YouTube is the best documented platform on this list. Upload length, file size, Shorts duration and API quota are all published by Google, with numbers you can check. The only real trap is the API quota, which is far tighter than most people expect and is the reason scheduling tools cap how many videos you can publish per day.
YouTube upload limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Default upload length | 15 minutes |
| Length with a verified account | Up to 12 hours |
| Maximum file size | 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less |
| Shorts duration | Up to 3 minutes |
| Shorts resolution | Up to 1080p |
| Video description | 5,000 characters |
| Video title | 100 characters |
Note: Figures here were verified against YouTube Help (upload length and file size, and the Shorts creation guide) as of September 2026. Platforms change these without notice.
The 15-minute default catches new channels constantly. Phone verification lifts it, and the verification has to complete before the upload, so a long video attempted first has to be uploaded again afterwards.
For the description and title fields, including how much shows above the fold and where tags count, see YouTube character limit and the YouTube character counter.
The YouTube API quota, which is the real limit
If you publish through any tool rather than the YouTube website, this is the number that governs your day.
| Quota | Value |
|---|---|
videos.insert | 100 calls per day (its own quota bucket) |
| All other endpoints combined | 10,000 units per day |
captions.insert | 400 units |
captions.update | 450 units |
playlists.insert, comments.insert, subscriptions.insert | 50 units each |
| Any request, including invalid ones | At least 1 unit |
Note: Figures here were verified against Google’s YouTube Data API quota documentation as of September 2026. Platforms change these without notice.
Two things follow from this. First, the quota belongs to the application, not to your channel, so a tool serving many customers is dividing a shared allowance unless it has requested an increase from Google. Second, failed requests cost quota too, which means a tool that retries aggressively burns through the day faster than one that backs off.
This is why a scheduler will sometimes tell you a YouTube upload is queued rather than publishing it immediately. There is more on how this compares across platforms in social media API rate limits.
Shorts: 3 minutes, and what counts as a Short
A vertical video up to 3 minutes is eligible to be treated as a Short. YouTube decides this at processing time based on the video itself rather than a switch you set, which is why the same file can appear as a Short on one upload and as a regular video after an edit. There is more detail in how long a YouTube Short can be.
What YouTube does not publish
Uploads per day for a normal (non-API) channel are not published as a fixed number. YouTube applies daily upload limits that vary by channel standing, and new channels are limited more tightly. The message you get when you hit it does not quote a threshold.
Comment rate limits, live chat rate limits, and the thresholds for automatic comment holding are likewise not published. The signals appear to be the familiar ones: channel age, strike history, and how fast the actions are coming. Any specific per-day upload figure you find for a normal channel is reported and unofficial.
The API quota above is the exception, and it is the one that applies to scheduled publishing anyway.
The short version
- 15 minutes by default, up to 12 hours and 256 GB with a verified account.
- Shorts up to 3 minutes, up to 1080p.
- Title 100 characters, description 5,000.
- API: 100 uploads per day in a dedicated bucket, 10,000 units per day for everything else, and failed calls still cost quota.
- Non-API daily upload limits for ordinary channels are not published.
Scheduling YouTube uploads around the quota
BulkPublish uploads through the official Data API, so the 100 uploads per day bucket is the ceiling that applies. Videos scheduled beyond it are queued rather than dropped, and the upload happens close to the publish time so the file does not sit half-processed for weeks.
If you publish the same vertical cut to more than one network, posting to TikTok, Reels and Shorts at once is the practical version of this page.
Title, description and tag limits in practice
The 100-character title is the tightest text limit on YouTube and the one with the most competition for space. Roughly the first 60 characters survive on most surfaces before truncation, and the mobile home feed cuts sooner than the watch page.
Descriptions are 5,000 characters, and only the first few lines appear above the “show more” fold. Anything you need a viewer to see (a link, a discount code, a timestamp list) belongs in those first lines. Everything after them is for search and for the people who already expanded it.