YouTube End Screens and Cards: How to Add and Use Them

Most guides to end screens and cards repeat the same handful of numbers, and some are out of date. This guide takes the rules from YouTube Help's own pages, says where those pages are silent, and covers the two other on-YouTube places that turn viewers into subscribers: the channel trailer and the Home tab. It ends with a measurement of how many channels use a trailer.

What are end screens and cards?

An end screen is a set of clickable elements that appears at the end of a video. YouTube Help says it can be added to the last 5 to 20 seconds of a video, and that you can use it to promote other videos, encourage viewers to subscribe and more. Other interactive elements, such as card teasers and video watermarks, are suppressed while the end screen is showing.

An info card is a different tool. Help says cards make a video more interactive and can feature a video, playlist, channel or link. Each card has a start time, and viewers see a teaser at that time. When the teaser is not showing, they can hover over the player and click the card icon. Cards sit anywhere in the video, and end screens sit only at the end.

What are the rules and limits?

Help adds three details worth knowing. For a video or playlist element, you can feature your most recent upload, let YouTube pick the video that best suits each viewer, or choose any public or unlisted video or playlist from your channel or another one. A channel card needs a message and teaser text. And the site you link to must follow YouTube's Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, because violations can lead to card or link removal, strikes or termination of your Google Account.

How do you add an end screen?

1. 01

   Open the video in Studio

   Sign in to YouTube Studio, choose Content, click the video's title or thumbnail, then choose Editor.

2. 02

   Choose End screen and an element

   Pick Apply template, Video, Playlist, Subscribe, Channel or Link. A template is a grouping of elements you can customize.

3. 03

   Set the timing

   Elements show at the same time by default. Drag the ends of the timeline, or type the times, to make elements start and end at different moments.

4. 04

   Place each element

   Drag it within the player. The grid, Snap to grid and Snap to element options help with placement.

5. 05

   Preview and save

   Press play on the player to see the end screen while the video runs, then click Save.

You can also add and customize an end screen while you upload. If you use a custom image for an element, Help recommends one at least 300 x 300 pixels. Its other tips are to feature elements that are relevant to the video, to encourage clicks with a call to action, to leave enough space and time at the end of the video and to consider the last 20 seconds when you edit, and to time different elements to appear at different moments.

How do you add cards?

1. 01

   Open the video in Studio

   Sign in, choose Content, click the video and choose Editor.

2. 02

   Choose Info cards and a type

   Pick Video, Playlist, Channel or Link. A link card is for Partner Program channels.

3. 03

   Set the start time

   Change the start time for the card below the video, so the teaser appears at the moment that fits.

4. 04

   Add a message and teaser text

   Both are optional, except for channel cards, where Help says they are required.

5. 05

   Save

   Click Save. Repeat for up to 5 cards on the video.

Two effects on the rest of the video come from the same page. Cards will not show if your video has been claimed by Content ID and the owner has set up a campaign, and a video that displays cards will not show a call-to-action overlay. Help also says that as the system evolves, YouTube plans to show the most relevant teasers and cards based on performance, viewer behavior and the device.

Where do they not show up?

Help is direct about this: your end screen may not always show, or may show differently than designed, because YouTube changes end screens based on performance, viewer behavior, device and context. So a missing end screen is not always a bug in your setup. Three checks come first.

• Made for kids. If the audience is set as made for kids, viewers do not see end screens or cards, even if you added them earlier.
• The device. End screens do not appear on mobile web (with the iPad exception), in the YouTube Music and YouTube Kids apps, or on 360 videos. Help says cards are available to viewers on computers, and also describes a card icon that mobile viewers see whenever the player controls show, so check how a card looks on a phone before you rely on it.
• The video itself. A video under 25 seconds cannot have an end screen.

Neither Help page says whether end screens or cards apply to Shorts, so check the Editor in Studio for a specific Short. Our Shorts length and size guide explains which uploads count as Shorts.

How do you tell whether they work?

Help points to the Engagement tab of YouTube Analytics for end screens. For one video, open Analytics, choose Engagement and scroll to End screen element click rate, which shows how often viewers clicked each end screen element. For the whole channel, two cards help compare: Top end screen element types, to see which kind of element gets clicks, and Top videos by end screen, to see the videos whose end screens viewers clicked most.

The pages we read describe no matching report for cards and give no benchmark for either. So any "good click rate" you see quoted is not from YouTube. Our suggestion for reading the reports is to compare a run of similar videos, change one thing at a time, such as the element type or the timing, and wait for enough views before judging. Our Analytics guide covers the other Studio reports, and the Channel Audit shows how each upload compares with your own median.

What are the channel trailer and the Home tab?

End screens and cards work on viewers already watching a video. The Home tab works on viewers who arrive at your channel. YouTube Help says you can customize it so that visitors see a channel trailer, a featured video and featured sections.

To add a trailer or a spotlight, sign in to Studio, choose Customization, then Home tab, click Add section under Layout, choose Channel trailer or Spotlight, select the video and click Publish. Section types you can add include For you, Videos, Playlists, Memberships, Channels, Top community clips, Effects and Posts.

How many channels set a channel trailer? What our data shows

The Data API exposes the trailer setting for any channel as brandingSettings.channel.unsubscribedTrailer, described in its documentation as the video that plays in the featured video module for unsubscribed viewers. On September 26, 2026 we read that field for 240 channels drawn at random from four subscriber bands of our tracked set, 60 per band, leaving out YouTube's auto-generated Topic channels and channels with fewer than 10 videos. It took 8 quota units.

Read this as a rough guide. The field shows that a trailer is set. It cannot show whether the Home tab is switched on, whether visitors see it or how many have watched it. The samples are small, the tracked set leans toward channels that had a breakout video, and the 100 to 999 band had only 107 eligible channels to draw from, so the differences between bands are within noise. What stands out is the overall level: fewer than half of these channels use the one lever YouTube gives for turning a first-time visitor into a subscriber.

What mistakes cost you clicks?

• Not leaving room. Help says to leave enough space and time at the end of the video, and to consider the last 20 seconds when editing. If the outro ends at the last frame, there is no window for the end screen.
• Using a video under 25 seconds and expecting an end screen.
• Adding an end screen or cards to a video set as made for kids, where viewers will not see them.
• Linking to a site that breaks YouTube's policies, which can lead to removal, strikes or termination of the Google Account.
• Leaving every element on the screen for the full time. Help suggests timing different elements to appear at different moments.
• Assuming every viewer sees them. Viewers can hide end screens, and some places never show them.

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