ニコニコ動画 (Niconico)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
ニコニコ動画 (Nikoniko dōga, "Niconico douga", Niconico) is a Japanese video service that has been running since 2006. The operator is DWANGO Co., Ltd.: the copyright line sits in the footer of the help centre.
The platform describes itself as «日本最大級の動画サービス、ニコニコ（niconico）» — "one of the largest video services in Japan". That is a claim about itself, not an independent measurement.
Its signature feature is comments that fly across the frame at the exact second of playback where they were left. The whole culture of the service grew around this, and with it a set of adjacent products: the help centre lists as separate sections ニコニコ動画 (video), ニコニコ生放送 (live streaming), ニコニコ静画 (illustrations and manga), ニコニコチャンネル (channels), ブロマガ (paid blogs), ニコニ・コモンズ (a library of materials), ニコニ立体 (3D models), ボカコレ (a festival of Vocaloid music) and 楽曲収益化サービス (music monetization).
The main difference is in the money: there is no entry threshold for monetization here. The platform says so outright: «再生数やフォロワー数などの条件はありません» — there are no conditions on view counts or follower counts, and you can apply for earnings on the day you debut.
Who's here
The language is Japanese: the markup of the home page is served as ja-jp. An English version of the help exists, but it is cut down: the table of contents lists for "Help Center (English)" only sections about using the service, purchases, the account, viewing, premium, channels and safety — there are no sections for creators there.
An indirect signal about geography is the payout rules: only an individual with an account at a Japanese bank can receive earnings in cash, "海外の口座には対応していません" — foreign accounts are not supported.
Getting started
Registration is free; the default account is 一般会員 (regular member), and the paid tier is ニコニコプレミアム (premium). Monetization requires two mandatory steps. The first is two-factor authentication: «第三者による不正利用を防ぐため、「二段階認証の設定」を必須としています», without which you cannot start working with the incentive programme. The second is identity verification, arranged as a fork: premium subscribers do not need it, while regular members have to submit documents to support, and the check takes several days. The same rule is repeated in the section for creators.
A separate mechanic is the user level. Rights depend on it: regular support from subscribers can be accepted from level 18, and the number of files you can upload at once depends on whether you have reached level 8.
What you can publish
Niconico publishes its file requirements in full — a rarity among the platforms in this guide. The upload specification page (updated on 15 April 2026) states the following:
Limits. File size — up to 6 GB. Resolution — up to 4096×2160 horizontally and up to 2160×4096 vertically. Frame rate — up to 60 per second, audio sample rate — up to 192 kHz, audio channels — up to 5.1 (6), of which 2 remain on delivery. Duration — up to 6 hours.
Formats. MP4 accepts video in H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) and AV1 with AAC audio; MOV — H.264 and H.265 with AAC or PCM audio; MKV — H.264 with AAC, PCM or FLAC audio. Material in AV1 and H.265 is delivered for viewing transcoded to H.264.
Recommended profile. MP4, H.264 High profile video at a constant 24, 30 or 60 frames with a keyframe interval of no more than 10 seconds, AAC-LC audio at 48 or 96 kHz with a bitrate from 192 kbit/s. The recommended video bitrate is from 12 Mbit/s for 1080p, from 6 Mbit/s for 720p and from 2 Mbit/s for 480p. The platform itself makes 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p and 144p versions, and those from 480p upwards only if the source resolution is sufficient.
How many files at once. Premium members and regular members from level 8 upload up to 5 files simultaneously, regular members below level 8 — one. Drafts are deleted after 7 days along with the video's details.
Short format. A clip automatically becomes a «ショート» (short) if it is no longer than 3 minutes and shot vertically or square. This comes with its own losses: shorts do not appear in the rankings, creator comments and nico-scripts are unavailable for them, and overwriting a short is only possible with another short and only for premium members.
How to grow
The levers the platform describes are the mechanics of viewers and creators themselves.
ニコニ広告 (viewer advertising). Viewers can pay to promote someone else's video. The guide to this mechanic describes ad slots and their "grades", advertising and gift tickets, the metrics «貢献度» (degree of contribution) and «貢献成績» (contribution results), the conditions for a slot to enter the video ranking, and gifts too — both on videos and on live streams.
The content tree. The platform asks you to credit "parent" works — the ones you used or that influenced you. This is not only etiquette: under the コンテンツツリー feature the author of a parent work gains a right to «子ども手当», a payment for the success of derivative works. The platform has no advertising dashboard of its own for brands; the footer of the help centre has an «広告出稿» link for advertisers.
Path to monetization
How it works
The main mechanism is called クリエイター奨励プログラム (the creator incentive programme). A creator registers a work in the programme, and points are credited for its "liveliness". The page about earnings lists the sources: views and comments, gifts received, income from ニコニ広告 on live streams and «子ども手当» — the share for derivative works. Registration is done differently in each case: for videos — via the «︙» menu in the list of your works in the PC version, for live streams — with a button under the programme description, and the broadcast has to be registered within 24 hours after it ends.
