Start a YouTube live stream — requirements, methods, vertical live and what triggers restrictions (November 2026)

• No live streaming restrictions in the past 90 days.
• The channel must be verified.
• You must be at least 16. Streams that ignore the minimum age are removed and live streaming can be disabled for a while.
• Mobile streaming has its own requirements; check the mobile live stream section of the help page.

Start from Create in the top right of YouTube Studio, then Go live. The Stream tab starts right away and the Manage tab schedules one.

When a live stream is vertical (9:16), viewers can watch it full screen on a phone and scroll through other live streams like the Shorts feed. Streaming from the live control room sends landscape (16:9) and vertical (9:16) together by default; the vertical version is a center crop of the landscape stream.

Change the vertical layout under the Manage tab: pick a scheduled stream and use Edit layout under the vertical preview. The options are Center crop, Fit to phone width and Stacked. To send both with a third-party encoder, choose RTMP(S) on the Stream tab and set a second stream key for the vertical stream.

• Community Guidelines: a strike or a stream stopped under policy. Streams showing someone carrying or handling a firearm are not allowed.
• Copyright: a live stream that receives a copyright strike, or one that matches another copyrighted broadcast.
• Age: streams with only under-16s and no adult may be removed or have chat disabled. For an adult to co-stream, give them Editor or higher access and show them clearly on screen.
• Made for kids: live chat, chat replay, Super Chat, comments and scheduled-stream notifications are disabled.
• Daily limit: after reaching the limit for creating live streams, try again in 24 hours.

• Made for kids
• Community Guidelines strikes
• Channel team permissions

The help pages also describe members-only live streams as a way to reward your most loyal viewers and encourage non-members to join. Advertiser-friendly content guidelines and limits on paid product placements and direct ads apply to live streams as well.

• Do not share personal details. Avoid saying or showing your name, age, location, school or phone number, including in the background.
• Review visibility and embedding settings with a parent or trusted adult.
• An adult should be nearby or aware, ideally in the same room.
• Use live chat moderation tools and name a trusted adult as a moderator.
• Avoid sensitive topics, arguments and crude language. What you say and do live can be seen by many people and may be recorded.

Shortsmith is a tool for making vertical (9:16) videos with a live preview. It has no feature for broadcasting a live stream, but the vertical framing sense you build with Shorts helps when you prepare a vertical live. For ads and support during a live stream, see the monetization post below.

• Live stream monetization and mid-roll

Checking these seven points covers most “why can’t I go live?” situations.

• No live restriction in 90 days, a verified channel and age 16+ are required.
• Pick mobile, webcam, encoder or console to suit the content.
• From Create then Go live in Studio, the Stream tab starts now and the Manage tab schedules.
• Landscape (16:9) and vertical (9:16) go out together by default; vertical is a center crop.
• Set up vertical before the stream starts; it cannot be added afterward.
• Links in chat and description are not clickable in the vertical live feed.
• Copyright, guideline and age problems can restrict live and cannot be bypassed with another channel.

YouTube Help updates its documents whenever a feature changes, and translations lag by language, so the Korean and English versions can differ slightly. The figures and conditions here come from pages read on November 8, 2026 and may have changed since.

Before making an important decision, open the original links under Sources and compare them with what you see now. Eligibility rules, time limits and numeric caps change most often. If a menu name looks different, look for a similar item in the same place; if it is missing, the feature may not be enabled for your account yet. Statements about Shortsmith reflect its screens and code as of November 2026.