YouTube title checker: see where your title gets cut off

A YouTube title can be up to 100 characters, and YouTube Help warns that viewers may only see part of it. Type yours to see where it gets cut off on a phone, on Home and in the Subscriptions feed, in search, beside a video, and in the Shorts shelf. Each preview uses the title sizes we measured on youtube.com.

Checked in your browser as you type.

Your title

0 / 100

The previews show this example until you type. Weighing a few titles? Try each one here, and once the video is up, YouTube can A/B test up to 3.

The words viewers should see first. We check that a phone shows them.

Phone

Shorts on a phone

A 390px phone screen. Phone search results use the same card as the feed.

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Sizes measured on youtube.com on October 21, 2026. The previews set Latin letters in YouTube’s font. Emoji and other scripts, such as Chinese, Cyrillic, or Arabic, use your device’s fonts, so their cuts can be a few characters off.

YouTube’s title box on each screen

YouTube publishes no number for how much of a title shows. These are the title boxes we measured on youtube.com on October 21, 2026, signed out, in a 1920px window and on a 390px phone screen. Every box sets its title in Roboto, though an iPhone can show Arial on its first visit to YouTube’s mobile site, until Roboto loads.

Where	Title box	Text	Lines
Phone	278px wide, on a 390px phone screen	14px regular, 17.5px lines	2 lines
Home and Subscriptions	328px wide, in a 1920px window	16px medium, 22px lines	2 lines
Search	686px wide, in a 1920px window	18px regular, 26px lines	2 lines
Watch page sidebar	186px wide, in a 1920px window	14px medium, 20px lines	3 lines
Shorts on a phone	159px wide, on a 390px phone screen	14px regular, 20px lines	2 lines

Your subscribers find this title in their Subscriptions feed

There it sits among new uploads from every channel they follow. Retube is a free browser extension that groups YouTube subscriptions into topic feeds, like Cooking or Science, right inside YouTube. You follow channels too, so try it on yours.

Add Retube to Chrome Or organize subscriptions by hand

How YouTube cuts off long titles

A YouTube title checker shows how much of a title viewers see before YouTube cuts it off with an ellipsis. YouTube allows 100 characters, but each screen shows two or three lines of it. Type a title above to see every cut, measured in YouTube’s own font and title widths.

Updated October 21, 2026

How many characters of a YouTube title show?

About 80 on a phone or on Home, fewer beside a video or on a Short, and usually all of it in search. YouTube publishes no number, and the cut depends on the letters, since an i takes less room than a W. Our four English test titles, 85 to 91 characters long, showed:

Where	Characters shown
Phone	80 to 84, and one in full
Home and Subscriptions	81 to 85, and one in full
Search	Every title in full
Watch page sidebar	73 to 75
Shorts on a phone	39 to 44

A Japanese test title showed about half as many characters, since each one is wider. The computer boxes are from a 1920px window, and other window sizes change them: between 1280 and 1920 pixels wide, search titles get 514 to 686px, Home cards 281 to 337px, and the sidebar 120 to 186px.

Does YouTube show less of a title on a phone?

Less than search on a computer, and about as much as Home. YouTube’s phone card sets titles in 14px text, smaller than Home’s 16px, so its 278px box on a 390px screen still holds about 80 characters in two lines. A 412px phone gets a 300px box, where two of our English test titles fit in full.

We measured YouTube’s mobile site, m.youtube.com, since the YouTube app can’t be measured from a browser. The app’s cuts may differ.

Where do subscribers see a new video’s title?

In their Subscriptions feed. YouTube Help says that once someone subscribes, “any new videos it publishes will show up in your Subscriptions feed,” on mobile and on a computer. YouTube’s code gives that feed no title styles of its own on a computer. It uses Home’s cards, so one preview covers both.

Retube, our free browser extension, splits that feed into smaller feeds a subscriber names, so they can read one topic at a time.

What should go at the start of a YouTube title?

The words that say what the video is about. YouTube Help says viewers “may only see part of your title,” so “put the most important words near the beginning” and “save episode numbers and branding for the end.” It also asks you to limit ALL CAPS and emoji, and to keep the title true to the video.

The checker shows the words every video preview keeps. For a quick YouTube title SEO check, type your keyword too, and the checker confirms a phone shows it. It warns at 3 words in ALL CAPS, one more than YouTube’s own example, “Our KIDS Built A ROBOT!”, uses. It also warns at 2 emoji, a threshold of our own.

How does this checker measure a title?

It sets your title in Roboto, the font YouTube’s titles use, at each screen’s size, weight, line height, and width, then lets your browser break the lines. When a title ran past its last line, we saw YouTube take characters off its end until the ellipsis fit, so a cut can fall mid-word. The checker cuts the same way.

We measured each title box on youtube.com on October 21, 2026, signed out, in Chromium: computer screens in a 1920 by 1080 window with the side menu open, and phones at a 390px screen width. Signed out, YouTube shows no Subscriptions or phone feed, so those previews use the Home card and the phone search card, which share their title styles.

The checker sets Latin letters in Roboto. Emoji and other scripts, such as Chinese, Cyrillic, or Arabic, use your device’s own fonts, so their cuts can be a few characters off. The count uses Unicode code points, like the YouTube character limit counter.

Questions about YouTube titles

How do I check if my YouTube title is good?

YouTube publishes no title score, so a score from any checker is that site’s own opinion. YouTube’s tips for titles ask for three things: a title that represents the video, the most important words near the beginning, and ALL CAPS and emoji used carefully. Type your title above to see the words each screen keeps, then ask whether those words alone tell a viewer what the video is about.

Can you test titles on YouTube?

Yes, after you upload. YouTube Studio can A/B test up to 3 titles or thumbnails on one video, and when the test ends it shows every viewer the one with the highest watch time, YouTube Help says. It works on a computer only, with advanced features turned on, and not for Shorts, scheduled live streams, or Premieres. Before you upload, type each title you’re weighing here to see which keeps its key words on a phone.

Should I put my channel name in the title?

Only at the end, if at all. YouTube Help says to save episode numbers and branding for the end of a title, after the words that say what the video is about. YouTube already shows your channel name with the title in feeds, search, and the sidebar, so a name at the start spends the part a phone shows on words viewers can already see. The checker shows what a series name or channel name pushes past each cut.

Do Shorts titles get cut off?

Yes, sooner than on any other screen we measured. On a phone, the Shorts shelf writes the title over the video’s image, two lines deep, and showed 39 to 44 characters of our English test titles. On a computer, the Shorts shelf in search sets the title under the image in a box 201 pixels wide, which showed 44 to 48. Either way, put the words that say what the Short is about first.

How many characters can a YouTube title have?

Up to 100, says YouTube Help, and YouTube’s API doesn’t accept < or > in a title. The checker counts the way our YouTube character limits page does, in Unicode code points, so most emoji count as 1 and joined emoji count each part. A title can use all 100 and still be cut on every screen we measured, so check which words come first, since those are the ones viewers see.

Do I need to sign in or install anything?

No. The checker runs in your browser and measures your title as you type, so a draft stays on your device. Your title isn’t sent anywhere or saved, and session replay skips the text boxes and previews. The font it measures with loads from retubeapp.com, not from Google or YouTube. You don’t need a YouTube or Google account, and Retube, the browser extension, is optional.

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