YouTube Partner Program Countries: Which List Applies

Published 2026-10-10 · 6 min read · YTDetective

A brass compass on a dark map beside several small glass markers

TL;DR

YouTube Help publishes three country lists that look alike and answer different questions. We counted 99 countries and regions on the expanded Partner Program page, 138 on an availability page dated March 10, 2022, and 109 on the monetized markets page.
The Partner Program requires you to live in a country or region where it is available, and the country that counts is the one set in your channel settings in YouTube Studio.
The lists disagree. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Ukraine are on the 2022 availability page and not on the expanded program page.
Treat the lists as a first check. The final answer is what YouTube Studio's Earn area shows for your channel.

Search for "is YouTube monetization available in my country" and you will find articles with country lists of every length. Most copy one of three YouTube Help pages without saying which. This guide separates the three, shows where they differ and explains how to find out where your own channel stands.

Which country counts: where you live or where your viewers are?

Two different things get mixed up here.

For joining the Partner Program, the rule is about the creator. The eligibility page lists "Live in a country/region where the YouTube Partner Program is available" among the requirements, alongside following the monetization policies, turning on 2-Step Verification and linking one active AdSense for YouTube account. The channel settings page says you pick your channel's country or region in YouTube Studio under Settings, Channel, Basic info, and that Partner Program eligibility is based on that setting.

Where your viewers live is a different matter, and it concerns advertisers. We found no YouTube Help sentence that ties the Partner Program entry rule to viewer location, and we do not claim one exists.

What are the three lists?

Page	Countries listed	What it says it is for
Overview of the expanded YouTube Partner Program	99	Where the expanded program, with its lower entry level, is available to eligible creators
YouTube Partner Program availability	138	Areas where you can sign up for the program. The page carries the date March 10, 2022
YouTube monetized markets	109	Countries where advertisers can target ads, because YouTube has launched a monetized site there

YouTube Help country lists related to the Partner Program (our count of each printed list, read October 10, 2026)

The expanded program page runs from Algeria to Vietnam. The other two both run from Algeria to Zimbabwe. All three counts are our own tally of the lists as printed.

Where do the lists disagree?

The 2022 availability page includes countries the expanded program page does not. Five examples that readers ask about: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. The monetized markets page lists those five as well. The expanded program page lists none of them.

That does not mean creators in those countries cannot earn. The expanded program page makes one narrow statement about creators outside its countries: if you are not in an available country or region, there are no changes to the Partner Program for you, and you should use the standard overview. Read that way, the 99-country list describes where the new, lower entry level (500 subscribers) is offered. It does not replace the older availability page.

The older page also looks dated. It carries the date March 10, 2022 and a note about Russia from that time. We cannot tell from YouTube Help whether it is kept current, so we would not treat it as proof either way.

How do you check your own channel?

01
Check your channel's country in Studio
Open Settings, then Channel, then Basic info. Eligibility is based on this setting.
02
Open the Earn area
YouTube Studio shows what applies to your channel. This is the answer that counts.
03
Select Get notified
YouTube Help says it sends an email once you meet the eligibility thresholds.
04
Compare the country with the lists
Use the lists above as a first check only, and trust Studio if they differ.

What can you check from the outside?

The country a channel sets for itself is part of the public channel data in the YouTube Data API, where snippet.country holds "the country with which the channel is associated". The owner chooses it, so it shows where the owner says the channel is, not where the viewers are. Our Monetization Checker does not use it, because Partner Program status is not public, and our guide on how to tell if a channel is monetized explains why.

Confidence note

The requirement text, the settings path and the dates come from the five YouTube Help pages and the YouTube Data API reference listed under sources, read on October 10, 2026. The country counts are our own tally of lists as printed, and the comparisons between lists are our own. YouTube can change any page, and a name that looks missing from one list may appear under another spelling.

FAQ

Is the YouTube Partner Program available in my country?

Start with the lists on YouTube Help, then check the Earn area of YouTube Studio for your channel. Studio is the answer that counts, since the lists differ.

Can I monetize if my viewers are in another country?

The entry rule is about where the creator lives. YouTube Help lists living in an available country or region as a requirement, and bases eligibility on the country set in your channel settings.

Why do the lists show different numbers of countries?

They answer different questions. One covers the expanded program, one is an availability page dated March 10, 2022, and one lists markets where advertisers can target ads.

Does changing my channel's country change my eligibility?

YouTube Help says eligibility is based on the country or region setting in your channel settings. It does not say what else you must do when you change it.

Can a tool tell me which countries earn the most?

Not from these pages. They list where the program or ads are available and say nothing about rates. Our Money Calculator uses country factors we chose ourselves, which are assumptions and not YouTube data.

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