How to manage comments on YouTube

All comments on your videos collect in one place in YouTube Studio:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. In the left menu, select Community.
3. Choose Published for comments everyone can see, or Held for comments held by your settings or flagged by YouTube as likely spam.
4. Use the filter bar to narrow the list, for example by questions or response status.
5. Reply, heart or like a comment, or select More for other options.

• Comment search works by keyword or topic, up to 100 characters, and covers the last 90 days. It's only in YouTube Studio on a computer, and you can't search for one user's comments.
• On a phone, open the YouTube Studio app, tap Community in the bottom menu, then View all.
• Your filters can be saved: click Filter, choose them, then Set current filters as default.

Sources: YouTube Help: Review & reply to comments, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Choose comment settings, checked 15 October 2026

A pinned comment sits at the top of a video's comments, which makes it a good home for a link or a correction. You need advanced features turned on; after you turn them on they can take up to 24 hours to appear.

1. Sign in to YouTube and open the video.
2. In the comments, select the comment you want to pin.
3. Click More, then Pin.
4. Click Pin to confirm. A new pin replaces any comment already pinned.

• In YouTube Studio, Pin only appears when you're viewing the comments for one video.
• To unpin, select More, then Unpin.

Sources: YouTube Help: Post & interact with comments, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Review & reply to comments, checked 15 October 2026

Each video has its own setting. Your channel default applies to new uploads only, and changing it doesn't affect existing videos.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. In the left menu, select Content.
3. Click the video's thumbnail.
4. Scroll down and click Show more.
5. Under Comments and ratings, choose a setting.
6. Click Save. For several videos at once, use bulk edits.

Sources: YouTube Help: Choose comment settings, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Learn about comment settings, checked 15 October 2026

These settings apply to every video and your channel homepage; you can't set them for one video.

• Blocked words: comments containing or closely matching them are held for up to 60 days, and live chat messages with them are blocked.
• Links: you can hold comments that contain URLs. Comments from you, your moderators and approved users aren't held.
• Hidden users: their comments disappear from all your videos, and you can't review them in YouTube Studio.
• Approved users: their comments publish straight away and skip your filters for blocked words, links and potentially inappropriate content.
• Held comments stay in the Held tab for up to 60 days and aren't public unless you approve them.
• Basic and Strict use AI and can make mistakes, so check the Held tab and approve anything held by error.

Source: YouTube Help: Learn about comment settings, checked 15 October 2026

Check these:

• The video is set as made for kids: comments are turned off and the setting can't be changed.
• The video is private: comment settings can't be changed. Make it unlisted if you want comments on a video that isn't public.
• You're using a supervised account: comment settings can't be changed.
• Pin is missing: turn on advanced features, wait up to 24 hours, and open the comments for a single video.
• A comment you expected is missing: look in the Held tab, since blocked words, links or your moderation level may have held it.

Sources: YouTube Help: Choose comment settings, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Post & interact with comments, checked 15 October 2026; YouTube Help: Learn about comment settings, checked 15 October 2026

Comments need a person to answer them; the uploads they sit under can be planned ahead. Zolyp, which publishes this guide, publishes to YouTube as one of 9 platforms (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads). It creates video uploads and Shorts with titles and descriptions written for search, can set a custom thumbnail on a standard video, and schedules them with the posts on your other networks. You approve the week before anything goes live.