Where to publish your AI short drama
Twelve places you can put a vertical AI series, what each one actually pays, and the threshold you have to clear before any of them pays you anything.
By The Generated Worlds editors · Published · Updated
An independent creator can publish AI short drama on Generated Worlds, YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels directly, and can pitch ReelShort or DramaBox for a commission. The social platforms pay a share of advertising but only after follower and view thresholds; Generated Worlds allocates creators 80% of net revenue from viewer unlocks with no follower requirement, free to publish on the Creator plan (1 new series a month); Yoh, Koe, Cinely and Microdrama AI state 70% to 85%; ReelShort and DramaBox buy or license finished series rather than hosting yours.
How publishing on GW works
GW publishing facts reviewed 2026-10-10. Platform comparisons below keep their own source-check dates.
- Free publishing on GW
- The free Creator plan supports 1 new series a month, up to 100 episodes each. A paid studio site is optional.
- Your independent studio site
- Launch your own branded streaming site on Starter for $1 for the first month, then $39 a month. Starter supports 3 new series a month. Publishing on GW and launching this site are separate steps.
- New-channel review
- New free-plan channels publish on GW on a trial basis. Once the first series is fully uploaded, the GW team reviews it and decides whether the channel stays on GW. All published work remains subject to content and rights rules.
- Paid episodes
- Creators choose which episodes are free or paid. GW sets paid episodes at 10 tokens. The standard creator allocation is 80% of net episode revenue after processing; payouts start at $25. This is separate from brand-deal fees.
- Discovery and returning viewers
- Viewers can discover your work on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and GW. Send interested viewers to a recognizable series or studio destination where they can return for the story.
This guide is published by Generated Worlds, which is one of the twelve. That is worth knowing before the table rather than after it. What follows is written for someone who has finished a series and does not yet know where to put it, which means the entries for the other eleven are written the way we would want ours written — including the part where they beat us.
One distinction decides most of this and almost nobody states it: these platforms pay for three completely different things. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Vurt pay you a slice of the advertising sold against attention you brought them. ReelShort and DramaBox pay you once, for the finished series, and then it is theirs to exploit. Generated Worlds, Yoh, Koe, Cinely and Microdrama AI give you a share of what your own viewers spend to keep watching — and Cinee intends to, once it opens. Those are not three rates to compare — they are three businesses, and the right one depends on whether what you have is an audience, a finished slate, or a story people will pay to finish.
The second thing worth knowing before you read a rate: on the three social platforms, the rate is irrelevant until you clear a threshold, and the thresholds are the real product decision. 10 million Shorts views in ninety days is not a formality you grow past — it is most of a career.
The platforms, side by side
| Platform | What it is | How you earn | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generated Worlds | An open publishing platform. You open your own streaming studio, publish a serialized AI-assisted series under your own name, and keep the rights. The platform hosts, encodes, streams and takes the payments; it does not commission, does not generate, and does not take ownership. | Viewers unlock episodes one at a time. You keep 80% of what arrives after the card processing fee, and you set how much of the run is free. Payouts run once your balance clears $25. | A creator who has a story people will pay to finish and wants to be paid from the first viewer rather than the ten-thousandth. |
| YouTube Shorts | The largest video platform in the world, with a vertical feed that will show an unknown series to strangers at a scale nothing else on this list approaches. | A 45% share of the Shorts advertising pool once you are in the Partner Programme. The pool is net of music licensing, so the effective rate on a series using licensed tracks is lower than the headline. | Reach, and for building the audience you will later monetise somewhere else. As a first revenue source for a new series it is the slowest door on this list. |
| TikTok | The platform that made vertical serialized drama a mass format, and still the fastest place for an unknown episode one to find an audience from a standing start. | The Creator Rewards Programme pays on qualified views, reported at roughly $0.40 to $1.20 per thousand depending on audience country. Only original videos over one minute earn. | TikTok is one discovery option alongside Instagram, YouTube and GW, especially for creators whose episodes are already over a minute. Note that the sub-minute cut that performs best on the feed is the one that does not qualify. |