The platform does not publish the formula and explains why: the details are not disclosed «工作防止や、法令遵守の観点から» — because of protection against gaming and compliance with the law. Only the structure is disclosed: part of the money comes from the common pot (premium and corporate advertising revenue), part from other receipts.
Threshold and ways to get paid
There is no entry threshold at all. Earnings can be taken out «1円から» — from one yen, choosing between cash, an Amazon gift card and internal nico-points.
But cash has its own minimum and its own price. The help page states the conditions: a request is submitted at a balance from 1000 yen; the transfer goes through the «ペイジェント» service; the applicant must be an individual (legal entities and organizations are not accepted), hold an account at a Japanese bank and not have unsubscribed from the service; the transfer fee — 198 yen per operation — is paid by the creator. No more than 1 million yen can be received in a single operation; for a larger sum, requests are submitted in parts. A request cannot be cancelled: the transfer starts immediately. If the account is closed, the entire balance is lost.
Regular income
The second scheme is クリエイターサポート (creator support from subscribers). It can be switched on from level 18; making exclusive videos and broadcasts for supporters is not required. The payment calendar is rigid: the current month's income is added to the balance on the second day of the month after next — with a delay of about two months; after that, the payout is arranged anew each time.
Other ways
The same page about earnings names: 楽曲収益化サービス — distribution of your own music to Apple Music, Spotify and other services (free, from a single track, only from age 18, with a review of the application); ニコニコチャンネル — a channel with paid access to videos, broadcasts and articles, merchandise and ticket sales (by application, with a review); NicoFT — issuing and selling digital passes with revenue sharing.
Tools and automation
A public read API exists. «スナップショット検索 v2 API» lets you search for videos by keywords and filters. The entry point is https://snapshot.search.nicovideo.jp/api/v2/snapshot/video/contents/search, and the User-Agent header must carry the name of your service. The index is updated daily at 5 a.m. From the documentation: the offset _offset — up to 100,000, the result size _limit — up to 100, the application name _context — up to 40 characters. You can sort and filter by view count, additions to lists, likes, duration and publication time; logical operators, phrase search in quotes and exclusion via a hyphen are supported.
There is no publishing API: only search is officially documented.
In-house applications. The footer of the help centre names 動画・生放送に使用できる音源の検索 (a search for permitted soundtracks), バーチャルキャスト and カスタムキャスト (virtual broadcasting).
Limits and rules
Premium is getting more expensive. As of the check date a ニコニコプレミアム subscription costs 790 yen a month or 7900 yen a year when paying by card, PayPal, Paidy, d払い, au PAY and "carrier billing", but 990 yen a month and 9900 a year via an Apple Account and Google Play. The same page warns of an increase. The details are in the platform's announcement of 18 May 2026: from 1 August 2026 the prices of premium and paid channels go up, the new prices apply on auto-renewal and to new subscriptions after that date, and for those paying via an Apple Account and Google Play the price does not change. For premium this is the second increase in the history of the service, for paid channels the first since their launch in 2008.
What premium gives you: viewing in high quality, no ad clips before videos, an increased list limit, priority when watching live streams and viewing recordings of broadcasts without a prior reservation.
The right to a cash payout is restricted: individuals only, Japanese accounts only — so says the help page. Registering a broadcast in the programme — 24 hours: miss the window after the stream ends and you can no longer register it.
Music licences. The footer gives the permit numbers of the Japanese rights management societies: NexTone ID000001829 and JASRAC 9013388001Y45123 — this is how the section for creators is signed off.
Who it's for
It suits you if your audience is Japan and your genre is close to what grows on the platform itself: Vocaloid music, game playthroughs, «歌ってみた» and «踊ってみた» (cover songs and cover dances), videos with synthesized speech — the platform names these categories as typical in the section about earnings.
It suits beginners: there is no entry threshold for monetization, and you can withdraw from one yen. It suits creators of source material — music, illustrations, tools: the «子ども手当» mechanic pays for the success of other people's works built on yours. It suits those who need precise technical requirements: the specification is published in full, down to codecs and bitrates.
