YouTube engagement rate calculator, with real benchmarks
Paste a video link, a channel link or an @handle. You get the engagement rate, the like rate and the comment rate, and, unlike most calculators, a benchmark from real videos in the same YouTube category and format, so you know whether the number is actually good. For channels it reads the last 30 public uploads. Free, no login.
Brands ask for engagement numbers before almost every sponsorship conversation, and creators ask whether theirs is "good". Most calculators answer with a fixed table, such as "3% to 7% is good", without saying where that table came from. When I checked the pages that rank for this search, none of them showed the sample size or method behind its bands. So this YouTube engagement rate calculator does two things differently: it shows exactly how each number is worked out, and it compares your rate with percentiles from public YouTube videos in TubeMind's index instead of a guess.
What this YouTube engagement rate calculator does
You paste one thing: a video link, a Shorts link, a channel link or an @handle. The tool reads the public view, like and comment counts through the official YouTube Data API and gives you three numbers: the engagement rate, the like rate and the comment rate. For a channel it also gives a per-subscriber rate, the rate of the median video, and separate rates for long-form and Shorts when the channel posts both.
Then it adds the part most free calculators skip: a benchmark. It tells you the median rate for videos of the same format (Shorts or long-form) in the same YouTube category, the middle half of those videos, and where the top 10% starts. Your result gets one of five labels: Bottom 25%, Below the median, Above the median, Top 25% or Top 10%.
Who it is for:
- Creators who want to know if a video landed well with the people who watched it, and which uploads pull their average up or down.
- Brands and agencies checking a creator before a sponsorship, without asking for Studio screenshots.
- Researchers comparing channels in a niche, where subscriber count alone says little about how active an audience is.
It is free, it needs no login, and it reads only public data.
How to use it, step by step
- Paste a link or handle. A watch link (youtube.com/watch?v=...), a youtu.be link, a Shorts link, a channel URL or an @handle all work.
- Press Calculate engagement. For a video, the tool reads that one video. For a channel, it reads the last 30 public uploads.
- Read the big number and its label. The label tells you where the rate sits against similar videos. Under it you see the benchmark: median, middle half and top 10% line, plus how many videos the benchmark is built from.
- Check the tiles. Like rate and comment rate show which kind of reaction you get. A high like rate with a very low comment rate is normal for music and entertainment; tutorials and opinion videos usually get more comments.
- For a channel, open "See all videos". The table lists every counted upload with its views, likes, comments and rate. Click a title to check that video on its own, with its own benchmark.
- Copy or share. The Copy result button gives you a one-line summary with the typical rate next to yours, ready for a pitch email.
How the YouTube engagement rate formula works
Here is every formula the tool uses, so you can check any result by hand:
| Metric | Formula | Example (10,000 views, 400 likes, 50 comments) |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement rate | (likes + comments) ÷ views × 100 | 4.5% |
| Like rate | likes ÷ views × 100 | 4.0% |
| Comment rate | comments ÷ views × 100 | 0.5% |
| Per subscriber (channels only) | average likes + comments per video ÷ subscribers × 100 | see the channel example below |
In plain words: out of every 100 views, how many times did someone like or comment? In the example, 450 reactions on 10,000 views is 4.5 reactions per 100 views, so 4.5%. The like rate and comment rate split that same number into its two parts: 4.0% from likes and 0.5% from comments. All results are rounded to two decimals.
How a channel's rate is worked out
For a channel, the tool adds up likes, comments and views across the recent uploads first, then divides once. This is called a view-weighted rate. It stops one tiny video from bending the whole result. Say a channel has three recent videos:
| Video | Views | Likes | Comments | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 100,000 | 3,000 | 200 | 3.2% |
| B | 2,000 | 150 | 30 | 9.0% |
| C | 10,000 | 250 | 50 | 3.0% |
If you simply average the three rates, you get 5.07%, because video B with only 2,000 views counts as much as video A with 100,000. The tool instead adds everything up: 3,680 likes and comments on 112,000 views, which is 3.29%. That is much closer to what the channel's audience does as a whole. The tool also shows the median video, here 3.2%, which is the rate of a typical upload. When the median is far above the overall rate, a few big videos with weak reactions are pulling the total down.
