How Long Can a YouTube Short Be?

A YouTube Short can be up to 3 minutes long. YouTube counts a square or vertical video of 3 minutes or less as a Short when it was uploaded on or after 15 October 2024, whether you film it in the Shorts camera or upload a file through the YouTube app or YouTube Studio (YouTube Help). Before that date the limit was 60 seconds, which is why so much advice online still says "under a minute".

The size, resolution and file settings YouTube asks for are on our YouTube Shorts specs page. This guide covers the rest: the rules that change once a Short runs past one minute, how to pick a length that holds people, and how to cut a long video into Shorts that fit.

What actually happens at each length

YouTube does not treat every Short under 3 minutes the same way. Where it falls under that ceiling matters.

Under one minute

Nothing changed here when the limit went up. YouTube says there are "no changes in limitations for Shorts that are less than one minute in length" (YouTube Help).

Between one and three minutes

One rule here catches people out. YouTube blocks, worldwide, any Short over one minute that has an active copyright claim of any type. A blocked Short does not play, is not recommended and cannot earn money. YouTube says your channel is not penalised, and once the claim is resolved the Short can be watched again (YouTube Help).

So if a Short carries a song you have no rights to, taking it from 50 seconds to 70 can stop it playing at all.

Music inside a Short

Songs from the Shorts Audio Library can be used for up to 90 seconds in a 3 minute Short, and some tracks are limited to 60 or 30 seconds. Royalty-free music from the YouTube Audio Library does not get a Content ID claim (YouTube Help).

Over three minutes, or horizontal

It is not a Short. A video longer than 3 minutes, or one with a wide aspect ratio such as 16:9, is a regular long-form video. YouTube itself suggests 16:9 when you want a video to stay long-form.

The limit is not the target

A Short may run 3 minutes; that is no reason to fill them. A viewer in the Shorts feed did not choose your video. It came up next, they can swipe away at any second, and each second has to give them a reason to watch the one after it.

A few ways to think about length:

• Let the moment set the length. A punchline might be complete in 10 seconds. A story with a setup and a payoff might need 50, or 90. The stretches where nothing happens hurt a Short more than its length does: the pause before an answer, the "so, um, anyway", the repeat of a point already made. More on this in What makes a great clip.
• One Short, one idea. If a moment needs two minutes because it covers three points, it is usually three Shorts.
• Earn the first seconds. YouTube Studio reports, for each Short, how often viewers "stayed to watch past the initial seconds of a Short" under How viewers engaged (Analytics, then Content, then the Shorts chip; YouTube Help). If that number is low, the opening is the problem, whatever the length.
• Go past a minute only when it is worth it. The extra two minutes are for a story or a demonstration that needs them, and they come with the copyright rule above. If your clip carries music you do not own, the safest fix is to remove the music or keep the Short under a minute.

No length guarantees views, and nobody can promise them. The right length means the viewer who stays gets the whole idea and nothing they did not need.

How to check a Short's length before you post

Before uploading, check three things:

1. Duration. 3 minutes or less, and under 1 minute if anything in it could be claimed.
2. Shape. Vertical or square. A 16:9 file becomes a long-form video, whatever its length.
3. Music. Where it came from, and how long it plays. A Shorts Audio Library track may be capped at 90, 60 or 30 seconds.

If a file fails any of these, fix it in the edit, not after posting.

How to turn a long video into Shorts that fit

Most Shorts that come from podcasts, interviews, webinars and streams start as a horizontal video that runs for an hour. Cutting that by hand means watching the whole thing, finding the moments, trimming each one, reframing it to vertical and captioning it. Auk Video does that part for you from your own video, and you decide what ships.

1. Add your video. Open Home, paste a link to your video and press Get clips, or press Upload a file and choose it.
2. Pick a clip length. In the window that opens, leave Clip length on Auto to let Auk Video choose a length for each moment, or pick one of the ranges in the menu. Under Section, you can limit the run to one part of the video. Then press Make clips. Every clip Auk Video exports is vertical 1080 by 1920 and at most 105 seconds long, which is inside the 3 minute limit.
3. Review the clips. Auk Video reads the transcript, finds moments that make sense on their own, and gives each a score from 0 to 100. The score rates the moment as a clip; it does not predict views. Watch them and keep the ones that land.
4. Tighten each clip. Open a clip in the editor. In the Transcript panel, Remove silences shortens long pauses in one click, and Remove fillers cuts the "um" and "uh" (English only today). Trim moves the start and end, and clicking a word then Delete cuts it from the video. Speed, at the top of the same panel, shows how long the clip runs at each speed when you hover it. Details: Editing captions.
5. Check the music. If you added a track, make sure you have the rights to it, or keep the clip under one minute to stay clear of YouTube's block on claimed Shorts.
6. Post it. Press Publish, pick your YouTube channel and press Post now or Schedule. If a clip is too long for a channel you picked, the post window says so and names the limit. Today, a post from Auk Video to YouTube goes up as private on your channel, and you make it public in YouTube Studio. See Publishing your clips.

You can also export the MP4 and upload it in YouTube Studio yourself.

Common questions

Did YouTube Shorts used to be 60 seconds?

Yes. The limit was 60 seconds until YouTube raised it to 3 minutes for videos uploaded on or after 15 October 2024. Videos uploaded before that date that run longer than a minute stay long-form videos.

Can a YouTube Short be longer than 3 minutes?

No. A vertical or square video longer than 3 minutes is uploaded as a regular video, not a Short.

Why was my Short over a minute blocked?

Most likely because of a copyright claim. YouTube blocks any Short longer than one minute that has an active copyright claim of any type. Removing the claimed material, or cutting the Short to under a minute, are the usual fixes; the Short becomes viewable again once the claim is resolved.

What is the best length for a YouTube Short?

YouTube does not publish one. The right length is as long as the idea needs and no longer, and the How viewers engaged number in YouTube Studio tells you whether your openings are holding people.

How long can a Short be if it uses music?

The Short can still be up to 3 minutes, but most songs from the Shorts Audio Library can play for up to 90 seconds of it, and some for only 60 or 30 seconds.