| Instagram Reels | A distribution surface rather than a monetisation one. Reels will carry a series to an audience; Instagram's own creator payments are not built around video revenue share. | No open advertising revenue share for Reels. Gifts (Stars) from viewers, channel subscriptions, and brand deals. Bonus programmes are invitation-only and vary by country. | Reaching an audience you then send somewhere that pays. Treating it as the revenue source is the mistake this row exists to prevent. |
| ReelShort | The largest vertical drama app in the West, and a studio rather than a host. It commissions and greenlights series; it does not carry work you uploaded yourself. | Paid work rather than a revenue share: contractor writing and AI video roles on its studio's careers page, commissioned production, and contests. It publishes no rates; third-party reporting puts production budgets for a vertical season at roughly $150,000 to $300,000. | A team that can deliver a full season to a brief and wants one large cheque instead of a long tail. If that is you, this pays more than anything else on this list. |
| DramaBox | The other major Western-facing vertical drama app. It has no creator portal, but its business page lists separate email routes for rights holders, writers and producers. | A distribution, adaptation or production deal negotiated per series. Terms are not published, which is itself worth knowing before you build a plan on them. | A rights holder with a finished series who would rather license it into a large catalogue than build an audience for it. |
| Yoh | A creator storefront for video: you publish episodes or a series on your own page and sell access to your audience directly, with payments through Stripe Connect. | Per-episode or subscription sales. Its binding terms set a 15% platform fee, so the creator keeps 85%; its marketing pages say 90%, and the terms are the figure to plan on. | A creator with an audience already who wants the highest stated share in this table and is happy to pay a monthly fee for it. It supplies no audience of its own that we could find. |
| Koe | A publishing platform built around selling a season pass rather than an episode. | "Koe keeps 20% when you sell a pass, after payment processing" — so 80% to the creator. Its terms dated 28 August 2026 still describe monetization as a future feature, with supplemental creator terms not yet published. | A creator whose story sells better as one season purchase than as a run of single episodes, and who is comfortable with terms that are still being written. |
| Cinely | A viewing platform with its own generation tools attached. Creators publish series under their own handles, and viewers unlock episodes with coins. | 70% of unlock coins to the creator — stated in Cinely's blog posts, not in its terms. No minimum withdrawal is stated. | A creator starting from nothing who wants the generator and the storefront in the same account. |
| Cinee | An AI film and series platform that is not open yet — it is taking a waitlist. | Its terms (section 5.1) give creators 70% of net revenue, with a $25 minimum and weekly payouts through Stripe. | Worth watching rather than planning around: the terms are published, the platform is not. |
| Vurt | A free, advertising-supported streaming app for independent film and series. Not specific to AI work. | A 50/50 split of advertising revenue, non-exclusive — reported by TechCrunch on 17 March 2026 rather than stated on Vurt's own site. | A finished film or horizontal series that suits a free, ad-funded audience, placed non-exclusively alongside everything else you do with it. |
| Microdrama AI | A short-drama generator and viewing library in one, with a creator programme on the viewing side. | 70% of the coins viewers spend on your episodes, plus a VIP pool shared 70% by watch time. | A creator who can reach 100,000 views inside its own library. The share is real; the threshold is an advertising-style bar in front of it. |
Platform details
Generated Worlds
This site- What it is
- An open publishing platform. You open your own streaming studio, publish a serialized AI-assisted series under your own name, and keep the rights. The platform hosts, encodes, streams and takes the payments; it does not commission, does not generate, and does not take ownership.
- How you earn
- Viewers unlock episodes one at a time. You keep 80% of what arrives after the card processing fee, and you set how much of the run is free. Payouts run once your balance clears $25.
- What it takes to start
- Free to publish (1 new series a month); own studio site from $1, then $39/month; 80% to the creator; no follower minimum; no application. A series is published as soon as it is uploaded, up to 100 episodes each, and the creator chooses which episodes viewers get free.
- Best for
- A creator who has a story people will pay to finish and wants to be paid from the first viewer rather than the ten-thousandth.
