YouTube Dislike Checker: See Dislikes on Any Video

YouTube still has a dislike button, but since November 2021 the number is hidden from everyone except the creator, and YouTube's API stopped returning it in December 2021. This YouTube dislike checker shows the closest thing left: an estimated dislike count from the open Return YouTube Dislike project, printed next to the exact likes, views and comments that YouTube itself reports. Paste a normal video link, a youtu.be link or a Shorts link, on a computer or a phone, and nothing needs installing. Every estimate is labelled as one, because nobody outside YouTube can see the real dislike count of someone else's video. Use it as a dislike counter to judge a tutorial, a product review or a Short before you spend time on it, and read the accuracy notes below before you quote a number.

How to see dislikes on a YouTube video

Copy the link. On YouTube tap Share, then Copy link. Any watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live or embed link works, and so does the 11-character video ID.
Paste it above and press Check. The checker asks YouTube for the views, likes and comments, and asks the Return YouTube Dislike API for its dislike estimate.
Read the two parts separately. The top row is YouTube's exact data. The dislike number, the like and dislike split and the rating come from Return YouTube Dislike and are estimates.

The link in your address bar changes to a share link with the video in it, so you can send the result to someone else.

How does the dislike checker work?

When YouTube hid dislikes, the Return YouTube Dislike project had already saved the counts of many videos from the API. Its documentation says that after the API change it uses a mix of those archived counts and estimates extrapolated from the votes of people who use its browser extension. For a video uploaded after the change, its FAQ gives the formula:

Estimated dislikes = (extension users' dislikes / extension users' likes) x public like count

When the project has an archived real count for a video, the estimate blends the archive with its users' votes, and the archive counts for less as it gets older.

Worked example: Never Gonna Give You Up

On 26 October 2026 YouTube reported 1,830,656,989 views and 19,497,696 likes for Rick Astley's official video. Return YouTube Dislike estimated 521,698 dislikes against its own like figure of 19,497,156, which is a split of about 97.4% likes and 2.6% dislikes. Its extension users had voted 130,170 likes and 6,702 dislikes. The formula alone would give 6,702 / 130,170 x 19,497,156 = about 1,003,841 dislikes, roughly twice the published estimate. The project blends in counts archived before 2021 and does not publish every detail of its model, so its number cannot be worked out exactly from outside. That gap is a good reminder that the dislike figure is a model, not a count.

How to see dislikes on YouTube mobile, the app and Shorts

The browser extension only works in a desktop browser, and the YouTube app on iPhone and Android shows no dislike number at all. On a phone, tap Share under the video or Short, tap Copy link, open this page and paste. Shorts links (youtube.com/shorts/...) are read the same way as normal videos, because a Short is a video with its own ID.

How to see dislikes in YouTube Studio

If the video is yours, you do not need an estimate. YouTube's announcement says creators can still find their exact dislike counts in YouTube Studio: sign in at studio.youtube.com and look at the video in Content or in its Analytics. Only the channel that owns the video sees that number; YouTube's API returns it only when the owner signs in, so no outside tool can read it for you.

When did YouTube remove the dislike count?

10 November 2021: YouTube announced that dislike counts would become private across YouTube while the dislike button stays, rolling out gradually from that day.
13 December 2021: the dislikeCount field in the YouTube Data API became private, so tools and extensions lost the real number.

YouTube gave its reason as protecting creators from harassment and "dislike attacks", where groups pile dislikes onto a video, and said its experiments showed that hiding the count reduced this behaviour. It said smaller channels were hit hardest.

Does the dislike button still do anything?

Yes. YouTube said the dislike button is not going away: viewers can still press it to tune their own recommendations and to send private feedback to the creator. The creator sees the total in YouTube Studio; other viewers do not.

How accurate is the YouTube dislike count estimate?

It is an estimate. For new videos it scales the votes of the project's extension users up to the public like count. If those users like or dislike a video differently from viewers as a whole, the estimate is off by the same factor.
Small videos are least reliable. With a handful of extension votes, one extra dislike can move the estimate a lot. A video nobody has looked up yet may have no estimate at all.
It is not live. Return YouTube Dislike's FAQ says its counts are cached and refreshed about every 2 to 3 days. We keep its answer for 30 minutes on top of that.
Likes, views and comments are exact. They come straight from YouTube's API and are kept for 10 minutes at most. If a creator hides the like count, we say so instead of showing a number.

