YouTube's title limit is 100 characters and its description limit is 5,000 bytes, and those two units are not the same. The title is characters and is cut when it is too long; the description is bytes and is refused, so a description with accents or emoji can be over the limit at fewer than 5,000 characters. This page covers the text and metadata fields; the rules for a video that becomes a Short are on the Shorts page.
Title, description, tags
| Field | Limit | When it is over |
|---|---|---|
| Title | 100 characters | The API cuts the rest; Preflight warns |
| Description | 5,000 bytes | Refused |
| < and > | Not allowed in title or description | Refused |
| Hashtags | 60 in the title and description together | Over 60, YouTube ignores every hashtag on the video |
| Tags | 500 characters in total, commas included | Tags that do not fit are left off |
Bytes matter for any language with accents: a Czech or German description of 4,800 characters can pass 5,000 bytes, because each accented letter costs two and each emoji four. The 500-character tag budget counts the commas between tags, and a tag with a space in it counts the quotes YouTube adds around it.
Video
| Rule | |
|---|---|
| File size | Up to 256 GB |
| Length | Up to 12 hours; a channel that has not verified a phone number is held to 15 minutes |
| Upload | Resumable: an interrupted upload continues from where it stopped |
| Quota | 100 uploads a day for the whole app, shared by its users |
Other fields
| Field | Rule |
|---|---|
| Thumbnail | JPEG or PNG up to 2 MB, and only on a verified channel; otherwise YouTube keeps its own |
| Category | One of 15 ids; People & Blogs (22) when none is chosen |
| Made for kids | Declared on every upload |
| Synthetic media | A declaration for realistic AI-made content |
| Playlist | The video can be added to one of the channel's playlists on upload |
| Subtitles | A file per language, through the captions endpoint |
| First comment | Posted about three minutes after publishing, once YouTube can take comments |
| Privacy | Public, unlisted or private |
Scheduling on YouTube
A public video scheduled for later is uploaded up to three hours early as private with its publish time set, so YouTube makes it public at the minute even if the upload is slow. A time less than 20 minutes away is not worth the trick, and the video is uploaded public at the time. A video that is not going public stays as its privacy says, and is uploaded at the scheduled time.
After publishing
YouTube reports views, likes, comments, watch time, average view duration and average view percentage. Comments can be read, answered and hidden; liking or hearting a comment is possible only in YouTube Studio, not through the API. Editing a published video's title, description, tags and category is allowed.
YouTube next to the others
The 100-character title is the same figure as a Pinterest pin title, and the description is one of the few counted in bytes, with Threads counting emoji by their bytes. How to connect a channel is on the YouTube integration page, and scheduling is described on how to schedule YouTube videos. All twelve networks are on the limits page. YouTube is one channel on any plan, the free one included.
Figures from the YouTube Data API as Preflight enforces them, checked 29 October 2026.
Questions people ask
- What is the YouTube title character limit?
- 100 characters. A longer title is cut by the API rather than refused. The characters < and > are refused in a title and in a description.
- What is the YouTube description limit?
- 5,000 bytes, not characters. In English that is about 5,000 characters; with accents or emoji it is fewer, because accented letters cost two bytes and emoji four.
- How many hashtags can a YouTube video have?
- Up to 60 in the title and description. Past 60, YouTube ignores every hashtag on the video, so keep only the ones that matter.
- How long can a YouTube video be?
- Up to 12 hours and 256 GB. A channel that has not verified a phone number is limited to 15 minutes.
- How many tags can a YouTube video have?
- There is no count; there is a budget of 500 characters for all tags together, with the commas counted. Tags that do not fit are left off.