Sell your YouTube channel

5 min read14 sections

Selling a YouTube channel takes about a week once you have a buyer, because Google makes a new owner wait seven days before they can become primary owner. On EPICSWP the buyer pays first, into escrow, and you hand over nothing until the deal shows the money as held. Listing is free. The buyer pays the 6% escrow fee, and your full asking price goes to your EPICSWP wallet when they confirm.

Free valuation

Enter your channel's numbers for a rough sale value. The method is explained on the calculator page.

Can you sell a YouTube channel?#

Yes. YouTube's Terms of Service don't forbid passing a channel to someone else, and Google built Brand Accounts so a channel can have several owners and change its primary owner. A channel that sits on a personal Google account has to be moved to a Brand Account first. YouTube's settings do that without losing subscribers or videos.

Some things stay with you whatever the price: your AdSense account, any Creator Award plaque, sponsor contracts and merch deals. YouTube's Terms do forbid paying for subscribers, views or likes, and buyers check for it, so a channel grown that way is hard to sell honestly.

How much is my YouTube channel worth?#

Buyers price a channel on what it earns and on how steady its views are, more than on the subscriber count. For a monetized channel with a steady record, brokers usually quote 12 to 36 times its monthly net profit. Two channels with 100,000 subscribers can be worth very different amounts if one gets 5,000 views a video and the other 500. Topic matters as well. Finance, software and business channels usually earn more per thousand views than gaming or entertainment, and viewers in the US, UK or Canada earn more than an audience spread across lower-paying countries.

For a rough number, the free channel value calculator works from subscribers, views, niche, upload rate and monetization. Then compare it with the YouTube channels for sale on EPICSWP right now. Strikes, falling views, reused clips and one video carrying most of the views all lower what a buyer will pay.

How to sell a YouTube channel, step by step#

  1. STEP 01

    Make sure the channel is on a Brand Account. If it is linked straight to your personal Google account, move it first.

  2. STEP 02

    Create a free listing with real figures: subscribers, views for the last 28 days and the last 12 months, revenue if the channel is monetized, the topic and the top audience countries. Add screenshots from YouTube Studio taken this week.

  3. STEP 03

    Answer buyers in the deal chat. Most will ask for a live screen share of YouTube Studio, so be ready to open Analytics and the Earn tab while they watch.

  4. STEP 04

    Agree the price. The buyer pays into escrow, and you wait until the deal shows the payment as held.

  5. STEP 05

    Invite the buyer as an owner from your Google Account: Brand Accounts, the channel, Manage permissions, Invite new users, role Owner.

  6. STEP 06

    After the buyer has been an owner for seven days, make them primary owner and remove yourself.

  7. STEP 07

    The buyer checks the channel and confirms receipt, and your asking price is released to your EPICSWP wallet.

Where to sell a YouTube channel#

  • On a marketplace with escrow, such as EPICSWP. Buyers come to the listing, and someone other than the buyer holds the money until ownership has moved.
  • Through a broker. Brokers take on larger channels with a few years of documented earnings and keep a share of the sale price as their fee.
  • In forums, Discord servers and Telegram groups. Buyers are easy to find there, but nobody stands between you and a buyer who sends a fake payment screenshot.
  • To someone you already know. Even then, write down what is being sold and whether revenue earned before the handover is part of the deal.

Wherever you sell, ask who holds the money, what happens if the buyer disputes the deal, and whether you would have to give up ownership before the payment is safe.

What buyers will check#

  • Analytics for the last 12 months: views, watch time and the traffic sources report.
  • The Earn tab, to see whether the channel is accepted into the YouTube Partner Program or only meets the thresholds.
  • Strikes. Community Guidelines strikes expire after 90 days, and copyright strikes are counted separately.
  • How the videos were made. Clip compilations and mass-produced uploads are what YouTube's reused content and inauthentic content policies take out of the Partner Program.
  • The subscriber graph. Sudden jumps look like bought subscribers.

Your AdSense stays with you#

Your AdSense account never moves with the channel. After the handover the buyer links their own in YouTube Studio, and YouTube lets a channel change its linked AdSense account only once every 32 days. A buyer who has no AdSense account yet has to apply for one first, which can take days. Agree in the deal chat how revenue from the weeks before the handover is treated, so it can't turn into a dispute later.

Scams sellers run into#

  • A buyer who asks to be made an owner "just to check" before paying.
  • A screenshot of a payment, or a link to an escrow site the buyer picked, instead of money you can see.
  • PayPal or card payments that the buyer reverses after the channel has moved.
  • Pressure to carry on the deal in WhatsApp or Telegram.

On EPICSWP you hand over nothing until the deal shows the payment as held. If a buyer goes quiet after the handover, open a dispute and a moderator decides it with the deal chat as evidence.

Fees for sellers#

Listing is free. The buyer pays the escrow fee at checkout, so your full asking price goes to your EPICSWP wallet. The 3% withdrawal fee applies only when you take money out of the wallet.

Questions sellers ask#

Listing takes a few minutes, and finding a buyer depends on the price and the topic. Once you have one, the handover takes at least seven days, because Google only lets someone become primary owner after a week as an owner.
Yes. Many YouTube listings on EPICSWP are not monetized. Buyers price those on views, topic and audience instead of earnings.
You can, but say so in the listing. Buyers will see it in YouTube Studio, a strike lowers the price, and three Community Guidelines strikes within 90 days can get a channel removed.
No. You remove yourself from the channel's Brand Account. Your personal Google account, your Gmail and your other channels stay yours.
When the buyer confirms receipt. Payment is never released on a timer. If the buyer disputes the deal, a moderator decides it from the deal chat.

Ready to sell?

Free to list. Escrow holds the buyer's money until you are paid in full.