Quick Answer
How to make a YouTube channel: sign in to YouTube with a Google account, open Settings, choose Add or manage channel(s), select Create a channel, then pick a profile picture, name and handle. A phone you own is enough to begin, so the cost can be £0. Ad revenue is separate: from 1 February 2027, new applicants need 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views.
Key Takeaways
- Creating the channel takes a few minutes and is free. The harder part is unlocking features: longer videos need phone verification, and links in descriptions need the “advanced” level.
- You do not need to buy kit first. The three UK retail prices we found run from £40.99 (a light) to £139.99 (a kit with tripod, microphone and light), all subject to change.
- Earning ad revenue has tougher entry rules for new channels from 1 February 2027, and income over £1,000 a year may need telling HMRC.
Plenty of older posts on how to create a YouTube channel 2026 and earlier do not mention the 1 February 2027 changes, so this beginner guide covers them. Every setting and rule below was checked on 2 November 2026 against YouTube Help pages, GOV.UK and retailer listings, and we say where we could not confirm something.
Account: how to make a YouTube channel step by step
Step by step YouTube channel setup
YouTube Help gives these steps for a personal channel that only you manage:
- Sign in to YouTube on a computer or the mobile site, using a Google account.
- Click your profile picture, then open Settings.
- In the Account section, select Add or manage channel(s).
- Click Create a channel.
- Choose a profile picture and type in your name and handle (the @name people use to find you).
- Click Create channel.
If you are working out how to start a YouTube channel from scratch, that is genuinely all the account side needs. The channel starts with “standard” features straight away, provided you have no active Community Guidelines strikes (more on those levels below).
Personal channel or Brand Account
If you want a business or other name instead of your own, YouTube Help describes a different route. Go to your channel list, choose Create a new channel (or pick a Brand Account you already manage), then choose a profile picture, name and handle. That creates a new Brand Account. If the Brand Account already has a channel, you cannot create another one on it.
YouTube Help also says that if you use a supervised experience, you may not be able to create a channel.
How to make a YouTube channel on phone vs. pc
YouTube’s creation page gives one set of steps for both computer and mobile, and it names only the mobile site, not the YouTube app. We could not find an official page with separate app steps, so we have not written any. We did not test the process on a phone or a computer.
What the official pages do tell us about the difference:
- The page for setting your channel audience describes the steps in YouTube Studio on the web.
- The feature eligibility steps are written for a computer (Settings, Channel, Feature eligibility).
- Upload defaults only affect videos uploaded through your browser. Uploads from a phone ignore them.
- Live streaming on a computer is listed as an intermediate feature.
Our reading: create the channel wherever is convenient, but do the settings work on a computer, because that is where YouTube documents it. Video files are large, so if you film and upload on a phone over mobile data, our guide to checking mobile data usage on an iPhone shows how to keep an eye on it.
Channel basics: description, keywords and settings
YouTube channel description template
YouTube Help does not publish a description template, so the one below is our own suggestion, not an official format. Swap the square brackets for your details:
[Channel name] publishes [type of video] about [topic] for [audience].
New videos: [day or schedule].
Start with: [link to your best video or playlist]
Business enquiries: [email address]
The first line is the one a new visitor reads, so say what the channel covers and who it is for. One catch: YouTube Help lists clickable links in channel details and video descriptions as an advanced feature, so links may not be clickable until your channel reaches that level.
How to add keywords to YouTube channel tags
There are two different things people call “tags”, and they sit in different places.
- Channel keywords: in YouTube Studio, go to Settings, then Channel, then Basic info. YouTube Help says “You can add keywords related to your channel with this setting.”
- Video tags: these belong to individual videos. You can set tags as an upload default (see below), and YouTube says you can change settings after uploading on the Videos page.
We found no YouTube source saying how much weight keywords or tags carry in search. Treat them as a tidy-up step, and put your topic plainly in the title and description, which is our advice rather than a YouTube rule.
The same page lets you choose your channel’s country of residence. YouTube Help says your Partner Programme eligibility depends on this choice, so set it to where you actually live.
Set the audience before you upload
YouTube requires every creator to say whether content is made for kids, even if it is not. You can set this once for the whole channel in Studio (Settings, Channel, Advanced settings, Audience), choosing made for kids, not made for kids, or review each video. Individual video settings override the channel setting. If you skip it, YouTube says you will have to mark each video yourself.