It does not suit you without an account at a Japanese bank, nor legal entities: cash payouts are closed to them. It does not suit you if you need scheduling: the official API is read-only. It does not suit reading the rules in English: the section for creators exists in Japanese only.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as: «日本最大級の動画サービス、ニコニコ（niconico）。動画にコメントを付けて楽しむニコニコ動画や、生放送番組にリアルタイムでコメントを付けられるニコニコ生放送のほか、イラスト・マンガ・最新ニュース・ゲームなど、エンターテイメントを全て無料で楽しめる！»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
two-factor authentication and identity verification are mandatory for working with the incentive programme; premium subscribers do not need verification, regular members have to submit documents to support, and the check takes several days · the source is dated 2022-06-20
The entry is dated 20 June 2022 and is marked by the platform itself as out of date as regards the registration method
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
upload limits: file up to 6 GB, resolution up to 4096x2160 horizontally and up to 2160x4096 vertically, frame rate up to 60, audio sample rate up to 192 kHz, up to 5.1 (6) audio channels (2 on delivery), duration up to 6 hours · the source is dated 2026-04-15
The specification page was updated on 15 April 2026
source, checked 2026-07-28
MP4 accepts H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) and AV1 with AAC audio; MOV — H.264 and H.265 with AAC or PCM audio; MKV — H.264 with AAC, PCM or FLAC audio; AV1 and H.265 are delivered for viewing transcoded to H.264
source, checked 2026-07-28
recommended profile: MP4, H.264 High profile, a constant 24, 30 or 60 frames, a keyframe interval of no more than 10 seconds, AAC-LC audio at 48 or 96 kHz from 192 kbit/s; the recommended video bitrate is from 12 Mbit/s for 1080p, from 6 Mbit/s for 720p, from 2 Mbit/s for 480p
source, checked 2026-07-28
a clip automatically becomes a «ショート» if it is no longer than 3 minutes (180 seconds) and shot vertically or square; shorts do not appear in the rankings, creator comments and nico-scripts are unavailable for them, and overwriting is possible only with another short and only for premium members · the source is dated 2026-05-13
The article was updated on 13 May 2026; videos published through ニコニコチャンネル do not count as shorts
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the creator incentive programme has no conditions on view or follower counts: you can apply for earnings on the day you debut, and receive what you earn from one yen, in cash, as an Amazon gift card or as nico-points
The platform deliberately does not publish the calculation formula or the payout rate
source, checked 2026-07-28
in cash: a request from a balance of 1000 yen, transfer through the «ペイジェント» service; individuals only (legal entities and organizations are not accepted), a Japanese bank account only, foreign accounts are not supported; a fee of 198 yen per transfer is paid by the creator; no more than 1 million yen per operation; cancellation is impossible; if the account is closed, the balance is lost
source, checked 2026-07-28
regular support from subscribers (クリエイターサポート) is switched on from user level 18; the current month's income is added to the balance on the second day of the month after next, after which the payout is arranged anew each time
Level 18 is named on the page about earnings
source, checked 2026-07-28
a broadcast must be registered in the incentive programme within 24 hours after the stream ends; later registration is impossible
source, checked 2026-07-28
other sources of income: 楽曲収益化サービス (distribution of music to streaming services, free, from a single track, from age 18, with a review of the application), ニコニコチャンネル (a paid channel with videos, broadcasts, articles, merchandise and tickets, by application with a review), NicoFT (digital passes with revenue sharing)
The selection criteria, fees and timeframes of these schemes are not disclosed
source, checked 2026-07-28
Paid subscriptions
the price of ニコニコプレミアム on the check date: 790 yen a month and 7900 yen a year when paying by card, PayPal, Paidy, d払い, au PAY and via carrier billing; 990 yen a month and 9900 yen a year via an Apple Account and Google Play; 2370 yen for 90 days via WebMoney
Prices include tax and are for the Japanese market
source, checked 2026-07-28
premium privileges: viewing in high quality for videos uploaded in 1080p (except the mobile web version), no ad clips before videos, an increased list limit, priority when watching live streams and viewing recordings of broadcasts without a prior reservation
The domain premium.nicovideo.jp answered 403 Forbidden to our request
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
from 1 August 2026 the prices of ニコニコプレミアム and of paid channels go up; the new prices apply on auto-renewal and to new subscriptions after that date; for those paying via an Apple Account and Google Play the price does not change · the source is dated 2026-05-18
An announcement of 18 May 2026; the final amounts in the article are laid out as an image, so we do not confirm any specific figures for after the increase. For premium this is the second increase, for paid channels the first since 2008
source, checked 2026-07-28
Limits and restrictions
5 files can be uploaded at once by premium members and by regular members from level 8, one file by regular members below level 8; drafts are deleted after 7 days
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
the footer gives the permit numbers of the Japanese rights management societies: NexTone ID000001829 and JASRAC 9013388001Y45123
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
a public read API — «スナップショット検索 v2»: the entry point https://snapshot.search.nicovideo.jp/api/v2/snapshot/video/contents/search, the User-Agent must carry the name of your service, the index is updated daily at 5 a.m.; _offset up to 100,000, _limit up to 100, _context up to 40 characters
No rate limits are named in the part of the documentation we read
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: ja-jp
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
the English version of the help is cut down: it has sections about using the service, purchases, the account, viewing, premium, channels and safety, but no sections for creators
The section for creators exists in Japanese only
source, checked 2026-07-28
Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: Japan · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions