To change your YouTube name, open YouTube Studio on a computer, go to Customization, then Profile, type the new channel name and click Publish. In the YouTube app, tap your profile picture, tap View channel, tap Edit next to your name (on iPhone and iPad, tap Edit under your channel description first) and save. As of August 2026, YouTube lets you change the channel name twice within a 14-day period, and changing it does not touch your Google Account name. The @handle is a separate field with its own, identical, twice-per-14-days limit.
Channel name, handle and Google Account name are three different things
Most "how do I change my YouTube name" confusion comes from YouTube having three names attached to one channel. Before you edit anything, work out which one you actually want to change.
| What it is | Where you see it | Has to be unique? | Where you change it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Channel name | The display name on your channel page | No stated requirement | YouTube Studio, the YouTube app or the YouTube Studio app |
| Handle (@) | Your channel URL (youtube.com/@handle), comments, mentions, Live Chat, Shorts | Yes | YouTube Studio, the YouTube app, the YouTube Studio app, or youtube.com/handle |
| Google Account name | Gmail, Drive, other Google services | No stated requirement | myaccount.google.com, under Personal info |
The channel name is what most people mean, and YouTube's channel-profile page sets no uniqueness rule for it. The handle is the short identifier that starts with @, and YouTube's help page on handles states that handles "are distinct from channel names" and that you will see them "in places like comments, mentions, Live Chat, and Shorts." The Google Account name is the one Google uses across Gmail and its other products; it is independent of the YouTube name, covered in its own section below. The rest of this guide covers each in turn. One caveat that applies throughout: menu labels can differ slightly depending on your app version and region, so if a label is not an exact match, look for the closest one in the same spot.
How to change your YouTube channel name on desktop
The desktop route runs through YouTube Studio, the same path you use for the handle.
- Go to studio.youtube.com and sign in with the account that owns the channel.
- In the left menu, click Customization, then open the Profile tab.
- Enter your new channel name.
- Click Publish.
Those four steps are exactly what YouTube's help page for managing your channel profile lists for computers: sign in to YouTube Studio, select Customization and then Profile, enter the new name, click Publish. The page states two conditions on the name itself. A new name has to follow the Community Guidelines, and if the field will not save, YouTube says to "make sure any channel name translations are deleted before updating."
Do not expect the new name to appear everywhere immediately. YouTube says that "it may take a few days for the new name to update and display across YouTube," so old comments and search results can show the previous name for a while.
How to change your YouTube name on your phone
You do not need a computer. YouTube publishes slightly different step lists for Android and for iPhone and iPad, so both are below.
Android (YouTube app)
- Open the YouTube app and tap your profile picture.
- Tap View channel at the top.
- Next to your name, tap Edit.
- Enter the new channel name and tap Save.
iPhone and iPad (YouTube app)
- Open the YouTube app and tap your profile picture.
- Tap View channel at the top.
- Under your channel description, tap Edit.
- Next to your name, tap Edit, enter the new channel name, then tap Save.
The one difference is the extra Edit tap on iOS before the individual fields appear. YouTube's channel-profile help page also documents a route through the YouTube Studio app on both Android and iPhone and iPad: tap your profile picture, tap Edit, then next to your name tap Edit, enter the new channel name and tap Save. The same twice-per-14-days limit and the same "few days" propagation delay apply on mobile.
How to change your YouTube handle (@name)
Changing the handle changes your channel URL, because YouTube states that "your handle will also automatically become the new YouTube URL for your channel." That makes it a bigger decision than the channel name: YouTube only commits to the old youtube.com/@handle URL working during the 14-day hold, and after that the old handle can be claimed by another channel, so every link in your bios, descriptions and emails needs updating within that window.
On a computer
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- From the left menu, select Customization, then Profile.
- Under Handle, replace the current handle with the new one.
- Click Publish to confirm.
YouTube also notes that "you can always view and edit the handle in Studio or by going to youtube.com/handle," which is a quicker way in if you only want to touch the handle.
In the YouTube app or the YouTube Studio app
YouTube's handle-change page documents two mobile routes, and lists both for Android and for iPhone and iPad.
- YouTube app: tap your profile picture, tap View channel, tap Edit, find the Handle section, tap Edit beside it, enter the new handle and tap Save.
- YouTube Studio app: tap your profile picture, tap Edit, find the Handle section, tap Edit, enter the new handle and tap Save.
On both Android and iPhone and iPad, YouTube adds that "if a handle isn't available, a similar one will be suggested." If the handle you want is refused on any device, YouTube's advice is to "try adding periods, numbers, or underscores," and if that still fails "it's usually because another channel is already using it or it didn't meet our handle naming guidelines." Those guidelines are in the handle rules section below.
Changing your YouTube name without changing your Google Account name
The two names are independent. YouTube's help page says that "if you change your YouTube channel name and picture, it will only be visible on YouTube," and Google's account help page says the reverse, that changing your Google name or profile picture "won't change your YouTube name or profile picture." So you can rename your channel freely and your Gmail display name stays as it was, and vice versa.
