Create a course in YouTube Studio

YouTube Courses allow eligible creators to offer structured learning experiences for their viewers. Organize your videos into a Course with dedicated features not available on standard playlists. Learn how viewers can take a Course.

Note: This feature is currently available to creators with access to advanced features. Learn how to gain access to advanced features.

How to create a Course in YouTube Studio

Course requirements

All YouTube Courses must follow our Community Guidelines. They must also:

1. Teach something. Your Course must be designed to actively teach viewers. Focus on clearly explaining concepts, demonstrating skills, or providing actionable knowledge. Ask yourself: "What will viewers learn or be able to do after completing this Course?"
2. Be accessible to all ages. Courses may not contain age-restricted content.
3. Provide extended learning. Courses must contain at least 3 videos. Courses must not repeat videos or include any videos from another channel.

Note: If your Course does not meet these requirements, we may convert your Course to a standard playlist and remove its YouTube Courses features. If you repeatedly create Courses that don’t meet these requirements, your channel may lose the ability to create Courses in the future.

Who can create a Course?

Courses are available to eligible creators globally to create in-depth, structured learning content. You can only create or manage Courses in YouTube Studio on desktop. Although you can upload videos through any mobile app, you’ll still need to use a desktop to add them to your Courses.

Manage your course on YouTube

You can create a new Course or set a playlist as a Course in YouTube Studio. Sometimes, YouTube may automatically classify playlists that provide in-depth, structured learning experiences as Courses. If this is incorrect or if you don’t want the playlist to be set as a Course, you can remove the Courses features from the playlist.

Create a new Course in YouTube Studio

You can create a Course, then add content by uploading new or existing videos to your Course.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. In the top-right corner, click CREATE New course .
3. From the pop-up, select Create a new course.
4. Enter your course details, including:
   • Course title
   • Description
   • Visibility (Public, Unlisted, or Private)
5. Select Create to save.

Add videos to a Course

You can add new videos or existing videos to your Courses.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Go to Content Courses.
3. On the selected Course, click Videos .
4. On the top right-hand corner, click Add videos
   • New videos: Click Upload new videos. Then upload your new videos.
   • Existing videos: Click Choose existing videos. Then select the existing videos.

Add files to a Course

You can support your viewers' learning experience by attaching resources, such as worksheets or study guides, directly to your course videos.

Requirements for files

To attach files to your Course videos, they must meet the following criteria:

• File Type: Only PDF files are supported.
• Limit: You can attach a maximum of 5 files per video.
• Google Drive: The files must be stored in the Google Drive account linked to the same email address as your YouTube channel.
• Permissions: To ensure viewers can access the files, you must set the sharing permissions in Google Drive to "Anyone with the link."
• Google Drive Policies: By using Google Drive, you agree to follow the Terms of Service for Google Drive files, to ensure that the viewer experience remains secure.

How to add files

There are two ways to upload files, depending on whether you are uploading a new video or editing an existing one.

During a new video upload

1. Start the upload flow for a video in your Course.
2. Go to the Video elements tab.
3. Look for the Files section and select Add.
4. Use the Google Drive picker to select your PDFs.

To an existing video

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Go to the Video details page for the specific Course video.
3. In the side panel, click the Files option Add files from Google Drive.
4. Use the Google Drive picker to select your PDFs, then click Save.

Note: You can edit the name of the file within YouTube Studio. Changing the name here will not change the file name in your Google Drive.

How to remove files

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Go to the Video details page for the specific Course video.
3. In the side panel, click the Files option.
4. Click on Trash Save to remove the file from the video.

Set an existing playlist as a Course

You can set an existing playlists as a Course.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Go to Content Playlists tab.
3. On the playlist you want to add, click on the menu Set as course.
4. Click Yes to confirm.

Edit your Course details

You can make edits to your Course details at any time, including the title of your Course, the description, or the order of its videos.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Go to Content Courses.
3. Hover over the playlist you’d like to edit and click the Edit .
4. You will be brought to the course details page, where you can edit the title, description, visibility, or video order of your Course.
5. Click Save.

Remove Course features from a playlist

You can remove the course settings from any playlist if you don’t want it to be a Course.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Within YouTube Studio, click Content Playlists.
3. Find the Course you want to remove features from, then click on the menu Set as playlist.
4. Click Yes to confirm.

Measure your Course’s performance on YouTube

To understand your Courses’s general performance:

1. Open YouTube Studio on a computer.
2. In the left Menu, click Analytics Overview tab.
3. Select the relevant course from Your Courses(s) card on the lower right side of the page.

Note: If you only have one Course on YouTube, this will be the only option. Within this snapshot, you can find views and watchtime and data for your Course.

For a deep dive into your Course’s performance:

1. Open YouTube Studio on a computer.
2. In the left Menu, click Analytics Overview tab.
3. Select See Courses Analytics.

From this view, you’ll find:

• Overview of your course performance
• Traffic sources
• Audience demographics
• Audience retention metrics
• And more