How long should a YouTube Short be?

Shorts can run up to 3 minutes, but length and performance are different questions. Most Shorts that do well sit between 20 and 45 seconds.

The reason is retention percentage. The algorithm weighs how much of a video people watch, and a 25-second video that holds 80% of viewers beats a 90-second one that holds 30%. Longer isn't penalised directly — it just gives people more chances to leave.

The practical approach is to write to the idea rather than to a target. If a topic is genuinely a 20-second observation, padding it to 60 costs retention. If it needs 70 seconds to land, cutting it to 40 breaks it.

One length rule that is real: anything over 3 minutes stops being a Short and enters the long-form feed, which is a different algorithm and a different audience.