At least 3 in the last 90 days |
| Channel type | Can't be marked "Made for Kids" with a significant number of kids' videos, and can't be affiliated with a music partner under certain SRAV agreements |
| Location | The channel must be in a country YouTube supports for the specific feature (see the Denmark section below) |
| Other | No active strikes, 2-step verification enabled, a linked AdSense account |
It's worth noting this 500-subscriber bar is lower than the full YouTube Partner Program requirement of 1,000 subscribers needed for ad revenue. A channel can have Channel Memberships and Super Thanks switched on well before it qualifies for ordinary ad revenue from Shorts or long-form content.
Per YouTube's own Help Center, a creator can create up to 6 different membership levels at different prices. The levels stack: the highest-priced level automatically gets every perk from the cheaper levels, plus its own extras. Each level must have between 1 and 5 perks — typically badges, custom emoji, members-only posts, live chat access and other exclusive content.
YouTube's own pages don't state a fixed min/max price per level directly on this page, but several independent, mutually consistent industry sources put the range at $0.99 to $99.99/month, with $2.99, $4.99 and $9.99 as the most common tiers among creators using the feature. That figure isn't primary-source-confirmed and is presented here as industry-observed, not an official limit from YouTube itself.
Super Thanks is a structurally different mechanic from Channel Memberships: it is not a subscription, but a one-off amount a viewer can voluntarily give on a single video — including a video uploaded years earlier. Per several mutually independent sources, Super Thanks is offered at four fixed price points: $2, $5, $10 and $50; the amount appears as a highlighted, colored comment under the video, visible to everyone. YouTube's own Help Center confirms "a few different price points" exist without itself stating the specific figures — the four amounts above are therefore secondary-sourced, not directly quoted from YouTube.
Super Thanks rolled out globally to all eligible creators on 26 April 2022, per contemporaneous TechCrunch coverage — the feature is far from new in 2026, but it's rarely covered in a Danish context, part of the reason for this article.
Super Thanks is often confused with Super Chat and Super Stickers — they aren't the same thing. Super Chat and Super Stickers are limited to livestreams: a viewer pays to highlight their own message or send an animated sticker in a live chat while it's running. Super Thanks instead works on any uploaded video, both livestreams and ordinary, pre-recorded content — including videos that are years old and no longer actively promoted.
Per several mutually independent industry sources, the creator keeps 70% of both Channel Memberships and Super Thanks revenue, with YouTube keeping the remaining 30% — the same split for both features. It's worth being precise here: YouTube's own help pages for both features don't themselves state this percentage anywhere this article could find directly — it's presented as consistently industry-observed, not a figure quoted from YouTube itself. Payouts are bundled into the regular monthly AdSense for YouTube payment alongside other revenue, and if a viewer gets a purchase refunded, the creator's share is deducted back from the same AdSense account.
Yes — for Channel Memberships, this can be confirmed directly: YouTube's own Help Center has a dedicated pricing page, "Pricing for channel memberships on YouTube," with Denmark selectable as a country, showing concrete DKK prices for Danish members. That confirms Denmark is a supported location for the feature. For Super Thanks, YouTube's own Help Center states the feature is available in "100+ countries," without Denmark being specifically named on any publicly available list this research could find — so it can't be confirmed quite as firmly as for Channel Memberships, but nothing found suggests Denmark is excluded.
| Channel Memberships | Super Thanks | YPP ad revenue (Shorts Creator Pool) | Direct brand deal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who pays | The individual subscribing viewer | The individual viewer giving a one-off amount | YouTube (via advertisers' payments) | The brand directly |
| Payment type | Recurring, monthly | One-off, per video | Share of a pooled fund | Agreed fee |
| Eligibility | 500 subscribers (fan funding threshold) | 500 subscribers (fan funding threshold) | 1,000 subscribers + view/hour requirement | No platform requirement |
| Creator's share | ~70% (industry-observed) | ~70% (industry-observed) | 45% of the Creator Pool allocation | 100% of the agreed fee |
| Requires ad disclosure | No — it isn't advertising for a third party | No — same logic | No — same logic | Yes, see influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU |
IF you're assessing a creator's overall income independence from brand deals → a working membership base or a steady flow of Super Thanks is a useful signal that the core audience is actively paying for content — it captures engagement that raw follower counts don't.
