YouTube adds five minutes to video limit

Long-video makers can rejoice, as YouTube has extended the allotted time of user uploads from 10 to 15 minutes.

According to a Thursday post on YouTube's blog, increasing the limit was the most requested feature by YouTube users, though it had to be put on hold while the company worked on other projects and behind-the-scenes infrastructure. In March, for instance, the company announced that 24 hours of video was uploaded every minute. That's up from around six hours just three years ago. Given the new limit, that's a metric that's likely to keep on growing.

When YouTube first launched in 2005, users could actually upload clips that were longer than 10 minutes, though without limits it was easy to upload full-length, copyrighted content. YouTube responded by creating the limit, as well as adding new account types like "director," "comedian," "musician," and "guru," which would require a few extra steps of registration, but remove the time limit altogether. The rest of the YouTube population simply got around the limits by splitting up shows into 10-minute chunks, which would work until YouTube's content filters flagged it as a violation.

For more on this story, read YouTube bumps video limit to 15 minutes on CNET News.