The YouTube video description limit
A YouTube video description can be up to 5,000 characters. Only the first lines show above "more", and YouTube uses the description, along with the title, to understand the video.
How to write a YouTube video description
Summarise the video in the first two sentences with the words people search for, then add links and chapters. Timestamps starting at 0:00 turn into chapters on the video.
Questions
What is the YouTube video description character limit?
5,000 characters. The first lines show above "more".
How do I add chapters to a YouTube video?
List timestamps in the description, starting with 0:00, with at least three chapters of 10 seconds or more.
Do links in a YouTube description help SEO?
They are nofollow, so they do not pass ranking credit, but they send viewers to your site.
Do spaces and emoji count?
Spaces and punctuation count as one character each. This checker counts each visible character once, so an emoji counts as one.
Is my text stored or sent anywhere?
No. The counting happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded.