How to turn on comments on YouTube

For creators and business owners, learning how to turn on comments on YouTube videos is a fundamental first step to building an engaged audience. To turn on comments, open YouTube Studio, select Content, click the video, then adjust your settings under Comments and ratings. From here, you can turn comments on, pause them, or restrict who is able to comment. Plus, you can set channel-wide defaults so every future upload has comments enabled automatically.

How YouTube comment settings work

YouTube comment settings work at two levels: channel-level defaults and video-level overrides. Channel-level settings set the default comment settings for every video you upload and automatically apply to all future uploads. Video-level settings let you override channel defaults for specific videos, which is useful when uploading content that requires stricter comment moderation.

What you can control: Video-level vs. channel-level comment settings

How to turn comments on for a YouTube video

YouTube comment settings are managed at two levels, meaning you can turn comments on for specific uploads or all future uploads. You manage comments in YouTube Studio and the YouTube app, and you can adjust settings on both desktop and mobile.

When turning comments on, you’ll also be able to choose whether comments are:

• Held for review: Under Comment moderation, you can select from a range of comment holding options (including none, basic, strict, or hold all). You can also add words or phrases you don’t want to appear in your comments to your blocked words list.
• Who can comment on your videos: You can adjust who can comment on your videos, including restricting comments to only subscribers and paid members of your channel.

How to turn on comments for all future uploads

To set your channel’s default comment settings:

1. On your computer, sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. Click Settings > Community Moderation > Content controls.
3. Here, you can turn on or off comments on new videos and posts. You can also choose to hold comments for review.
4. Click Save.
   

How to enable comments on a YouTube video on desktop

To change comment settings on an individual video on desktop:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. From the left menu, select Content.
3. Click the video’s thumbnail.
4. Scroll and click Show more.
5. Under Comments and ratings, choose your comment settings.
6. Click Save.

💡 Pro tip: Use bulk edits to change comment settings on multiple videos at once. Sign in to YouTube Studio, select Content, select all the videos you’d like to edit, and adjust the comment settings as needed.

How to enable comments on a YouTube video on mobile

To change comment settings on an individual video on mobile:

1. Sign in to the YouTube app from your mobile device.
2. Go to one of your videos.
3. Tap Comments under the video or to the right of your YouTube Short.
4. Tap Settings.
5. Tap Comments under For this video to change settings.

Common reasons why your YouTube comments are still off

Comments may not show up on your YouTube videos for several reasons, from audience settings to comments being held for review.

Your video has been marked as ‘made for kids’

On YouTube, content labeled as ‘made for kids’ will automatically have comments disabled, regardless of your channel-level or video-level comment settings. When uploading content, you must tell YouTube whether the video is or isn’t made for kids in order to comply with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. This law applies to every creator on YouTube, regardless of where you’re based.

A key requirement of this law is banning the collection of personal information from kids under the age of 13 without parental permission. YouTube has chosen to disable comments on all ‘made for kids’ videos to prevent predatory behavior, cyberbullying, and harassment, removing the need to manually review millions of comments left on child-targeted videos.

While it’s your responsibility to accurately label your channel and videos, YouTube can override your audience settings if it believes a video should be marked as ‘made for kids’. The platform uses machine learning to identify videos that are clearly directed to young audiences.

The only way to adjust the audience settings across your entire channel (including existing and future video uploads) is to log into YouTube Studio on desktop:

1. On the left menu, click Settings.
2. Click Channel.
3. Click the Advanced Settings tab.
4. Under Audience, select one of the following options:
   1. “Yes, set this channel as made for kids. I mostly upload content that’s made for kids.”
   2. “No, set this channel as not made for kids. I almost never upload content that’s made for kids.”
   3. “I want to review this setting for every video.”
5. Click Save.

💡 Pro tip: Are only some of your videos made for kids? You can control audience settings when publishing each video instead. When uploading a video, head to the Basic info tab, scroll to Audience and select ‘Yes, it’s made for kids’.

Comments have been held for review

As a creator, you can opt to manually moderate comments before they appear on your content. Turning on comment moderation means you need to jump into the backend of YouTube Studio to review held comments before they appear on your videos.

If comments aren’t appearing on your videos, head to your Comment moderation settings to check if you’ve selected one of the following options:

• Basic: Any potentially inappropriate comments will be held for review.
• Strict: A broader range of potentially inappropriate comments will be held for review.
• Hold all: Every single comment will be held for review.

All comments are held in YouTube Studio for up to 60 days and aren’t publicly visible until you approve them. To switch off this feature, select ‘None’ to ensure YouTube doesn’t hold any comments.

Comments have been flagged for violating community guidelines

Comments may not be appearing on your videos because they’ve violated YouTube’s Community Guidelines.

YouTube uses an automatic detection system to scan comments, removing comments that go against its guidelines around spam, deceptive practices, sensitive content, as well as violent or dangerous content. Plus, other viewers can report comments left on your videos for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.

How to set channel defaults to automatically show comments

The easiest way to ensure comments are automatically turned on for new uploads is to set your default comment settings. These apply at a channel-level in YouTube Studio under Settings > Community moderation > Content controls. Here, you can turn on comments for all new videos.

There are other changes you can make to your comment settings at a channel-level, including:

• Hidden users: Prevent specific users from commenting on your videos by hiding them from your YouTube channel. Head to YouTube Studio, select Settings > Community moderation > User management. Under the Automated Filters, paste the user’s channel URL into the Hidden users box, and click Save.
• Approved users: Any comments from these users will be automatically published, and won’t be filtered for blocked links, blocked words, or potentially inappropriate content.
• Blocked words: Add a list of words and phrases that you don’t want to appear in the comments of your YouTube videos. Head to Settings > Community moderation > Content controls to add blocked words and phrases.
• Blocked comments with links: In YouTube Studio, you can toggle on to hold comments that contain URLs for review, giving you a chance to review these comments before publishing.

Keep in mind that default comment settings at a channel-level only apply to new video uploads. Changing your default settings won’t impact existing videos. Plus, you can override these default settings when publishing new videos if you’d prefer stricter moderation on a specific piece of content.

How to leave a comment on someone else’s video

On YouTube, commenting on a creator’s video is as simple as scrolling down to the comment section, clicking or tapping the text box, typing a message, and hitting post. Plus, you can even reply to an existing comment with a video response. Open the video, navigate to the Comment section, tap the comment, and select the camera icon to record a video response.

Fostering an engaged audience on YouTube and beyond

Enabling comments on YouTube is the first step to starting a conversation with your audience. While YouTube allows you to respond to comments and see who your subscribers are, there’s no way for you to reach your audience as a group.

If you’re ready to reach your subscribers directly, you need to own (rather than rent) your audience. Start by adding Linktree as your link in bio on YouTube to give your audience one consistent place to find everything you want to share. Add a sign-up form to collect their email address and build a mailing list you can reliably reach beyond YouTube.