How to see the tags on a YouTube video with a tag extractor
Creators can add tags to every video they upload, short keywords that describe what the video is about. YouTube used to show them on the watch page. It no longer does, but the tags are still part of each video's public data. A YouTube tag extractor reads that data and shows you the list.
Paste a link at the top of this page and you get every tag, how much of YouTube's tag limit the video uses, the main words in its title, and its category. No view-source tricks and no browser extension needed.
What YouTube tags are
Tags are optional keywords a creator types into YouTube Studio when uploading, such as "sourdough bread", "beginner baking" or a common misspelling of the topic. YouTube allows up to 500 characters of tags per video, counting the commas between them. Many creators skip them entirely, so an empty result is normal.
How to see the tags on a YouTube video
- Copy the link of the video. Watch links,
youtu.belinks, live and embed links work, and so do Shorts, so you can use it as a YouTube Shorts tag extractor too. - Paste it into the box at the top of this page and press Extract tags.
- Read the tags, shown as chips in the order the creator added them.
- With a free account, press Copy all tags for a comma-separated list, Copy as #hashtags for hashtag form, or click a single tag to copy just that one.
What the extractor shows you
- Every tag, in the creator's order, with a count such as "14 tags".
- Characters used out of YouTube's 500, so you can see how much of the budget a video uses.
- Title keywords: the main words in the title, with short filler words like "the" and "how" removed. Titles carry far more weight than tags, so this is often the more useful list.
- Details: the video's category, channel, language and view count.
The comma-separated list is the format YouTube Studio's tag box accepts. The hashtag version removes spaces and symbols from each tag, so "sourdough bread" becomes #sourdoughbread, ready for a description or a social post.
Do YouTube tags still matter?
Honestly, not much for ranking. YouTube says tags play a small role in discovery and are mostly useful when a topic is commonly misspelled. Your title, thumbnail and description matter far more, and so does whether people watch the video.
Tags are still worth looking at, for a different reason: they show you what a creator was aiming for. A YouTube tags viewer is a quick window into the keywords and phrases that matter in a niche, which is useful research even if you never paste a tag into your own upload.
How to use tags for keyword research
- Compare the top videos for a search. Run the five or six videos that rank best for your topic and look for the phrases that keep coming up. As a YouTube keyword extractor, the tool works best across several videos rather than one.
- Find the words people actually use. Tags often include alternate names, abbreviations and misspellings you might not think of.
- Check your own videos. Paste your own link to see your tags the way the public data shows them, and how close you are to the 500-character limit.
- Read the title keywords alongside. If a phrase appears in both the title and the tags, it is clearly the main target.
- Note the category. It tells you how the creator filed the video, which helps when you set up your own upload.
Tag extractor vs view source vs browser extensions
You can find tags yourself by opening the page source and searching for the keywords field, but it is buried in a large block of code and easy to misread. Creator-focused browser extensions also show tags, but they need installing (often with an account), and they add a lot more to your YouTube pages. A YouTube tag finder on a web page is the lightest option: paste a link, read the list, done.
Why a video might show no tags
If the extractor says a video has no tags, the creator simply did not add any. That is common, including on big channels, because YouTube has said for years that tags play only a small part. It does not mean the tool missed something or that the video is hidden.
When there are no tags, the title keywords and the category are the better clues to what the video targets. Look at the description too: the first two lines usually repeat the main phrase the creator is going after.
How to add tags to your own video
In YouTube Studio, open the video's Details page and click Show more. The Tags box sits in that section. Paste a comma-separated list, and YouTube splits it into separate tags. Keep the most specific phrases, add a misspelling only if people genuinely search for it, and save.
Using other people's tags responsibly
Use tags as inspiration, not as a copy-and-paste job. Adding tags that do not describe your video can mislead viewers and goes against YouTube's spam policy. Keep the ones that genuinely fit your content, and spend the time you save on a better title and thumbnail.
Is the tag extractor free?
Your first video is free and needs no account. Copying the list and further lookups take a free Claras account, which gives you 3 videos a month with no card. The tool allows about 5 lookups a day from one connection. If you want every public field, not only tags, try the YouTube metadata viewer.
Beyond tags: what the video actually covers
Tags tell you what a creator hoped the video is about. To see what it really covers, Claras gives you an AI summary with a TL;DR and key points, clickable chapters and the full transcript of the same video, when it has captions. Comparing the transcript with the tags is a quick way to see whether a competitor's video delivers on its keywords. You can also ask it questions in the Ask AI chat, with answers that cite the timestamp, or summarize a whole playlist or search page in one run.
Claras works as a Chrome extension on YouTube and as a web app at app.meetclaras.com. Pro is $5 a month for 50 videos a day, and Unlimited is $12 a month with no daily cap. Both have a 14-day free trial, and until December 31 yearly Pro is $29.99 and yearly Unlimited is $39.99. See pricing or start free.