YouTube Description Counter
Paste your video description below to track it against YouTube's 5,000-character limit — and see how much shows before viewers click “Show more”.
Count your description characters
Characters
0 / 5,000
Remaining
5,000
Visible before “Show more”
~157 chars
The 5,000-character limit
A YouTube video description can be up to 5,000 characters long. That is plenty of room for links, timestamps and context, but only the opening lines are visible by default.
The first ~157 characters matter most
Only about the first 157 characters appear before the “Show more” fold and in Google search snippets. Front-load your most important keywords and your hook in that opening line so they are seen without a click.
Frequently asked questions
What is the YouTube description character limit?
YouTube allows up to 5,000 characters in a video description.
How many characters of a YouTube description are visible?
Roughly the first 157 characters show before the “Show more” button and in search results, so put key information there.