How many characters can a YouTube post be?

5,000, and 1 video, from YouTube's own documentation as we last read it on 2026-07-14. We enforce the same table before a draft is queued, so a post that breaks a rule is fixed rather than rejected at publish time.

Can an AI agent schedule my YouTube posts?

Yes, on the free plan. Add https://shapelessai.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP host and the posts_create tool schedules through your connected YouTube account, or call POST /api/posts with a scoped key, or run the CLI. Publishing tools are flagged so the host asks you before anything goes out.

Can I schedule a first comment on YouTube?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. firstComment is accepted for LinkedIn, X and Bluesky only; on YouTube the API answers 422 and names the rule. YouTube has no equivalent we can publish reliably.

What does the free plan cost me later?

Nothing for the rail. Scheduling and publishing never spend credits. The $5 refilled each month is for the agents that research, write, design and render - a paid plan refills more of it and lifts the daily cap.

YouTube10 posts a day, freeverified 2026-09-14

Free YouTube scheduler

Write it once, put it in the queue, and it goes out at the hour you picked. 10 posts a day on the free plan, across every network you connect, with no card. The same queue is driveable by your own agent, which is the part most free plans fence off.

What YouTube allows in a post

What YouTube allows in one post
Text	5,000 Unicode code points
Video	1 per post, .mp4, .mov
Media required	a post needs video
Mentions	No API-side tagging in descriptions - plain text only.

YouTube allows 5,000 characters per post and 1 video, from YouTube's own documentation as read on 2026-07-14. Shapeless enforces that table before a draft is queued. The full table is on the YouTube spec page; check a draft yourself with the free YouTube character counter.

YouTube's own free scheduler

The Schedule card in YouTube Studio's upload flow.

1
Sign in to YouTube Studio and select Create, then Upload videos.
2
Pick the file and fill in the video details.
3
Click the Schedule card and set the date, time and time zone.
4
Select Schedule. The video stays private until then.
5
To change it: Content in the left menu, the video, Edit, then Visibility.

YouTube's own scheduler is enough when

You upload finished videos to one channel and only want them to go live at a chosen hour.

YouTube's own caveat: a Community Guidelines strike freezes a scheduled publish, and you have to reschedule after the penalty.
The watch page date is Pacific Standard Time, which is why a scheduled video sometimes shows the day before.
It schedules an upload of a finished video. Nothing about the title, description or Short is written for you.

Read from YouTube Help: schedule video publish time on 2026-09-14. Platforms move menus; the source is the place to check.

Schedule it by hand

Three screens, and they are the only nouns we use. Manual writes one post yourself and lets any account say it its own way from its preview. Queue drops it into the next free slot for that account, so you never pick an hour twice. Calendar shows the week and lets you drag a post to a different day.

Connect YouTube once, under Accounts, through YouTube's own sign-in.
Open Manual, pick the YouTube account, write the post. The preview beside it is YouTube's own chrome, not a rectangle.
Press Add to queue for the next free slot, Schedule for an exact time, or Post now. All three are always on screen.

When the queue fires. Each connected account carries its own posting times, in your zone. Add to queue drops the post into the next free slot for that account, so you pick the hours once and never pick an hour again. We do not guess a best time for you.

After it is queued. Calendar shows the week; a post still in the queue can be opened and rewritten, dragged to another day, or cancelled, right up to the moment it goes out. An agent sees the same queue through posts_list and posts_get.

Composing, scheduling and publishing never spend credits. The $5 refilled each month is only for the agents that research, write, design and render.

Schedule it from an agent

The same post, the same queue, three interfaces. Mint a scoped key under Settings → API keys, or add our YouTube MCP server to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or your own host and let it call posts_create. Tools that publish are flagged, so the host asks you first.

REST

curl -X POST https://shapelessai.com/api/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SHAPELESS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"connectionId":"CONNECTION_ID","postText":"How we rebuilt onboarding in a week","queue":true}'

MCP tool call

{
  "name": "posts_create",
  "arguments": {
    "connectionId": "CONNECTION_ID",
    "text": "How we rebuilt onboarding in a week",
    "queue": true
  }
}

CLI

shapeless posts create --to CONNECTION_ID --text "How we rebuilt onboarding in a week" --queue

Swap "queue": true for "scheduledAt": "2026-09-20T09:00:00Z" to pin an exact minute; leave both out and it publishes now.

Over the daily cap the API answers 402 with free_daily_cap, the limit and the reset time, so an agent can wait rather than retry blindly.

Questions

Is there a free YouTube scheduler?: Yes, two kinds. YouTube schedules posts itself - the Schedule card in YouTube Studio's upload flow. You upload finished videos to one channel and only want them to go live at a chosen hour. Ours is free too: 10 posts a day across every network you connect, no card, and the same queue is driveable by your own agent.
How many characters can a YouTube post be?: 5,000, and 1 video, from YouTube's own documentation as we last read it on 2026-07-14. We enforce the same table before a draft is queued, so a post that breaks a rule is fixed rather than rejected at publish time.
Can an AI agent schedule my YouTube posts?: Yes, on the free plan. Add https://shapelessai.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP host and the posts_create tool schedules through your connected YouTube account, or call POST /api/posts with a scoped key, or run the CLI. Publishing tools are flagged so the host asks you before anything goes out.
Can I schedule a first comment on YouTube?: No, and we will not pretend otherwise. firstComment is accepted for LinkedIn, X and Bluesky only; on YouTube the API answers 422 and names the rule. YouTube has no equivalent we can publish reliably.
What does the free plan cost me later?: Nothing for the rail. Scheduling and publishing never spend credits. The $5 refilled each month is for the agents that research, write, design and render - a paid plan refills more of it and lifts the daily cap.

10 YouTube posts a day, free, plus $5 of credits every month for the agents that make them.

Start free forever