YouTube’s Monetary System: Monthly or Quarterly?

Any YouTuber can earn passive income monthly if they’ve reached the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP) requirement? Yes, the YouTube Partner Program gives creators access to start generating revenue with their channel once they reach a minimum of 1,000 YouTube subscribers and 4,000 watch ours in the last twelve months.

For anyone looking to start earning passive income via YouTube, but have the question, “Does YouTube pay monthly?” The answer is YES YouTube pays monthly. However, there are other things you must know if you want to start making money from YouTube. So, in this article, we will discuss all you need to know about how often YouTube pays and other YouTube monetization tips.

1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Brand Sponsorship
3. Selling Own Products or Services

• More FAQs About How Much YouTubers Make

Part 1: How Often Does YouTube Pay

As mentioned earlier, YouTube pays monthly. It’s usually within the first 10-14 days of a new month (10th day or 14th day of a new month). However, to be able to receive your funds, you must reach the minimum threshold of your local currency as required by YouTube. For example, $100 for content creators within the United States.

Also, you must comply with the YouTube monetization policies and not be suspended by YouTube in the past month.

Part 2: How Does YouTube Pay – Typical Methods Used

Research shows that YouTube’s average pay rate is within the range of $0.01 to $0.03 per ad view. This means for every 1,000 ad views, a YouTuber could earn $18, while for every 1,000 video views, you could earn $3 to $5. You might ask “Does YouTube pay creators per view?’ Well, the answer is NO, YouTube doesn’t pay creators per view. They pay per monetized view.

However, to get started making money per monetized views, you need to join the YouTube Partnership Program. As mentioned earlier, YouTube Partner Program (YPP) gives creators access to start generating revenue with their channel once they reach a minimum of 1,000 YouTube subscribers and 4,000 watch ours in the last twelve months. It gives creators access to different monetization features like advertising, merchandise sales, fan funding, and lots more.

● Earn Money Through Ad Views

Advertisers pay for YouTube ads based on clicks and impressions, and YouTube monetizes creators’ videos by displaying these ads in different advertising formats like pre-roll, display, etc. So, once these ads display in your video and your subscribers click on them, you get paid.

As mentioned earlier, YouTube’s average pay rate is within the range of $0.01 to $0.03 per ad view, while for every 1,000 video views, you could earn $3 to $5. But, out of the money earned, YouTube pays creators 55% and keeps the remaining 45%.

With Ads, you can earn money based on every 1,000 views get from your video and the number of clicks you get on ads placed on your video. However, for ads to be displayed on your videos, you must adhere to YouTube’s creator guidelines, as videos that contain foul language, violence, adult content, and other unwanted subjects won’t have ads displayed on them.

The image below displays the requirement to start displaying ads on your YouTube videos;

Part 3: More Opportunities To Earn More Money From YouTube

Besides ads, there are other ways to monetize your YouTube channel. You could also earn through a corporate sponsorship from brands, selling your products, etc. Keep reading to find out more ways to earn money from YouTube.

1. Affiliate Marketing

You might have come across YouTube videos where the creators talk about their favorite brands and add links to the platform for the brand. Well, that’s a form of affiliate marketing.

YouTube Affiliate marketing involves a creator reviewing a product like makeup, digital cameras, mobile phone, and lots more including services in their video. Plus, the links to the recommended product or services are usually added to the description of the video. So, once a viewer clicks on the link and purchases the product or service, the YouTuber gets a certain percentage of the money.

If you get an affiliate link to a product on a platform, you can create a video relating to that product, then in your video description, you’ll add the affiliate link there. So, when anyone purchases the product using your affiliate link, you’ll get your percentage off the price they paid. On average, companies will be willing to pay within 5% to 50% of the purchase price.

2. Brand Sponsorship

The fact YouTube is the most used video-playing platform makes it a great spot for businesses and organizations to promote their product or services. So, once you grow your YouTube subscribers to a certain level, you’ll receive emails from companies and brands to partner with you to sponsor their products or service. Honestly, there are lots of brands who will be happy to pay you to promote their products/services,

Research shows that sponsorship deals are usually within the range of $200 to over $10k. It all depends on how the brand/organization is willing to cooperate. It could be pre-roll, post-roll, etc.

Also, your YouTube channel data statistics such as total subscribers, average video impressions in the past months, likes, comments, and more are other factors that will determine how much brands will offer you to seal a sponsorship deal.

