PlaylistTime / Compare channels
Compare YouTube channels side by side: subscribers, views and upload pace
Put two or three channels next to each other and see who has more subscribers, views and videos, how often each one posts, and how their recent uploads perform.
Subscribers are YouTube's public figure, rounded down to three significant figures above 1,000. Upload pace and recent views use each channel's latest 50 public uploads; live and upcoming streams are left out.
This tool compares YouTube channels side by side. Paste two channels (or three, under More options) as @handles, channel links or video links. You get each channel's subscribers, total views, number of public videos, age, views per video, how many videos it posted in the last 30 days, its upload pace, and the average views of its recent uploads. The best value in each row is marked with an arrow.
Totals come from YouTube's official Data API. Pace and recent views are worked out from each channel's latest 50 public uploads, so you see not only how big a channel is, but how active it is now.
How does the channel comparison work?
For each channel the tool reads the official totals (subscribers, views, videos, creation date) and the publish time and view count of its latest 50 public uploads. From those it works out:
- Views per video: total views divided by public videos.
- Uploads in the last 30 days and uploads per week across the latest 50 uploads.
- Average views of recent uploads: the mean views of the latest 10 uploads that are at least 7 days old. Newer videos are left out because they are still gathering views.
Worked example: Veritasium vs Linus Tech Tips
On 26 October 2026 the API returned 21,400,000 subscribers, 4,695,846,306 views and 543 public videos for Veritasium, and 16,900,000 subscribers, 9,938,181,851 views and 7,965 videos for Linus Tech Tips. Linus Tech Tips has more than twice the total views, but spread over almost 15 times as many videos: about 1,247,732 views per video against 8,647,967 for Veritasium. Their latest uploads tell the same story: 22 uploads in 30 days averaging about 1.83 million views for Linus Tech Tips, 7 uploads averaging about 5.40 million for Veritasium.
How to compare YouTube channels, step by step
1. Paste two channels
Use an @handle, a channel link or a link to any video from each channel.
2. Add a third if you like
Open More options and paste a third channel.
3. Press Compare
Read the one-line summary, then the table. Copy the link to this comparison to share it; the link brings back the same channels.
Compare YouTube channel subscribers
Subscribers are the number most people compare first, and the one YouTube rounds most. Above 1,000 subscribers the public figure is rounded down to three significant figures, so two channels showing 1.23M could be up to 9,999 subscribers apart. For a closer race, watch both on the live subscriber count, which shows the range each real count lies in.
Compare total views and views per video
Total views reward channels that have posted a lot for a long time. Views per video adjusts for that: a channel with 543 videos and 4.7 billion views gets far more per video than one with 7,965 videos and 9.9 billion. Keep in mind that the total includes Shorts, which often have many views each, and that from 24 August 2026 YouTube counts a view as soon as a video starts to play, in every format.
Compare YouTube channel growth and activity
The API does not give subscriber history, so this tool does not draw growth charts or invent them. What it can show honestly is current activity: uploads in the last 30 days, uploads per week, how long ago the last upload went out, and how the latest uploads are doing. A channel with fewer subscribers but more recent views per upload is often the one growing faster right now.
Compare channel age
Channel age is measured from the date the channel was created, which YouTube returns with the channel. An older channel has had more time to collect views and subscribers, so compare age before reading too much into the totals. Age is not marked as better or worse.
What the arrows mean
An arrow marks the highest value in each row, or the most recent upload in the Last upload row. There is no arrow when values are tied or a row has only one value. Bars under the numbers show each value against the highest in that row.
How accurate is the comparison?
- Exact: total views, public video count and creation date, as YouTube reports them.
- Rounded: subscribers above 1,000 (YouTube's rule, see above).
- Sampled: pace and recent views use the latest 50 public uploads, including Shorts; live and upcoming streams are left out. A channel that posts Shorts daily and long videos weekly will show a high pace.
- Not shown: watch time, revenue, subscriber history and private or unlisted videos, which the public API does not provide.
Sources
- YouTube Data API: channels resource (statistics, the 24 August 2026 view-counting change; page last updated 15 October 2026).
- YouTube Data API revision history, 10 September 2019: subscriber counts rounded down to three significant figures.
- YouTube Data API: playlistItems.list (reading a channel's uploads).
Why we built this channel comparison
Comparing two channels usually means two browser tabs, rounded numbers and a calculator. Nitin Raja, who builds PlaylistTime, tested a lot of these pages before building this one: after testing out a lot of websites, he found what people need and what they do not, and built around that. What people want to know is who is bigger and who is more active right now, so the table puts the official totals next to the recent pace and recent views, in one row each.
What we measure
- Official totals per channel: subscribers, views, public videos, creation date.
- From the latest 50 public uploads: uploads in the last 30 days, uploads per week, days since the last upload, and the average views of the latest 10 uploads that are at least 7 days old.
- What we do not measure: growth history, revenue, engagement or audience details. For engagement, use the engagement rate calculator.
Why it is different
| This tool | Typical comparison pages | |
|---|---|---|
| Channels at once | 2 or 3 | Usually 2 |
| Recent activity | Uploads in 30 days, pace, recent average views | Totals only |
| Rounding | Explained | Often shown as exact |
| Share link | Restores the same channels | Often none |
Questions
How do I compare two YouTube channels?
Paste both channels (an @handle, a channel link or any video link from each) into the boxes on this page and press Compare. Open More options to add a third channel.
Can I compare YouTube channels' live subscriber counts?
The comparison uses YouTube's official public subscriber figures at the moment you compare. To watch one channel's count refresh every minute, use the live subscriber count page.
Why do two channels show the same subscriber count?
YouTube rounds public counts above 1,000 down to three significant figures, so two channels with 1,231,000 and 1,239,000 subscribers both show 1.23M.
What does views per video mean?
Total channel views divided by the number of public videos. It shows how well an average video performs, which total views alone hide for channels with many uploads.
How is upload pace measured?
From each channel's latest 50 public uploads: the number of uploads per week across that span, plus how many went out in the last 30 days. Live and upcoming streams are left out.
Can I see a channel's subscriber growth over time?
Not from YouTube's public API, which only gives the current figure. This tool shows current activity instead: recent uploads and their views.
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Built by Nitin Raja. Last updated 26 October 2026.