Buying an existing YouTube channel can shorten the time it takes to reach an audience, but it is still an acquisition: you are buying someone else's history, content library and audience relationship. The safest purchases are the ones where you understood exactly what you were getting before any money or access changed hands.
Start with the listing, not the price
Read every figure a seller has published — subscribers, monetization status, category, niche, channel age and asking price — and then open the channel on YouTube yourself. Public data on YouTube should broadly match what the listing claims. Where a listing is silent on something, treat it as unknown rather than assuming a favourable answer.
Ask the seller directly
Message the seller through the marketplace and ask for the things a listing cannot show: why they are selling, whether the channel has active strikes or copyright claims, how much of the content is licensed or reused, and whether revenue is seasonal. Keep the conversation on the platform so there is a record of what was represented to you.
Never accept credentials as a substitute for a transfer
A password, cookie export, recovery code or "we'll just give you the email" handover is not ownership. Google can reclaim, lock or recover an account handed over that way, and it is against YouTube's terms. Ownership should move through YouTube's official process, where the channel is linked to a Brand Account and a manager or primary-owner role is transferred to your own Google account.
ChannelHub never asks either side for a Google or YouTube password, recovery code or session cookie, and you should refuse any request for them — including from a seller.
Agree the sequence before you agree the price
- Write down what is included: the channel, the content library, any related social accounts, artwork files, sponsor contacts.
- Confirm who does what, and in what order, for the transfer itself.
- Confirm what happens if the transfer cannot be completed.
- Keep the agreement in writing, in the platform messages.
About payment on ChannelHub
Payment processing is not enabled on ChannelHub today. Buyers submit a purchase request and talk to the seller; any payment arrangement is made independently between the two parties, so decide carefully how and when funds move and do not treat a purchase request as a completed or protected transaction.