In an exciting move for creators and live streamers, YouTube has officially rolled out Livestream Gifting, a feature that allows viewers to purchase and send gift memberships during live streams. This update comes as part of YouTube’s continued push to empower creators with diverse monetization tools and strengthen community engagement in real time.
Livestream Gifting is now available for creators who are part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) and conduct live sessions or Premieres, further closing the gap between creators and fans while encouraging financial support through community interaction.
How Livestream Gifting Works
With Livestream Gifting, viewers can now purchase channel memberships for other users during a livestream or Premiere. These gifted memberships unlock perks like:
- Exclusive emojis
- Badges
- Access to members-only posts and live chats
- Bonus content (when provided by creators)
The system automatically distributes gifted memberships to viewers who are most engaged with the channel. It’s YouTube’s way of rewarding community loyalty and increasing interaction during live moments.
Boosting Revenue for Creators
For creators, Livestream Gifting adds a new layer of predictable, recurring revenue. While Super Chats and Stickers are great for one-off donations, memberships create long-term relationships. Gifted memberships make it easy for fans to support creators even if they’re not ready to subscribe themselves.
This is especially beneficial for small to mid-tier creators who are steadily building their subscriber base and looking for creative monetization strategies beyond ad revenue.
Why YouTube Introduced Gifting
The move follows the success of gifting features on platforms like Twitch, which has long benefited from a community-supported revenue model. YouTube is clearly positioning itself as a serious contender in creator-first monetization by giving fans more ways to contribute meaningfully.
YouTube representatives stated:
“We’ve seen how much fans want to support their favorite creators, and gifting makes it easier than ever to do that — while helping more people engage with exclusive content and features.”
Eligibility and Setup
To activate Livestream Gifting, a creator must:
- Be in the YouTube Partner Program
- Have channel memberships enabled
- Host a livestream or Premiere
- Ensure monetization is turned on
Once these are in place, gifting becomes visible in the live chat window with a “Gift Memberships” option during the stream.
Viewer Experience: Seamless and Social
From the viewer’s perspective, gifting is designed to be fun and interactive. When someone gifts memberships, a message appears in chat and recipients are notified in real time. This creates a moment of celebration, often triggering additional gifting — a psychological nudge YouTube hopes will boost community generosity.
Gifted viewers get 1 month of membership access, after which they can choose to continue as paying subscribers. This not only encourages trial of membership benefits but also helps creators convert free recipients into paying members.
The Creator Economy Is Evolving
With Livestream Gifting, YouTube is solidifying its position in the creator economy arms race. The platform now boasts a robust ecosystem of monetization tools:
- AdSense Revenue
- Super Chats
- Super Stickers
- Super Thanks
- Paid Memberships
- Shopping & Affiliate Tools
- Livestream Gifting (latest addition)
Each tool is designed to maximize fan participation and reward creators who consistently build communities around their content.
Digilogy: Your Partner for YouTube Growth
While YouTube’s new monetization features offer powerful opportunities, they work best when supported by strategic content planning, audience targeting, and SEO optimization.That’s where Digilogy comes in. We help creators and businesses leverage YouTube’s ecosystem for revenue and growth.
From thumbnail design to video strategy to channel monetization — we offer tailored YouTube marketing services designed to make every view count.Contact Digilogy today to scale your YouTube presence with smart strategies and end-to-end support.
