Free tool, no sign upHow long until I hit 4,000 watch hours?
Estimate how many days your live stream needs to reach the YouTube Partner Program's 4,000 public watch hours, or 3,000 for the lower tier. Enter your numbers below. Everything runs in your browser.
Last 12 months, from YouTube Studio's Earn tab.
The average number watching your live stream at once.
24 for a stream that never stops.
Per month. Leave at 0 to count the live stream only.
Watch hours per day
240
From the live stream
To 4,000 hours
15 days (about 2.1 weeks)
3,500 hours to go. Ad revenue tier.
To 3,000 hours
11 days
2,500 hours to go. Lower tier.
This assumes every hour is saved as a public replay. At 24 hours a day, one unbroken broadcast passes YouTube's 12 hour archive limit, so without restarts most of these hours would not count. Restart the broadcast every few hours (Loopcast's Auto restart does it every 6, 8 or 11 hours).
Estimate only. YouTube decides which watch hours are valid, and hours older than 12 months drop off.
How the calculator works
Every hour your stream is live, each viewer watching adds one hour of watch time. So the daily gain is your average concurrent viewers multiplied by the hours you are live per day, plus whatever your normal uploads earn. The calculator divides the hours you still need by that daily gain and rounds up to whole days.
For example, 10 average concurrent viewers on a stream that runs 24 hours a day is 240 watch hours a day. Starting from 500 hours, that clears 4,000 in about 15 days, as long as every one of those hours is saved in a public replay.
The 12 hour replay limit, and why it matters here
Live watch time only counts toward YouTube's public watch hours from a saved, public replay. YouTube automatically archives live streams only when they are under 12 hours long. Its help page warns that longer streams may not be saved at all, so a 24/7 loop that never ends keeps at most its first 12 hours, and often nothing.
The fix is to end the broadcast and start a new one before it reaches 12 hours. Loopcast's Auto restart for replays does this for you on Creator and Pro: it restarts the broadcast every 6, 8 or 11 hours on the same stream key, so each part is saved as its own public replay. Your video keeps playing, and viewers see about 10 seconds of switchover.
- ·Keep the stream Public. Unlisted and private replays do not count.
- ·Don't delete old replays. Deleted videos take their watch hours with them.
- ·Use content you own or have the rights to. A copyright strike hurts far more than slow growth.
What YouTube does not fully document
YouTube doesn't publish exactly how it filters watch time it considers invalid, or exactly how live hours are attributed when a replay is saved. This page uses YouTube's published thresholds and the simple viewers times hours model. Real results can be lower. It is a planning estimate, not a promise of monetization.
Frequently asked questions
Do live stream watch hours count toward the YouTube Partner Program?
Yes, but only through the saved replay. YouTube's eligibility page counts watch hours from long form videos you've set public, and it excludes live streams that are unlisted, deleted or not converted to a video on demand. Once a stream ends and its public replay is saved, the watch time from the live broadcast counts.
Why does a 24/7 stream lose watch hours?
YouTube only archives live streams shorter than 12 hours automatically. A broadcast that runs for days or weeks without ending may never be saved as a replay, so its watch time never lands in a public video. Restarting the broadcast every few hours keeps each part under the limit so every part is saved.
What are the YouTube Partner Program requirements?
For ad revenue sharing: 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months or 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days. In countries where the expanded program is available, a lower tier for fan funding features (memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks) needs 500 subscribers, 3 public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours in 12 months or 3 million Shorts views in 90 days.
Does hitting 4,000 hours mean my channel will be monetized?
No. Meeting the thresholds lets you apply. YouTube then reviews the channel against its policies, including reused and repetitious content, before approving it. This calculator only estimates when the numbers could line up.
Why is my real number different from this estimate?
YouTube decides which hours are valid, the 12 month window is rolling so older hours drop off, and concurrent viewers change through the day. Treat the result as a rough planning number and check YouTube Studio's Earn tab for your real count.
Keep every live hour counting, without your PC
Loopcast runs your playlist as a 24/7 YouTube live stream in the cloud and restarts it every 6, 8 or 11 hours, so each part is saved as a public replay. Try Loopcast free.
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