YouTube description character limit
5,000 characters in a description; the title is a separate 100.
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YouTube limits
- Character limit
- 5,000 characters
- Counted as
- characters, emoji included
The YouTube description character limit is 5,000 characters. Paste your description above to count it. Line breaks, emoji, timestamps and links all count, and a description carrying a chapter list and a block of links spends more of that budget than people expect.
The title is a separate limit of 100 characters and is not counted here — this page counts the description. Going over on either is a refusal at upload rather than a truncation.
Only the first two or three lines show above “Show more”, and a search result shows less than that. Whatever the video is about, and any link you actually want clicked, belongs in the opening lines.
Timestamps become chapters when the first one starts at 0:00, there are at least three of them and each is at least ten seconds apart. That is a formatting rule rather than a length one, but it is the most common reason a description gets rewritten.
Questions
What is the character limit on a YouTube description?
5,000 characters, including line breaks, emoji, timestamps and links.
Is the YouTube title limit the same?
No. A title takes 100 characters and is a separate field; this page counts the description.
How much of a YouTube description is visible?
Two or three lines before “Show more”, and less in search results. Put the point and any link you want clicked at the top.
Do timestamps count toward the limit?
Yes, they are ordinary text. They also become chapters when the first starts at 0:00 and there are three or more, at least ten seconds apart.