Checked 2026-08-29
YouTube Shorts
www.youtube.com/creators/- What it is
- The largest video platform in the world, with a vertical feed that will show an unknown series to strangers at a scale nothing else on this list approaches.
- How you earn
- A 45% share of the Shorts advertising pool once you are in the Partner Programme. The pool is net of music licensing, so the effective rate on a series using licensed tracks is lower than the headline.
- What it takes to start
- 1,000 subscribers, plus EITHER 4,000 valid long-form watch hours in 12 months OR 10 million valid Shorts views in 90 days. Shorts views and watch hours never combine.
- Best for
- Reach, and for building the audience you will later monetise somewhere else. As a first revenue source for a new series it is the slowest door on this list.
Checked 2026-08-29
TikTok
www.tiktok.com/creators/- What it is
- The platform that made vertical serialized drama a mass format, and still the fastest place for an unknown episode one to find an audience from a standing start.
- How you earn
- The Creator Rewards Programme pays on qualified views, reported at roughly $0.40 to $1.20 per thousand depending on audience country. Only original videos over one minute earn.
- What it takes to start
- 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the previous 30 days, and you must be 18 or over in an eligible country. The 30-day window is a rolling test, not a one-time bar — falling under it stops the earning.
- Best for
- TikTok is one discovery option alongside Instagram, YouTube and GW, especially for creators whose episodes are already over a minute. Note that the sub-minute cut that performs best on the feed is the one that does not qualify.
Checked 2026-08-29
Instagram Reels
creators.instagram.com- What it is
- A distribution surface rather than a monetisation one. Reels will carry a series to an audience; Instagram's own creator payments are not built around video revenue share.
- How you earn
- No open advertising revenue share for Reels. Gifts (Stars) from viewers, channel subscriptions, and brand deals. Bonus programmes are invitation-only and vary by country.
- What it takes to start
- A professional account and 18+. Gifts from about 500 followers, subscriptions from about 10,000, and subscriptions are not available in every market.
- Best for
- Reaching an audience you then send somewhere that pays. Treating it as the revenue source is the mistake this row exists to prevent.
Checked 2026-08-29
ReelShort
www.reelshort.com- What it is
- The largest vertical drama app in the West, and a studio rather than a host. It commissions and greenlights series; it does not carry work you uploaded yourself.
- How you earn
- Paid work rather than a revenue share: contractor writing and AI video roles on its studio's careers page, commissioned production, and contests. It publishes no rates; third-party reporting puts production budgets for a vertical season at roughly $150,000 to $300,000.
- What it takes to start
- No self-serve upload and no creator portal. Routes in are contractor roles, a "Story Ideas and Submissions" topic on Crazy Maple Studio's contact form, and contests — one, run with OnSolo, takes entries until 15 October 2026.
- Best for
- A team that can deliver a full season to a brief and wants one large cheque instead of a long tail. If that is you, this pays more than anything else on this list.
Checked 2026-08-29
DramaBox
www.dramaboxapp.com- What it is
- The other major Western-facing vertical drama app. It has no creator portal, but its business page lists separate email routes for rights holders, writers and producers.
- How you earn
- A distribution, adaptation or production deal negotiated per series. Terms are not published, which is itself worth knowing before you build a plan on them.
- What it takes to start
- An email: distribution@dramabox.com if you own the rights to a finished short drama, adaptation@dramabox.com for scripts, production@dramabox.com for English-language producers. No published turnaround.
- Best for
- A rights holder with a finished series who would rather license it into a large catalogue than build an audience for it.
Checked 2026-08-29
Yoh
yoh.app- What it is
- A creator storefront for video: you publish episodes or a series on your own page and sell access to your audience directly, with payments through Stripe Connect.
- How you earn
- Per-episode or subscription sales. Its binding terms set a 15% platform fee, so the creator keeps 85%; its marketing pages say 90%, and the terms are the figure to plan on.
- What it takes to start
- A paid plan, at $19 or $50 a month, before you sell. No follower threshold is stated.
- Best for
- A creator with an audience already who wants the highest stated share in this table and is happy to pay a monthly fee for it. It supplies no audience of its own that we could find.
