Super Thanks extended tipping from live chat to any video

The setup

Super Thanks is a one-time tipping feature a viewer can attach to any YouTube video or Short, not only to a live stream, letting fans buy an animated GIF and a highlighted comment as a way of saying thanks after the fact. YouTube announced it on 20 July 2021 in a post titled Introducing the newest member of the Supers family, describing it as the public expansion of a feature that had run privately as Viewer applause.

What the documents show

The announcement is specific about scope and price: at launch, Super Thanks was available at four price points between $2 and $50, or the local currency equivalent, open to thousands of monetizing creators across 68 countries on both desktop and mobile, with YouTube stating it would expand to all eligible Partner Program creators later that year. The post also states the feature's purpose directly by contrast with its older sibling: since launching Super Chat in 2017 and Super Stickers in 2019, YouTube says creators had asked for the same mechanic beyond livestreams and Premieres to video uploads, and Super Thanks is that extension. YouTube's current eligibility and policy page, as retrieved on 16 September 2026, narrows availability further than the 2021 rollout: Super Thanks is unavailable on age-restricted, unlisted, private or made-for-kids videos, on any video or Short with an active copyright claim, and on a live stream or Premiere while it is actually live, becoming available only once that broadcast is archived.

The craft

For an avatar performer whose channel mixes live broadcasts with edited highlight uploads, Super Thanks gives the edited-upload side a tipping mechanic that Super Chat structurally cannot reach while a stream is live, and the eligibility rules mean planning around when a broadcast becomes archived rather than assuming Supers works identically across formats. Because the purchased animation displays only to the buyer, a creator scripting an on-model thank-you has to rely on the accompanying comment, not a shared on-screen moment, to make the gesture visible to others.

Keeping the creator in control

YouTube's own announcement frames Super Thanks as keeping a creator's fan connections meaningful while adding income, useful context for intent, though it stops short of any figure a creator could bank on. The more durable, documented fact for planning is the eligibility page's list of exactly which videos are excluded, a number a creator can actually plan a monetization mix around rather than a marketing framing.

• Which of this channel's videos are currently ineligible for Super Thanks under the copyright-claim or made-for-kids exclusions?
• Does the archived-only rule for live streams change what gets clipped and reuploaded, and when?
• How does Super Thanks revenue compare with Super Chat's across a month with both live and upload-only content?

More than four years after its 2021 debut, Super Thanks remains documented as the one Supers feature built for on-demand video specifically, filling a gap the original Super Chat and Super Stickers launches left for any VTuber whose audience watches back a broadcast rather than catching it live.