Free YouTube Shorts title generator

What a Shorts title does (and doesn’t do)

In the Shorts feed the video plays before anyone reads the title, so the title is not your hook: the first seconds of the video are. The title matters elsewhere: in YouTube search, on your channel page, in the Shorts shelf on the home page, and when someone shares the link. There it has to tell people, in a few words, what they will get.

YouTube allows up to 100 characters in a title, but the end of a long title is cut on phones. That is why the generator aims for under 60 characters and puts the main keyword in the first words.

Do you still need #shorts in the title?

No. YouTube classifies a video as a Short from its format (vertical or square, up to three minutes), not from a hashtag. Adding #shorts doesn’t hurt, but it uses characters you could spend on a word people actually search for. The generator leaves it out.

How to use the title generator

Describe the topic in a sentence. If you have a target search term (for example “sourdough starter”), add it as the keyword and every title will include it. Choose the language and generate.

Pick a title that matches the first line of your video: when the title and the hook tell the same story, viewers who arrive from search stay longer. Then send the topic to the studio to turn it into a narrated motion design Short.

Patterns that work for explainer Shorts

“How X really works”, “Why X happens”, “The X mistake most people make”, “X explained in 60 seconds”, “X vs Y: which one?”. They work because they promise one concrete thing. Avoid vague titles (“You won’t believe this”), all caps, and numbers you can’t back up.

Keep a small list of the titles you didn’t use: they make good hooks or follow-up videos on the same topic.