3. Selling Own Products or Services

Selling your products or services is another great way to monetize your YouTube channel. You could sell your merch, gaming tools, and other things related to the theme of the content you create for your loyal fans to purchase.

If you don’t have a product, you could charge your viewers for exclusive content, sell online courses for dropshipping, sell cryptocurrency trading e-books, etc. The only thing is you need to have a large following to earn well from this YouTube monetization option.

Part 4: More FAQs About How Much YouTubers Make

At this point, you should already have a brief idea of how YouTube monetization works. However, if you still want to discover more information, keep reading to check out more FAQs on how much YouTubers make.

1. Who is The Richest YouTuber?

The richest YouTuber as of 2021 is Mr. Beast. He has made up to $54 million in revenue from his YouTube channel.

2. Do YouTubers Get Paid Well?

The rate at which YouTubers get paid depends on certain factors like the audience they aim for, how frequently they publish the nature of their material, and lots more. As we mentioned in the article, the average pay rate on YouTube is within the range of $0.01 to $0.03 per ad view, while for every 1,000 video views, you could earn $3 to $5. Also, research shows that the highest-paying YouTube category is the “Make Money Online” category with an average CPM of $13.52.

3. How much does a YouTuber make a year?

Honestly, there’s no specific answer to how much a YouTuber makes a year. However, research shows that an average YouTuber makes up to $60,000 annually.

Final Words

As you can see, there are different ways you could monetize your YouTube channel. Be it via affiliate marketing, ads, selling products, or more. Regardless of how you want to monetize your YouTube channel, the article has covered the basics you must know to make the process easier.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Part 1: How Often Does YouTube Pay

As mentioned earlier, YouTube pays monthly. It’s usually within the first 10-14 days of a new month (10th day or 14th day of a new month). However, to be able to receive your funds, you must reach the minimum threshold of your local currency as required by YouTube. For example, $100 for content creators within the United States.

Also, you must comply with the YouTube monetization policies and not be suspended by YouTube in the past month.

Part 2: How Does YouTube Pay – Typical Methods Used

Research shows that YouTube’s average pay rate is within the range of $0.01 to $0.03 per ad view. This means for every 1,000 ad views, a YouTuber could earn $18, while for every 1,000 video views, you could earn $3 to $5. You might ask “Does YouTube pay creators per view?’ Well, the answer is NO, YouTube doesn’t pay creators per view. They pay per monetized view.

However, to get started making money per monetized views, you need to join the YouTube Partnership Program. As mentioned earlier, YouTube Partner Program (YPP) gives creators access to start generating revenue with their channel once they reach a minimum of 1,000 YouTube subscribers and 4,000 watch ours in the last twelve months. It gives creators access to different monetization features like advertising, merchandise sales, fan funding, and lots more.

● Earn Money Through Ad Views

Advertisers pay for YouTube ads based on clicks and impressions, and YouTube monetizes creators’ videos by displaying these ads in different advertising formats like pre-roll, display, etc. So, once these ads display in your video and your subscribers click on them, you get paid.

As mentioned earlier, YouTube’s average pay rate is within the range of $0.01 to $0.03 per ad view, while for every 1,000 video views, you could earn $3 to $5. But, out of the money earned, YouTube pays creators 55% and keeps the remaining 45%.

With Ads, you can earn money based on every 1,000 views get from your video and the number of clicks you get on ads placed on your video. However, for ads to be displayed on your videos, you must adhere to YouTube’s creator guidelines, as videos that contain foul language, violence, adult content, and other unwanted subjects won’t have ads displayed on them.

The image below displays the requirement to start displaying ads on your YouTube videos;

Part 3: More Opportunities To Earn More Money From YouTube

Besides ads, there are other ways to monetize your YouTube channel. You could also earn through a corporate sponsorship from brands, selling your products, etc. Keep reading to find out more ways to earn money from YouTube.

1. Affiliate Marketing

You might have come across YouTube videos where the creators talk about their favorite brands and add links to the platform for the brand. Well, that’s a form of affiliate marketing.

YouTube Affiliate marketing involves a creator reviewing a product like makeup, digital cameras, mobile phone, and lots more including services in their video. Plus, the links to the recommended product or services are usually added to the description of the video. So, once a viewer clicks on the link and purchases the product or service, the YouTuber gets a certain percentage of the money.

