GISTIL
Sign in

Field notesfrom a measured library

What measured videos taught us

We score YouTube videos on how much of the runtime actually delivers. These are the patterns that showed up once there were enough of them to count.

Median padding 36% median start of the useful part 0:47 recalculated 19 Oct 2026

  1. Article26 Aug 20265 min

    How to find advanced material when everything YouTube recommends is beginner-level

    Search tricks and channel patterns that reliably surface advanced material, and why the ordinary search results skew introductory in the first place.

  2. Article26 Aug 20265 min

    How to evaluate a YouTube channel before you subscribe

    Three channel-level signals that predict whether a creator is worth following, separate from whether any single video of theirs was good.

  3. Data report26 Aug 20265 min

    Which subjects are worth your time: measured value across twenty subjects

    Science scores highest of twenty measured subjects at 66.9; travel lowest at 38.4. The same subjects also carry the least padding and the most honest titles.

  4. Data report26 Aug 20265 min

    How long is a lesson, really: runtime measured across twenty subjects

    Median runtime runs from 18:16 in history to 9:30 in productivity, nearly two to one. It has almost no relationship to which subjects score highest on value.

  5. Data report26 Aug 20265 min

    Do YouTube titles tell the truth? Honesty measured across twenty subjects

    Average title honesty is 81 out of 100, from 87 in science down to 73 in travel. The same subjects that oversell titles also carry the most padding.

  6. Data report25 Aug 20267 min

    The useful part of the median measured video starts at 1:02

    Across the videos we have measured the useful part starts at 1:02, and one in ten makes you wait past 3:47. Here is how that splits across twenty subjects.

  7. Data report25 Aug 20267 min

    We measured the padding again, on a larger library. The number has not moved.

    A second padding census, on a larger set of measured videos. The median is still 40%, the set has grown by three quarters, and the distribution barely moved.

  8. Data report25 Aug 20267 min

    We measured twenty subjects. Three percent of the videos were advanced.

    Three percent of the videos we measured were pitched above intermediate. Here is which subjects have none at all, and the one signal that finds the rest.

  9. Data report25 Aug 20267 min

    One in five measured videos was not worth the time it asked for

    One in five measured videos was not worth its runtime. The share runs from 5% in science to 64% in travel, and the title predicts it before you click.

  10. Article19 Aug 20265 min

    Why YouTube videos feel three times longer than they need to be

    We measured the padding across a library of explanatory videos. It is not the sponsor segment, and it is not where most people think it is.

  11. Article18 Aug 20265 min

    What "value density" means, and how we measure it

    The three numbers Gistil puts on a video, what each one is actually claiming, and the places where they do not apply.

  12. Data report17 Aug 20266 min

    We measured YouTube across fifteen categories. This is how much of it was filler.

    A padding census across fifteen categories: the median video is 40% structure, and the long ones are the least padded, not the most.