The per-subscriber number
Same three videos, and say the channel has 50,000 subscribers. Average reactions per video are 3,680 ÷ 3 = about 1,227. Divide by 50,000 and you get 2.45% per subscriber. This number is always lower than the per-view rate on most channels, because most subscribers never see a given upload. If a channel hides its subscriber count, this tile shows "hidden".
How the benchmark is built
The benchmark under your result comes from TubeMind's own index of public YouTube videos. It is built with these rules, taken straight from the code:
- Same format. Shorts are compared with Shorts, long-form with long-form.
- Same category (Education, Gaming, Howto & Style and so on), when the index has at least 100 matching videos. If not, it falls back to all videos of that format and the label shows no category.
- Recent and visible. Only active public videos with 1,000 or more views, published in the last 12 months, with visible like counts. Videos with comments turned off count as 0 comments, the same way the calculator counts them. Live streams are left out.
For a channel, the tool picks the category most of its recent uploads use, and the format most of them are. A channel with 18 Shorts and 12 long videos in its last 30 uploads gets the Shorts benchmark. The label is judged on the channel's typical video in that format (the median), because the benchmark is built from single videos too. The big number stays the view-weighted rate.
The labels map to percentiles like this:
| Your rate is | Label | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| At or above the 90th percentile | Top 10% | Better than 9 in 10 similar videos |
| 75th to 90th percentile | Top 25% | Strong, better than 3 in 4 |
| 50th to 75th percentile | Above the median | Good, better than half |
| 25th to 50th percentile | Below the median | Typical but on the weaker side |
| Below the 25th percentile | Bottom 25% | Weaker than 3 in 4 similar videos |
For example, if the median for Education long-form is 3% and the 75th percentile is 4.5%, a 3.8% rate lands in "Above the median": better than most, but not yet in the top quarter. The benchmark numbers are refreshed every few hours as new videos enter the index.
Worked example: one channel check
To show what a result looks like, here is what the tool returned for @veritasium on 3 November 2026. The numbers will have changed by the time you read this.
| Field | Result |
|---|---|
| Uploads counted | 30 |
| Engagement rate (view-weighted) | 2.19% |
| Like rate / comment rate | 2.13% / 0.06% |
| Median video | 2.72% |
| Per subscriber | 0.51% |
| Long-form vs Shorts | 1.5% vs 2.82% |
| Benchmark used | Education Shorts, from 96,012 videos: median 2.08%, middle half 0.69% to 4%, top 10% from 6.24% |
| Label | Above the median |
How to read it: most of this channel's last 30 uploads were Shorts, so the tool compared it with Education Shorts. The overall 2.19% is close to that median of 2.08%, but the label is judged on the channel's typical Short, not on the overall rate. But look at the format split. The Shorts run at 2.82% and the long videos at 1.5%. The long videos should be judged against a long-form benchmark, not a Shorts one. To get that, paste one of the long videos on its own: a single video always gets the benchmark for its own format. The comment rate of 0.06% also tells you this audience mostly reacts with likes and rarely comments, which is common for big science and explainer channels.
What is a good engagement rate on YouTube?
It depends on what you compare it with, and YouTube itself publishes no "engagement rate" metric or target. A cooking Short, a 40-minute podcast and a music video earn likes and comments at very different rates. That is why fixed tables online disagree with each other. Some call under 1% low and over 5% excellent; others call 2% to 5% average and only 10% excellent. None of them say which videos they measured.
A simple rule that works: above the median for your category and format is good, the top 25% is strong, and the top 10% is excellent. That is exactly what the label under your result tells you.
Three things move the number a lot, so keep them in mind before you judge:
- Channel size. Small channels often show higher rates, because their viewers are mostly loyal fans. When a video reaches millions of casual viewers through recommendations, more of them watch without reacting, and the rate falls. A falling rate on a growing channel is often a sign of reach, not a problem.
- Video age. Views keep coming for months, while most likes and comments arrive in the first days. Older videos slowly drift lower.
- Topic and style. Questions, debates and tutorials pull comments. Music and ambient videos get views on repeat with few reactions.
