YouTube Shorts: meaning and how it works

YouTube Shorts are vertical videos up to a minute long shown in a swipe feed.

They bring discovery but earn far less per view than long videos. See Shorts vs long videos.

How it works in practice

Shorts appear in a swipe feed. They are great for discovery, but they pay far less per view than long videos, so most channels use them to attract people to longer content.

Example

Example: a 40-second Short with one study tip, pinned with a link to the full 12-minute lesson.