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Monetize your live stream

You can earn revenue on your live streams by:

Note: If the player is embedded on an external site with auto start, ads will be turned off for your live stream.

Understand ads on live streams

If your channel is monetized and monetization is turned on for your live stream, YouTube will trigger ads to serve on your content. Pre-roll and display ads are automatically turned on when monetization is turned on for your live stream. Mid-roll ads run during the live stream and you can insert them automatically (recommended) or manually.

Note: Ad slots are not guaranteed to serve ads. Our ad systems decide which ad slots may get an ad based on a number of factors to best balance viewer experience, creator earnings, and advertiser values.

Mid-roll ads

Mid-roll ads are video ads that appear to viewers during a live stream. They can appear as standard fullscreen mid-rolls or side-by-side mid-rolls.

Side-by-side mid-rolls are a type of mid-roll that play next to the live stream, allowing you to run mid-rolls with less disruption. This type of mid-roll will automatically show on eligible streams.

Note: Streams with captions turned on will not show side-by-side ads.

Automatic mid-rolls (recommended)

YouTube shows mid-roll ads to viewers at natural breakpoints during a live stream. Choose how often ad breaks happen:

  1. Low: lowest frequency and lowest earnings potential
  2. Medium: mid-level frequency and medium earnings potential
  3. High: highest frequency and highest earnings potential
Note: Your viewers may get ads at different times when you choose automatic mid-rolls.

Automatic mode includes these optimization features:

  • Limits ad disruption to your channel members
  • Temporarily pauses mid-roll ads for viewers who send gifts, Super Chats, and Stickers
  • Snoozes mid-roll ads for all viewers during moments of high engagement
Creators that chose live automatic mid-rolls saw, on average, over 20% uplift in instream ad revenue per hour. This uplift was measured by comparing average instream revenue per hour among channels that turned on live automatic mid-roll ads compared to channels not turned on (averaged across 207 countries, January 2024).

Turn on mid-roll ads

Turn on mid-roll ads for a live stream:

  1. Open YouTube Studio.
  2. Click Create and then Go live.
  3. Start a live stream now from the "Stream" tab or schedule a live stream from the "Manage" tab.
  4. From the top, click Edit and then Monetization.
    • Make sure "Monetization" is set to "On."
  5. Choose when ads appear in your live ad settings:
    • Automatic (recommended)
    • Scheduled: You can choose the amount of time that you want to pass between ads between 6, 12, 18, 24, or 30 minutes.
    • Manual: You can manually select all mid-roll ad breaks while live streaming. If you do not insert any mid-roll ad breaks, no mid-rolls will be served.
    • Note: Your earnings potential may be lower if you select scheduled or manual mid-rolls than when you select automatic mode.
Note: It is not guaranteed that all viewers will get a mid-roll ad. If no ad runs, viewers will continue to watch your live stream. If a viewer skips the ad or the ad ends, they will rejoin the live stream.

Delay a mid-roll ad

In automatic mode, you can delay mid-roll ads during important moments when you don’t want viewers interrupted. In the Live Control Room, go to the top right and click Delay ads . This delays mid-roll ads from showing for 10 minutes. A 5-second countdown will surface in the LCR for you before ads resume.

Note: Manually placed mid-roll ads will still display when the delay ads feature is turned on.
Channel-level settings for mid-roll ads

Monetized channels without rights management can set mid-roll ad defaults for future live streams at the channel level. Channel level settings let you choose monetization settings that will be the default for any newly created live streams.

To choose your channel level settings: Open the Live Control Room and then in the bottom left-hand corner, click Settings .

Notes:

  • Monetization setting is by default 'ON' to the recommended automatic medium option. This setting can always be changed in the Live Control Room channel-level settings.
  • You can opt in for all ad settings at the channel level when streaming with an encoder.
  • Channels with rights management currently don't have channel-level settings.
Live stream ad revenue
You can view a breakdown of your ad revenue from live streams and live replays in YouTube Analytics. To view your ad revenue breakout for live streams, select the Live filter.
Using Elgato's Stream Deck: New option to insert ads using Elgato's Stream Deck by downloading the YouTube plugin.

Take a Break

To set a temporary away screen while you’re live streaming, go to Live Control Room, and click the stop watch to set the away time for 1, 3 or 5 minutes. During this time, ads may be shown to eligible viewers. ads will not run constantly to all viewers; if an ad is not shown then the viewer will see an away slate. You can select the default away slate or choose a custom video from your library.

Example of Default away slate:

Note: The break does not automatically end when the countdown reaches 0. You must go to the Live Control Room to end the break.

Set up an away slate

Choose an away slate to enable the Take a Break feature for your channel.

  1. Open the Live Control Room .
  2. In the bottom-left corner, click Settings .
  3. Click the Overlay for breaks tab.
  4. Choose your overlay settings:
    • Use default overlay: Viewers will see the default away slate when ads are not running.
    • Choose from your video library: Choose a video from your channel to play when ads are not running. The video must be public or unlisted and allow embedding. Premieres, members-only, monetized videos and those with copyright claims are ineligible.

Keep in mind:
For Choose from your video option, ensure that the “Allow embedding” option is checked for the video you selected.

  1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
  2. From the left menu, select Content.
  3. Next to the video you’d like to manage, select Details .
  4. From the bottom, select SHOW MORE.
  5. Check the box next to "Allow embedding" and then SAVE.
Set up the overlay in your encoder

Setup the overlay as a new browser source in your encoder.

Setting up an overlay as a new browser source in your encoder can vary depending on your encoder. For steps on how to do so in OBS, click here.

Note: Not all encoders support browser sources as described. To ensure compatibility, visit the support site for the encoder that you choose to use.
  1. Open the Live Control Room .
  2. In the bottom-left corner, click Settings .
  3. Click Overlay for breaks tab.
  4. Copy the overlay URL.
  5. In your encoder, add a Browser Source by clicking Add Source and then Browser Source.
  6. Create a new browser source.
  7. Paste URL and adjust width/height to match your stream resolution.
  8. Enable "Shutdown source when not visible."
  9. Click OK.

Before going live, test the overlay by following the instructions to Take a Break. Confirm that the away slate is displayed.

The overlay does not affect the stream’s audio sources:

  • Mute your microphone when you step away for your break.
  • For Choose from your video slate, the audio from the video slate will play while you take a break. You may need to adjust your stream’s audio settings to include the video slate’s audio in your stream.

Ending a Break

When you are ready to resume streaming, go to Live Control Room, and click the stop watch to hide the away slate.
Note: If you are unable to end the break in the Live Control Room, you can hide the slate in your encoder by clicking the eye icon in the Browser source.

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