If you get an affiliate link to a product on a platform, you can create a video relating to that product, then in your video description, you’ll add the affiliate link there. So, when anyone purchases the product using your affiliate link, you’ll get your percentage off the price they paid. On average, companies will be willing to pay within 5% to 50% of the purchase price.

2. Brand Sponsorship

The fact YouTube is the most used video-playing platform makes it a great spot for businesses and organizations to promote their product or services. So, once you grow your YouTube subscribers to a certain level, you’ll receive emails from companies and brands to partner with you to sponsor their products or service. Honestly, there are lots of brands who will be happy to pay you to promote their products/services,

Research shows that sponsorship deals are usually within the range of $200 to over $10k. It all depends on how the brand/organization is willing to cooperate. It could be pre-roll, post-roll, etc.

Also, your YouTube channel data statistics such as total subscribers, average video impressions in the past months, likes, comments, and more are other factors that will determine how much brands will offer you to seal a sponsorship deal.

3. Selling Own Products or Services

Selling your products or services is another great way to monetize your YouTube channel. You could sell your merch, gaming tools, and other things related to the theme of the content you create for your loyal fans to purchase.

If you don’t have a product, you could charge your viewers for exclusive content, sell online courses for dropshipping, sell cryptocurrency trading e-books, etc. The only thing is you need to have a large following to earn well from this YouTube monetization option.

Part 4: More FAQs About How Much YouTubers Make

At this point, you should already have a brief idea of how YouTube monetization works. However, if you still want to discover more information, keep reading to check out more FAQs on how much YouTubers make.

1. Who is The Richest YouTuber?

The richest YouTuber as of 2021 is Mr. Beast. He has made up to $54 million in revenue from his YouTube channel.

2. Do YouTubers Get Paid Well?

The rate at which YouTubers get paid depends on certain factors like the audience they aim for, how frequently they publish the nature of their material, and lots more. As we mentioned in the article, the average pay rate on YouTube is within the range of $0.01 to $0.03 per ad view, while for every 1,000 video views, you could earn $3 to $5. Also, research shows that the highest-paying YouTube category is the “Make Money Online” category with an average CPM of $13.52.

3. How much does a YouTuber make a year?

Honestly, there’s no specific answer to how much a YouTuber makes a year. However, research shows that an average YouTuber makes up to $60,000 annually.

Final Words

As you can see, there are different ways you could monetize your YouTube channel. Be it via affiliate marketing, ads, selling products, or more. Regardless of how you want to monetize your YouTube channel, the article has covered the basics you must know to make the process easier.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

The Realities of YouTube View Calculation

How Does YouTube Count Views? It’s Not as Simple as You Think

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

Best YouTube Video Editor - Filmora

After you have created your YouTube channel, do you want to edit videos and upload your first video? Here we recommend using Filmora to easily edit YouTube videos.

You can use Filmora to make YouTube videos with built-in royalty-free audio. Filmora also can help you make YouTube intros. It includes more than 500 templates, transitions, effects, and text resources.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

You May Also Like:
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

Best YouTube Video Editor - Filmora

After you have created your YouTube channel, do you want to edit videos and upload your first video? Here we recommend using Filmora to easily edit YouTube videos.

You can use Filmora to make YouTube videos with built-in royalty-free audio. Filmora also can help you make YouTube intros. It includes more than 500 templates, transitions, effects, and text resources.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

You May Also Like:
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

Best YouTube Video Editor - Filmora

After you have created your YouTube channel, do you want to edit videos and upload your first video? Here we recommend using Filmora to easily edit YouTube videos.

You can use Filmora to make YouTube videos with built-in royalty-free audio. Filmora also can help you make YouTube intros. It includes more than 500 templates, transitions, effects, and text resources.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

You May Also Like:
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How does YouTube count views? It’s not as simple as the number of clicks your video gets. If someone sits and refreshes your video over and over without letting it play for any significant time, those refreshes won’t be recorded as views. There is a lot more that goes into the calculation.

1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count
2. How Does YouTube Count Views
3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?
4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count
5. The Skip & Skim
6. Frozen YouTube View Counts
7. The 301 Mark

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1. Not Everyone Who Clicks Adds to Your View Count

YouTube doesn’t provide a clear definition of what counts as a view, but we know that someone clicks on your video, and clicking right away doesn’t count. That’s how we know that watch time is a factor. Some studies conclude that a full 30 seconds need to be viewed to register as one view, but there is no way to know for sure.

