YouTube Shorts are the platform's answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels. Vertical videos, under 3 minutes, designed to scroll through quickly. They've exploded in popularity over the last few years, and searching them has its own quirks. Here's everything you need to know about Shorts and how to actually find them.
YouTube Shorts are short-form vertical videos. That's the simple definition. But there are a few specific rules that make them different from regular YouTube videos:
You can spot a Short by the vertical thumbnail and the little "Shorts" badge. On mobile, they appear in a dedicated Shorts tab at the bottom of the app.
Here's the thing nobody tells you: Shorts don't show up the same way as regular videos in search results. YouTube's search is primarily built for regular videos, and Shorts are treated differently.
If you search a term, you'll often get a mix:
So finding Shorts on a specific topic takes a bit of know-how. Let's go through the methods.
The most obvious way is to just open the Shorts feed and scroll. But you can't search inside it directly — YouTube doesn't offer a search bar inside the Shorts feed.
What you can do:
This works if you just want to browse Shorts. But it's not great for searching for a specific topic.
There's a URL format that helps. If you add a hashtag to a YouTube search URL, it often surfaces Shorts more reliably. For example:
Hashtag searches on YouTube often pull Shorts to the top because creators use hashtags heavily in Shorts. It's not a perfect filter, but it works better than plain text search.
When you search on YouTube, Shorts appear as vertical thumbnails, distinct from regular horizontal thumbnails. So you can often spot them at a glance.
On some searches, YouTube puts a horizontal row labeled "Shorts" near the top or middle of the results. That's the easiest way to jump straight to Shorts on a topic.
If you follow a specific creator, you can often find their Shorts on their channel page. The channel now has a dedicated Shorts tab that shows only that creator's Shorts.
This is way faster than trying to search for their Shorts from the main search bar. It's the most reliable way to find a specific creator's Shorts.
Some creators add "Shorts" or "short" to their titles and descriptions. So if you search for "recipe Short" or "recipe #shorts," you might get more Shorts in the results.
Combining this with date filters works well:
You can use a search tool with filters to apply this quickly.
Here's a problem a lot of people run into: Shorts don't show upload dates as prominently as regular videos. So finding "Shorts uploaded in the last hour" is trickier.
What works:
It's not as clean as regular video search with filters, but it works. And honestly, this is one place where YouTube could improve — searching Shorts by date still isn't well supported.
A quick comparison to keep straight:
Once you get used to the difference, you'll know which to search for based on what you want. Quick laughs? Shorts. Deep tutorials? Regular videos.
Not directly. YouTube doesn't have a "Shorts only" filter in search yet. You can use hashtags (#shorts), search a creator's Shorts tab, or look for the Shorts row in results. It's a workaround, but it works.
Up to 3 minutes. Originally they were 60 seconds, but YouTube expanded the limit. Most Shorts are still under 60 seconds because that's what performs best.
Sometimes. YouTube mixes them in when they're relevant, but they don't dominate the results. For a Shorts-specific search, use the tips above.
YouTube Shorts are here to stay, and they're a completely different beast from regular video search. You can't filter them like you can with long-form content, but there are enough workarounds to make it work.
Hashtag searches, the Shorts tab on creator channels, and combining "shorts" keywords with date filters are the most reliable methods. And if you're searching for general fresh content on YouTube, our free search tool with 1H and 24H filters is still the fastest way to start.
Now go scroll some Shorts — but hopefully, more intentionally this time.