YouTube Watch Hour Planner
See your real
path to the threshold.
Enter your real numbers for each content format you use, and see exactly how many weeks it’ll take to hit your watch-hour target — and whether that fits your deadline.
Your Starting Point
Check YouTube Studio → Analytics
— weeks from today
Your Content Mix
Different formats earn watch hours differently. Turn on the formats you actually plan to use and enter your honest expected numbers for each.
📌 Shorts aren’t included here on purpose — Shorts run on a separate, views-based threshold (currently 10M views/90 days), not the hours-based path this planner tracks. Shorts still help indirectly by driving viewers to your long-form content above.
Tip: releasing your bigger uploads as Premieres (a scheduled countdown with live chat) tends to lift these numbers, since people show up and watch together instead of trickling in.
This only counts hours earned while you’re live — replay/VOD watch time afterward isn’t included here, so your real total from each stream is likely higher than what shows below.
Not sure what numbers to use? A brand new channel’s typical long-form video usually runs 400–1,000 views with a 2:30–3:30 avg view duration. Check your own Studio analytics if you have any uploads already.
Your Result
—
time to target at your current mix
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—
Hrs Earned / Wk
—
Hrs Remaining
—
Weeks Left
Does Your Mix Get There In Time?
This shows what happens if you do less, exactly, or more than the plan you entered above — everything scaled together (uploads, streams, all of it).
| If you upload at this pace | Time to hit your target | Meets your deadline? |
|---|
Your YouTube Watch Hour Plan
Your Result
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—
Target—
Hours already banked—
Hours still needed—
Deadline—
Weeks remaining—
Watch hours earned per week (this mix)—
Weeks to hit target at this mix—
On track for deadline?—
Recommendation
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Built for creators tracking watch hours ahead of the February 2027 YPP threshold changes.
Made by Kelechi Mgbemena — Create Inspire Succeed
