YouTube silently truncates titles in search, collapses descriptions after the first line, and rejects over-length channel names, so knowing exactly how many characters you have left for each field prevents nasty surprises. This counter enforces the real per-field limits live as you type.
How it works
Each YouTube text field has a hard character limit and, in some cases, a softer visible limit before truncation. The counter stores both: the hard limit (100 for titles, 5,000 for descriptions, 10,000 for comments, 30 for channel names) and the practical visible window where applicable (about 60 to 70 characters for titles in feeds, about 157 for descriptions above the fold).
It counts your text by Unicode code point, the way YouTube treats emoji and accented characters, then shows remaining characters. As you approach the limit the readout turns amber, and once you exceed it the readout turns red and shows exactly how many characters are over.
Example
A title reading “10 Beginner Mistakes That Quietly Ruin Your First Sourdough Loaf at Home” is 70 characters. That is well within the 100-character hard limit but right at the edge of the visible window, so a viewer in search may see it cut off. Trimming a few words keeps the full keyword phrase visible.
Tips and notes
- Front-load keywords into the first 60 characters of titles for search.
- Put links and the key message in the first line of descriptions, above the Show more fold.
- Channel names max out at 30 characters — keep them tight.