YouTube just opened YouTube Amazon product tags to eligible U.S. creators. Travis Katz, YouTube’s general manager and vice president for Shopping, announced the change on the official blog. Amazon is now part of the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program. As a result, eligible creators can tag Amazon items in Shorts, long-form videos, and livestreams.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan also announced the addition on X. The change adds Amazon to YouTube’s native Shopping surface, rather than creating a new way to paste affiliate links into video descriptions.
How the Amazon tags work
YouTube’s help documentation describes a native Shopping tag, not a pasted description link. Eligible creators choose items in YouTube Studio from a selection of Amazon products. However, they should not assume every Amazon listing is available. When an item is missing, YouTube says creators can ask Creator Support to add it by sharing the product URL.
Meanwhile, YouTube’s auto-tagging can review recent uploads and future uploads for eligible Amazon items when that setting is enabled. Checkout remains on Amazon. YouTube also says Shopping may match a tagged item to a trusted local merchant for viewers in some markets. Otherwise, the tag may point to Amazon U.S. or a local storefront.
Eligibility, payouts, and the analytics limit
YouTube lists four requirements. Creators need to be in the YouTube Partner Program and in the U.S. YouTube Shopping affiliate program. They also need an active Amazon Influencer or Amazon Associates account in good standing, plus a linked YouTube channel. YouTube notes that one Amazon account can tag products through only one YouTube channel.
That Partner Program threshold has been moving. Tech My Money recently covered new YouTube Partner Program rules. Separately, YouTube expanded Shopping access in March to qualifying Partner Program channels with at least 500 subscribers.
YouTube says finalized Amazon earnings pay through AdSense alongside existing affiliate payouts. Commissions lock monthly. For example, January earnings lock before the March AdSense payment cycle. Returns can reduce the current balance, and a negative month carries forward until later earnings offset it.
Studio reports aggregate clicks, sales, and estimated revenue. Still, YouTube says creators cannot see which individual videos or products drove Amazon purchases. The tags also remain subject to YouTube’s tagging rules, Community Guidelines, and paid-placement policies.
Shopping already reaches Shorts, which recently gained a 2x speed control and a cleaner viewer layout. YouTube Amazon product tags therefore extend an existing shopping layer instead of replacing every Amazon Associates link a creator may already use.
