YouTube Shorts limits: length, shape and text
A YouTube Short can be up to three minutes long, the limit since 15 October 2024; before that it was 60 seconds. The video must be square or vertical. Here is every limit that decides whether an upload lands as a Short, including the title and description character limits, with the YouTube page each number comes from.
Every number checked against its source on Nov 12, 2026.
YouTube Shorts limits at a glance
| Limit | YouTube Shorts allows | In PostDaily | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | Up to 3 minutes (uploads from 15 October 2024; 60 seconds before that) | Warns when a Short runs over 3 minutes | YouTube Help: Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts |
| Shape | Square (1:1) or vertical | Pre-selects Short for a vertical video of 3 minutes or less | YouTube Help: Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts |
| Title | 100 characters | 100 characters; defaults to the post's first line | YouTube Data API: Videos resource |
| Description | 5,000 bytes (UTF-8), so fewer characters with emoji or non-Latin text | 5,000 bytes | YouTube Data API: Videos resource |
| Tags | 500 characters for all tags together, commas included; a tag with a space counts 2 more for its quotation marks | 500 characters together, counted the same way | YouTube Data API: Videos resource |
| File size per upload | 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less | 25 MB on Free, 50 MB on Starter, 100 MB on Pro and 250 MB on Agency | YouTube Help: Upload videos longer than 15 minutes |
| Video length | Up to 15 minutes until the channel is verified; longer once YouTube allows long uploads | Checked before publishing against the channel's own long-upload status, which PostDaily reads from YouTube | YouTube Help: Upload videos longer than 15 minutes |
What makes YouTube treat an upload as a Short
There is no Short checkbox in YouTube's upload API. YouTube decides from the file: a square or vertical video of three minutes or less is a Short. PostDaily adds #Shorts to the title or description when you choose Short, but no YouTube page says the tag is needed: the shape and length are what count.
A horizontal video is a regular video whatever its length, and a vertical video over three minutes is a regular video too.
Copyrighted music is the catch, and YouTube's own pages disagree about it. Its page on three-minute Shorts says a Short over one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked worldwide. Its page on creating Shorts says such Shorts are no longer blocked automatically and may stay playable. Until the two agree, keep claimed music out of any Short over a minute, or use the Shorts audio library.
Why the description limit is in bytes
YouTube caps the description at 5,000 bytes, not 5,000 characters. English letters are one byte each, but an emoji takes four and most non-Latin characters take two or three, so a description in Japanese or full of emoji fits far fewer characters. PostDaily counts bytes for the same reason, so the counter agrees with YouTube.
PostDaily's own ceiling
Uploads through PostDaily are capped per file by plan: 25 MB on Free, 50 MB on Starter, 100 MB on Pro and 250 MB on Agency. A Short fits comfortably; a long, high-bitrate video may not, and those are better uploaded in YouTube Studio.
Common questions
- How long can a YouTube Short be?
- Up to three minutes, for videos uploaded on or after 15 October 2024. Before that the limit was 60 seconds.
- What aspect ratio do YouTube Shorts need?
- Square (1:1) or vertical. A horizontal video is uploaded as a regular video, whatever its length.
- What is the YouTube Shorts character limit?
- A Short's title holds 100 characters and its description 5,000 bytes, the same as any YouTube video. Emoji and non-Latin text take two to four bytes each, so they fit fewer characters.
- Why won't my description fit when it's under 5,000 characters?
- Because YouTube counts 5,000 bytes, not characters. Emoji and non-Latin text take two to four bytes each.