Best Sites to Buy YouTube Channels in 2026 (Marketplaces Compared)

On October 15, 2026, DealBaron listed 5,455 YouTube channels for sale at a median asking price of $100, and its sellers marked 1,485 of them as monetized. So there is no shortage of channels to buy. The real choice is where you buy. You can pick from strangers' listings on an open marketplace, or buy a checked channel at a fixed price from a store.

This guide compares the main places to buy YouTube channels in 2026. That means the big marketplaces: DealBaron, Fameswap and Flippa. It means the gaming boards G2G and Z2U, plus Sebuda, PlayerUp and the SWAPD forum. And it means our own direct store, where you can buy YouTube accounts at a fixed price. For each one, you get the fees, how your money and the channel are protected, and how fast the channel becomes yours. We also show where aged channels fit in.

What "Monetized" Means Before You Shop

Get these facts straight before you open a single listing. They will save you money.

• The real monetization rules. YouTube's published rules say full Partner Program entry takes 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months. Those are today's numbers. On February 1, 2027 they double, to 8,000 watch hours in 365 days or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days. That higher target only hits people starting fresh, because YouTube says a channel already in the program is not affected. The other route is 10 million public Shorts views in 90 days.
• The 500-subscriber trap. YouTube's lower tier at 500 subscribers unlocks fan funding only, per the same rules. It does not unlock ad revenue. Some sellers call these channels "monetized." That is a stretch. Ask which tier the channel is on.
• The AdSense catch. AdSense accounts never transfer to a new owner. But the channel's monetization status survives the sale. You link your own AdSense in YouTube Studio after the handover. Creators report this relink takes anywhere from a few days to two or three weeks. Plan for that gap.

One more thing: buying a YouTube channel breaks no law, and YouTube's terms never name channel sales, one way or the other, as we lay out in is buying a YouTube channel legal. What protects the channel is a clean handover. Ours uses Google's own ownership invite, sent within 24 hours, and you become the Primary Owner after Google's 7-day wait. A 7-day money-back guarantee plus a 30-day account guarantee sits behind it.

How Many YouTube Channels for Sale Say They Are Monetized?

On October 15, 2026, 1,513 of 5,813 YouTube channel listings on DealBaron, G2G, Z2U and Accsmarket said the channel was monetized, or 26%. Nearly all of those claims sit on DealBaron. Each DealBaron listing shows a "Monetization enabled" line, and the seller sets it to yes or no. Leave DealBaron out and it is 28 of 358 listings, or 7.8%.

Marketplace	Channel listings	Say monetized	Share	Median ask, all	Median ask, "monetized"
DealBaron	5,455	1,485	27.2%	$100	$199
G2G	203 offers	27	13.3%	$64.99	$379
Z2U	154	1	0.6%	$25.72	$280.50
Accsmarket	1 stock line	0	0%	$111	none
All four	5,813	1,513	26.0%	$98.79	$199

That field is the seller's word, not YouTube's. On DealBaron, 878 of the 1,485 channels marked monetized (59%) show no monthly income. And 41 of them show fewer than 1,000 subscribers, while YouTube needs 1,000 subscribers before it shares ad revenue. The label still comes with a higher price. Among channels with 10,000 to 99,999 subscribers, the ones marked monetized ask a median $360 (240 listings), against $80 for the rest (838 listings). Marked listings also leave faster: by October 29, 549 of the 1,485 listings marked monetized, 37.0%, had left DealBaron, against 24.1% of the listings without the mark. The channel's own YouTube Studio is what settles it.

So read "monetized" in a listing as a claim to check, not a fact. Ask the seller to open the Earn page in YouTube Studio on a live screen share, and match it to the income the listing shows. Or skip the checking. Every monetized YouTube channel in our store is already in the Partner Program, with 1,000+ subscribers and 4,000+ watch hours, for $499. You switch its payouts to your own AdSense.

How we counted: on October 15, 2026, we pulled every public YouTube channel listing on the four sites. On DealBaron we counted listings whose "Monetization enabled" field says yes. On G2G we read each offer's title and full seller description. On Z2U and Accsmarket we read the listing titles. A listing counted if its text said the channel is monetized, in the Partner Program or has AdSense on. G2G is counted in seller offers and Accsmarket in stock lines, not single channels. YouTube Premium subscriptions and Gmail-only stock were taken out. None of these claims was checked against YouTube itself. We will run the same count again in November. The TikTok version of this count is in our monetized TikTok account guide.

How We Ranked These Sites

We scored each site on five things:

1. Published fees. We only quote numbers a site publishes or reviewers report. No guesses.
2. Protection. Is there real escrow or a staff-run transfer, and who holds the money?
3. YouTube know-how. Does the site handle brand accounts and YouTube's 7-day ownership wait, or does it leave you alone with the seller?
4. Review footprint. Trustpilot and other review sites, with scores named and sourced.
5. Speed. How long deals take from payment to full control.

