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YouTube Title & Description Counter

Check a video title (100 characters), description (5,000) and tags (500) against YouTube's limits before you upload. Your text stays in your browser.

0 / 100

Description

0 characters, 0 bytes / 5,000

0 / 500

Separate tags with commas, as you would in YouTube Studio.

Results

Title: 0 of 1000%
Description: 0 of 5,000 bytes0%
Tags: 0 of 5000%

Title left

100

Description left

5,000

Counted in UTF-8 bytes

Tags left

500

As YouTube Studio counts it, approximately

Tags entered

0

How this counts

Titles and tags are counted in characters: each letter, digit, space, CJK character and single emoji is 1. YouTube Studio may count some combined emoji differently, so treat a result within a few characters of the limit with care.

YouTube Help gives the description limit in characters, but the YouTube Data API gives it in bytes. For plain English the two are the same. Accented letters, other scripts and emoji take 2 to 4 bytes each, so this page measures the description in bytes, the stricter of the two.

For tags, the commas between tags count, and a tag that contains a space is counted with the quote marks YouTube puts around it, which adds 2. This page adds those the same way, so the total is approximately what YouTube Studio shows.

YouTube text limits

Video title

100

characters

Description

5,000

characters

Tags, all together

500

characters, including commas

How much of the description shows before the more link is not a fixed number of characters. It depends on the screen, the app and the line breaks you use, so put the most important line first.

Titles that fit

Draft a title and see how close it is to the limit while you rewrite it, instead of finding out in the upload form.

Long descriptions

Paste a description with chapters, links and credits and check it stays under the limit before you upload.

Tag lists

Tags with spaces cost more than they look because of the quote marks. Check a long tag list before YouTube Studio refuses it.

Sources

Limits last checked against these sources on 2026-10-19.

More tools

Related tools

Counters for other platforms, each using that platform's own rules.

Bluesky & Threads Character Counter

Check one post against Bluesky's grapheme limit and Threads' character limit together.

X (Twitter) Character Counter

X weights emoji, CJK text and links differently. This counter applies those rules to the 280 limit.

Instagram Character Counter

Check captions against the 2,200-character limit and the hashtag cap.

YouTube character limit FAQ

How long can a YouTube title be?

A YouTube video title can be up to 100 characters. Shorter titles are easier to read in full, because search results and suggested videos may cut a long title off.

What is the YouTube description character limit?

YouTube Help gives 5,000 characters, including spaces and line breaks. The YouTube Data API gives the same number in bytes, and accented letters, non-Latin scripts and emoji take more than one byte each. If your description is not plain English, keep it under 5,000 bytes to be safe; this counter shows both.

How many characters are allowed for YouTube tags?

All tags together can be up to 500 characters. The commas between tags count, and a tag with a space in it is counted with its quote marks, which adds 2: the YouTube Data API gives Foo-Baz as 7 characters and Foo Baz as 9. This counter applies the same rule, but treat its total as an approximation of YouTube Studio's.

Why does YouTube reject my title or description?

Besides being too long, the most common reason is an angle bracket: YouTube does not allow the less-than and greater-than signs in titles or descriptions. This counter flags them so you can remove or replace them.

How much of the description shows before the more link?

There is no fixed number. It depends on the device, the app and where you put line breaks. Put the line you most want read at the very top.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. The counting runs in your browser and the text is not uploaded.