YouTube Title Length: What Actually Fits

The real display limits across search, suggested videos, and mobile — and how to trim a title without losing its meaning.

YouTube allows titles up to 100 characters, but "allowed" and "displayed in full" are two different things. Depending on the surface — search results, suggested videos, the home feed, playlists, or mobile — a title can be cut off with an ellipsis well before it hits that limit.

The practical sweet spot

As a working range, aim for roughly 40–60 characters. That's short enough to display in full on most surfaces, including mobile, while giving you enough room to name the subject and add one specific detail.

Length	What typically happens
Under 30 characters	Displays fully everywhere, but often too short to convey a clear subject and angle.
40–60 characters	The practical sweet spot — full display on most surfaces with room for a specific detail.
60–70 characters	Starting to risk truncation on some feeds and mobile widths.
70+ characters	High risk of truncation with "…" across search, suggested videos, and mobile.

These are practical guidelines, not hard rules enforced by YouTube — actual truncation varies by device, font rendering, and layout, which is exactly why staying inside a safer range matters more than chasing an exact character count.

What to cut when you're over

• Redundant framing words. "My video about," "Check out this," and similar openers add length without adding information.
• Filler connectors. "In order to" can almost always become "to."
• A second, competing hook. Titles often try to do two jobs at once (state the topic AND tease a twist AND include a number). Pick the strongest one.

Titles for Shorts

Shorts are viewed almost entirely on mobile in a narrower, more compressed UI, so titles display fewer characters before truncating. See the dedicated guide on titles for Shorts for a tighter target range.

Don't sacrifice clarity for brevity

A shorter title that's vague is worse than a slightly longer one that's clear. Length is a constraint to design around, not the primary goal — check the core framework for how it fits into the bigger picture.