MonetizedNow is not a marketplace, so it sits in its own category in the table: a direct store with fixed prices.

Quick Comparison Table

Site	Model	Published fees	Protection	Best for
Fameswap	Marketplace	Escrow 5% or $50 minimum (3% for premium members), per its help pages	Platform escrow	Social-account buyers who want a big catalog
DealBaron (formerly accs-market.com)	Marketplace with an agent-run handover	Buyer pays 8%, cut to as low as 3.5% by discounts, $3 minimum on YouTube	Agent takes ownership and gives you manager rights; you become primary owner after 7 days	Browsing thousands of seller-priced channels
Flippa	Auction marketplace	$49–$499 listing plus a 10% success fee under $50K (seller side), per fee guides	Escrow.com	Channels sold as businesses with revenue proof
SWAPD	Middleman forum	3%–11% platform fee on its published chart	Staff-run ticket	High-value trades with vetted members
PlayerUp	Marketplace	Middleman fees vary; not clearly published	In-house middleman	Bargain hunters who accept slow service
Sebuda	Marketplace with staff-held payment	Seller pays 5%, $10 minimum; payment guide lists a 9% crypto or 21% bank "tax"	Staff hold the funds; 1-hour inspection window by default	Hands-on buyers who can check a channel fast
G2G	Gaming marketplace	Order handling fee at checkout; no rate published	GamerProtect escrow; 72-hour claim window, then 14 days of account cover	Cheap old accounts and subscriber-tier channels
Z2U	Gaming marketplace	Payment processing fee added at checkout	Z2UProtection with a 72-hour claim window; most offers add 15- or 30-day seller insurance	Budget starter and aged channels
Accs-market	Now redirects to DealBaron	See DealBaron	See DealBaron	Old name for DealBaron; accsmarket.com (no hyphen) is a different seller
Trustiu	Broker	Was 8%–10% success fee	Broker-managed transfer	Not trading — site is a placeholder as of 31 Aug 2026
MonetizedNow (this is us)	Direct store	Fixed prices: $57 aged, $97 pre-grown, $499 monetized — no fees on top	Vetted stock, Google ownership invite within 24 hours, 7-day money-back plus 30-day account guarantee	Fast fixed-price buys without bidding

MonetizedNow: Direct Store, Fixed Prices (This Is Us)

MonetizedNow is our own store, not a marketplace. There are no bids, no strangers, and no waiting for a seller to answer. We source channels, vet them ourselves, and sell them at fixed prices, with an ownership invite to your Gmail within 24 hours. Every order carries both of our guarantees: 7-day money-back and 30-day account.

• Monetized YouTube Channel — $499. Partner Program already active. You take over and relink your own AdSense in YouTube Studio.
• Pre-Grown YouTube Channel — $97. 200+ subscribers. A head start toward the thresholds, not a monetized channel — we say that plainly.
• Aged YouTube Channel — $57. Created between 2005 and 2009, zero subscribers. Pure age, nothing else claimed.

What you can count on: Google's own ownership invite to your Gmail within 24 hours, and you become the Primary Owner after Google's 7-day wait. Every order is backed by a 7-day money-back guarantee plus a 30-day account guarantee. No fake watch hours from view panels, no seller who goes quiet halfway through a transfer, and no fee added at checkout. Want to check a channel's numbers for yourself, ours included? Our audit of what counts as watch hours is the checklist.

Ready to skip the bidding? Pick a channel above and check out today. Weighing TikTok too? Our full fixed-price range across TikTok and YouTube puts every tier side by side in one table, so you can compare a $499 monetized channel against a $197 monetized TikTok account before you buy either.

Fameswap: The Big Social Marketplace

Fameswap is the busiest open marketplace for social accounts, and it has a real YouTube section. Its help pages spell out the escrow fee: 5% of the offer price or $50, whichever is greater, with a 3% rate for premium members. The same docs describe the YouTube handover in useful detail. The channel must sit on a brand account. Fameswap takes an ownership invite, verifies the channel, then invites your Gmail. YouTube itself forces a 7-day wait before you can become primary owner. That wait is not Fameswap being slow — it is how brand-account transfers work everywhere.

Trustpilot shows Fameswap at about 4 stars from nearly 800 reviews. Positive reviews praise smooth escrow deals. The recurring gripes are slow support and delayed transfers. Buyers on open marketplaces like Fameswap and Flippa also report full deals dragging on for weeks, sometimes months, from first contact to full control. Budget that time in.