Engagement rate by views vs by subscribers
You will see two versions online, and they cannot be compared with each other:
- By views (this tool's main number) measures how the people who watched reacted. It is the fairest way to compare videos and channels of different sizes.
- By subscribers divides the average reactions per video by the subscriber count. Influencer platforms like it because it shows how active a channel's audience is. It comes out much lower, because most subscribers never see a given upload. The tool shows it for channels as "Per subscriber".
When someone quotes you an engagement rate, ask which one they used. In the example above, 0.51% per subscriber and 2.19% per view describe the same channel on the same day.
Shorts vs long-form engagement
Shorts get many views from people swiping through a feed, and a view counts the moment a Short starts to play. YouTube's help page says views are counted when a video starts to play "across all formats, including Shorts" (How YouTube counts views). Many of those viewers never stop to like or comment, while others like several Shorts in a row. The result is that Shorts and long videos behave differently, so comparing a Short's rate with a long video's rate tells you little. If a channel posts both, the result shows long-form and Shorts rates separately; compare each with its own benchmark.
How the tool decides what is a Short: it uses the video length. Uploads from 15 October 2024 onward count as Shorts up to 3 minutes, which is when YouTube raised the Shorts limit. Older uploads count as Shorts only up to 60 seconds. To find which Shorts in a niche break out, the Shorts outlier finder is the better tool.
The August 2026 view change and why it matters here
This is the part no other calculator I checked mentions. On 24 August 2026 YouTube changed what a public view is. Its own blog says views are counted "from the first frame going forward", across Shorts, long-form, podcasts and live, and the old definition is now called an engaged view: clicking to watch or watching past the first seconds (What are engaged views on YouTube?). The Data API documentation for the view count now describes it as counting from the moment a video begins to play (videos resource).
More counted views with the same likes means a lower rate. So a long-form video uploaded after 24 August can show a slightly lower engagement rate than an older one with the same audience reaction. Keep that in mind when you compare a new upload with your old ones, and treat old "industry average" tables with extra caution, because they were all measured on the earlier definition. If you want to understand how views are counted and what unusual view patterns look like, read how to check if YouTube views are fake. The benchmark here uses the last 12 months, so it moves with the new counting as fresh videos enter the index.
YouTube's official rules that affect engagement numbers
- Dislikes are private. The Data API says the dislike count was made private on 13 December 2021 and is returned only to the video's owner (videos resource). So no public calculator can include dislikes. If one asks you for them, the number can only come from your own Studio.
- Like counts can be hidden. Some creators hide likes. Those videos are left out of the calculation and the result tells you how many were skipped, instead of counting them as zero, which would make the rate look worse than it is.
- Comments can be turned off. A video with comments off counts as zero comments, which is what a viewer sees.
- Shares are private. Only the creator sees shares in YouTube Studio, so a public tool cannot include them. Calculators that add shares only work when you type in your own numbers.
- Fake engagement is banned. YouTube's policy says it "doesn't allow anything that artificially increases the number of views, likes, comments, or other metrics", and it also prohibits content that exists only to push viewers to engage (Fake engagement policy).
Does engagement rate affect the YouTube algorithm?
Not as a single number, but its parts do matter. In its explainer on recommendations, YouTube lists the signals as "clicks, watchtime, survey responses, sharing, likes, and dislikes", and says people are on average more likely to be satisfied by videos they share or like (On YouTube's recommendation system). The same post explains that YouTube measures "valued watchtime" through viewer surveys. My reading: likes and comments are evidence that people were satisfied. They are not a lever to pull. A video that people finish and talk about will show a good rate as a side effect.
How to read your result and what to do next
| Label | What to do |
|---|---|
| Top 10% or Top 25% | Find what these videos share: topic, title promise, the question you asked, length. Make more of that. If you sell sponsorships, put this result in your pitch. |
| Above the median | Healthy. Look at the comment rate: if it is far below the like rate, try asking one clear question in the video. |
| Below the median | Open the video table. Usually two or three uploads drag the average down. Check if they reached new viewers (good) or simply missed the topic (learn from it). |
| Bottom 25% | Check the format first: was the right benchmark used? Then compare your best and worst uploads and look for a pattern in topic or packaging. |
For example, say a tutorial channel shows "Below the median" overall, but the table shows its five newest videos all above 4% and two old viral videos at 1%. The channel is fine: the viral videos reached casual viewers who did not react, and the new uploads are landing with the core audience.
