YouTube Creator Partnerships brand Short: what format to deliver

A brand Short made for YouTube Creator Partnerships has to meet the same platform rules as any other Short: square or vertical, up to three minutes, and uploaded at no more than 1080p. The brand's brief sets everything else, so read it first. In Sume you can render that file at 1080x1920 by default, burn captions, and probe the result before you send it.

What Creator Partnerships changes for the file

Creator Partnerships is YouTube's renamed BrandConnect. YouTube announced it at NewFronts on March 23, 2026, with the creator side in YouTube Studio and the advertiser side in Google Ads and Display & Video 360 (YouTube Blog). At Made on YouTube on September 23, 2026, YouTube said Creator Partnerships is available in 20 countries and added a one-click code that gives a brand access to a video's performance and to the creator partnerships boost (YouTube Blog).

YouTube also says advertisers who promoted creator-led videos on Shorts saw an average 30% increase in conversion lift. That is YouTube's figure, not a Sume measurement, and it says nothing about your campaign.

Platform limits and where Sume sets them

None of those pages sets a special file format for a branded Short. So the deliverable is a normal Short plus whatever the brief adds, such as a disclosure line, a product beat or a call to action. The table lines up YouTube's platform limits with the matching Sume control.

Render, caption, then probe

Build the deliverable as one Timeline 1.0 render. The public rate is $0.10 per ceil(output minute), so any Short up to 60 seconds costs $0.10 to assemble and a 180-second one costs $0.30. Captions add $0.20 for a clip of up to 60 seconds under the current fixed estimate, so a 45-second brand Short is $0.30 before any generated footage. Use the unbilled POST /v1/timeline-1.0/plan call to read billable_minutes before you spend anything.

Run POST /v1/video-inspect on the finished file with frames: false. The probe tells you the real width, height and duration, so you can answer a brand's spec questions from the file and not from memory.

What to hand the brand

Keep a short checklist in the job notes: duration at or under 180 seconds, vertical or square, 1080p ceiling, burned captions on where the brief wants them, and any disclosure line the brief requires. If the footage is AI generated, tell the brand up front and follow the YouTube disclosure rules for realistic altered content.

Where the line is

Sume covers the production and the check, not the deal. Pitching, rates, contracts and payouts stay in YouTube Studio and with the brand. For the Studio side of a single-brand segment, see the dynamic brand segments post, and for the series rules see Shorts series rules.