Super Chat
Quick answer: A Super Chat is a paid message a viewer buys during a YouTube live stream or Premiere to highlight and pin their comment above the regular live chat feed. The amount paid sets the message's color, character limit, and how long it stays pinned — anywhere from a few seconds up to 5 hours at the $500 maximum. Super Chat is one of YouTube's fan funding features; eligible creators keep 70% of confirmed revenue.
How it looks in chat
When a viewer sends a Super Chat, their comment breaks out of the normal scrolling chat and appears as a colored banner, with their name and profile photo surfaced at the top of the feed for as long as their tier stays pinned. Everyone watching — not just the creator — sees it, which is the point: it's built for social proof. A visible string of Super Chats tends to pull more Super Chats, especially once the creator starts reacting to them on screen.
Price tiers, colors, and pin duration
YouTube no longer publishes an exact minute-by-minute breakdown in its own Help documentation, and third-party guides don't agree on the middle tiers — some list a $50 Super Chat pinning for 10 minutes, others for up to 2 hours. Treat the table below as directional. What's consistently confirmed: color and pin time both scale with price, small amounts barely pin at all, and the $500 ceiling pins for up to 5 hours.
| Amount (USD) | Color | Pin time (approximate) |
|---|---|---|
| $1–$4 | Blue | Highlighted only — little to no pin time |
| $5–$9 | Green | Roughly 1–2 minutes |
| $10–$19 | Yellow | A few minutes |
| $20–$49 | Orange | Up to ~30 minutes |
| $50–$99 | Magenta | Up to ~1 hour |
| $100–$199 | Red | Up to a few hours |
| $200–$499 | Red | Several hours |
| $500 (max) | Red | Up to 5 hours |
Higher tiers also unlock a longer character limit for the message itself. Amounts and currency equivalents adjust by region — a viewer outside the US isn't necessarily paying in whole-dollar increments.
Eligibility (short version)
Super Chat rides on YouTube's fan funding eligibility bar, not a separate one. In short: you need to clear the subscriber and watch-hour thresholds, be in an eligible country, have accepted the Commerce Product Module, and have live chat turned on. Super Chat won't show up on Made for Kids content, age-restricted, unlisted, or private streams, or streams tied to YouTube Giving fundraisers. Full breakdown of the shared eligibility bar, price range, and revenue split: Fan Funding.
Moderation controls
- Filter chat to Super Chat/Super Sticker activity only — on desktop, use the Chat filter → Fan funding view; on mobile, Settings → Chat filter → Fan funding. Useful for not missing paid messages in a fast-moving chat.
- Heart a Super Chat to publicly acknowledge it — the buyer may get a notification depending on their settings.
- Moderate like any live chat message — hide a user, block specific words, or hand moderation to trusted mods, same tools as regular live chat moderation.
- Policy violations get removed, not necessarily refunded. If a Super Chat is moderated and removed for violating Community Guidelines, YouTube donates its 30% cut to charity — the creator doesn't collect on that message.
- Automatic milestone messages can surface in chat for a buyer's first or tenth purchase — a built-in nudge toward recognition you don't have to manufacture yourself.
How to actually drive Super Chat revenue
Enabling the feature is a five-minute Studio setup. Getting viewers to use it is the actual work. What consistently moves the needle across creators:
- Say it out loud early. Most viewers who don't Super Chat simply don't know the option exists or what it's for. A 20-second explainer in the first couple minutes of the stream ("send a Super Chat to jump the question queue") outperforms any on-screen graphic alone.
- Acknowledge every one, by name, fast. This is the single biggest lever in every source reviewed. A delayed or skipped thank-you visibly kills the next viewer's willingness to send one — it's a demonstration that the mechanic works, in real time.
- Batch it into a segment instead of constant interruption. Run a dedicated Super Chat Q&A block every 10–15 minutes rather than breaking flow for every single message. Gives viewers a clear, predictable reason to send one.
- Put a goal on screen. A visible milestone ("$200 unlocks a bonus round") converts better than an open-ended ask — it turns tipping into shared participation instead of a one-off transaction.
- Reward consistency, not just amount. Regulars who know your schedule tip far more reliably than one-time viewers. Streaming at a fixed day/time compounds this — see returning viewers and regular viewers for how habitual attendance shows up in your channel data.
- Save charity or themed streams for spikes. Charity streams routinely pull several times the Super Chat volume of a normal stream — use them sparingly so they stay an event, not the baseline.
- Don't feed off-topic or hostile Super Chats with attention. Read it, move on, or moderate it out. Engaging bad-faith messages trains the wrong behavior into your chat.
- Use it on Premieres, too. Super Chat works on Premieres even for creators who don't stream regularly — a low-effort way to add a paid layer to a scheduled video debut.
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Is Super Chat the same as Super Stickers?
No. Super Chat highlights and pins a text message; Super Stickers are animated images viewers buy instead of (or alongside) a message. Both only work on live streams and Premieres, and both share the same 70/30 revenue split.
Can I get Super Chat on regular uploaded videos?
No — Super Chat and Super Stickers are live-only. For tips on regular videos and Shorts after they're published, that's Super Thanks, not Super Chat.
What happens to the money if a Super Chat gets moderated and removed?
YouTube donates its 30% share to charity. The creator doesn't collect on that specific message, and removed Super Chats aren't automatically refunded to the buyer either.