Next steps that fit well: run the full channel audit for upload rhythm and estimated earnings, check one video's complete numbers with the video stats checker, or put two to four channels side by side with the channel comparison.
Mistakes to avoid
- Comparing Shorts with long videos. Always compare each format with its own benchmark.
- Mixing per-view and per-subscriber rates. A 2% per-subscriber rate is excellent; a 2% per-view rate may be average.
- Judging a video in its first hours. Likes come early and views keep growing, so the rate starts high and settles. Check again after a few days.
- Comparing a new upload with a pre-August 2026 one without remembering the view count change.
- Averaging video rates by hand. As the three-video example shows, a simple average lets small videos inflate the result.
- Trusting a fixed "good" table from an unknown source. Ask what videos it was measured on.
- Buying likes or comments to fix the number. It breaks YouTube's policy, and fake reactions usually show up as odd patterns anyway.
Ways to check engagement: YouTube Studio, manual calculators and this tool
| Method | Works for | Can include | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube Studio Analytics | Only your own channel | Likes, comments, shares, subscribers gained, dislikes | None for engagement rate |
| Manual calculator (type in numbers) | Any numbers you have | Whatever you type, including shares | Usually a fixed table with no source |
| This tool (paste a link) | Any public video or channel | Public views, likes and comments | Percentiles for the same category and format |
In plain words: Studio is the most complete, but only for your own channel and with no "is this good?" answer. In the Analytics section you can switch to advanced mode and add columns such as likes, comments added and shares, then do the maths yourself. A manual calculator is handy when you have private numbers, such as shares, but it can only be as good as the band table behind it. This tool works on any public channel in a few seconds and answers the "is it good" question with a sample you can see, but it cannot include private numbers. Many creators use Studio for their own deep checks and a link-based tool for competitors and sponsorship checks.
Limits of this tool
- It reads only public counts: views, likes and comments. Shares, dislikes and saves are private.
- For channels, it reads the last 30 public uploads only. A channel's older work is not included.
- Videos with hidden likes, live streams, upcoming premieres and videos with zero views are left out.
- For a channel that posts both formats, the label judges only the format most of its recent uploads are, against that format's benchmark. Read the separate long-form and Shorts rates, or check single videos for a format-exact comparison.
- The Short or long decision is based on length. A horizontal video under 3 minutes uploaded after October 2024 is treated as a Short.
- The benchmark only covers videos in TubeMind's index, which focuses on niche and outlier research. If a category has fewer than 100 matching videos, it falls back to all videos of that format.
- Results can be cached for up to three hours, so a brand new upload may not show its latest counts right away.
How to raise your engagement rate without breaking the rules
- Ask one specific question in the video, tied to the topic. "Which of these three would you pick?" gets more answers than "let me know in the comments".
- Pin a comment that continues the conversation, and reply in the first hours after upload while viewers are still around. The comment reply writer helps when replies pile up.
- Study your own top 25%. Open the video table, pick your best-engaging uploads and look at what they have in common. Then find similar winners in your niche with the outlier finder.
- Run a giveaway only inside the rules, and pick the winner fairly with the comment picker. Content that exists only to bribe viewers for reactions breaks the fake engagement policy.
- Never buy engagement. Bought likes break YouTube's rules and add nothing to how satisfied your viewers are.
Using engagement rate for sponsorships
If you sell sponsorships, a strong rate with a clear benchmark is a better pitch than subscriber count alone. Send the brand the copied result, then price the deal with the sponsorship calculator. If you are the brand, run the same check on the creator's channel and look at the median video, not just the best one. Watch for warning signs too: a channel with huge views but almost no comments, or comments that are all short and generic, deserves a closer look. The guide on spotting fake YouTube views walks through the checks.
Urdu / Hindi mein: YouTube engagement rate kya hai?
