YouTube Search Operators
One may think that searching on YouTube is child’s play. There are only videos to be searched, which are already organized into channels and categories, available with system attributes like length and quality. But the search challenges in real life are far different than the theoretical reality. Hence, we bring you a collection of commands, keywords and advanced tips that help you to search better and smarter on YouTube.
YouTube Search Operators:
| Search by | Search Syntax |
|---|---|
| Search only in title | intitle:search query |
| Force search for word in results | +word |
| Omit a word from results | -word |
| Search for exact composition of words | “search query” |
| Wild character for word | * |
| Search for channels | search query, channels |
| Search for movies | search query, film |
| Search only programmes | search query, show |
| Search for short videos less than 4 minutes | search query, short |
| Search for long videos greater than 20 minutes | search query, long |
| Search for 4K videos | search query, 4k |
| Search for HD videos | search query, HD |
| Search for videos with subtitles | search query, cc |
| Search for free to use creative common license videos | search query, creativecommons |
| Search for 3D videos | search query, 3D |
| Search for live videos | search query, live |
| Search for purchased videos | search query, purchased |
| Search for live videos | search query, live |
| Search for videos with 360 degree view | search query, spherical |
| Search for videos shot in 360 degree | search query, spherical |
| Search for videos updated in last one hour | search query, hour |
| Search for videos updated today | search query, today |
| Search for videos updated in last one week | search query, week |
| Search for videos updated in last one month | search query, month |
| Search for videos updated in last one year | search query, year |
The best part of about these operators is that they can be used in combination. For example, if you want to search for John Oliver videos in HD published in last one month, then your query becomes
John Oliver, hd, month
Note: Don’t get deluded with the unexpected search results. Sometimes the searched word may not be in the title but present in the description or comments of the video.
Trivia: Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine.
My favorite commands are live, hd and date range. Let us know in comments which one of these advance YouTube video search commands you use the most.
Related: Gmail Search Operators
Great tips, just what I was looking for.
No or operator like search for ghost or paranormal or ouija?
unfortunately not.
Same as everywhere else: “|”
So: ghost|paranormal|ouija
This is going to be so very helpful in my searches. Thanks so much.
The minus sign for exclusion didn’t work for me today. Anyone else experience this or have info on the breakage? Is google removing exclusion from YouTube? Finally is there another way to exclude?