YouTube Scheduler
Schedule YouTube uploads for every client channel
RecurPost is a social media scheduler that uploads video straight to client YouTube channels through YouTube’s official API. Every field YouTube Studio asks for is set in the composer at schedule time: title, description, tags, category, thumbnail, playlist, privacy and the made-for-kids flag. The file itself goes up untouched, because YouTube re-encodes every upload anyway.
- 14-day trial. No credit card.
5,000 description characters per video
17 categories, default per channel
850+ platform errors handled
20 accounts for $79/mo
A YouTube upload, with nothing flattened
Most schedulers treat YouTube as video plus caption. RecurPost publishes the upload the way YouTube Studio would.
The upload
Video streams to YouTube in resumable chunks at the scheduled minute, with your chosen privacy applied from the first second. RecurPost does not re-encode or reframe the file; YouTube does that itself, so the master you exported is the master that arrives.
The metadata
Title up to 100 characters, auto-filled from your post text if you skip it. Description up to 5,000, tags up to 500 characters, and one of 17 categories, with a default saved per channel so client uploads never land in the wrong one.
Thumbnail and playlist
A custom thumbnail attaches to every upload, auto-fitted under YouTube’s 2 MB cap and applied once YouTube finishes processing. Each upload can also drop straight into a channel playlist, and you can create the playlist from RecurPost.
Visibility and flags
Public, Private or Unlisted per video. Made-for-kids, Standard or Creative Commons license, embeddable on or off, video and audio language from 30 options, and a recording date when it matters.
There is no separate Shorts switch, because YouTube does not have one either: a vertical clip up to three minutes publishes as a Short by YouTube’s own format rule, and a 16:9 export of the same edit publishes as a regular video.
From client invite to published post
You invite the client by email or link.
The client signs in with their own Google account and their channel lands in your workspace as its own account. No password changes hands.
Your team queues uploads on the social media calendar, uploads a month by CSV with bulk scheduling, or takes the best-time suggestion, scored from the channel’s own last 30 days of videos.
The client approves the queue from a shared calendar link, with no RecurPost login needed. Approvals come with every paid plan, from $9 per month.
At the scheduled minute the video streams to YouTube in resumable chunks. The thumbnail attaches as soon as YouTube finishes processing, and the watch URL lands back in your dashboard.
An agency runs Fenwick Woodcraft’s channel: one long-form build video every Thursday, plus daily vertical cuts that publish as Shorts. Each Thursday upload goes out with its thumbnail, tags, playlist and category already set, at the hour the channel’s own audience is active. That flow is part of how the RecurPost social media scheduler handles client work.
Every YouTube Studio field, set at schedule time
The reason agencies keep a YouTube tab open next to their scheduler is that most schedulers drop half the fields. RecurPost’s composer carries the full set, so the version of the video that publishes is the version you specced, and nobody logs into Studio afterwards to fix a category or attach the thumbnail.
- Title, description and tags, with limits counted as you type
- One of 17 categories, with a per-channel default so client uploads never misfile
- Custom thumbnail on every upload, auto-fitted under YouTube's 2 MB cap
- Straight into a channel playlist, created from RecurPost if it does not exist yet
- Privacy, made-for-kids, license, embeddable, and 30 video and audio languages
- Best-time suggestions scored from the channel's own last 30 days of videos
Community posts, live streams and Premieres stay in YouTube Studio; RecurPost’s job is the scheduled upload done completely.
Watch time, not vanity counts
RecurPost’s YouTube report pulls from the YouTube Analytics API: views, watch time, average view duration and completion, likes, comments, shares, and subscribers gained and lost. Traffic sources and audience breakdowns by country and gender sit in the same report, with a best-time matrix built from the channel’s own top videos.
The report splits Shorts, long-form and live, so a channel posting daily Shorts and weekly builds can see which format actually grows watch time instead of one blended number. Every report exports as a PDF under your own logo, so a client sees their agency’s name on the cover, not RecurPost’s.
When a YouTube upload fails, you get the cause and the fix
RecurPost recovers first and reports second.
YouTube caps how many videos a channel can upload per day, and the API reports it cryptically. RecurPost translates the daily-limit rejection into plain language, so you reschedule instead of retrying into the same wall.
