YouTube Shorts Length Study

Key takeaways

1. The 574 latest Shorts of 97 of the most-subscribed YouTube channels ran a median of 40 seconds; half ran between 24.75 and 58 seconds. See details
2. Two years after YouTube allowed Shorts up to three minutes, 82% still run a minute or less. 104 (18%) run longer and 13 (2%) longer than two minutes. See details
3. Very short Shorts are rare: 62 (11%) run 15 seconds or less. See details
4. Channel by channel the median Short runs 39.75 seconds; 44 of 94 channels posted at least one over a minute, but on only 13 is the typical Short longer than a minute. See details
5. Of the kinds of channel with three or more on the list, Education channels make the longest Shorts, a median 60.5 seconds on the median channel, and Comedy channels the shortest (28.5). See details
6. MrBeast's latest Shorts ran a median 38 seconds. See details
7. On the first 55 channels, 20% of Shorts were uploaded in 4K vertical (2160 x 3840) and 90% at 1080p or better. See details

How long are YouTube Shorts?

On the biggest channels, a median of 40 seconds. We measured the 574 latest Shorts of 97 of the 100 most-subscribed YouTube channels, up to 6 per channel, and half ran between 24.75 and 58 seconds. The mean was 43.9 seconds, pulled up by the Shorts that run two to three minutes.

Very short Shorts are rare: only 62 (11%) ran 15 seconds or less.

Do big channels use the three-minute limit?

Some do, most don't. YouTube began accepting Shorts up to three minutes long on October 15, 2024; two years on, 104 of 574 (18%) of the biggest channels' recent Shorts ran longer than a minute and 13 (2%) longer than two. 470 (82%) still fit the old one-minute limit. 44 of the 94 channels with at least five Shorts posted at least one over a minute.

Which kinds of channels make the longest Shorts?

Education channels, of the kinds with three or more on the list: their median channel's Shorts run 60.5 seconds, against 28.5 for Comedy channels.

How long are the biggest creators' Shorts?

Channel by channel, the median Short runs 39.75 seconds on the median channel. MrBeast's latest Shorts ran a median 38 seconds; T-Series 25; Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes 50; Mark Rober 60.5; Dude Perfect 49.5; Kids Diana Show 57.5 seconds. Only 13 of the 94 channels have a typical Short longer than a minute. The longest medians: Goldmines (168 s), Infobells - Hindi (104.5 s), Dangal TV Channel (95.5 s), MR. INDIAN HACKER (89.5 s). The shortest: Aaj Tak (9.5 s), Justin Bieber (12 s), Fede Vigevani (13 s), BEN EAGLE (14 s).

Every channel's Shorts length

What resolution do big channels upload Shorts in?

We could read upload resolution for the 321 Shorts of the first 55 channels on the list. 98% were vertical, 65 (20%) were uploaded in 4K vertical, 2160 x 3840, and 288 (90%) at 1080 x 1920 or better; the rest were smaller, including some square uploads.

What this means if you make Shorts

• Under a minute is still the norm. 82% of the biggest channels' Shorts fit in 60 seconds, half between 24.75 and 58.
• Use the extra time when the idea needs it. The three-minute limit is there for stories and tutorials; few big channels use it by default.
• Upload at 1080 x 1920 or better. Our YouTube Shorts checker checks a file's shape, length and resolution before you post.

Mark Studios edits Shorts, Reels and TikToks from long recordings. This study uses the same channels as our video length study, which covers long-form length and how many uploads are Shorts.

How we ran the study

Channels. Every channel in Wikipedia's list of the most-subscribed YouTube channels as listed on October 25, 2026, the same list as our video length study. On October 26, 2026 we listed the latest entries of each channel's Shorts tab. We could list 99 of the 100 (our collection missed Karla Bustillos, as in our thumbnail study); 97 of them post Shorts, while PewDiePie and SonyMusicIndiaVEVO have none.

Lengths. Edition 1.0 read the 6 latest Shorts of the first 55 channels with the open-source yt-dlp tool until YouTube limited our automated reads. For this edition, on October 29, 2026, we read the length and upload date of the 6 latest Shorts of every channel through the official YouTube Data API. 2 were no longer available and are left out, leaving 574 Shorts uploaded between 2022-04-02 and 2026-10-26. The API reports whole seconds: on the 322 Shorts read both ways it matched yt-dlp on 154 and read one second longer on the rest, never shorter, because it rounds up: a Short that runs 39.2 seconds in YouTube's stream data is listed at 40, one that runs 18.05 at 19. Channel figures use the 94 channels with at least five Shorts (Stokes Twins, two of whose six latest had been made private, and MrBeast Gaming and Techno Gamerz, whose Shorts tabs listed fewer than five, count in the pooled figures only) and take each channel's median, then the median across channels.

Resolution. The API doesn't report upload resolution, so that section uses the yt-dlp reads of edition 1.0: 321 Shorts from 54 channels.

None of the channels reviewed or endorsed this study.

Limitations

• The biggest channels, not all of YouTube. These channels lean toward music, entertainment and kids' content.
• Resolution for 55 channels. The YouTube Data API doesn't report upload resolution, so that figure covers the first 55 channels, read with yt-dlp before YouTube limited our reads.
• Whole seconds. The API rounds each length up to the next second, so a length can read up to a second long and a Short listed at 60 seconds runs a minute or a fraction less.
• Latest Shorts only. Six Shorts can span a day for a busy channel and months for a quiet one.
• Length and resolution, not performance. We don't relate length to views here; recent Shorts have had less time to collect views.

How to cite this study

Link to the section you use, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/youtube-shorts-length-study#over-a-minute. To cite the study as a whole:

Mark Studios. "YouTube Shorts Length Study." Published Oct 29, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/youtube-shorts-length-study

@misc{markstudios_youtube_shorts_length_study_2026,
  author = {{Mark Studios}},
  title = {{YouTube Shorts Length Study}},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/youtube-shorts-length-study},
  note = {Last verified 2026-10-30}
}

Our measurements and the CSVs are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. The Shorts remain the property of the channels that published them.

Sources

Download the per-Short lengths (CSV) · Download the per-channel results (CSV)

Widely quoted video statistics on other topics are traced to their origin, with a verdict on each, in our research fact-check.

1. YouTube, Tall updates coming to Shorts (YouTube Official Blog, Oct 3, 2024). Accessed 2026-10-29.
2. Wikipedia, List of most-subscribed YouTube channels (revision used). Accessed 2026-10-29.
3. yt-dlp, yt-dlp: a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader. Accessed 2026-10-29.
4. Google for Developers, YouTube Data API: Videos resource. Accessed 2026-10-29.

Update policy and change log

We plan to rerun the check every six months on the same list. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.

• Oct 30, 2026: Edition 1.1: every channel on the list that posts Shorts, 97 channels and 574 Shorts (edition 1.0: 321 Shorts from 54 channels), read through the YouTube Data API. The median stays 40 seconds (was 40); the share over a minute is 18% (was 19%).
• Oct 29, 2026: First published: 321 Shorts from 54 of the most-subscribed channels.