How to Check Exact YouTube Upload Time (and Why It Matters)

See the Real Upload Time Behind “X Days Ago”

1. Why exact upload time still matters

For viewers, “2 days ago” is usually enough. But if you are a creator, agency, advertiser or data analyst, you often need the exact timestamp:

• To correlate performance with your upload schedule
• To compare videos published in different time zones
• To audit campaign timing and sponsored content delivery
• To study how the first 24 hours affects long-term performance

The good news: YouTube does store the exact upload time internally — and it is accessible via public metadata.

2. The normal way to see upload time

When you upload a video, YouTube assigns an ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC to the video’s publishedAt field. It looks like this:

Example:
2025-01-10T14:32:05Z → 14:32:05 on January 10, 2025 (UTC)

The “Z” at the end stands for “Zulu time”, which is another name for UTC. Your local time may be many hours ahead or behind that value, depending on your time zone and daylight saving rules.

3. Checking exact upload time with YT_info

If you just want the answer without touching any API documentation, the simplest workflow is:

1. Copy the URL of the YouTube video you’re interested in.
2. Paste it into the YT_info upload time tool.
3. Click “Get All Info”.

Behind the scenes, YT_info reads the same publishedAt value that the YouTube Data API exposes, then converts it into a human-friendly local time using your browser settings.

4. Manual method (for technical users)

If you prefer to verify the data yourself or build your own scripts, you can:

• Call the YouTube Data API’s videos.list endpoint
• Request the snippet part
• Read the snippet.publishedAt field

You will receive the same UTC timestamp that YT_info is using. From there, you can convert it into any time zone you like in your own code or analytics tools.

5. Common questions

Is this different from the “Premiere” time?

Yes. If a video was scheduled as a Premiere, there can be a difference between the original upload time and the public premiere time. YT_info focuses on the published time, which is what most analytics and ranking systems use.

Can I use this for Shorts as well?

Absolutely. Shorts are still regular videos under the hood, so they also have a publishedAt timestamp. You can paste Shorts URLs or shared links directly into YT_info.

Does changing the title or thumbnail affect the timestamp?

No. Edits like title, description, tags or thumbnail updates do not change the original publishedAt value. That’s why it is safe to treat it as the canonical upload timestamp.