YouTube field limits and posting rules
Last reviewed: 29 August 2026
No single post cap: a title holds 100 characters and a description 5,000. That is two fields, not one limit. Every hashtag after the first 60 is ignored.
What are YouTube's limits at a glance?
The table gives the figure Postey applies for YouTube, the field it applies to, the unit it is counted in, and whether YouTube enforces it when a post is published.
| Field | Maximum | Counted in | Enforced at publish? |
|---|---|---|---|
| description | 5,000 | Code points | Field maximum only |
| title | 100 | Code points | Field maximum only |
| description | 5,000 | Code points | Field maximum only |
How long can a YouTube description be?
YouTube has no single description cap. 5,000 is the description field maximum in the API model, not a publish-time check, so Postey does not present it as a post limit.
How does YouTube count a character?
YouTube counts code points, which is the unit Python’s len() returns on Postey’s backend, so the count you see in Postey is the count YouTube applies.
What are YouTube’s field limits?
YouTube limits two fields: title to 100 characters and description to 5,000 characters. That is two separate maxima, not one post limit.
How many hashtags does YouTube count?
YouTube ignores every hashtag after the first 60. Postey counts the hashtags in a draft and flags one that goes over.
What media rules apply to a YouTube description?
YouTube applies one media rule Postey enforces before it publishes.
Ignores every hashtag after the first 60.
What happens to a YouTube draft that is over the limit?
Postey flags the draft against the 5,000-character field maximum and says on the spot that this is a field maximum rather than a publish-time check. YouTube does not thread.
How does YouTube compare with the other platforms?
Postey publishes the same draft to every platform below, reshaping it against each one's own limit rather than against YouTube's.
| Platform | Field | Limit | Counted in | Enforced at publish? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X | post | 280 characters | Weighted (link 23, emoji 2) | Yes, at publish time |
| post | 3,000 characters | Code points | Yes, at publish time | |
| Threads | post | 500 characters | Code points | Yes, at publish time |
| Bluesky | post | 300 graphemes | Graphemes | Yes, by the protocol |
| caption | 2,200 characters | Code points | Yes, at publish time | |
| TikTok | caption | 2,200 characters | Code points | Yes, at publish time |
| post | 63,206 characters | Code points | Yes, at publish time | |
| description | 500 characters | Code points | Field maximum only |
Read the full reference for every platform Postey publishes to.