Getting it wrong has consequences: YouTube Help says inaccurate settings may create compliance issues with the US Federal Trade Commission or other authorities, and that YouTube may take action on your account. If you are unsure, YouTube points creators to its guidance or legal advice.
YouTube advanced settings eligibility
Two different things share the word “advanced”, which causes confusion:
- The Advanced settings tab in Studio (Settings, Channel) holds the audience setting, Google Ads account linking, automatic captions, clips, channel redirect, channel visibility and a third-party AI training option, among others. The pages we read set no separate eligibility test for this tab.
- Advanced features are the ones locked behind verification. Feature eligibility has three levels:
| Level | How you get it | Examples from YouTube Help |
| Standard | Immediately on creating a channel, with no active Community Guidelines strikes | Uploading videos and Shorts, playlists, the Posts tab, all with daily limits |
| Intermediate | Verify your phone number (a code arrives by text or voice call) | Videos longer than 15 minutes, live streaming on a computer, custom thumbnails, podcasts |
| Advanced | Phone verification first, then enough channel history or identity verification with a valid ID or video | Clickable links, pinning comments, chapters, applying for monetisation, higher daily upload limits |
Where to find it: Settings, Channel, Feature eligibility. Only the primary channel owner can verify. YouTube says ID and video reviews usually take 24 hours, that these options are not available to every creator, and that after a rejected second attempt you must wait 30 days. Most active channels, it says, already have enough history to unlock advanced features.
How to link Google Analytics to YouTube channel settings
This is a case where older guides may mislead you. Search Engine Journal reported on 3 February 2021 that Google Analytics stopped collecting data from YouTube channel pages on 1 February 2021, and that linking Google Analytics to YouTube had been removed in November 2020. Historical data stayed accessible, but new data was not tracked. The article pointed creators to YouTube Analytics, which is built into YouTube Studio and collects data automatically for all channels and videos.
YouTube’s current channel settings page, which we read in full for this article, does not mention Google Analytics at all. So we have not written linking steps. We could not find a current official YouTube page confirming either way, so check Studio itself before you rely on this. If you run a separate website, Google Analytics on that site is a different matter and is outside this guide.
Equipment budget in pounds
Start from what you have. A phone already films video, so the honest starting budget is £0: use daylight from a window and a quiet room. Everything below is optional, and all prices are from single retailer listings we read on 2 November 2026. Prices change, and we did not compare shops.
| Item | Retailer | Price seen | What the listing says |
| Rode VideoMicro II (on-camera microphone) | Wex Photo Video | £72.00 (shown reduced from £79.00) | Needs no batteries; 3.5mm output, with cables for connecting to a smartphone or camera |
| Neewer 176 LED on-camera light | Neewer UK | £40.99 (regular price) | Dimmable, 3200K/5600K, filters included; batteries, tripod and camera sold separately |
| Joby GorillaPod Mobile Vlogging Kit | Jessops | £139.99 (was £149.99) | Includes a GorillaPod Mobile Rig tripod, Wavo Mobile microphone, Beamo Mini LED light and a GripTight PRO 2 phone mount |
Our own arithmetic: the microphone plus the light come to £112.99, but that leaves out a tripod and phone mount, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with the £139.99 kit. We did not find a separately priced tripod.
One practical check: the Rode listing mentions a 3.5mm output and does not mention USB-C. Check which port your phone has before you buy, as you may need an adapter.
If you later earn money from the channel, kit can matter for tax. GOV.UK says that if your expenses are more than your income, it may be beneficial to claim expenses instead of the £1,000 trading allowance, and that you cannot deduct other expenses if you claim the allowance. That is general information, not advice for your situation.
Monetisation rules: what a new channel needs
YouTube Partner Programme thresholds
The YouTube Partner Programme (YPP) is how a channel earns ad revenue. YouTube’s availability page lists the United Kingdom, though the page also carries a note dated 10 March 2022, so check the live list.
YouTube Help says you also need 2-Step Verification turned on for your Google Account, no active Community Guidelines strikes, and an active AdSense account linked to your channel. Meeting the thresholds does not guarantee acceptance: YouTube says channels go through a review that typically takes about one month.
