How long should a YouTube Short be?

The rules, as of October 2026

YouTube's help page on three-minute Shorts says Shorts can now be up to three minutes long, and that a video must be square or vertical to be a Short. For standard channels, videos uploaded on or after 15 October 2024 that meet the length and ratio rules are Shorts; earlier uploads stay long-form. To keep a video long-form, use a wider ratio such as 16:9.

The upload page gives the same limit for uploads from a computer: up to three minutes, square or vertical. The Shorts camera inside the app records up to three minutes at a maximum of 1080p, according to YouTube's getting-started page.

Music changes the picture over one minute

YouTube's page says songs from its Shorts Audio Library can usually be used for up to 90 seconds of a three-minute Short, and some for 60 or 30 seconds. It also says a Short over one minute with an active copyright claim is blocked and not recommended until the claim is resolved, while a Short under one minute is not subject to that. If you use music of your own or music made for the video, the library's limits do not apply, but the rights to it are yours to confirm.

A starting point for choosing a length

• 15 to 30 seconds: one fact, one question, one reveal.
• 60 to 90 seconds: a countdown, a short story or a quiz of three questions.
• 2 to 3 minutes: an explanation that needs steps, a map walk-through or a longer true story.
• Write the idea first and let it set the length, then cut every sentence that does not move it forward.

How views are counted

Since 31 March 2025, YouTube says, a Shorts view counts each time a Short starts or replays, and the earlier measure is now called engaged views (YouTube). So a view means something different from what it did before that date, which matters if you compare old and new numbers.

What Ginvid offers

On the Video page, when Ginvid writes the script, a Short can be 15 or 30 seconds, 1 minute, 90 seconds, 2 or 3 minutes. A script you paste can be any length that fits Ginvid's range of 5 seconds to 3 minutes for a vertical Short; a 16:9 video can run to 7 minutes. Ginvid charges 1 credit for each started 100 seconds of video before extras, so a 30-second Short starts at 1 credit and a 3-minute Short at 2; the Motion look adds 1 credit per started minute. The price is shown before you make anything.

Limits worth knowing

• A vertical video longer than three minutes is not a Short on YouTube, whatever it was made as.
• A Short in Ginvid is written for the length you choose; the finished video lands close to it, not on the exact second.
• None of this predicts how a video will perform.

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