Older advice on this topic tells you to create a Brand Account to get a YouTube name that differs from your Google name. That is still one legitimate reason to use a Brand Account: YouTube's channel-creation page says "you can connect your channel to a Brand Account if you want to use a different name on YouTube than your Google Account," and a Brand Account channel can also have more than one manager. But you no longer need one just to have a different name, because the channel name field is edited on its own.
If you are not sure which type of channel you have, go to myaccount.google.com/brandaccounts. YouTube's Brand Account page says to check under "Your Brand Accounts" to find any that are associated with you, and to confirm you are signed in to the right account if nothing is listed. Either way, the name-change steps above are the same.
How often can you change your YouTube name and handle?
The channel-name and handle limits come straight from YouTube's help pages and are identical; the Google Account name has none.
| Field | Limit (as of August 2026) | What YouTube says |
|---|---|---|
| Channel name | 2 changes per 14 days | "You can change your channel name twice within a 14-day period." |
| Handle | 2 changes per 14 days, old handle held 14 days | "You can change your handle twice within a 14-day period. If you do so, we hold your previous handle for 14 days in case you'd like to switch back." |
| Google Account name | No stated limit | "You can change your name as many times as you want." |
The practical consequence: decide on the final name before you start. If you burn both changes trying out variations, you cannot change it again until the 14-day period has passed.
The handle hold is more generous than it sounds. During those 14 days YouTube says "your former handle URL and your updated URL will both work," so links to the old @handle keep resolving while you update bios and pinned comments. After that, in YouTube's words, "the handle will become available for other users to select as their handle," and there is no guarantee you get it back.
Handle rules: length, characters and availability
YouTube publishes an explicit list of what a handle can and cannot be. Quoting the help page, a handle:
- "Is between 3-30 characters," with exceptions for some scripts: "Han/Hangul: 1-10 characters" and "Ethiopic/Hiragana/Katakana: 2-20 characters."
- "Uses alphabet letters or numbers from one of our 75 supported languages."
- "Your handle can also include underscores (_), hyphens (-), periods (.), Latin middle dots (·), but not at the beginning or end of your handle."
- "Is not URL-like or phone number-like."
- "Is not already being used."
- "Follows YouTube's Community Guidelines," which the page says rules out "violent, offensive, or spammy handles" and "the sale and transfer of handles."
Two more details from the same page are worth knowing. Handles "aren't case-sensitive," so @MyChannel and @mychannel are the same handle, and you should not expect capitalization to make a taken name available. And mixing scripts is restricted: "Left-to-right scripts cannot be mixed with right-to-left scripts in a single handle except when numbers are added to the end of the handle."
If you created your channel by doing something like posting a comment from a phone, YouTube says it "may auto assign you a handle based on your chosen channel name." That is why some channels carry an @handle the owner never chose, and it is fine to replace it using the steps above.
YouTube's channel-profile page publishes no character or format list for channel names; it only says the name has to follow the Community Guidelines, so assume those guidelines apply to the name as well.
What changes for subscribers, links and your verification badge
Subscribers. A name or handle change edits a label on the same channel. YouTube's help pages on names and handles mention no effect on subscribers, videos, comments or playlists, and describe no notification to subscribers, so if the change is significant, announce it yourself in a community post or a pinned comment.
Links. None of YouTube's name-change pages describe any URL change when you edit the channel name; the channel URL is tied to the handle, not the display name. Changing the handle changes your youtube.com/@ URL, with the 14-day overlap described above. If you still have one of the older personalized URLs from before handles existed, YouTube says "any legacy personalized URLs that you have will continue to work."
Verification badge. This is the one real cost, and it only applies to channels that have the checkmark. The channel-profile page warns that "changing your name will remove your verification badge," and YouTube's verification page is just as direct: "If your channel is verified, it will stay verified unless you change your channel name. If you change your channel name, the renamed channel won't be verified, and you'll need to reapply." The same page adds that "changing your channel's handle will not remove your verification badge." So on a verified channel, change the handle whenever you like, but treat a channel-name change as a reapplication. To apply, the page lists three requirements: 100,000 subscribers, 2-Step Verification on the Google Account, and a complete profile. The application lives in YouTube Studio under Settings, Channel, Verified badge.
Picking a name and handle you will not need to change again
Because every name change costs one of your two slots and, on a verified channel, the badge, it is worth getting it right once.
- Match your other platforms. If your Instagram or TikTok handle is free on YouTube, take it, so one name works everywhere. Our Instagram name-change guide covers the equivalent rules there, and the username ideas list is a reasonable starting point if you are still deciding.
- Keep the handle typeable. It goes in URLs and @mentions, so avoid strings of periods and underscores that viewers will mistype.
- Put the descriptive words in the channel name, not the handle. "Alex Rivera | Woodworking" is fine as a channel name and awful as a handle.
- Change the handle first, then the name. The handle has the hold period and does not affect verification; the name has neither safety net.
- Announce it. A rename lands better when subscribers see it coming, and a short community post costs nothing.
A new name will not grow the channel on its own. If that is the real goal, the guide to getting more YouTube subscribers and the best time to post on YouTube are the pages to read next, and the YouTube hub collects everything else we publish on the platform.