Type the title and watch it render exactly as search, the home feed, and the sidebar will show it, with the character limit, truncation, keyword placement, and clickbait checks running live.
How it renders
Checklist
Need variants? The YouTube Title Generator writes them for your topic, and the Description Generator matches the description to the winner.
How it works
The previews are not illustrations. They are live renders of your title at the widths, font sizes, and two-line clamps YouTube uses on a desktop screen: the search result column, the home-grid tile, and the compact watch-page sidebar. We detect truncation by measuring the rendered text against its clamp, so what the badge says is what happens. That holds even for titles full of wide letters or emoji, where character counting misleads. The dark toggle shows both themes.
The checklist runs the checks that need no judgement. The 100-character limit. Whether the payoff sits early enough to survive truncation. Keyword presence and position, when you give one. Restraint with ALL-CAPS and emoji. Burned-out clickbait phrases. And characters wasted on a trailing channel-name suffix. A nudge, not a warning, notes when neither a number nor a bracketed qualifier is present, since both are proven click-through conventions when honest.
Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. The YouTube Video SEO Checker applies the same title thinking, plus description, tags, and more, to a video you have already published.
What you will see
- Character counter
- The character count against the 100-character upload limit, plus the word count.
- Render previews
- Your title in the real text styles of desktop search, the home feed, and the watch sidebar, with a Truncated badge when the two-line clamp cuts it.
- Checklist
- Pass, warning, and info chips for the length, placement, keyword, capitalisation, emoji, clickbait-phrase, and suffix checks.
- Front-loading check
- Whether the title still makes sense from its first 60 or so characters, the part every surface shows.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a YouTube title be?
The upload form allows 100 characters. But titles get cut off much earlier on screen. Search and the home feed clamp titles to two lines, which fits about 60 to 70 characters before the ellipsis. The watch-page sidebar fits even fewer. This checker renders your title at the real widths and font sizes of those three surfaces and flags where it gets cut. That beats counting characters.
What is the ideal YouTube title length?
Long enough to carry the payoff and short enough to survive the two-line clamp everywhere. In practice that is 50 to 70 characters. Placement counts for more than length. Put the meaning in the first 60 characters, so that even a cut-off title still sells the video, and spend the tail on secondary detail.
Should my keyword be in the title?
Yes, worded naturally, and earlier is better. The title is the strongest text signal YouTube search reads, and viewers scanning results look for the words they typed. Enter the target keyword above and the checklist confirms it is present and sits in the first half. If you have not picked one, the YouTube Keyword Generator finds phrases with real search volume.
Do capital letters help a YouTube title?
One emphasised word can help. A shouting title reads as spam, and some studies find all-caps titles do worse. The checklist allows acronyms and flags a title with more than one fully capitalised word. The same goes for emoji: one at most, and only when it adds information.
Do numbers and brackets improve click-through?
Often, which is why the checklist nudges you, without a warning, when neither is present. A concrete number ("7 mistakes", "in 12 minutes") sets expectations. A bracketed qualifier ("[2026]", "(step by step)") adds a second hook without cluttering the sentence. They are conventions because they keep working. Never force one into a title that reads worse with it.
Why does the checker flag my channel name in the title?
A trailing "| My Channel" spends 10 to 20 of your scarcest characters on something YouTube already shows under the title. Search results, the feed, and the sidebar all show the channel name on its own. The suffix adds nothing and pushes the real payoff past the cut-off point.
Is "(NOT CLICKBAIT)" bad for a title?
Yes. The phrases the checker flags, such as "gone wrong", "you won't believe", and "(not clickbait)", are burned out. They lower trust for most audiences and add no information. Real clickbait control is simpler: promise exactly what the video delivers, and make the promise specific. Curiosity is fine. A curiosity gap the video cannot close costs you the viewer's next ten clicks.
Is the YouTube title checker free?
Yes, free with no signup. Everything runs in your browser as you type and nothing is uploaded. When the title needs a rewrite rather than a check, the YouTube Title Generator writes variants for the same topic, and this page is where you test the winner.