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How to limit your time on YouTube

YouTube has three settings of its own, including a limit just for Shorts. Here is where they are, what each one does, and what to try if you keep dismissing them.

1. YouTube's own settings

Shorts feed limit

You › Settings › Time management › Shorts feed limit

Set how long you can scroll Shorts each day. It can be set as low as zero.

The catch: When you reach it, YouTube says so, and you can dismiss the message.

Remind me to take a break

Profile picture › Settings › General › Remind me to take a break

Pick how often. The video pauses and a reminder appears.

The catch: Dismiss it and the video carries on.

Remind me when it's bedtime

Profile picture › Settings › General › Remind me when it's bedtime

Choose a start and end time. YouTube reminds you when it's time to stop. It's on by default for ages 13 to 17.

The catch: You can dismiss it, or ask to be reminded again in 15 minutes.

2. Your phone's own limit

iPhone: Screen Time

Settings › Screen Time › App Limits › Add Limit. On iOS 27 the same screen is called Time Allowances.

Give an app or a category of apps a daily time. When it's reached, a limit screen covers the app.

The catch: The limit screen has a button to ignore it, and Apple's own guide says limits can be ignored once reached. It holds only if someone else sets your Screen Time passcode.

Android: Digital Wellbeing

Settings › Digital Wellbeing and parental controls › App timers. On Samsung: Settings › Digital Wellbeing › App timers.

Give an app a daily timer. When it runs out the app closes and its icon dims until midnight.

The catch: You can delete the timer from the same screen in a few taps, and nothing asks you why.

3. A limit you won't switch off

The settings above share one weakness: getting past them takes a single tap, and a tap becomes a reflex. Blockers fix that by locking the app, and some people then remove the blocker the first time it gets in the way.

Kiri does something in between. You give YouTube a daily time. When it's up, mist covers the screen and you wipe it away by hand, which takes a few seconds of your attention. Then one breath, and you choose: done, or two more minutes. On a Mac, Kiri can do the same for youtube.com in your browser while leaving the rest of the browser alone.

4. If you want it locked

Some people do better with a wall. If that's you, use a blocker with sessions you can't cancel. We compare the main ones here, including what they cost.

Which should you use?

• Shorts are the problem and long videos aren't: start with the Shorts feed limit.
• You watch late: the bedtime reminder, plus your phone's own bedtime settings.
• You dismiss reminders without reading them: Kiri, or a pause-first app such as one sec.
• You need YouTube for work and lose hours to it anyway: on a Mac, a daily time for youtube.com.

Menu names checked in November 2026. Apps move their settings around; if a path has changed, search the app's settings for the name in bold.