How to schedule a YouTube video, and when to make it a Premiere

Schedule a YouTube video in Studio: the steps, how a Premiere differs, the made-for-kids answer every upload needs, and how scheduling apps do it.

Schedule a video in YouTube Studio

1. 1Sign in to YouTube Studio on a computer.
2. 2Click Create, then Upload videos, and choose the file.
3. 3Fill in the details: title, description, thumbnail and playlists.
4. 4Answer Audience: whether the video is made for kids. Every upload needs an answer.
5. 5On the Visibility step, choose Schedule.
6. 6Set the date, time and time zone, and click Schedule.

Until its time the video is private, and then it turns public on its own. A few details catch people out:

• The date on the watch page is in Pacific time. If you are ahead of California, a video scheduled for early morning can show the previous day's date.
• A Community Guidelines strike pauses it. During the strike's penalty period the video won't publish; it stays private and you have to schedule it again.
• Closing the window early saves it as private. If you leave before the Visibility step, the upload is kept as a private video.
• Videos over 15 minutes need a verified account. So do custom thumbnails. The YouTube limits page lists the thumbnail size, title, description and tag limits.

Scheduled upload or Premiere?

A Premiere suits a video you want to launch as an event, with an audience watching at the start. YouTube suggests scheduling one at least 24 hours ahead so it appears in subscription feeds, and it sends reminders about 30 minutes before and again at the start. To make one, tick Set as Premiere after choosing Schedule, then pick the countdown's theme and length. For everything else a plain scheduled upload is simpler, and YouTube says the time you publish isn't known to affect a video's long-term performance.

Scheduling on your phone

YouTube's scheduling page says you can also use the YouTube app, but it only lists steps for a computer, and the app upload steps it publishes don't mention a schedule. It does say a Premiere can be set up in the YouTube app from the Set visibility screen, which is where a Schedule option would be. If your app doesn't show one, upload from a computer.

Change the time or publish early

1. 1In YouTube Studio, open Content and select the video.
2. 2Open its Visibility setting.
3. 3To move it, keep it Private and pick a new date and time under Schedule. To publish now, choose Public and click Publish.

Made for kids: the answer every upload needs

YouTube requires every creator to say whether each video is made for kids, even channels that never make children's content, because of its agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission under COPPA, the US children's privacy law. You can set it once for the channel under Settings, Channel, Advanced settings, or per video, and a video's own answer overrides the channel's. Marking a video wrongly can bring consequences from YouTube or under the law, so answer it honestly rather than to keep comments on.

How scheduling apps schedule YouTube uploads

Apps upload through the YouTube Data API, which has a publish time of its own: an app can upload a video as private with a time set, and YouTube makes it public then. The time can only be set on a private video that has never been published, and a time in the past publishes it straight away rather than being refused. Other apps, PostDaily among them, keep the file and upload it at the time you chose.

• Uploads have their own daily quota. Since June 2026 each app's project gets 100 uploads a day by default, counted apart from its other requests.
• Unverified apps can publish publicly again. From 2020 YouTube locked uploads from unverified API projects to private; it lifted that rule on 2 November 2026.
• A video sent without a privacy setting is public. If an app doesn't send one, YouTube makes the upload public, though some accounts default to private.

Scheduling YouTube videos with PostDaily

PostDaily sets the fields YouTube's upload takes: title, description, tags, category, visibility, licence, languages, the AI disclosure and the made-for-kids answer, which it requires before the post saves. Up to 5 first comments publish under the video once it is live, except on private videos, where YouTube doesn't allow comments. Posts can be scheduled up to 12 months ahead.

It is built for Shorts and short videos, not long uploads. Files are capped by plan: 25 MB on Free, 50 MB on Starter, 100 MB on Pro and 250 MB on Agency, so the largest file any plan takes is 250 MB, against YouTube's 256 GB. For a long video, YouTube Studio's own scheduler is the better tool. For vertical clips that also go to TikTok and Reels, how to schedule YouTube Shorts covers the rest, and upload to YouTube explains each field.

YouTube scheduling questions

Last checked Nov 12, 2026 against YouTube Help and the YouTube Data API documentation.