YouTube gives creators two places to add discoverable keywords: tags and hashtags. They are not the same thing. Tags are hidden metadata that help YouTube understand the video. Hashtags are public links that group content and can drive browse traffic. Using both correctly is part of a clean upload strategy, but neither will fix a weak title or thumbnail.
What are YouTube tags?
Tags are the keyword field you fill during upload. Viewers do not see them unless they inspect the page source, but they tell YouTube the topic, alternative spellings and related phrases. YouTube has been clear that tags are a small signal, so they should be used as supporting context rather than the main strategy. Most successful creators add 5–15 tags and move on.
What are YouTube hashtags?
Hashtags are words preceded by # that you put in the title or description. When a viewer clicks one, they see a feed of all videos using that hashtag. YouTube displays the first three hashtags from the description above the video title. They are public, clickable and can help new channels get discovered through topic pages.
Tags vs hashtags at a glance
- Visibility: tags are hidden; hashtags are visible to viewers.
- Purpose: tags add context; hashtags connect videos to topic feeds.
- Limit: tags are limited by 500 characters total; hashtags should stay under 15, with 2–3 strong ones recommended.
- Ranking power: both are minor compared to title, thumbnail, description and viewer engagement.
Best practices for 2026
- Start your tag list with the exact keyword phrase from your title, then add 2–3 close variants.
- Add 2–3 broad category tags so YouTube knows which topic bucket you belong to.
- Pick 2–3 hashtags that are specific enough to avoid spam but popular enough to have real search volume.
- Do not use hashtags that are unrelated to the video — YouTube can demote misleading metadata.
If you want to see what tags successful videos use, try our YouTube tags extractor. If you need new tag ideas from scratch, the YouTube tag generator creates exact match, long-tail and question tags from any keyword. Pair them with the thumbnail checker to make sure the whole click package works together.