What Are YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts are short, vertical videos, similar in format to other short-form video feeds, designed to be watched full-screen on a phone. They use a 9:16 aspect ratio rather than the 16:9 ratio of standard YouTube videos.

Embedding a Short

Shorts can be embedded the same way as any other video: the underlying video ID works with the normal /embed/ URL. The only real difference is layout, since a 16:9 player would show large black bars around a vertical video.

Getting the shape right

Use a 9:16 responsive wrapper (padding-bottom: 177.78%) instead of the usual 16:9 wrapper (56.25%) so the player matches the video’s real proportions. The embed code generator does this automatically when you enable its Shorts format option or paste a /shorts/ link.

How Shorts differ from regular YouTube video in more than just shape

Beyond the vertical 9:16 format, Shorts are also generally capped at a short maximum duration, discovered through a dedicated, algorithm-driven feed distinct from YouTube’s regular recommendations, and often produced with mobile-first editing tools built directly into the YouTube app. These differences mean Shorts tend to be produced and consumed differently from long-form video, even though, technically, embedding one works through exactly the same iframe mechanism as any other YouTube video.

A practical example

A Shorts URL, such as https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID, contains the same 11-character video ID structure as any other video; only the URL path differs. Embedding it uses the identical /embed/VIDEO_ID path as a regular video, with the only meaningful difference being the wrapper’s aspect ratio, 9:16 instead of 16:9, needed to avoid black bars around the vertical frame:

<div style="position:relative;width:100%;max-width:315px;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:0 auto;">
  <iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>

Shorts vs. other short-form video formats

YouTube Shorts belong to a broader category of short-form vertical video that also includes formats on other platforms, sharing the same general 9:16, sub-minute conventions. What is specific to YouTube Shorts is that they live within YouTube’s existing creator and monetisation ecosystem, meaning a channel’s Shorts and long-form videos share the same subscriber base, analytics dashboard and (where eligible) advertising revenue system, unlike short-form content siloed on a separate platform.

For website owners, the main practical takeaway is remembering to switch the responsive wrapper’s ratio specifically when embedding a Short rather than reusing a standard 16:9 template by default.

If you are unsure whether a specific link is a Short or a regular video, check the URL path directly: anything containing /shorts/ is a Short, while /watch or a bare youtu.be link is a regular video, regardless of how the content itself was actually filmed.

Because Shorts are discovered largely through YouTube’s own dedicated feed rather than search or related videos in the same way as long-form content, embedding a Short on your own site is often the most reliable way to guarantee a specific piece of short-form content stays visible to your audience.

Frequently asked questions