How to Enable Long Videos on YouTube? (Quickly and with Ease)

Last Updated: 

February 1, 2025

If you’re new to YouTube, you may be frustrated by their 15-minute upload limit to your videos. Luckily, there are a few ways to circumvent this limit and upload videos that are much longer.

Everyone can easily set up their YouTube account to enable them to upload videos longer than 15 minutes.

Every new YouTuber is hit with the 15-minute video limit, but thankfully, there’s a way to get around it and upload long videos on YouTube.

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YouTube Studio

Go to YouTube Studio on your YouTube account. This will take you to the YouTube dashboard.

Youtube Studio click

Settings

Click on the settings tab on the left to go to the tabs to update video length.

YouTube studio settings

Settings Area

In the settings area, another box comes up with General, Channel, Upload Defaults, Permissions, Community, and Agreements.

Click on the channel.

Then click on Feature eligibility.

YouTube channel - channel link and Feature eligibility

Increase your Limit

Here the default features are enabled where you see the green checkmark. If the feature is not enabled then click to enable.

The next step is to verify by phone.

click eligible

Verify YouTube Account

Follow the steps to verify your YouTube account with a mobile phone.

Basically, all you do here is input the information YouTube asks for to verify your YouTube account with a mobile phone.

Enter the verification code that YouTube sends to your phone via text message.

YouTube will send a text message to your phone with a verification code. You enter that code on YouTube and continue to follow the instructions.

YouTube will confirm your verification code and it will allow you to upload long videos on YouTube.

Finished

This is how you enable long videos on YouTube. Everything is now done, all you have to do is wait for YouTube to do their thing. The process is usually instant, but it may take a few seconds to a couple of minutes.

You should be able to upload them within seconds after YouTube validates your YouTube account using the verification code you entered.

Video Length

Let’s talk about why you want to upload long videos on YouTube.

Videos over 15 minutes in length are viewed more frequently than shorter videos, which is why so many people want to upload longer videos.

The long videos on YouTube will give you a better opportunity to connect with the viewer and potentially steer them towards an affiliate offer.

In addition, people are more likely to share a video that’s over 15 minutes in length. This is because people like to share videos, they think their friends will enjoy too.

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Watch Time

Watch time is important for those who want to monetize their YouTube channel.

Your channel must have 4,000 hours of watch time before you can monetize it. If all you have are 5-minute-long videos, it will be challenging to achieve the required amount of watch time to get it to be monetized.

You need to make sure you start your YouTube channel off right. Engaging videos and doing SEO right is the key.

YouTube Policy make money ads

Watch time is measured by the total number of minutes watched on each video view. The longer videos will increase the watch time of your channel.

The more watch time you rack up, the more your video is recommended and thus the more money you can make.

It’s in your best interest to do whatever it takes to increase the length of time people are watching your videos. The higher the views your videos have, the more you’ll be paid when you monetize them.

Make New Videos

There you have it; now you know how to upload videos longer than 15 minutes. It only takes a few minutes to do, but the results are worth it. You’ll get more views and potentially get more subscribers.

When you have your videos uploaded, you can promote them on social media and see how they convert. You may be surprised at how many people will watch your long videos.

Once you’ve been able to upload longer videos, go ahead and start to experiment with your channel.

FAQ’s

Q: Can you upload videos that are less than 15 minutes?

You can still upload videos that are shorter than 15 minutes after you’ve asked YouTube to increase your allowed video length. It doesn’t matter if you’ve increased the video length or not; you can still upload videos that are less than 15 minutes.

It’s not unheard of for people to increase their video length only to continue to upload mostly videos that are shorter than 15 minutes.

Q: What is the maximum upload size?

YouTube places a maximum upload size of 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. So, to be clear, you still have a restriction on the length of your video.

‘It’s hard to believe that you will make a video longer than twelve hours or larger than 256 in GB. However, if you do, all you need to do is break the video up into sections and upload each of them.

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