After YouTube's 2024 update, how long can YouTube Shorts be?

After YouTube’s 2024 update, YouTube Shorts can be up to 3 minutes long.

YouTube announced the change in October 2024 after creators asked for more room for storytelling. The new limit applies to videos uploaded from October 15, 2024, when they are square or vertically oriented and no longer than three minutes.

The update replaced the older one-minute ceiling for qualifying Shorts. It did not mean that every video under three minutes automatically became a Short: aspect ratio, upload date and YouTube’s classification rules still mattered. Older uploads were not automatically converted.

A common mix-up involves music usage. YouTube’s music-licensing rules can limit how much of a song is available in a Short, sometimes to 90 seconds, but that is not the maximum length of the video itself. A Short may therefore last three minutes even when its soundtrack has a shorter permitted excerpt.