Engagement rate ka formula hai: (likes + comments) ÷ views × 100. Misal ke taur par 10,000 views, 400 likes aur 50 comments ka matlab 4.5% engagement rate hai. Upar kisi video ka link, channel ka link ya @handle paste karein aur Calculate engagement dabayein. Yeh tool aap ka rate usi category aur usi format (Shorts ya long video) ki public videos se compare karta hai, taake pata chale ke aap ka number achha hai ya nahin. Channel ke liye yeh pichhli 30 uploads parhta hai aur sab views, likes aur comments jama kar ke ek rate nikalta hai. Shorts ko Shorts se aur long videos ko long videos se compare karein. Yaad rahe, 24 August 2026 se YouTube view pehle frame se ginta hai, is liye nayi videos ka rate thoda kam nazar aa sakta hai.
Questions
How do you calculate YouTube engagement rate?
Add likes and comments, divide by views, and multiply by 100. For example, 400 likes and 50 comments on 10,000 views is 4.5%. For a channel, this tool adds up likes, comments and views across the last 30 public uploads before dividing.
Is this YouTube engagement rate calculator free?
Yes. It is free, needs no login and reads only public data through the official YouTube Data API.
What is a good engagement rate on YouTube?
It depends on category and format, and YouTube publishes no official target. Above the median for videos of the same category and format is good, and the top 25% is strong. This calculator shows those benchmarks from public videos in TubeMind's index.
What is the average YouTube engagement rate?
There is no single average, because Shorts and long videos and each category behave differently. Paste a video and the tool shows the median for its own category and format from the last 12 months.
Should engagement rate use views or subscribers?
Views, for comparing videos and channels fairly. The per-subscriber version shows how active an audience is but always comes out much lower, because most subscribers do not see every upload. Always state which one you are quoting.
Can I check the engagement rate of any channel?
Yes, any public channel. Paste its URL or @handle and the tool reads its last 30 public uploads. It stores nothing about you.
How many videos does the tool use for a channel?
The last 30 public uploads. Live streams, premieres, zero-view videos and videos with hidden likes are left out, and the result says how many were skipped for hidden likes.
Why is the channel rate different from the average of each video?
The channel rate is view-weighted: it adds all likes, comments and views first, then divides once. A simple average would let a tiny video with a high rate inflate the result. The median video rate is shown next to it.
Do Shorts have a higher engagement rate than long videos?
Not always. A view counts as soon as a Short starts to play, so many viewers swipe on without reacting, while others like several in a row. Compare Shorts only with Shorts benchmarks, which this tool does for single videos.
Why did my engagement rate drop after August 2026?
From 24 August 2026 YouTube counts a view from the first frame, including autoplay, for every format. More counted views with the same likes means a lower rate, even if your audience reaction has not changed.
Are dislikes included in engagement rate?
No. Dislike counts have been private since December 2021 and only the video owner can see them in YouTube Studio, so no public calculator can include them.
Are shares included?
No. Shares are visible only to the creator in YouTube Studio. If you want them in your rate, take them from your own Analytics and add them by hand.
What if a video hides its like count?
The video is left out of the calculation and the result says how many were skipped. Counting a hidden like count as zero would make the rate look worse than it is.
Does engagement rate help ranking?
Indirectly. YouTube lists likes, shares, watch time and survey responses among its recommendation signals and says people are more likely to be satisfied by videos they like or share. Treat a good rate as a sign of satisfied viewers, not a target to game.
How do I check engagement rate in YouTube Studio?
Open Analytics, switch to advanced mode and add columns such as likes, comments added and shares next to views. Then divide the reactions by views yourself. Studio does not show a ready-made engagement rate or a benchmark.
How can I increase my YouTube engagement rate?
Ask one specific question in the video, pin a comment and reply early, and study what your best-engaging uploads have in common. Never buy likes or comments, which breaks YouTube's fake engagement policy.
Why do engagement calculators give different answers?
They use different formulas: some divide by subscribers, some add shares, and some average video rates instead of weighting by views. Their 'good' tables also come from different, usually unnamed, samples.
How often is the benchmark updated?
It is calculated from videos published in the last 12 months and refreshed every few hours, so it follows new uploads and the new view counting.
YouTube engagement rate kaise nikalte hain?
Formula hai (likes + comments) ÷ views × 100. Upar video ya channel ka link paste karein, tool rate nikal kar usi category aur format ki videos ke saath compare kar deta hai.
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