WordBench reference
YouTube character limit
The YouTube video title limit is 100 characters. Two fields: the 100-character video title and the 5,000-character description. Both have a hard limit and a much shorter visible limit.
Count your text against this limit
Counted in characters, the unit YouTube actually uses, not in plain characters. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
Nothing counted yet. The limit is 100 characters.
The other YouTube fields
What happens when you go over
The field stops accepting input. Titles are clipped with an ellipsis in search results and on suggested-video thumbnails well before 100 characters.
Only the first few lines of a description appear above the show more fold, which is why links and context belong at the very top rather than at the bottom.
Every YouTube limit, with its unit
| Field | Limit | Counted in | What people get wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video title | 100 | characters | 100 is the hard field limit. Search and suggested-video thumbnails clip the visible title well before that. |
| Video description | 5,000 | characters | Only the first few lines appear above the Show more fold, so links and context belong at the top. |
Frequently asked questions
What is the YouTube character limit? 100 characters for the video title, according to Edit video settings, YouTube Help. Checked on 23 July 2026.
What is the YouTube character limit?
100 characters for the video title, according to Edit video settings, YouTube Help. Checked on 23 July 2026.
What happens if I go over the YouTube limit?
The field stops accepting input. Titles are clipped with an ellipsis in search results and on suggested-video thumbnails well before 100 characters.
Does YouTube count emoji differently?
YouTube publishes its limit in plain characters, so an emoji costs the same as a letter in the field itself. How the emoji is stored underneath can still differ: see the methodology page for the four ways WordBench measures the same text.
Where does this number come from?
From Edit video settings, YouTube Help, linked in the sources section on this page. Nothing here is estimated or copied from another character counter, and every figure carries the date it was last checked.
Sources
The counting rules behind each unit, and why two character counters can disagree about the same sentence, are written out on the methodology page.