YouTube Character Counter
Stay inside every YouTube character ceiling: title (100), description (5,000), tags (500 total), Shorts hashtags, channel about (1,000). Live count, color warnings near the cap, and per-field tips that match YouTube's actual rendering rules.
YouTube character limits at a glance
YouTube exposes at least five different character ceilings, and a draft that fits one will hit the wall on another. The widget pills surface the four most common surfaces.
| Surface | Cap | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Video title | 100 | Hard cap. YouTube blocks save past 100. Mobile search truncates around 60. |
| Video description | 5,000 | First 125 chars show above the fold. Links work after the first 100. |
| Tags (combined) | 500 | The CAP is total length, not tag count. Each tag itself best under 30 chars. |
| Shorts caption | 100 | Same field as regular video title. Hashtags compete with copy here. |
| Channel About | 1,000 | Searchable in some surfaces. First 80 chars appear in browse cards. |
| Comment | 10,000 | Far above what users notice. Line breaks count as 1 each. |
| Playlist title | 150 | Smaller than the video title cap (counter-intuitive). |
| Playlist description | 5,000 | Same as video description. |
How YouTube counts characters
Standard 1-per-1 counting
YouTube counts characters as UTF-16 code points. The Latin alphabet (a-z, 0-9, common punctuation) each count as 1. Spaces count as 1. Line breaks count as 1. This matches what JavaScript's length property reports, which is what the counter uses.
Emoji count as 2
Most single emoji (😀, 🔥, 💯) take 2 code points (surrogate pairs). Some combined emoji (flags 🇺🇸, family groupings 👨👩👧, skin-tone variants 👍🏽) can take 4, 7, or even 11. The counter mirrors YouTube's behavior: it counts what JavaScript sees, which is the same code-point count YouTube enforces.
CJK and right-to-left scripts
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters each count as 1 on YouTube (different from Twitter, which counts them as 2). Arabic and Hebrew also count as 1 per character. This is why Korean and Japanese creators can fit denser titles than English creators.
Hashtags compete with copy
Every # in a description counts toward the 5,000 cap. The hashtag character itself counts. YouTube limits to 15 visible hashtags per video; past that the algorithm ignores them but they still cost you characters.
Title strategy under the 100 cap
First 60 characters carry the keyword
YouTube truncates titles in mobile search around character 60. On the watch page, the title can wrap to two lines and show fully, but mobile thumbnails crop hard. Front-load the keyword and the value prop. Brackets, parentheses, and emoji eat space; use one bracket pair max.
Year tags and freshness
Adding "2026" or "(updated)" near the end signals freshness. It costs 4-12 characters. Worth it on tutorials and comparison videos. Skip on evergreen entertainment titles.
What chews up your 100
Common bracket suffixes ("(full breakdown)", "[step by step]", "| 2026 update") run 15-25 chars. Sponsored disclosure ("#ad", "#sponsored") runs 4-12 chars. Series prefix ("Ep 14: ") runs 7-10 chars. By the time those are in, the keyword phrase has 60-65 chars to land.
Description strategy under the 5,000 cap
The first 125 characters are the only ones above the fold
Below the title, YouTube shows roughly 125 characters of the description before the "...more" expand button. That window is your hook, value prop, and one CTA. Treat it like a tweet that has to fit.
Timestamps for chapter markers
YouTube auto-detects chapter markers when at least three timestamps in HH:MM:SS or MM:SS format appear in the description, the first one starts at 00:00, and each chapter is at least 10 seconds. Each marker is roughly 25-50 chars. Tutorials and long-form videos use 200-800 chars of timestamps.
Links
YouTube auto-linkifies URLs in descriptions. The full URL counts toward the cap (no t.co-style shortening like Twitter). For long affiliate links, run them through a shortener first.
Hashtags
Up to 15 hashtags work. The first three appear above the title on the watch page. Past 15 the algorithm starts demoting (YouTube treats it as a spam signal).
Tags and the 500-character combined cap
YouTube's tag field has two limits at once: each individual tag can be up to ~30 characters before it gets flagged as unstable, and the combined total across all tags is 500 characters. The 500 cap counts every character including commas between tags.
Most creators run 8-12 tags totalling 200-400 chars. The widget pills include comma separators in the count automatically (you type tags comma-separated into the textarea). Tag strategy in 2026: 2-3 broad topic tags (10-15 chars each), 4-6 specific tags matching the title keyword (15-25 chars each), and 1-2 brand or channel tags. Skip duplicate variants and skip generic single words (algorithm filters them).
Privacy and processing
Counting runs in your browser. Titles, descriptions, draft scripts, and brand tags stay local. No keystroke is sent to a server. The page does not load any analytics or tracking scripts during counter operation. Safe for confidential video drafts and sponsored-video copy under NDA.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
What is the YouTube title character limit?
100 characters. Hard cap. YouTube blocks save past 100. On mobile search the title truncates around character 60, so front-load the keyword and value prop in the first 60.
What is the YouTube description character limit?
5,000 characters. The first 125 appear above the fold on the watch page. Treat the first 125 as your hook plus one CTA; expand context, links, timestamps, and disclosure in the remaining 4,875.
How many tags can I use on a YouTube video?
There is no fixed count limit, but the combined character length across all tags caps at 500. Most creators run 8-12 tags totalling 200-400 characters. Each individual tag is best kept under 30 characters.
Are Shorts character limits different from regular videos?
Shorts use the same 100-character title cap and 5,000-character description cap as regular videos. The difference is creator behavior: Shorts captions are usually 30-60 characters because the screen is portrait and copy below the video fights with the player UI.
Do hashtags count toward the description limit?
Yes. Every # and every character of the tag word counts toward the 5,000-character description cap. YouTube displays up to 15 hashtags but caps the search-relevance signal at the first 3 that appear above the title.
Does YouTube count emoji as 1 or 2 characters?
Most single emoji count as 2 because they take 2 UTF-16 code points (surrogate pairs). Combined emoji (flags, family groupings, skin-tone variants) can count as 4, 7, or 11. The counter shows what YouTube enforces.
What is the channel About character limit?
1,000 characters. The first 80 appear in channel browse cards and search snippets. Use the first sentence to state who you are, what you publish, and the upload schedule. Hashtags in the About field do not contribute to video search.
Is my draft sent to YouTube or any server?
No. The counter runs in your browser. Titles, descriptions, scripts, sponsored copy under NDA, and brand drafts stay on your device. No keystroke is sent anywhere. See also: Facebook text formatter. See also: LinkedIn text formatter.
More wordcounter.ai tools
Other tools you might find useful.