How to sort a YouTube playlist by video length?

November 5, 2025

Subscribers often ask me how to surface the quick lessons inside a 300-video playlist. YouTube lets you drag items around manually, but there’s no built-in option to sort by runtime. Here’s the process I’ve settled on after helping a dozen course creators tidy up their catalogues.

  1. Capture the data. Export the playlist ID into the YouTube Playlist Length Calculator. The report lists every video with its duration in seconds, so you can spot the outliers instantly.
  2. Filter in a spreadsheet. Paste the export into Google Sheets or Numbers. I add a column that converts seconds into minutes for easier scanning, then sort ascending.
  3. Reorder inside YouTube. Open the playlist in YouTube Studio, switch to “List view”, and drag the shorter clips to the top. It’s still manual, but now you’re working from a prioritized list instead of guessing.

If you maintain recurring content (weekly stand-ups, monthly updates), repeat this every quarter. Once the runtimes are under control, the rest of the housekeeping becomes much easier.

Have a faster method? I’m all ears—reach out and I’ll gladly test it for the next update.