What AdSense actually requires, quoted from Google rather than from blogs
493 words · about 2 min
Google publishes no minimum number of posts, no minimum site age and no minimum traffic. One page is genuinely mandatory: a privacy policy.
- How it was measured
- We searched every page of Google's own AdSense help site in its raw form and pulled out the sentences word for word, rather than summarising them. The wording was cross-checked on two separate help pages. The Program policies page is stamped "Last updated: August 4, 2026".
- Last checked
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Watch it plot 22s · narrated · the same figures as above
Search for what it takes to get into AdSense and you will be told you need thirty posts, a domain at least six months old, and a certain amount of traffic. We went looking for where Google says any of that.
It does not. What Google actually asks is that you are 18 or over, that you can get at your site's HTML, that your content is "high-quality, original, and attract[s] an audience", and that you follow the Program policies. There is no number anywhere on their help site.
One page is mandatory, and it is the one people skip. From the Publisher Policies, word for word: publishers must "have and abide by a privacy policy that clearly discloses any data collection, sharing, and usage that takes place as a consequence of your use of Google products and services, including information about the technologies used, such as your use of cookies, web beacons, IP addresses, or other identifiers". It must also say "that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users' browsers".
An About page and a Contact page are not required by Google. They are worth having, because a human being reads your site before approving it — but that is a judgement, not a rule, and the two should not be confused.
How long the review takes, and a myth we repeated ourselves
The only thing Google publishes about how long it takes appears in identical words on two help pages: "The review process usually takes a few days, but in some cases can take 2-4 weeks." There is no promise attached to that and no breakdown of the stages.
We had also written down, from the same folklore everyone else repeats, that changing your site puts you back at the start of the queue. We searched their entire help site for reset, restart, resubmit and delay, and got exactly two sentences that bear on it. Neither says that. The closest is: "Make sure you don't remove your site and resubmit it because this can delay the process" — which is about deleting the site from your account and adding it again, and the word is delay.
The real thing that holds you up is different and nobody mentions it. From the Policy center: "The Start review process button will be inactive if your site has been reviewed and rejected several times recently."
Rejections buy you a waiting period. Edits cost nothing. The folklore says don't touch it; the actual rule says don't submit until you are ready. Those tell you to do opposite things.
The failure that looks like patience
If part of setting up your account is unfinished — your payment details, most often — then "your site will not be reviewed and will remain in the 'Getting ready' status".
Nothing is queued. Nothing is happening. It looks exactly like waiting, and it is the most common reason a review seems to take forever.
Tracked as ADSENSE-REQS, ADSENSE-TIME. If a number here looks wrong, tell us and we will check it against the source.