Google Ads caps how many YouTube channels you can target or exclude, and the limits sit on four different help pages. This table puts them in one place, each with its source.
Checked against Google's help pages on 26 October 2026.
Google Ads placement limits for YouTube
| Limit | Value | Source |
|---|
| Minimum YouTube channels or videos when targeting YouTube placements in a Display campaign | 10 | Google Ads Help |
| Excluded placements per campaign | 10,000 | Google Ads Help |
| Account-level placement exclusions per account | 65,000 (separate from list, campaign and ad group exclusions) | Google Ads Help |
| Shared placement exclusion lists per account | 20 lists, up to 65,000 exclusions each | Google Ads Help |
| Total placement exclusions per ad group | 128,000 (account, list, campaign and ad group exclusions combined) | Google Ads Help |
| Manager account (MCC) exclusion lists | 3 lists, up to 250,000 exclusions each (750,000 total), applied at account level to sub-accounts | Google Ads Help |
| Placements added at one time | 5,000 in the Google Ads interface; 20,000 through the API | Google Ads Help |
Account-level exclusions cover Performance Max
Account-level placement exclusions apply to every campaign in the account, including Performance Max, and you can add specific YouTube channels or videos to them (Google Ads Help). Since March 2024 they also apply to the Search partner network (Google Ads Help). In January 2026 advertisers reported a single account-level list applying across Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube and Display campaigns (PPC Land).
Channel lists sit outside Google's MRC accreditation
Google's YouTube brand safety accreditation from the Media Rating Council lists "specific YouTube channel targeting (or exclusion)" among its exclusions (Google Ads Help). Channel-level lists are your own call, which is why advertisers build or buy them.
What the limits mean for a channel list
- Big exclusion lists have to be ranked. No ad group can carry more than 128,000 placement exclusions in total, so a list of every kids or low-quality channel won't fit. Exclude the channels with the most views first, since that's where unwanted impressions come from.
- Load in batches. The interface takes 5,000 placements at a time, so a 65,000-channel list is 13 pastes, or four API calls of up to 20,000 each.
- Inclusion lists need at least 10 channels when you target YouTube placements in a Display campaign.
Building the list
ChannelCrawler indexes 38,559,312 YouTube channels with 500+ subscribers (as of 26 October 2026). Filter by topic, country, language and subscriber range in ChannelCrawler search and export the channel URLs or IDs, or pull them through the API. ChannelCrawler doesn't score brand safety or suitability; pair channel lists with your verification vendor for that.
ChannelCrawler
