Google's YouTube Data API v3 gives a default project a dedicated bucket of 100 videos.insert calls/day, separate from a 10,000-unit general pool for everything else. This calculator applies that real, current quota model — not the older, now-obsolete 1,600-unit formula most other calculators still use.
Enter your project’s quota and the calls you make for each video; the calculator shows which limit you reach first.
A new Google project starts at 100 calls/day, in its own dedicated bucket separate from the general pool. Enter the figure YOUR project was granted: Google can raise it through a quota extension, and the Google Cloud console shows yours.
A new Google project starts at 10,000 units/day. Enter the figure YOUR project was granted. Covers every operation other than videos.insert and search.list.
Per-video operations after upload (each draws from the general pool)
videos.insert costs 1 unit, drawn from its own 100/day bucket
100
upload bucket ÷ 1
50 units/video from the toggles above
200
general pool ÷ units per video
bound by the upload bucket
100
min(upload-bucket ceiling, general-pool ceiling)
Since a June 2026 revision, videos.insert and search.list each draw from their own dedicated 100-calls/day bucket rather than the shared 10,000-unit general pool — so the old rule of thumb (10,000 ÷ ~1,600 units ≈ 6 uploads/day) no longer applies. A new project starts at 100 uploads a day (Google's default, not a limit every project has) regardless of length or whether they're Shorts (no Shorts-specific quota discount or penalty is documented), as long as the general pool has enough units left for whatever you do to each video afterward. The figures above belong to the Google project that makes the calls: a scheduling tool that publishes through its own Google project spends that project’s allowance, not yours, so this calculator matters for the project you call the API from yourself. A quota increase is requested through Google's own Quota extension request form; it is not confirmed whether the two dedicated buckets can be raised independently of each other or of the general pool.
A daily allowance per Google Cloud project. Google’s overview says a project that enables the YouTube Data API gets 100 search.list calls, 100 videos.insert calls and 10,000 units a day for all other methods. Uploads and search have had their own buckets since Google’s 1 June 2026 change; before that, an upload spent units from the shared pool.
| Bucket | Default a day | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Video uploads (videos.insert) | 100 calls | Uploading a video |
| Search (search.list) | 100 calls | Searching YouTube |
| Everything else | 10,000 units | Thumbnails, playlists, edits, captions, comments, reads |
Reads cost 1 unit a page, most writes cost 50 and subtitle tracks cost the most. The calls an upload workflow usually makes after the upload, from Google’s quota calculator:
| What it does | Method | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Set a custom thumbnail | thumbnails.set | 50 units |
| Add the video to a playlist | playlistItems.insert | 50 units |
| Change the title, description or privacy | videos.update | 50 units |
| Upload one subtitle track | captions.insert | 400 units |
| Replace a subtitle track | captions.update | 450 units |
| Post a comment | commentThreads.insert | 50 units |
| Read a video’s details (per page) | videos.list | 1 units |
Up to 100 on a default project, if the other calls for each video fit in the 10,000-unit pool. Each extra step draws from that pool: a thumbnail, a playlist add and a metadata update add 150 units a video, which caps you at 66 videos a day, below the upload bucket. Whichever limit you reach first is your real ceiling, and the calculator above works it out.
Through Google’s Quota extension request form, linked from the YouTube Data API overview. Google reviews how the project uses the API before raising its limits, and the Google Cloud console shows the quota a project has today. Before asking for more, cut calls you do not need: read in larger pages, set the thumbnail only when it changes, and skip updates that send the same values again.
With the default 100-call upload bucket and 10,000-unit general pool, setting a thumbnail (50 units) on every video allows up to 200 videos from the general pool alone — but the 100-call upload bucket is the binding constraint, so the real ceiling is 100 videos/day.
That is 150 units/video from the general pool; 10,000 ÷ 150 = 66 videos from the general pool alone — now LOWER than the 100-call upload bucket, so the general pool becomes the binding constraint at 66 videos/day.
No. A scheduling tool publishes through its own Google project, so you connect your channel and schedule without a project, a key or a quota of your own. In SkedCast, upload the video, set the title, description, privacy, thumbnail and playlist, and pick a time; the YouTube scheduler shows every option, and the YouTube thumbnail size checker tests a thumbnail before you add it. This calculator is for developers calling the API from a project of their own.
Every figure on this page was checked against these pages on 4 November 2026:
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