How to Upload YouTube Videos

YouTubeTV, Movies & Video

By Corbin HartwickUpdated on August 21, 2024

Once you have set up a channel on YouTube, now comes the good part: it’s time to start uploading videos to your YouTube channel!

Note that, initially, you can only upload videos that are less than 15 minutes in length and less than 20 gigabytes in memory space. If you need to, however, you can increase this limit by submitting a request to YouTube, and then verifying your YouTube account with a phone number. Then, you can upload videos that are up to 11 hours long and up to 128 gigabytes in memory space!

How do I upload a video to YouTube?

1. Go to www.youtube.com in your web browser and log in.

2. Click the Upload button in the top-right corner.

3. On the next screen, click Select Files to Upload. This will open an explorer window that will let you search for the file that you wish to upload. When you find it, click on it to select it, and then click Open.

4. You will have to wait for your video to upload and process before you can publish it. In the meantime, you can fill out some basic information about the video. We’ve marked important areas on the screenshot below with red numbers; the corresponding captions below the screenshot have more information on what you can do at each point.

  1. Video Name – Click in this box and type in a name for your video.
  2. Description – Click in this box and type in a short paragraph or two on what your video’s about.
  3. Tags – Click in this box and type in key words that describe the topic of your video. This can make your video easier to search for. Click some of the words under “Suggested Tags” to quickly add them to your video.
  4. Video Thumbnails – Click on a frame from your video to make it the cover picture that represents your video to other YouTube users.
  5. Privacy Selector – Click this drop-down menu and select whether you want your video to be Public (anyone can see it), Unlisted (others need a link to the video to see it), or Private (others need a YouTube account AND a link to the video to see it). If you choose Public, you can add a message to your video and share it on Google Plus or Twitter. If you choose Private, you can choose whom you want to share your video with (if anyone).
  6. Add to Playlist – You can click here to select a playlist that you want to add this video to, or create a new playlist based on this video.
  7. Advanced Settings – Click here for additional options, like whether or not you want to allow people to rate or comment on your video, what category your video shows up in, or whether or not you want to restrict viewing of your video to a certain age group.

5. If you want to upload more videos to YouTube besides this one, click Add More Videos in the bottom-right corner and repeat steps 3 and 4. Otherwise, click Publish (or Done) in the top-right corner.

6. If you are uploading multiple videos at once, you can click the Privacy Selector drop-down menu at the top of the screen to set the privacy of all of your videos to Public (anyone can see them), Unlisted (others need links to the videos to see them), or Private (others need YouTube accounts AND links to the videos to see them) all at the same time.

You can also click Publish All (or Done With All) to finish making changes to all of your videos at once and put them up on your YouTube channel.


That’s a quick demonstration of how to upload videos to YouTube! So what are you waiting for? Post your creations today, and see how many fans you can get!