Checked 2026-09-13
Koe
koe.sh- What it is
- A publishing platform built around selling a season pass rather than an episode.
- How you earn
- "Koe keeps 20% when you sell a pass, after payment processing" — so 80% to the creator. Its terms dated 28 August 2026 still describe monetization as a future feature, with supplemental creator terms not yet published.
- What it takes to start
- Selling requires the $10-a-month plan.
- Best for
- A creator whose story sells better as one season purchase than as a run of single episodes, and who is comfortable with terms that are still being written.
Checked 2026-09-13
Cinely
www.cinelyai.com- What it is
- A viewing platform with its own generation tools attached. Creators publish series under their own handles, and viewers unlock episodes with coins.
- How you earn
- 70% of unlock coins to the creator — stated in Cinely's blog posts, not in its terms. No minimum withdrawal is stated.
- What it takes to start
- Series are made in Cinely's own tools, so it is a place to make and publish in one, not a place to bring a finished series made elsewhere.
- Best for
- A creator starting from nothing who wants the generator and the storefront in the same account.
Checked 2026-09-13
Cinee
cinee.com- What it is
- An AI film and series platform that is not open yet — it is taking a waitlist.
- How you earn
- Its terms (section 5.1) give creators 70% of net revenue, with a $25 minimum and weekly payouts through Stripe.
- What it takes to start
- A place on the waitlist. Nothing can be published or sold today.
- Best for
- Worth watching rather than planning around: the terms are published, the platform is not.
Checked 2026-09-13
- What it is
- A free, advertising-supported streaming app for independent film and series. Not specific to AI work.
- How you earn
- A 50/50 split of advertising revenue, non-exclusive — reported by TechCrunch on 17 March 2026 rather than stated on Vurt's own site.
- What it takes to start
- A curated submission. It is not an open upload.
- Best for
- A finished film or horizontal series that suits a free, ad-funded audience, placed non-exclusively alongside everything else you do with it.
Checked 2026-09-13
Microdrama AI
microdrama.id- What it is
- A short-drama generator and viewing library in one, with a creator programme on the viewing side.
- How you earn
- 70% of the coins viewers spend on your episodes, plus a VIP pool shared 70% by watch time.
- What it takes to start
- Monetization opens once a drama has at least 5 episodes, 100,000 views and 10 hours of watch time.
- Best for
- A creator who can reach 100,000 views inside its own library. The share is real; the threshold is an advertising-style bar in front of it.
Checked 2026-09-13
The thresholds, side by side
This is the comparison that actually decides where a first series should go, and it is the one the platforms' own marketing pages are least keen to put in a single view.
| Platform | Threshold before the first cent | What it pays on |
|---|---|---|
| Generated Worlds | None. Free to publish (1 new series a month), no follower minimum, no application | What your viewers spend, 80% to the creator |
| YouTube Shorts | 1,000 subs + 10M Shorts views in 90 days | Ad pool, 45% share |
| TikTok | 10,000 followers + 100k views in 30 days, rolling | Qualified views over 1 min |
| Instagram Reels | ~500 followers for Gifts; no ad share at all | Viewer gifts, brand deals |
| ReelShort | A greenlight. No open door. | The finished series, once |
| DramaBox | An accepted deal, by email. No published turnaround. | A negotiated licence |
| Yoh | A paid plan, $19 or $50 a month | Episode or subscription sales, 85% under its terms |
| Koe | A $10-a-month plan to sell | Season passes; Koe keeps 20% after processing |
| Cinely | None stated; made in Cinely's own tools | Unlock coins, 70% per its blog |
| Cinee | Not open yet — waitlist | 70% of net under its terms, once live |
| Vurt | A curated submission | Ad revenue, 50/50 as reported |
| Microdrama AI | 5+ episodes, 100,000 views, 10 hours watched | Coins spent on your episodes, 70% |
What you must clear before the platform pays you anything. Social platforms checked 2026-08-29; the rest checked 2026-09-13 against each platform's own pages, except Vurt's split, which is reported by TechCrunch.
