Localize Your YouTube Channel Name and Description into Every Language (Where the Button Is, What It Costs, YouTube's Limits)
Localize your YouTube channel name and description into every language with VidAI: pick any of the 83 languages YouTube supports, translate in one job, review each version, and publish them as official channel localizations — so a viewer in São Paulo or Seoul reads your channel in their language while your original never changes. Here's where the button is, what it costs, what YouTube limits, and how to undo it.
🇺🇦 Читати українською: Локалізуйте назву й опис YouTube-каналу всіма мовами
Translating videos gets the views; the channel page decides whether a new viewer subscribes. If your titles are in their language but the channel name and "About" text aren't, the page reads like a foreign shop with the door half open. YouTube supports localized channel names and descriptions — it just makes you add them one language at a time, by hand. VidAI's Channel Localization (open beta, every plan) does all of them in one job. This guide is the full manual, including the limits YouTube sets that no tool can change.
What it does — and what it never touches
VidAI translates two things: your channel name and your channel description. It publishes them to YouTube as localized versions — the same mechanism YouTube uses for localized video titles — so viewers whose YouTube interface language matches see that version; everyone else sees your original. Your base name and description cannot be changed this way (YouTube's API doesn't allow it), and VidAI leaves your keywords, country, trailer and everything else on the channel exactly as they are.
Where to find it
- In YouTube Studio (recommended): Customization → Profile, scroll to "Translation for channel name and description" — VidAI adds 🌐 Localize name & description right there. It opens a VidAI window; the work runs on VidAI's servers and publishes through YouTube's API.
- On vidai.help: My connected channels (vidai.help/youtube_channels) or the Translations page → Localize Channel (beta). Same job, with a full-page editor — this is also where the Studio window sends you for editing.
- Inside YouTube's own "Channel translation" dialog — the one you open per language — VidAI adds 🌐 Translate with VidAI, which fills in YouTube's fields for the language you picked; you press YouTube's Save. One language at a time, handy for a single extra one. "Copy name (don't translate it)" is on by default.
Requirements: the channel must be connected to VidAI (the one-time Google authorization — the same one Fast API translation uses; no extra permission is requested) and you need credits. There's no plan gate: Free works.
The job, step by step
1. Pick languages
Any of the 83 languages YouTube accepts as channel localizations — Select all, or your saved list. A handful of languages YouTube doesn't accept for channels (Welsh, Irish, Maltese, Turkmen, Tatar, Samoan, Bhojpuri) are skipped automatically with a note; your source language is skipped too. Decide whether to translate the name or keep it: brand names usually stay, descriptive names ("Easy Woodworking") often translate well.
2. Choose the engine — and whether to polish
- Standard — your account's translation engine, with caching. 1 credit per 300 characters of description, per language.
- Pro — Google Translate directly, no caching: 3× the credits on the description (the name is always 1 credit). Useful when Standard's phrasing isn't landing.
- AI polish (optional) — a second pass by an AI model that smooths the translation into natural copy: +1 credit per language. Best-effort: if it fails for a language, you get the plain translation.
Full formula: per language, 1 credit for the name (if translated) + 1 per 300 characters of description (×3 with Pro) + 1 with polish. A name plus a 600-character description into 20 languages costs 60 credits on Standard — within Free's 250 monthly credits. Only languages that succeed are billed.
On the Free plan, localized descriptions made with the Standard engine carry a one-line VidAI credit at the end; paid plans don't.
3. Review (on by default)
With Require my review on — the default in both the Studio window and the website — nothing is published until you look. The review page shows every language's name and description as editable fields that autosave; fix a phrase, shorten a name, then click ✅ Apply to YouTube. Switch review off and the job publishes automatically when it finishes.
Two limits you'll meet here because YouTube enforces them: a localized name is capped at 50 characters and a description at 1,000. Translations run longer than originals, so VidAI trims over-limit text with an ellipsis — the review page is where you tidy those.
4. Apply
One write to YouTube's API per channel, all languages at once. Localizations usually show within minutes. If YouTube answers that the channel has had too many branding updates in a short window (it allows only a few), your translations stay saved — come back later and click Apply again.
After publishing
- Check it: open your channel page with YouTube's interface set to one of the languages (Settings → Language), or ask a viewer there.
- Update it: re-run the job after you rewrite your description; it overwrites the previous localizations.
- Undo it: VidAI has no revert. Remove a language in YouTube Studio → Customization → Profile → the translations list — a one-minute job per language.
How it fits with video translation
Channel localization is the page; video translation is the reason viewers land on it. Together with YouTube's auto-dubbing (on by default for eligible videos since February 2026), a foreign-language viewer can now hear your video, read its title, and land on a channel page that speaks to them. Do the videos first — that's where the traffic is — then the channel, once.
FAQ
Will my original channel name change? No. YouTube doesn't allow it through the API, and VidAI only adds localized versions. Your base name and description stay exactly as they are.
Which viewers see the localized version? Those using YouTube in that language; everyone else sees your original.
Does it need a special permission? No — the same channel authorization you already gave VidAI.
How much for the whole list? Roughly 3 credits per language for a name plus a 600-character description on Standard; ×3 on the description with Pro; +1 per language with AI polish. Only successful languages are billed.
Can I edit one language later without redoing all? Yes — in YouTube Studio's translation dialog, or by re-running VidAI for that language only.
My name got cut off. YouTube's 50-character limit for localized names; shorten it on the review page or keep the original name untranslated.
Localize your channel page: Install VidAI, connect the channel, open Customization → Profile, click 🌐 Localize name & description.