Use the estimate to compare videos roughly (a review with 2% dislikes against one with 30%), not to quote an exact figure.

Dislike extension or dislike checker?

The Return YouTube Dislike browser extension puts its estimate back under every video while you browse YouTube on a computer. This page uses the same open API, so the estimate is the same, but it needs no install, works on phones and in browsers that cannot add extensions, gives a link you can share, and sets YouTube's exact likes and views beside the estimate so you can tell which number is which. If you check dislikes every day on a computer, the extension is handier; for a quick check or on a phone, paste the link here.

Sources

YouTube Official Blog, An update to dislikes on YouTube, 10 November 2021.
YouTube Data API, revision history (dislikeCount private as of 13 December 2021) and the videos resource.
Return YouTube Dislike, returnyoutubedislike.com: FAQ (method and the 2 to 3 day cache) and the API usage rights (third-party use allowed with attribution, 100 requests a minute and 10,000 a day per client).

Why we built this dislike checker

People still want to know whether a tutorial or a review is worth their time before they watch, and the dislike count used to answer that in a glance. Most dislike checker pages now show one big number with no hint of where it came from, so it reads like YouTube's own count. 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. So this page shows YouTube's exact numbers and the estimate side by side, says plainly which is which, and credits the project that makes the estimate possible.

What this checker shows, and what it cannot

From YouTube's official Data API: title, channel, views, likes and comment count. When the creator hides likes, or comments are turned off, we show that rather than a zero.
From the Return YouTube Dislike API: the estimated dislikes, the project's own like figure (used for the split so both sides come from the same source), its 0 to 5 rating, and its extension users' raw votes. These are not from YouTube and are shown here as part of PlaylistTime, credited to the project.
What it cannot do: show the real dislike count of any video you do not own, show who disliked a video, or update faster than the estimate itself updates.
Privacy: the request goes through our server, so the dislike API sees our server, not you. Nothing you paste is stored; answers are cached for a short time so repeat checks do not use up the free limits.

Why it is different

	This checker	Typical dislike checker
Labels the dislike number as an estimate	Yes, on every result	Often shown as if it were YouTube's count
Exact likes and views from YouTube beside it	Yes	Sometimes, mixed in with the estimate
Explains the method with a real example	Yes	Rarely
Works on phones and Shorts links	Yes	Varies
Shareable result link	Yes	Rarely
Account or install	None	Some need an extension

YouTube region restriction checker: the countries a video is blocked in, and its age limit.
YouTube comment picker: random giveaway winners from one or more videos' comments.
YouTube engagement rate calculator: likes and comments compared with views.
Upload time checker: the exact second a video went public, in your time zone.
All YouTube creator tools: every free tool for channels and videos on one page.

Built by Nitin Raja. Last updated 26 October 2026.

Questions

Can you still see dislikes on YouTube?

Not on YouTube itself. Since November 2021 the dislike count is private: only the creator sees it, in YouTube Studio. Outside tools such as this checker can show an estimate from the Return YouTube Dislike project, which is labelled as an estimate.

How do I see dislikes on YouTube on my phone?

Tap Share under the video, then Copy link, and paste the link into this page. It works the same on iPhone and Android and with Shorts links, with nothing to install.

Is the dislike count accurate?

It is an estimate. For newer videos Return YouTube Dislike scales its extension users' votes up to the public like count; for older videos it blends in counts archived before December 2021. Its numbers refresh about every 2 to 3 days. Likes and views on this page are exact, from YouTube.

Where does the dislike number come from?

From the open Return YouTube Dislike API at returnyoutubedislike.com. YouTube's own API stopped returning dislike counts on 13 December 2021, so no tool can read the real number for a video it does not own.

When did YouTube remove dislikes?

YouTube announced on 10 November 2021 that dislike counts would become private, and the dislike count left the YouTube Data API on 13 December 2021. The dislike button itself stayed.

Can creators see who disliked their video?

YouTube's announcement says creators can see their exact dislike counts in YouTube Studio. This checker cannot see who disliked a video, and neither can any other outside tool.

Why does a video show no dislike estimate?

Return YouTube Dislike only has an estimate once it has data for that video. Brand-new and rarely viewed videos often have none yet, and the service sometimes limits how fast it answers.

YouTube dislike checker: see the dislikes on any video