YouTube Description Generator

How to build a YouTube description

This generator builds a description from four parts, in the order a viewer reads them: a summary, chapters, links and hashtags. It puts yours together and checks the result as you type.

1. Write what the video is about in the summary field, or press “Insert an example”.
2. Add one chapter per line, such as 0:00 Intro, and the video's length if you want the last chapter checked too.
3. Add the links you want under the video, one per line, and your hashtags, separated by spaces or commas.
4. Read the checks under the description, fix what they flag, then press “Copy description” and paste it into YouTube Studio.

The generator writes 0:00 as 00:00 and every timestamp the same way, and leaves out the angle brackets < and >, which YouTube's developer documentation does not allow in a description. If you already have a description, switch to “Check a description” and paste it in.

YouTube's description limit: 5,000 characters or bytes

YouTube Help limits a description to 5,000 characters, and the YouTube Data API limits it to 5,000 bytes. YouTube Help says “video descriptions have a character limit of 5,000 characters”, while the YouTube Data API reference says a description “has a maximum length of 5000 bytes”.

The two agree for plain English text, where each letter is one byte. An accented letter such as é takes two bytes and most emoji take four, so a description in German or full of emoji can stay under 5,000 characters and still go over 5,000 bytes. The generator shows both counts: over 5,000 characters it fails the check, and over 5,000 bytes alone it warns, because the two sources disagree.

YouTube chapter rules

YouTube chapters split a video into titled sections, made from timestamps you add to the description, and the timestamps have to follow three rules. YouTube Help on chapters says to “make sure that the first timestamp you list starts with 00:00” and that the video “should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order”. It also says that “the minimum length for video chapters is 10 seconds”.

The generator checks each rule and names the chapter, or the number of chapters, that breaks it. Give it the video's length and it checks the last chapter's 10 seconds too. The same help page notes that automatic chapters are not available to a channel with active strikes or for a video that may be inappropriate for some viewers.

Hashtags in a YouTube description

A video with more than 60 hashtags has every one of them ignored, according to YouTube Help on hashtags. The same page says that up to three of the hashtags in the description that YouTube considers most engaging appear with your video's title, and that hashtags link to a page of videos with the same hashtag.

A hashtag holds no spaces, so the generator turns each word you type into its own hashtag and drops duplicates. Join words you want as one hashtag, such as #b2bmarketing. YouTube's page also asks you not to add “too many tags” to one video, and not to add hashtags that are not related to it.

A YouTube description template

The generator works through the same four parts for any video, and “Copy the template” gives you them as an empty template with these placeholders:

Press “Insert an example” to see the template filled in, then replace the example with your own video's details.

Link the video to what comes next

A description is also where a video points to what comes next, such as the case study it covers or a LinkedIn post about it. Add those pages under Links.

Scripe is a social media management platform for B2B teams and agencies, built LinkedIn-first. Today it supports LinkedIn. Before you upload, check the video's title with the YouTube title checker, or see the other free tools.