The thresholds are changing. YouTube’s overview page says updates start on 1 February 2027. Two trade reports of the announcement give the new numbers:
| Route | Subscribers | Watch hours or Shorts views |
| Ad revenue, until 31 January 2027 (YouTube Help) | 1,000 | 4,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months, or 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days |
| Ad revenue, new applicants from 1 February 2027 (reported) | 1,000 | 8,000 qualified watch hours in the past year, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days |
| Fan funding and shopping, unchanged (reported) | 500 | 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views (Search Engine Journal also lists three public uploads in 90 days) |
Search Engine Journal (11 August 2026) and PPC Land (12 August 2026) both report these figures. They also report that channels already in the programme keep their status. The two metrics do not cross-count, so you qualify through watch hours or Shorts views, not a mix. A conflict to note: when our fetch tool read YouTube’s own overview page, it showed the old 4,000 and 10 million figures alongside the 1 February 2027 notice, not the new ones. We have therefore labelled the new numbers as reported and not as confirmed by YouTube. Check the live page before publishing or relying on them.
Search Engine Journal also reports that from 1 February 2027 a channel needs 10 million qualified Shorts views over 90 days to earn from the Shorts Creator Pool in a given month. Check YouTube’s page for the current Shorts payout rules.
Tax: when income needs telling HMRC
GOV.UK’s trading allowance page describes a £1,000 allowance for self-employment, casual services and hiring out personal equipment. It says that if your gross trading income is over £1,000, you must register for Self Assessment, by 5 October following the tax year. The page does not mention YouTube or content creation specifically, and its examples refer to the 2018 to 2019 tax year, so it is a starting point only.
Another page, dated 14 February 2023 and hosted at a Low Incomes Tax Reform Group web address (our fetch tool could not confirm its author), says platform payments, affiliate commissions and sponsorships can be taxable, and that doing this to make a profit means you are trading. If you expect to earn from the channel, check HMRC’s current guidance or speak to an accountant. We cannot say how the rules apply to you.
First uploads: set defaults, then publish
Best YouTube channel upload defaults
Upload defaults are settings applied to all your browser uploads. In Studio, open Settings, then Upload defaults, choose options in the Basic info and Advanced settings tabs, and save. YouTube Help names privacy, category, title, tags and language among the fields, plus others. It does not confirm a default description on the page we read, so check Studio for that.
There is no single “best” set, because YouTube publishes no recommendation. These are our suggestions:
| Setting | Our suggestion | Why (our reasoning) |
| Privacy | Private | Nothing goes public until you have checked the title and thumbnail |
| Category | Closest match to your topic | Saves one step per upload |
| Language | Your video language | Set once, then forget |
| Title | Leave blank | A default title would pre-fill every upload |
| Tags | A few channel-wide topic words | Reuse without retyping |
Remember that defaults skip phone uploads and can be changed per video afterwards.
A sensible first upload
- Set the channel audience (Advanced settings, Audience).
- Set your upload defaults on a computer.
- Upload one short video and check the title, description and audience before making it public.
- If you want videos longer than 15 minutes or custom thumbnails, verify your phone number under Feature eligibility.
- Keep to the Community Guidelines. An active strike can block features and Partner Programme entry.
Before spending anything on kit, publish that first video and see what you actually need.
Last reviewed: 2 November 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make a YouTube channel on a phone instead of a computer?
YouTube Help says to sign in on a computer or the mobile site, open Settings, choose Add or manage channel(s), then Create a channel. It gives no separate app steps, and we did not test the process. Settings pages such as audience are described for the web version of Studio.
How do I add keywords to a YouTube channel?
In YouTube Studio, go to Settings, Channel, then Basic info, where YouTube Help says you can add keywords related to your channel. Video tags are separate: you can set them as an upload default or change them per video on the Videos page afterwards.
Can I link Google Analytics to a YouTube channel?
Search Engine Journal reported in February 2021 that Google Analytics stopped collecting data from YouTube channel pages, with linking removed in November 2020. YouTube’s current channel settings page does not mention it. YouTube Analytics inside Studio collects channel data automatically. Check Studio for anything newer.
What is needed for YouTube advanced features?
Verify your phone number first, which unlocks intermediate features. Advanced features then need enough channel history or identity verification with a valid ID or video. Find it under Settings, Channel, Feature eligibility. YouTube says ID and video verification is not available to all creators.
What should a YouTube channel description say?
Our suggestion, not an official rule: state what the channel covers, who it is for, how often you post and how to contact you. Clickable links in channel details are an advanced feature, so they may not work until your channel reaches that level.
