Free · runs in your browser · no sign-up
YouTube Title & Description Checker
Paste a title, description and tags to check them against YouTube's published limits as you type: the 100-character title, the 5,000-byte description and the 500-character tag budget, counted the way YouTube counts tags. It flags repeated tags and hashtag limits and previews roughly where your title gets cut off. It all runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Paste or type your video's title, description and tags (separate tags with commas).
- Watch the counters: each turns amber near YouTube's limit and red past it, with a note on what to cut.
- Check the previews to see roughly where the title and the first lines of the description get cut off.
- Fix anything flagged, then copy your text into YouTube Studio or Zeotra's upload form.
YouTube's limits, with sources
| Field | Limit | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Title | 100 characters; no < or > | YouTube Data API |
| Description | 5,000 bytes (YouTube Help: 5,000 characters); no < or > | YouTube Data API |
| Tags | 500 characters in total, commas included; a tag with a space counts 2 extra | YouTube Data API |
| Hashtags | More than 60 and all are ignored; up to 3 show by the title | YouTube Help |
Also see YouTube Help on adding titles and descriptions. What's approximate: where a title or description gets cut off on screen. YouTube doesn't publish it, and it changes with screen width, the characters you use and YouTube's layout, so the checker gives rough guides (about 50 and 70 characters for titles) rather than exact numbers.
Have AI draft it, then check it here
Zeotra's upload form drafts a title, description and tags with AI, and you edit them before the video goes to YouTube. The Free plan covers 1 channel, 20 uploads a month and 5 AI generations, with no card needed.
Start freeQuestions
What is the character limit for a YouTube title?
100 characters, and a title can't contain < or >. Long titles get cut off in feeds and suggested videos well before that; YouTube doesn't publish where, because it depends on the screen and the characters used, so the previews here are approximate.
How long can a YouTube description be?
YouTube Help says 5,000 characters; the YouTube Data API, which upload tools use, says 5,000 bytes. For plain English they're the same. Accented letters take 2 bytes, most other scripts 2 or 3, and emoji 4, so this checker counts bytes to be safe either way.
How does YouTube count the 500-character tag limit?
All tags together can be 500 characters. According to the YouTube Data API documentation, the commas between tags count, and a tag containing a space counts as if it were in quotation marks, so "Foo Baz" counts as 9 characters while "Foo-Baz" counts as 7. The checker counts the same way and shows each tag's cost.
How many hashtags can a YouTube video have?
If a video has more than 60 hashtags, YouTube ignores all of them. YouTube shows up to 3 hashtags by the title and picks which ones itself.
Why does an emoji count as 2 characters here?
Emoji and some symbols take two units in the way browsers and Zeotra's own upload checks count text. Counting them as 2 keeps you safely inside YouTube's limit even if YouTube counts them as 1.
Is anything I type sent to Zeotra?
No. The checker runs entirely in your browser. There's no sign-up, and nothing you type leaves the page.
Can Zeotra write the title, description and tags for me?
Yes. Zeotra's upload form drafts a title, description and tags with AI (Google Gemini), and you review and edit them before uploading. The Free plan includes 5 AI generations a month, Pro 100 and Premium 500.