DealBaron (Formerly Accs-Market): Thousands of Listings, 7-Day Handover

DealBaron is the new name for accs-market.com. Its site header still reads "Previously accs-market.com", and its terms name Metaswap LP, a UK partnership, as the operator. On October 15, 2026, our full count of its YouTube catalog found 5,455 priced listings at a median ask of $100, and only 756 of them posted a monthly income. Our earlier counts, with prices by subscriber band, are in how much YouTube channels sell for. DealBaron says 70 to 90 new listings land on the site every day.

The handover is where DealBaron earns its fee. Its escrow page lays out the YouTube steps. The seller makes a DealBaron agent the channel owner. The agent checks the channel and gives you manager rights. After 7 days, the agent makes you primary owner. That is the shortest wait YouTube allows for a new primary owner. The buyer pays the fee, which starts at 8% and drops to as low as 3.5% with discounts, with a $3 minimum on YouTube.

In October 2026, Trustpilot showed DealBaron at 2.9 out of 5 from 26 reviews, so check each seller's own deal record. Two things work in your favor. Verified sellers have passed an ID check, a passport plus a selfie video, and carry a badge on their listings. And DealBaron's own rules say the agent will check a seller's claims if you ask before you pay the seller. Our full DealBaron review covers the rest. Ask the agent to check the claims, then use your 7 days of manager access to read the analytics yourself. Do both, and the channel is checked twice before it is yours.

Flippa: Auctions and Bigger Deals

Flippa treats a YouTube channel like a small business, which is its strength. Listings often come with revenue claims, and payments run through Escrow.com. Fee guides report listing packages from $49 to $499 and a tiered success fee on the seller: 10% under $50,000, 7.5% up to $100,000, and 5% above that. Flippa's own support pages note buyers pay the Escrow.com charge, around 0.89% on deals between $5,000 and $25,000.

Trustpilot shows Flippa at 4.2 from about 3,000 reviews — but the split is sharp, with 19% of reviewers leaving one star. Read that as: the platform works, and disputes still happen. Flippa suits buyers chasing channels with real earnings history who can verify claims themselves. It is overkill for a $500 starter channel.

SWAPD: Middleman Forum for Bigger Trades

SWAPD is not a storefront. It is a members-only forum where staff run each deal through a "checkout ticket." The site vets members before they can trade, which filters out some of the drive-by scammers that plague open marketplaces. Its published fee chart runs 3% to 11% depending on deal size, member status, and payment method, and its terms describe the same band as 2% to 11%. On top of either figure sit a 1% refund fee and a 5% dispute fee charged to whoever caused the dispute.

The trade-off is speed and formality. You negotiate in threads, wait for staff, and follow forum rules. For high-value channels and rare handles, that structure is worth it. For a first small purchase, it can feel like a lot of process.

PlayerUp: Big Catalog, Slow Middleman

PlayerUp started in gaming accounts and now lists almost every account type, YouTube included. Prices skew cheap. The problem is the service around the deal. SmartCustomer rates PlayerUp 2.9 out of 5 from 290 reviews. Reviews.io shows a better 3.84 from 535 reviews, so experiences clearly vary. But ComplaintsBoard threads show a hard pattern: sellers waiting weeks — sometimes months — for payouts from the middleman service, with support going quiet.

Why should a buyer care about seller payouts? Because a marketplace that pays sellers late attracts desperate sellers, and desperate sellers cut corners. If you use PlayerUp, start with a small test deal and keep every message inside the platform.

Sebuda: Seller-Set Prices and a Short Inspection Window

Sebuda is an open marketplace run by Sebuda B.V., a Dutch company based in The Hague. Company records list it under KvK number 95490469. You pay Sebuda in Tether, USDC or by bank transfer, and staff hold the money while the channel changes hands. If the seller hands over the primary owner email, its buy guide says the seller is paid within 24 hours. If not, Sebuda adds you as a manager first and makes you primary owner seven days later.

Sellers pay a 5% commission with a $10 minimum. Sebuda's payment guide also lists a 9% "tax" on crypto and 21% on bank payments, so check the total before you pay. Each seller sets the price, and subscriber count and price barely match. On 14 September 2026, a 1.1 million-subscriber channel was listed at $2,500, though its listing gives a join date of April 2026. A 3,500-subscriber channel asked $1,000.

The tight part is the clock. Its transaction rules normally give you one hour, once you can log in, to inspect what you bought. Refund requests after changes such as a new password are normally refused. Trustpilot has also removed its profile, so there is no score to read there. Our Sebuda review covers the full rulebook. If an hour feels too short, our direct store above backs each channel with a 7-day money-back plus a 30-day account guarantee.

