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YouTube Hook Checker: what happens in the first 30 seconds of your video

The opening is where viewers decide whether to keep watching. Drop your video here and this free tool measures only that stretch (15, 30 or 60 seconds): every cut, every pause, how loud each second is and how long it takes until the first word. You get a timeline, a summary table and what each number means, compared only with figures I measured and published. Nothing is uploaded.

Updated · Built by Kevin Tabares, long-form YouTube editor at Umbrella Creators.

Check the opening of your video

Your file stays on your device. Nothing is uploaded: your browser plays the video and reads the audio right here, in this tab.

How to use it

  1. Pick how much of the opening to check: the first 15, 30 or 60 seconds (30 is the default).
  2. Choose your finished video (MP4, MOV or WEBM). The tool steps through the opening 4 times a second to find the cuts, then reads the audio in 10 ms steps for pauses and loudness.
  3. Read the timeline and the summary. Click any point of the timeline to watch that moment. Change the window to 15 or 60 seconds and the tool measures again.

The browser decodes the whole audio track to read the opening, so a very long file can be slow. If it is, export just the first minute of the video and check that: the numbers are the same.

What the results mean

MeasureHow it is measuredWhat to look at
CutsThe same detector as the cuts per minute counter (normal sensitivity): the picture is checked 4 times a second and every change is narrowed down to the frame.The count, the pace scaled to a minute, and the longest shot. Very slow dissolves can be missed.
PausesThe same 10 ms detector as the silence detector, with its automatic threshold and its 0.75 s minimum.How much dead air the opening has, the longest pause and how many pass 1.5 s.
First wordThe first moment with sound that lasts: at least 0.2 s of sound within 0.3 s.How long a viewer waits before the voice. Music or a sound effect at the start counts as sound.
Loudness lineK-weighted loudness (ITU-R BS.1770), 400 ms windows, drawn every 100 ms. The dashed line is -14 LUFS.Drops and jumps in the opening. In my loudness study YouTube turned louder videos down to -14.
Integrated loudnessBS.1770 gating (-70 LUFS absolute, -10 LU relative) over the window only.The overall level of the opening. It is not the whole-video figure.

The tool only describes your opening and puts it next to numbers I measured on real videos: the cut pacing data (4 narrated documentary videos) and the loudness study (50 long-form videos from 25 big channels). Those are references, not rules: the right opening depends on your format and your audience.

FAQ

How long should a YouTube hook be?
There is no fixed length, which is why this tool lets you check the first 15, 30 or 60 seconds. In the narrated documentaries I measured for my pacing data, the Philip Thompson video opens with a 61-second cold open that starts in the middle of the story, while The Interpreter packs 10 to 12 shots into its first 30 seconds. Measure the openings of the videos your audience already watches and compare yours with them.
How many cuts should the first 30 seconds have?
No single number holds across formats. On the documentary channels I measured, the cold open of the Philip Thompson video ran at about 19 picture changes a minute and The Interpreter showed 10 to 12 shots in its first 30 seconds, while Librarian changes the picture about 2 times a minute over its whole video. All three are established channels. The tool shows your count and your pace a minute so you can put it next to your own references.
How fast should the voice start?
In my loudness study of 50 recent long-form videos from 25 big channels, the voice started within the first second in 43 of them. The tool shows when the first sound that lasts begins in your file, so you can see how long a viewer waits before anything is said.
Why does it say the first word is not measurable?
When music or background noise runs under the whole opening, the audio never gets quiet, so the tool cannot tell the voice from the music. It also marks only real silence as pauses, like the silence detector. Check the voice track on its own (export it without music) to measure the first word and the pauses between sentences.
Does this tool upload my video?
No. Your browser plays the video locally to look for cuts and decodes the audio on your own device. The file never leaves this tab and nothing is saved.

Who made this

I'm Kevin Tabares. I've edited long-form YouTube videos since 2015 (1,277 videos and 152.2M+ views tracked on YT Jobs) for channels like Rex & Alexa, Puff and Mud. I built this so you can see what the opening of your video does, cut by cut and pause by pause, before you upload it. If you want an editor for your channel, get in touch.

More free tools

A cuts per minute counter for the whole video, a silence detector that exports the pauses as an EDL, a loudness check and a music vs voice checker, all free and without signup.

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