Who owns the series afterwards
- YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Generated Worlds: you do. You license them the right to show it and you can take it down. Read the terms of any smaller AI platform before uploading — at least one AI film site, AIflixhub, describes the AI movies on it as its exclusive property in its terms.
- ReelShort and DramaBox: it depends entirely on the deal, and a buyout means you do not. That is not a criticism — a buyout pays more precisely because it buys more — but it is the question to settle before the first draft, not after the season.
- On Generated Worlds specifically: the platform does not claim authorship or ownership of creator-published series, and a channel can be closed and its work taken down.
Where this platform is the wrong answer
If what you need is to be seen by a hundred thousand strangers this month, nothing here can do that and TikTok can. If you can make a professional season to somebody else's brief, go after commissioned work at ReelShort or DramaBox, where season production budgets are reported in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — we cannot come close and will not pretend otherwise. If you already have a large following on Instagram or YouTube, the fastest money available to you is a brand deal on the platform you are already on, not a new channel anywhere.
And if the percentage is the deciding number, it is not ours. Yoh's terms give a creator 85% against our 80%, in exchange for a monthly plan of $19 or $50; Koe matches 80% on a season pass with a $10 plan. Generated Worlds is free to publish on the Creator plan, charges only for a creator's own studio site ($1 for the first month, then from $39 a month), and sells the single episode rather than the pass — which of those matters more depends on how your audience likes to buy.
What this platform is for is the case those three answer badly: a creator with a genuinely serialized story, a modest audience, and no route to a threshold. There is no follower bar to clear here, the viewer pays for the episode rather than for an ad impression, and the money starts at the first person who wants to know what happens next.
The realistic version of doing all of it
Most people who make this work do not choose one. They build discovery on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and GW, using strong clips and free openings, and give people who want the rest a studio destination where they can buy continuation. Discovery and paid continuation can work together; the question this page is really answering is what sits at the bottom of it.
Common questions
Can I publish an AI-generated series on YouTube or TikTok?
Yes. Both allow AI-assisted and AI-generated video, and both require you to disclose realistic synthetic content — YouTube through the altered-content setting in Studio, TikTok through its AI-generated label. Undisclosed realistic AI content is the most common reason a drama channel gets penalised on either platform.
Which platform pays creators the most for AI short drama?
For a single finished professional season, ReelShort, by a wide margin — a commissioned series is worth more than any realistic view count. For a creator without a commission, the answer depends on audience size: below the social platforms' thresholds they pay literally nothing, which makes a direct-unlock platform the only one paying at all.
Do I need followers to publish on Generated Worlds?
No. There is no follower or view requirement and no application; you only need at least one Instagram, TikTok or YouTube account to share from (a new one is fine). Publishing is free on the Creator plan: you start 1 new series a month, up to 100 episodes each, and a series is published as soon as you upload it. You choose which episodes viewers get free.
How much of the revenue does Generated Worlds keep?
20%. The creator keeps 80% of what is left after the card processing fee, rather than 80% of the gross with the fee quietly taken out of the creator's side. Payouts run once a balance clears $25.
Do I need my own website as well?
Not to publish — a series on Generated Worlds has its own page and link, free on the Creator plan. Your own studio site adds your own address or domain, a front page that plays your series, a brand inbox and a newsletter, and it can be the one link in your bio. You can see it before you pay; launching it is $1 for the first month, then from $39 a month.
Can I publish the same series in more than one place?
On the platforms that host your work — Generated Worlds, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram — yes, unless you have signed something that says otherwise. A commission or buyout from ReelShort or DramaBox usually includes exclusivity, which is the clause to read before you sign it.
Is there a subscription on Generated Worlds?
None is needed. Viewers buy tokens in packs — every paid episode costs 10 tokens and stays open permanently. Channels sell no subscriptions.
Keep reading
Publish here
Publishing is free: open your studio and upload your drama, and it is live on Generated Worlds right away with its own page and link. 80% of net revenue from viewer unlocks is allocated to you. When you want your own streaming site, launch your studio site on Starter for $1 the first month, then $39 a month.
Want the terms in full first? How publishing on Generated Worlds works