Length Lab: how long should your videos be, from your own numbers
Long-form or Shorts, any period, recalculated on demand: which length bracket pulls the best numbers on your channel, with the confidence it deserves and the reasons it is not a rule.
The verdict, with its confidence
Long-form or Shorts, the period, Recalculate. The headline is measured: here, under one minute pulls the best numbers, about 3.5 views a month each from 48 videos, holding 69% of the audience, marked medium confidence. The line under it says what that is and is not: what worked so far, not proof that length causes it.
The counting-change warning
On 24 August 2026 YouTube changed what counts as a view. When a comparison spans that date the page says so, because part of any increase is the counting rule, not your video.
The brackets
Every bracket with videos, views a day, median views, retention, average watched and subscribers per ten thousand views, plus the best video in each. Brackets with too few videos are greyed and cannot win. Views a day divides by days since publish, so an old video is not compared with last month's.
Why it works this way
Views a day and medians rather than totals and averages, a floor of three videos before a bracket can win, and a warning when YouTube's own counting rule changed mid-comparison: the page would rather say medium confidence than invent a rule.