Custom thumbnails need a phone-verified channel, and YouTube rejects them silently otherwise. RecurPost surfaces that exact cause with the fix, instead of a post that published mysteriously bare.
Google rotates refresh tokens, which quietly kills integrations that store them once. RecurPost refreshes tokens at every publish and daily by cron, and keeps the rotated token each time, so channels stay connected for months.
The thumbnail attaches only after YouTube finishes processing the video, so slow processing never fails the upload. RecurPost re-checks and applies it once the video is ready, and the watch URL lands in your dashboard.
Every upload is streamed in resumable chunks with each step logged per video, so a failed publish shows where it stopped, drawn from a catalog of 850+ documented platform errors built across ten platforms.
A Thursday build video for Fenwick Woodcraft hits the channel’s daily upload limit because the client uploaded twice that morning. RecurPost reports the real cause in the dashboard, the agency slides the video to Friday’s slot, and the thumbnail and playlist ride along unchanged.
Some schedulers drop failed posts silently, and the client notices before the agency does.
YouTube's rules, handled before publish day
RecurPost’s composer counts the title’s 100 characters and the description’s 5,000 as you type, keeps tags inside YouTube’s 500-character budget, and pre-selects the channel’s default category. The thumbnail is fitted under the 2 MB cap before upload, and a missing title fills itself from your post text instead of failing the publish.
Video, Shorts, thumbnail and banner specs, and the limits that block an upload.
Windows for long-form and Shorts, from a study of 2 million videos.
Built for client work
- Agencies running client channels where every upload needs its metadata right the first time
- Teams scheduling weekly long-form plus daily Shorts-format verticals on one calendar
- Channels where the thumbnail, playlist and category are part of the deliverable, not an afterthought
- Client reporting that has to show watch time and subscriber growth under your own logo
- Client channels connected through an invite link, without password sharing
- Community posts, live streams and Premieres; those stay in YouTube Studio
- Managing YouTube comments from a unified inbox; comment moderation stays in Studio
- Several channels under one Google login; RecurPost connects the login's primary channel, so each channel needs its own sign-in
YouTube is one of ten platforms RecurPost publishes to, alongside Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Threads and Bluesky. One draft, tailored per platform. See all supported social media platforms.
Try RecurPost with your client channels
RecurPost’s Agency plan covers 20 social accounts for $79 per month with no per-user seat charge, and extra accounts cost $4 each. Every YouTube channel you connect uploads through the official API from day one of the free trial, no credit card required. See RecurPost pricing for every plan and add-on.
14-day trial. No credit card.
YouTube scheduler FAQs
Does RecurPost upload to YouTube automatically?
Yes. RecurPost streams the video to YouTube’s API in resumable chunks at the scheduled minute, with your chosen privacy applied from the start. Nobody gets a reminder to finish the upload by hand.
Can I schedule YouTube Shorts with RecurPost?
Yes, by format. YouTube has no Shorts switch: a vertical clip up to three minutes publishes as a Short by YouTube’s own rule. Schedule the 9:16 file and YouTube shelves it as a Short; schedule the 16:9 edit and it publishes as a regular video.
Can RecurPost set a custom thumbnail?
Yes. The thumbnail is auto-fitted under YouTube’s 2 MB cap and attached once YouTube finishes processing the video. Custom thumbnails require a phone-verified channel, and RecurPost tells you when that is the actual blocker.
Can a scheduled video go straight into a playlist?
Yes. Pick the channel playlist in the composer, or create a new one from RecurPost. If the playlist step ever fails, the video still publishes; the playlist never takes the upload down with it.
Which YouTube fields can I set per video?
Title, description, tags, one of 17 categories with a per-channel default, privacy, made-for-kids, Standard or Creative Commons license, embeddable on or off, video and audio language from 30 options, and a recording date.
How do clients connect their YouTube channels?
Through an invite link. The client signs in with their own Google account and the channel lands in your workspace; no passwords are shared. Each channel connects through its own Google sign-in.
What YouTube analytics does RecurPost report?
Views, watch time, average view duration and completion, likes, comments, shares, subscribers gained and lost, traffic sources, and audience breakdowns, split by Shorts, long-form and live. Reports export as white-label PDFs.
Can RecurPost publish community posts or manage comments?
No. RecurPost publishes scheduled video uploads with full metadata. Community posts, live streams, Premieres and comment moderation stay in YouTube Studio.
