Monetisation & Revenue
Eight-minute rule
Also called: 8 minute rule, mid-roll threshold
That is all it is, an eligibility line. Being eligible for ad breaks says nothing about whether anybody is still watching when one arrives, and a slot at minute six only earns if somebody reaches minute six. Since May 2025 YouTube has moved more mid-rolls towards natural break points and added automatic slots to videos that previously carried only manual ones, so the fine control creators used to exercise over placement matters less than it once did. Treat eight minutes as a floor that some ideas clear on their own. Stretching an idea to reach it produces a longer video and very little else.