IF you're considering using Channel Memberships or Super Thanks as a payment channel for a brand deal → you can't. Both features are a direct arrangement between YouTube, the creator and the individual viewer — there's no mechanism for a brand to pay into either.
IF the creator already has both features switched on → remember they're income on top of, not instead of, a brand deal — the two don't compete for the same money, and the creator doesn't lose access by taking a sponsorship alongside them.
IF you're comparing a creator against one who instead uses Instagram Subscriptions → the mechanic is similar (recurring payment for exclusive content), but the fee structure differs: Instagram/Meta itself takes 0% and only lets Apple/Google's store fee reduce the payout, while YouTube, per industry sources, takes 30% directly.
The figures below are hypothetical and illustrate only how the two payout models work mechanically — they are not a documented creator income figure and not a real Make Influence customer case.
Channel Memberships: A Danish channel runs three membership levels — 29 kr, 59 kr and 99 kr/month — with 400, 150 and 50 paying members respectively. Gross revenue: (400 × 29) + (150 × 59) + (50 × 99) = 11,600 + 8,850 + 4,950 = 25,400 kr/month. After YouTube's industry-observed 30% share, the creator keeps 25,400 × 0.70 = 17,780 kr/month.
Super Thanks: A single video receives 40 Super Thanks gifts at the mid $5 tier (roughly 35 kr at a rate of 7 kr/USD). Gross revenue for that one video: 40 × 35 kr = 1,400 kr. After the same 30% share, the creator keeps 1,400 × 0.70 = 980 kr — for a single video, not a recurring income line.
In Make Influence's experience, Channel Memberships and Super Thanks are rarely mentioned when a brand evaluates a YouTube creator for a partnership — the focus typically lands entirely on subscriber count and average views. But a membership base that's actually paying month after month is, in our view, a stronger signal of an engaged core audience than raw follower counts alone, because it requires an active, repeated decision from the viewer to pay. We recommend asking about it during a briefing or evaluation — in line with how we recommend verifying an influencer's audience before a collaboration generally — without treating it as a requirement, since most Danish YouTube creators, in our experience, still draw the bulk of their income from brand deals and ad revenue, not fan funding.
No. Both require only the lower fan funding threshold: 500 subscribers plus either 3 million Shorts views in 90 days or 3,000 watch hours in a year. The full YPP requirement of 1,000 subscribers only applies to ordinary ad revenue.
Per several independent sources, 70% for both features, with YouTube keeping 30%. YouTube's own help pages don't themselves state this figure.
No. Super Chat (and Super Stickers) is limited to livestreams while they're running. Super Thanks works on any uploaded video, including older, already-published ones.
No. Both features are an arrangement between YouTube, the creator and the individual viewer — there's no mechanism for a brand to pay in through them. A brand that wants to pay directly instead uses an ordinary fee or a comparable setup to what's described for TikTok's Creator Rewards Program.
For Channel Memberships, yes — confirmed directly on YouTube's own pricing page for Denmark. For Super Thanks it can't be confirmed quite as firmly, since Denmark isn't specifically named on any publicly available list, but nothing suggests the country is excluded.
No. Channel Memberships and Super Thanks are money from a viewer to a creator with no product purchase involved. YouTube Shopping's affiliate program is an entirely different mechanic, where a merchant pays commission when a viewer buys a tagged product. See YouTube Shopping's affiliate program, explained for the full breakdown.
No. Hype is a separate, purely non-monetary discovery mechanic for long-form videos uploaded in the last 7 days — viewers spend a weekly allowance of "hypes" to boost a smaller creator's video on a regional leaderboard, with no cash changing hands at all, unlike Channel Memberships and Super Thanks. See YouTube Hype, explained for the full eligibility and points mechanics.
Yes, directly. Per YouTube's own Help Center, a channel that's set as Made for Kids, or that has a significant number of MFK-labeled videos, isn't eligible for Super Thanks at all, and Channel Memberships is unavailable on any individual video labeled that way. See YouTube's Made for Kids (COPPA) classification, explained for the full list of features it switches off, and why a brand sponsorship is unaffected either way.
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