How to Add an End Screen on YouTube.

The short answer

Open YouTube Studio, choose Content, click the video, select Editor, then End screen, and add up to four elements on a standard 16:9 video, shown in the final 5 to 20 seconds. The video must run at least 25 seconds, and made for kids videos cannot carry one. Lead with a specific next video, not the subscribe button.

What a YouTube end screen is for

A YouTube end screen is the set of clickable elements that sits over the last few seconds of a long-form video: another video, a playlist, a subscribe prompt, another channel or, for some channels, a website. It is the one point in a video where the viewer has already given you everything they planned to give, and the only question left is whether they watch something else of yours or leave.

Operations teams tend to treat the end screen as a box to tick on upload day. On YouTube it is closer to a routing decision. The last twenty seconds decide whether one view becomes two, and that is a choice someone should make on purpose for every video, the same way they choose the title.

It pairs naturally with chapters: chapters keep a viewer moving through one video, and the end screen moves them on to the next.

The rules YouTube sets

YouTube’s Help Centre page, “Add end screens to videos”, sets the limits. These are the ones that catch teams out:

• The video has to be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen.
• End screens can be added to the last 5 to 20 seconds of a video.
• You can add up to four elements on a video with the standard 16:9 aspect ratio. YouTube says other aspect ratios “may have a lower limit”, without giving the figure.
• End screens are not available for videos set as made for kids, in the YouTube Music app, on flash videos, on mobile web or on 360 videos.
• Card teasers and video watermarks are suppressed while the end screen shows.
• Viewers can hide end screens while they watch.

Two more lines on that page matter more than they look. YouTube says an end screen “may not always show, or may show differently than designed”, because it adjusts end screens “based on performance, viewer behaviour, device, and context”. So what you build in Studio is a request, not a guarantee, and the design has to survive being trimmed.

The five element types

You choose from five kinds of element, as YouTube describes them:

1. Video: feature your most recent upload, the “best for viewer” option, or a specific video you pick.
2. Playlist: display a public YouTube playlist.
3. Subscribe: encourage subscriptions to your channel.
4. Channel: promote another channel with a custom message.
5. Link: link to an external website, only if the channel is in the YouTube Partner Programme, and only to a site that complies with YouTube’s policies, including the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. YouTube warns that violations can lead to link removal, strikes or termination of the account.

There is also a template option, which applies a ready-made grouping of elements you can then customise. It is a reasonable starting layout, as long as you still choose what goes in each slot.

How to add an end screen in YouTube Studio

These are the steps on a computer, from YouTube’s own instructions:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. From the left menu, select Content.
3. Click the title or thumbnail of the video you want to edit.
4. From the left menu, select Editor.
5. Select End screen, then either apply a template or pick the element you want to add.
6. Set each element’s timing and position, covered in the next section.
7. Press play on the preview to watch the end screen run against the video.
8. Click Save.

The help page gives no separate steps for adding end screens in the mobile app, so we plan this work on desktop, where the timeline and preview are in front of you.

Setting timing and placement

Each element has its own bar on the timeline. Drag the ends of the bar to set when the element appears and disappears, or type the exact time into the box next to the Delete element button. To move an element on the frame, click and drag it within the preview.

YouTube’s best practice list suggests timing different elements to show at different times, and we agree. Bringing in the next video first and the subscribe button a few seconds later gives each one a moment on its own, instead of four boxes landing at once and competing for one click.

Why the next video matters more than the subscribe button

This is our view, not a measured result: for a brand channel, the end screen element that does the most work is a specific next video, and the subscribe button is the supporting act.

The reasoning is simple. A subscribe click is a promise to maybe watch later. A click on the next video is a second watch now, from someone who has just proved they will sit through your content to the end. That second session tells you the channel has a path through it, which is the thing a brand channel usually lacks. If you want help building that path across a whole channel, it is part of our platform optimisation work.

Keep the subscribe element. Just stop treating it as the headline.

Choosing which video to point at

The video element gives you three choices, and they suit different jobs:

• A specific video: the strongest option when you know what the viewer should watch next, such as part two, the deeper guide on the same topic, or the product walkthrough after the explainer.
• Best for viewer: hands the pick to YouTube. Useful on a large back catalogue with no obvious sequel, and for the second video slot.
• Most recent upload: easy to set and forget, but it points every old video at whatever you posted last, relevant or not.

YouTube’s first best practice is “Feature elements that are relevant to the video.” We would put a specific video in the main slot whenever there is a natural next step, and a playlist when the video belongs to a series. A playlist keeps the viewer moving without another decision.

Edit the last twenty seconds for the end screen

YouTube’s guidance says to leave enough space and time at the end of the video and to “consider the video’s last 20 seconds when editing it.” Most end screens fail here, before anyone opens Studio.

If the presenter is still talking, or the final shot is busy, the elements land on top of the content and fight it. Plan the outro in the edit: a clean background, room where the elements will sit, and a spoken line that tells the viewer what the next video is and why they should watch it. YouTube also recommends calls to action for the different elements, and a line said out loud does that better than any on-screen box.

If you use a custom image, YouTube recommends one at least 300 x 300 pixels.

Reading whether it works

YouTube reports this per video. In YouTube Studio, open the video’s Analytics and go to the Engagement tab, where the End screen element click rate report shows how often viewers clicked each element. YouTube notes that this report is only available once you have clicked into a specific video.

That makes it a comparison tool, not a dashboard figure. We would check it on a regular rhythm across a handful of recent uploads: which element type gets clicked, whether specific video picks beat the automatic ones, and whether the outros that name the next video out loud do better than the ones that do not. Change one thing at a time, so you can tell what moved.

Shorts work differently

YouTube’s end screen help page does not mention Shorts at all, so we would not plan a Short around one. For pointing a Short at your other content, YouTube offers a separate feature: the related video.

You add it in YouTube Studio by opening the Short from Content, selecting a related video from your channel and saving. Viewers see a clickable link below your channel handle. YouTube says it needs advanced feature access, and that the linked video must be public or unlisted and follow the Community Guidelines. That link is how a Short does the end screen’s job, and it is central to turning Shorts views into long-form growth.

A checklist before you publish

• The video runs at least 25 seconds and is not set as made for kids.
• The last 20 seconds were edited with room for the elements.
• The main slot holds a specific, relevant next video or a series playlist.
• Elements are staggered, not all arriving at once.
• Any link element points to a site that meets YouTube’s policies.
• The preview has been played through once before saving.
• The click rate report is on the calendar to check.

Next step

End screens are a small decision repeated on every upload, which is exactly the kind of thing that slips when a channel is run video by video rather than as a system. If your channel is publishing regularly but views are not turning into second views, NBK can help find the constraint in the system and fix the path through it.