G2G: Gaming Marketplace With a YouTube Account Shelf

G2G is a big gaming marketplace that also sells YouTube channels. On October 15, 2026, its YouTube Account category showed 250 offers from 61 sellers. That count mixes in YouTube Premium plans. Leave those out and 203 channel and old-account offers remain, from 28 sellers. Most are sorted by creation year or by subscriber count, from 100 subscribers up to 100,000.

There is even a "YouTube 100 Monetized Channel" group: 7 offers from $149.49. The cheapest one says it is "Currently Monetized through the YouTube Partner Program" and asks you to connect your own AdSense. Each offer is a seller's own claim, so the protection is what counts.

That protection is GamerProtect, G2G's escrow. G2G only releases the seller's money after you confirm the order. You get 72 hours after delivery to raise a claim, and account orders then carry 14 days of cover. Trustpilot rates G2G 3.9 out of 5 from 58,058 reviews across the whole site. Our G2G review walks through every clock. Change the email, password and phone number inside those first 72 hours, and the seller's money waits while you check.

Z2U: Budget Channels With Seller Insurance

Z2U is a gaming marketplace run from Hong Kong. The company named in its footer is Macro Excellence Technology Limited, in Kowloon. On October 15, 2026, its YouTube Accounts category held 263 offers across 196 listings. Like G2G, it mixes Premium plans with channels. We sorted every listing by title: 154 were channels and aged accounts, from 17 sellers, at a median ask of $25.72. Just one is titled as monetized: 1,100 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours for $280.50, with a 168-hour delivery time.

Z2UProtection covers an order that never arrives or does not match its listing, and its buyer rules give you 72 hours from delivery to raise a claim. Most offers add insurance on top. Of the 174 single offers in the category, 132 carried a 15-day badge and 28 a 30-day one. During that period the seller's income stays frozen, and Z2U can step in for you directly. A payment processing fee is added at checkout, so read the total before you pay. Our Z2U review covers its operators and dispute steps. Test the login inside the insurance window, while the seller's pay is still on hold.

Accs-market: Now Part of DealBaron

The old accs-market.com no longer runs its own marketplace. On 7 October 2026 it still forwarded to dealbaron.com. DealBaron's own header reads "Previously accs-market.com". So Accs-market is DealBaron today. The fees and the handover are the same. Everything you need is in the DealBaron section above. One name check before you pay. The site with no hyphen, accsmarket.com, is a separate bulk seller. Our Accs-Market review covers it.

Trustiu: Not Currently Trading (Checked 31 August 2026)

Trustiu was the best-known curated broker for YouTube channels: a Spain-based outfit that vetted listings by revenue and monetization status and ran the handover for you. Broker review sites reported a success fee of 8% to 10% with no listing fee.

We re-checked it on 31 August 2026 and trustiu.com now loads a placeholder reading "Disponível em breve" — coming soon — with no listings, no fee schedule and no way to open a deal. We have left the entry here rather than deleting it, because a broker you cannot reach is exactly the thing a buyer needs to know before spending an evening looking for one. The broker model is still the highest-service way to buy a channel. There is simply no active broker to point you at today, which is why the rest of this list is marketplaces and our own direct store.

Aged YouTube Channels: Why Buyers Hunt 2005–2009

Buyers ask us about aged channels constantly, so let's treat them properly instead of as a footnote.

What channel age actually gives you

YouTube launched in 2005. A channel created between 2005 and 2009 can never be made again — the supply is fixed and shrinking. The creation date is also a fact you can verify, not a claim you have to trust. Buyers want these channels for brand projects, for the history signal, or simply to own something scarce.

What channel age does not give you

Be realistic here. An aged channel with zero subscribers earns nothing by itself. It still needs 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours — or the Shorts route — like any other channel, per YouTube's published rules. You may see sellers claim old channels pass monetization review faster or rank better. YouTube has never published anything that supports that. Treat it as folklore, and price the channel on what it is: verified age, nothing more.

Old channels do appear on Fameswap and PlayerUp, but you must verify the creation date yourself before paying. Our aged YouTube accounts come with 2005–2009 creation dates checked before listing, at a flat $57.

Vet Before You Pay: The Handoff

Whichever site you choose, the vetting steps are the same, and skipping them is how buyers end up with fake watch hours or an AdSense mix-up. The short version:

• See the Partner Program status live on a screen share — not a screenshot. On DealBaron, 59% of the channels marked monetized show no income.
• Open the traffic sources report. Watch hours that arrive in one spike from one country are a bot signature.
• Confirm the creation date, past strikes, and that the channel sits on a brand account for transfer.
• Run the channel through our free YouTube monetization checker before you commit.

For the full step-by-step process — analytics checks, transfer order, and what to do in the first 24 hours after handover — use our aged YouTube channel buyer's guide. This article tells you where to buy; that one shows you how to buy without getting burned.