A 181-second video is not a Short: Timeline bills 4 minutes, $0.40

A vertical or square video of 181 seconds is not a Short on YouTube, since the Shorts page sets the limit at three minutes. On Sume it also crosses a Timeline billing step: Timeline 1.0 is $0.10 per started output minute, so 180 seconds is 3 minutes and $0.30, while 181 seconds is 4 minutes and $0.40.

The two sides of the line

Read from the YouTube Shorts page and the Timeline docs.

Fix a 181 s render

Video trim cuts a Sume-hosted clip for $0.02, with an output of up to 900 seconds, and exact precision re-encodes frame-accurately. To bring a 181 s render to 180 s, send duration: 180. That costs $0.02 on top of the $0.40 you already paid for the render, so $0.42 in all. Cutting the extra second before the render avoids both: the audio spine at 180 s bills 3 minutes, $0.30.

YouTube's page also says a Short over one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked globally, so the other time line is 60 seconds.

• Up to 180 s: inside the Shorts limit and 3 Timeline minutes.
• 181 s: over the limit and 4 Timeline minutes.
• Plan the audio spine at 180 s or less before you start.

How to stay under the line

Plan against 180 seconds with a margin. Timeline 1.0 takes an audio spine of 1 to 1800 seconds, and the output length follows the audio, so the audio is the number to measure. A 179-second narration leaves one second of margin and still bills 3 minutes.

The reverse case is also worth knowing: a 61-second video bills 2 Timeline minutes, so the $0.10 steps are at 60, 120 and 180 seconds. YouTube's own lines are at 60 seconds (the Content ID block applies above it) and at 180 seconds (the Shorts limit). The first Sume step and the first YouTube line therefore sit at the same 60 seconds.

Square counts too

YouTube's page says a vertical or square video up to three minutes is a Short. A 16:9 video is not a Short at any length, so a landscape 120-second cut is a normal upload even though it is under three minutes. Check the aspect ratio of the render as well as the duration before you upload.

Timeline 1.0 default output is 1080x1920, which is vertical, and any even size from 256 to 2160 is allowed, so a 1080x1080 square is available when you want one.

A planning table

Billed minutes for common lengths, using ceil(seconds / 60) at $0.10 each: 60 s is 1 minute ($0.10), 61 s is 2 ($0.20), 120 s is 2 ($0.20), 121 s is 3 ($0.30), 180 s is 3 ($0.30), 181 s is 4 ($0.40). The cheapest lengths to target are therefore 60, 120 and 180 seconds, since each is the last second of its billing step.