2. How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube wants to be sure that views are coming from humans and not bots. So, during the first couple of hours after you publish a video, YouTube seems to be stricter about what they count. The views which are counted are the ones that YouTube believes to be legitimate. Sometimes, it ends up skipping legitimate views for the sake of discretion.

Once this window of time passes, it is likely that you will see the view counter start to update a lot more frequently. The counter could still revert to updating slower and more hesitantly, though, if YouTube’s algorithm thinks it’s detecting something fishy.

At times, your view count can even be frozen temporarily until the algorithm can validate the views you are receiving. This is done to ensure a fair and positive experience for everyone who creates content. View counts can be adjusted by the algorithm in either direction.

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3. How Does YouTube’s View Count Algorithm Work?

Termed by many as one of the most boggling algorithms of all time, it is really hard to decode the complete dynamics of the YouTube view count algorithm.

There are some tests you can run yourself to try to unpack it.

If you upload a video and then set it as unlisted it won’t get any public views so you can experiment by doing things like watching for different lengths of time and seeing what gets counted.

You’ll have to use a computer in a different location and make sure the account is not the same as the one you used to upload the video. Now, you need to watch the video for roughly 15 seconds. The key here is to keep it less than 30 seconds. You will see that the view did not add to the count. If you repeat this process on multiple computers at varying locations and with different accounts and you are likely to find the same result.

However, if you watch it for 30 seconds or longer it is likely that the count will go up.

We are adding ‘likely’ here because, despite this 30-second rule which has been decoded, there are other factors that might contribute to whether a view is counted as well as other automated scanning techniques at play.

Try to watch the same video numerous times in a single day. You will find that the count will add up at first, but after some time it will stop. YouTube knows that a lot of times people replay some videos over and over when they really enjoy them, and so they want to factor replays into their algorithm because they suggest quality. However, to avoid spam views, the counter will stop after a certain point.

4. Account Tracking Factors - Some Viewers Don’t Count

Something else that can affect whether a view is counted is the behavior of the account which watches it prior to landing on your video’s watch page. Sometimes, YouTube might feel that there is an increased chance a particular account is actually a bot, and then views from that account might not be added.

One way that YouTube might flag an account as a potential bot is if it is jumping between videos directly without navigating through recommendations, the search engine, or the account’s subscriber feed (how are they getting between these watch page URLs if they aren’t clicking on anything YouTube can record?). To add to it, if the viewer is watching each of the videos for almost 30 seconds exactly (or less) there is an increased probability that it is not a human but a bot (or a human watching the bare minimum as part of a view exchange program).

Any bot-like action will result in an account’s views do not be added to your view count.

5. The Skip & Skim

It’s not uncommon for viewers to watch a video for say five seconds, skip forwards a bit and watch for another ten seconds as they look for a specific part. It is hard to say whether skipping through a video, but watching a scattered 30 seconds, would count as a view or not.

6. Frozen YouTube View Counts

Sometimes YouTube will freeze a view count in order to check that it is accurate. When the count is unfrozen, the count may jump up as views are validated or it can go down if YouTube detects a problem.

You can use YouTube’s analytics reports to monitor an estimate of your potential views, but there is no assurance that this data will completely match your official view count.

7. The 301 Mark

You may have seen a lot of videos that have a stagnant count of 301 views. The algorithm behind YouTube’s view counting system believes that any video which has fetched higher than 300 views has the ability to impact people’s perception of quality on YouTube. They do not want the homepage to be crowded with artificially popular videos.

This is why view counts are often frozen at 301. The employees at YouTube then manually verify whether the views obtained so far are legitimate or fake. Once the employees are sure that the views are legit, the counter is unfrozen and you will see an upward swing.

During the period when the view count is frozen every legitimate view is still counted, just not added immediately. Once the YouTube team is sure that your videos are not getting fake traffic, your view count will be updated to include views that were registered during the frozen phase. However, YouTube says it won’t flag videos at 301 views anymore.

Conclusion

In short, we know YouTube expects a viewer to watch a video for around 30 seconds before it counts a view, that views from suspicious accounts are not counted, and that YouTube can decide to freeze your view count while they review your views. They are protecting the site from becoming saturated with videos that only look popular because of bots. Ultimately, ‘how does YouTube count views’ isn’t a question anyone but YouTube can answer for sure, but we do know it isn’t as simple as ‘a view is someone clicking on your video’.

If you want to engage your audience with cool effects and Filmora is the best choice to make a split-screen and green screen video for YouTubers. Download it now to have a try!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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