YouTube end screen needs 25 seconds: check and trim a cut

A video has to be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen on YouTube, and end screens go in the last 5 to 20 seconds. So a 22-second cut cannot carry one, and a 30-second cut needs its last stretch planned. Probe the length before you edit, then cut so the tail holds nothing you need viewers to read.

What does YouTube's page say? (read 2026-10-09)

The page does not mention Shorts, so this post makes no claim about them.

How do you check a file before you upload?

Call video_inspect with the media URL. The probe returns duration_seconds, width, height and more, and the probe is billed only by its Modal compute, with no per-job list price. If duration_seconds is under 25, the file cannot take an end screen; if it is 25 or more, the element slots land in the final 5 to 20 seconds.

How do you leave room in the tail?

• Keep text and the call to action out of the final 20 seconds, since elements may sit over it.
• Cut a longer take down with video_trim: start plus an end or a duration, $0.02 per job, precision exact by default.
• To lengthen a short cut, add a second scene with Timeline 1.0 at $0.10 per output minute (rounded up), using a clip that you want viewers to see behind the elements.
• Re-probe the output; Timeline coverage may stop at most 0.5 s before the end of the spine, so check the final duration.

What about a 16:9 cut and a vertical cut of the same story?

Make the 16:9 version the one that carries the four-element end screen, since the page ties that count to standard 16:9. Reframe a vertical copy separately; see blur-fit reformatting for how the Timeline fit modes behave.

A quick example of the arithmetic: a 32-second cut with a 20-second end screen leaves only the first 12 seconds free of elements, so put the story there and let the tail be a quiet wrap-up. A 24-second cut cannot take an end screen at all, so either lengthen it or accept that it will not have one.