The New Content ID Rule for Longer Shorts, Explained
Shorts have been allowed to run for three minutes since October 2024, but anything past the first minute carried a harsh rule: one copyright claim and the whole Short was blocked. On 24 September 2026 YouTube dropped it.
The short version
- Since 24 September 2026, a Short between one and three minutes long with an active Content ID claim is no longer blocked automatically.
- It can stay playable, and once the claim is resolved it can earn again.
- Shorts of 60 seconds or less are unchanged. The copyright owner's own policy applies to them, as before.
- A claim is not a strike. Owners monetized more than 90% of the 2.5 billion claims YouTube processed in 2025.
- The protected band is almost empty. Of 527 Shorts made on Vid2Shorts in 30 days, only 4 ran between one and three minutes.
What changed on 24 September 2026
YouTube's help page on three minute Shorts now says that from 24 September 2026, Shorts longer than one minute and up to three minutes with an active Content ID claim will no longer be automatically blocked, and may remain playable on YouTube. Creators can remove the claimed content or dispute the claim, and once it is resolved the Short becomes eligible for monetization.
| Short length | Before 24 September 2026 | From 24 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 60 seconds | The copyright owner's policy applied: block, monetize or track | Unchanged |
| 61 seconds to 3 minutes | Blocked as soon as it was claimed | Not blocked automatically; can stay playable, and can earn once the claim is resolved |
| Horizontal video of any length | Treated as a normal video, not a Short | Unchanged |
Source: YouTube Help, understand three minute YouTube Shorts.
Why the old rule existed
When YouTube raised the Shorts limit from 60 seconds to three minutes on 15 October 2024, the longer band came with a safety catch. A 60 second Short with a claim followed whatever the copyright owner had chosen. A 90 second Short with a claim was simply blocked, whatever the owner would otherwise have chosen.
In practice that made the extra two minutes risky for exactly the content that needs them: commentary, reviews, explainers and podcast clips, which often include a few seconds of someone else's audio or footage. It gave every creator a reason to stay under a minute, and the new rule removes it.
What a claim does, in numbers
The fear around claims is bigger than the numbers. Google publishes YouTube's copyright figures every year, and 2025 looked like this:
| Measure | 2025 figure |
|---|---|
| Content ID claims processed | 2,502,941,368 |
| Claims the owner chose to monetize rather than block | More than 90% |
| Claims disputed by uploaders | 12,840,608 (0.51%) |
| Disputes that ended in the uploader's favour | 67.42% |
| Share of all copyright actions made by Content ID | 99.48% |
Sources: Google Transparency Report, YouTube copyright; TorrentFreak analysis of the 2025 figures.
Read together: most claims redirect the ad money to the owner rather than take the video down, almost nobody disputes, and two thirds of disputes succeed. For a Short between one and three minutes, the old rule turned all of that into an automatic block. The new rule puts those Shorts back on the same footing as everything else.
Who this quietly helps
| Kind of Short | Why it needs more than 60 seconds | What changed for it |
|---|---|---|
| Podcast and interview clips | A full answer to a question often runs 70 to 150 seconds | A claim on a background sound no longer blocks the whole clip |
| Commentary and reviews | You need the clip and your point about it | Short excerpts of the thing you review are less of a gamble |
| Tutorials and explainers | Steps take time to show | Incidental music or screen recordings are less likely to sink it |
| Sports and event reactions | Context before and after the moment | Still risky: sports footage is often blocked by the owner's own policy |
What is still risky
- Owners who block. The change stops the automatic block for longer Shorts. It does not stop an owner whose policy is to block, and some owners block by country.
- Music under the whole Short. Music is matched in seconds. A song playing behind a two minute Short is still the easiest way to get one claimed.
- Whole moments that are the point. Reposting the key two minutes of someone else's video with nothing added is republishing, not commentary, at any length.
- Strikes. None of this changes how strikes work. An owner can still file a takedown request.
Why almost nobody uses this length yet
We looked at every Short made on Vid2Shorts between 27 August and 25 September 2026.
| Length | Shorts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 60 seconds or less | 517 | 98.1% |
| 61 seconds to 3 minutes | 4 | 0.8% |
| Over 3 minutes (too long to be a Short) | 6 | 1.1% |
First party totals from our own job log. The automatic clip tool offers Auto, 15, 30 and 60 second lengths, so longer Shorts here come from the Studio, which is part of why the band is so small.
Part of that is our own product: the automatic tool offers lengths up to about a minute, and the median Short made here is 30 seconds. But it also reflects how creators have learned to think about Shorts. For two years the first minute was the safe zone, and habits formed around it.
That habit is now out of date. If a clip needs 90 seconds to make sense, it no longer has to be cut down to 59 to be safe from an automatic block. Our guide to YouTube Shorts length covers when a longer Short is worth it for reasons other than copyright.
Before you post a longer Short
- Make sure it needs the length. Completion rate still decides reach. Only go past a minute when the point does.
- Keep other people's music out from under it. That is still the most common reason a Short gets claimed.
- Upload as private first. YouTube runs its copyright check during upload, so you see a claim before anyone else does.
- Use the fixes YouTube offers. For many claims you can trim out the matched part or mute a song without disputing anything.
- Dispute only with a real reason. Your own material, a licence, or genuine commentary. Keep the proof.
Questions people ask
What changed for Shorts with Content ID claims in September 2026?
Were claimed Shorts over one minute really blocked before?
Does the change affect Shorts under 60 seconds?
Can a copyright owner still block my longer Short?
Is a Content ID claim the same as a copyright strike?
How long can a YouTube Short be?
How often do uploaders win Content ID disputes?
The bottom line
Since 24 September 2026, a Short between one and three minutes is no longer switched off the moment it is claimed. It gets the same treatment as every other video: the owner's policy, a dispute if you have a reason, and earnings once the claim is resolved.
Very few creators have caught up. If a clip genuinely needs more than a minute, the copyright reason for cutting it short has gone.
Cut the moment at the length it needs
Paste a YouTube link, choose the moment, and export a captioned vertical Short, from a few seconds to a full answer.
From 24 September 2026, YouTube no longer automatically blocks Shorts between one and three minutes long that have an active Content ID claim; they can stay playable and be monetized once the claim is resolved. Shorts of 60 seconds or less still follow the copyright owner's policy.
Vid2Shorts, "The New Content ID Rule for Longer Shorts, Explained", September 27, 2026. https://vid2shorts.com/blog/youtube-shorts-content-id-rule-2026