YouTube Shorts 3 minutes: Oct 15, 2024 vs Dec 8, 2025 dates

YouTube's help page for three-minute Shorts gives two start dates: videos uploaded after October 15, 2024 qualify for standard channels, and videos uploaded after December 8, 2025 qualify for Official Artist Channels. In both cases the video must be up to three minutes long with a square or vertical aspect ratio. Sume can check that length and shape on a file before you upload it, and cut it down when it runs over.

Everything about YouTube below comes from Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts and Upload YouTube Shorts, both read on 2026-10-02. Sume facts come from the video inspect, video trim and Timeline 1.0 docs.

Which date applies to my channel?

The help page splits the rule by channel type. A standard channel counts from October 15, 2024. An Official Artist Channel counts from December 8, 2025. The page words both as videos uploaded after the date, so check the upload date against your channel type.

If you are not sure which type your channel is, that is a question for YouTube Studio, not for a file tool. Sume never sees your channel; it only sees the video you hand it.

What does the upload page add?

The upload page says a Short can be up to 3 minutes and must have a square or vertical aspect ratio. It also says you can choose up to 15 short videos at a time and finish each in Edit draft before publishing.

The three-minute page adds a music note: most songs can be used for up to 90 seconds in a three-minute Short, though some tracks are limited to 60 or 30 seconds.

How do I check a file against that rule with Sume?

Import the clip so it lives on media.sume.com (video inspect only reads Sume-hosted files; see Media inputs), then call video inspect with frames: false. That is a probe only and the docs list probe and stills as unbilled. The probe returns duration, size and rotation, which is all you need to test the two conditions.

The length test is a duration of 180 seconds or less. The shape test is width no greater than height after you account for the probe's rotation: a phone clip stored as 1920 by 1080 with rotation 90 displays as vertical. Sume reports the numbers; the decision is yours.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-inspect \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: shorts-probe-001" \
  -d '{"video_url":"https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/talk.mp4","frames":false}'

What if the clip is longer than three minutes?

Cut it. Video trim takes start plus exactly one of end or duration and returns a new MP4; the source is not touched. duration runs from 0.2 to 900 seconds, so a 180-second cap is a value you set, not a Sume limit. The default precision: exact re-encodes frame-accurately; keyframe is faster but can start up to one group of pictures early.

If the clip is landscape, trimming does not fix the shape. YouTube's page says a wider ratio such as 16:9 is how you keep a video from being a Short, so a 16:9 file under three minutes stays a normal video. Recompose it to vertical or square first with Timeline 1.0 (default output 1080 by 1920, fit set to cover, contain, stretch or blur).

What does Sume not do here?

Sume does not upload to YouTube or know which of the two dates applies to you, and it does not decide whether YouTube will categorize a given file as a Short. It prepares and measures files. For the publishing side and Content ID, rely on YouTube's own pages above.