Search3 min read
How Many Hashtags to Use on YouTube (and Where)
YouTube shows three hashtags above your title, ignores every hashtag past 60, and may remove over-tagged videos from search. Here is the working number.
Use three to five YouTube hashtags, in the description, all relevant to the video. YouTube displays up to three of them above your title, ignores every hashtag on a video carrying more than 60, and says over-tagging may remove a video from search altogether. More is not better here — it is a documented risk.
The rules, from YouTube's own documentation
| Rule | What YouTube says |
|---|---|
| Display | "Up to three hashtags that are considered most engaging will appear by your video title" |
| Ceiling | "If a video or playlist has more than 60 hashtags, we'll ignore each hashtag on that content" |
| Spaces | "Hashtags don't contain any spaces" — join words: #twowords |
| Over-tagging | "May result in the removal of your video from your uploads or from search" |
Source: YouTube Help on hashtags.
Read the second row again: past 60, you do not get diminishing returns, you get zero. And the fourth row is not a ranking penalty in the vague sense — it is removal.
Where they go
In the description. Hashtags placed in the title also work, but they consume title characters that are worth more as words — and title length is already the tightest constraint you have.
Put them at the very bottom of the description. YouTube will pull up to three of them to render above the title, so their position in the text costs you nothing and keeps your visible lines clean.
Choosing three YouTube hashtags that do something
YouTube picks which three to display, based on which it considers most engaging. You influence that by giving it a short list where every entry is genuinely about the video:
- One broad: the subject category.
#sourdough - One specific: what this video is actually about.
#sourdoughstarter - One contextual: the format, series or audience.
#baking101
That is it. A fourth and fifth are fine if they are equally relevant. A thirtieth is a signal that none of them are.
FreeMentioned in this article
YouTube Hashtag GeneratorTwenty-five tags built from what YouTube’s own search box completes.The generator builds a set from YouTube's own autocomplete rather than from a static list, so the phrasings are ones people actually use.
Hashtags are not tags
Constantly confused, entirely different:
| Hashtags | Tags | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | In the description, visible | In Studio, hidden |
| Clickable | Yes, they open a hashtag page | No |
| Documented effect | Modest discovery; three shown | "Minimal role", except misspellings |
| Limit | 60 before all are ignored | A field cap in Studio |
YouTube is blunt about tags: they "play a minimal role in your video's discovery" (YouTube Help). If you want to read the tags on someone else's video anyway — they are useful as vocabulary research — that is how to see the tags on any YouTube video.
FreeMentioned in this article
YouTube Tag ExtractorSee the tags on any public video, read from the page itself.What hashtags will not fix
A hashtag does not rescue a video nobody clicks. It is a small discovery surface and a navigational convenience, sitting several rungs below the title, the thumbnail and whether people keep watching. If a video is underperforming, the hashtags are not the reason, and the YouTube SEO guide covers the fields that are.
Other networks work differently
Hashtag behaviour does not transfer. Instagram allows up to 30 per post; LinkedIn's convention is around three; TikTok treats them as topical signals in a caption with its own limit. The per-network differences are in how to use hashtags.
How many hashtags should I use on YouTube?
Three to five, all relevant, in the description. YouTube displays up to three of them above the title.
What happens if I use too many hashtags on YouTube?
Past 60 on one video, YouTube ignores all of them. Over-tagging may also result in the video being removed from search or from your uploads.
Do hashtags in the YouTube title work?
Yes, they render as links - but they use characters that are worth more as words, and titles are cut short on most surfaces anyway. The description is the better place.
Are YouTube hashtags the same as tags?
No. Hashtags are public, clickable and live in the description. Tags are hidden metadata that YouTube says plays a minimal role in discovery.
Build a relevant set from real autocomplete data with the YouTube hashtag generator.
Put it to work
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