A YouTube Shorts scheduler that treats the title as a title
Set the title and description yourself, or leave them blank and the first line of your copy becomes the title — trimmed to 100 characters. Queue Shorts on the same calendar as your Reels, posts and threads, with that rule surfaced rather than discovered.
No card. 20 publishing credits on the free plan — one credit per Short delivered.
YouTube schedules Shorts on its own, free
Worth knowing before you pay anyone, including us. Here is the native route on both surfaces — and the point at which it stops being enough.
On desktop, in YouTube Studio
- Open Studio and click Create, then upload the vertical clip.
- Fill in the title and description.
- Continue to the Visibility step.
- Choose Schedule, set the date and time, and save.
On a phone, in the YouTube app
- Tap Create and choose the video from your camera roll.
- Add the details YouTube asks for.
- Step through to Visibility.
- Pick Schedule and set a date and time.
Workable, but there is no calendar view of what else is already queued.
What a Short actually requires
YouTube Shorts is the one network here that will not take an image at all — a Short is a video by definition, and pre-flight rejects a non-video file before the upload starts.
And up to 256MB. Duration cannot be checked without decoding the file, so it is reported rather than enforced locally.
Set a title explicitly and anything over 100 characters is rejected with the count. Leave it blank and the first line of your copy becomes it, trimmed to 100 with an ellipsis.
Yours, or the whole post body as a fallback. #Shorts is appended automatically if you have not written it, which helps YouTube classify the upload.
Duration and aspect ratio cannot be verified without decoding the file, so those limits are reported to you rather than blocked locally — YouTube still has the final say at upload. What is checked before a byte moves: that the media exists and is a video at all.
Public, unlisted or private — per Short
Visibility is set on the post and defaults to public. Scheduling as unlisted is how you line up a clip that someone should review first, or publish on a timer without it hitting subscription feeds early. Anything outside those three values is rejected at compose time with the list of what is allowed.
A dropped upload resumes, it does not restart
Shorts go up over YouTube’s resumable protocol in 16MB chunks. If one fails, the engine asks YouTube how many bytes it already holds and continues from that offset, backing off between attempts. A connection that dies at 90% of a 256MB clip costs seconds rather than the entire upload.
The same clip, four ceilings
Cross-posting a Short fails at whichever destination is tightest. These are the ones that decide it.
YouTube Shorts FAQ
- Is it possible to schedule YouTube Shorts?
- Yes, three ways. YouTube Studio schedules Shorts natively and for free on desktop. The YouTube mobile app can schedule during upload through the visibility step. PostMCP adds the third option: the Short queued on the same calendar as your Reels and posts, with an API and an approval step behind it.
- How do I schedule a YouTube Short on desktop?
- In YouTube Studio, click Create, upload the vertical clip, fill in the title and description, continue to the Visibility step, choose Schedule, and set the date and time. The Short stays private on your channel until that moment. It is free and it works — the case for anything else starts when the clip is also going to Reels, Threads or Bluesky.
- How do I schedule YouTube Shorts on a phone?
- In the YouTube app, tap Create, pick the video, and step through to Visibility — Schedule is offered there with a date and time picker. It is fiddlier than desktop and gives you no calendar view of what else is queued, which is the gap a scheduler fills. PostMCP’s calendar is responsive and there is a companion app for iOS and Android.
- Where does the Shorts title come from?
- From you, if you set one — and a title over 100 characters is rejected with the exact count rather than silently cut. If you leave it blank, the first line of your copy becomes the title, trimmed to 100 characters with an ellipsis, and everything after it becomes the description. That fallback is why the first line deserves to be written as a title rather than as an opening sentence.
- Can I schedule a Short as unlisted or private?
- Yes. Visibility is public, unlisted or private, set per post and defaulting to public. Scheduling as unlisted is the usual way to line up a clip you want reviewed before it goes out, or to publish on a timer without it hitting subscriptions early.
- What are the video limits for Shorts?
- Vertical, up to 3 minutes and 256MB. A video is required — unlike every network except Instagram, a text-only YouTube post is not a thing. Pre-flight flags a YouTube target with no video, or with an image where a video is needed, before anything uploads.
- Can I schedule regular long-form YouTube videos?
- No. This publishes Shorts — vertical clips of three minutes or less. Long-form uploads stay in YouTube Studio, which schedules them natively for free. Most scheduling tools draw the same line, and it is worth knowing before you sign up rather than after.
- What happens if the upload drops halfway?
- It resumes rather than restarting. Shorts go up over YouTube’s resumable protocol in 16MB chunks; if a chunk fails, the engine asks YouTube how many bytes it already has and continues from there, with backoff between attempts. A dropped connection at 90% of a 256MB clip costs seconds, not the whole upload.
- Can I post the same video to Shorts and Instagram Reels?
- Yes, from one action. Instagram takes Reels up to roughly 15 minutes, so a Short always fits. Watch Bluesky if it is in the same fan-out — its 60-second ceiling is the tightest of the set and will reject a longer clip. Pre-flight reports that before you queue, not after.
- How much does a Short cost to publish?
- One publishing credit per delivery, the same as every network except X. The free plan carries 20 credits and no card. A post containing a link adds a one-off 50-credit surcharge regardless of how many networks it goes to.
- Can AI write the title and description?
- Yes, and it is worth letting it. The agent knows the first line becomes the title when none is set, so it writes a title-shaped opener followed by a description — rather than a paragraph whose first 100 characters happen to become your title by accident.
20 Shorts before anyone asks for a card
One workspace, the full calendar, resumable uploads and the AI writer included. A Short costs one credit, so a clip going to Shorts and Reels together costs two. If YouTube is the only place you publish, Studio is free and unlimited — that is the honest answer.
Connect YouTube free