How to Moderate YouTube Comments, From Studio Settings to Automation

A comment section without moderation fills up with scam replies, sub4sub requests and the occasional pile-on, and the viewers you actually want stop commenting. YouTube gives you more moderation controls than most creators use, but they are spread across two settings areas and a review queue that quietly expires. This guide walks through each control in order, then shows how to automate what they can't do.

Short answer. In YouTube Studio, open Settings, then Community moderation, and set comments on new videos to hold potentially inappropriate comments (Basic or Strict). Add blocked words, hold comments with links, hide repeat offenders and add moderators. Review the Held tab under Community regularly, because held comments are kept for only up to 60 days. Then automate the patterns Studio misses with moderation rules.

Everything here applies to comments on your own channel. If you want the automated layer right away, YouTube comment moderation in CommentShark is the tool we build; the Studio steps work without it.

Where YouTube's Moderation Settings Live

Studio splits moderation across three places, and knowing which is which saves most of the confusion:

• Settings, then Community moderation. Channel-wide controls. The Content controls tab holds the default for comments on new videos, blocked words and link holding; the User management tab holds hidden users. See Manage your channel's moderation settings.
• Content, then a video's details. Per-video settings under "Comments and ratings": turn comments on, pause or off, the hold level, and who can comment. See Choose comment settings.
• Community in the left menu. Where you review comments: the Published tab and the Held tab.

One rule to remember: your default setting applies to new uploads only. Changing it doesn't touch videos you already published, so update older videos in bulk from the Content page if you need to.

Step 1: Choose a Hold Level

When comments are on, YouTube offers four comment moderation levels:

• None: nothing is held.
• Basic: holds comments that may be spam, self-promotion, gibberish or potentially inappropriate.
• Strict: holds a broader range of potentially inappropriate comments.
• Hold all: every comment waits for your approval.

Basic is the right default for most channels. Use Strict on sponsored videos, sensitive topics or during a spam wave, and Hold all only temporarily, because every comment then waits on you. YouTube notes that these levels use AI and won't always get it right, so check the Held tab for good comments caught by mistake.

Two per-video options help in a surge. Pause keeps existing comments but stops new ones until you turn comments back on. Who can comment can limit commenting to subscribers and members, with a minimum subscription time of up to a week; it is per video only, not a channel setting. For a video that suddenly takes off, the viral comment surge playbook covers the rest.

Step 2: Add Blocked Words

Blocked words hold any comment containing or closely matching a term on your list, for up to 60 days, unless the commenter is on your approved users list. They also block matching live chat messages. Add them under Settings, Community moderation, Content controls, separated by commas. Our YouTube blocked words list has copy-ready lists by category, and the free blocked words generator builds one for your niche.

• Channel-wide only. You can't block a word on one video; the list applies to all of them.
• Held, not deleted. Matching comments go to the Held tab, so a false positive is recoverable if you check in time.
• Phrases beat single words. "telegram me" catches impersonators without holding every fan who mentions Telegram. For whole spam families, the moderation packs are ready-made filters.

Step 3: Hold Comments With Links

Turn on Link text in Content controls to hold comments and viewer posts that contain URLs or hashtags. It doesn't apply to you, your moderators or approved users, so your own pinned link still works. Most phishing and fake-giveaway spam needs a link or a handle to work, which makes this one of the highest-value switches in Studio.

Step 4: Hide Repeat Offenders

To hide a user from your channel, select More next to one of their comments and choose Hide from channel, or paste their channel URL under Settings, Community moderation, User management. They aren't notified, their past comments stop showing in Studio, and they can't clip your videos. Our guide to blocking someone from commenting covers the details.

The opposite control matters too. On the Published tab, More, then Always approve comments from this user adds a regular to your approved users, whose comments skip blocked words, link holds and the hold levels.

Step 5: Add Moderators

Anyone with a YouTube channel can moderate your comments. Add them by channel URL in Studio settings, or in the YouTube app by tapping More beside one of their comments and choosing Add as moderator, as a Standard or Managing moderator. Managing moderators have more options than standard ones, both can hold comments for your review, and neither gets access to your channel in Studio. YouTube doesn't notify them, so tell them yourself.

Moderators act from the watch page; they don't reply as your channel. If a team member needs to work inside Studio, that is a channel permission (Manager, Editor and so on), which is a different system.

Step 6: Review the Held Tab Before It Expires

Open Community in Studio and choose the Held tab. It combines comments held by your settings with comments YouTube automatically holds as likely spam; reported spam sits toward the bottom. For each comment you can Approve, Remove, Report or Hide the user. Held comments are kept for up to 60 days and aren't public unless you approve them, so a queue nobody checks quietly loses real comments.

Report with care: marking a comment as spam can't be undone, so use Remove for comments that are merely unwanted.

What YouTube's Built-In Tools Can't Do

• Understand intent. Blocked words match terms, so a scam phrased a new way gets through and a fan quoting a scam gets held.
• Act per video or per topic. Blocked words, link holds and hidden users always apply to the whole channel.
• Clean up history. New settings apply to future comments; old spam stays until you remove it by hand.
• Clear the queue for you. Every held comment still needs a person, within 60 days.
• Reply. Moderation and answering questions live in separate workflows.

How to Automate YouTube Comment Moderation With Rules

A moderation rule pairs a match with an action. The match is a keyword or regex pattern for predictable spam, or an AI intent description for anything phrased in many ways. The action holds the comment for review, rejects it (optionally banning the author), deletes it, or notifies you. Rules run on all your videos or only the ones you pick, and like reply rules they can wait for your approval before acting.

Holding is the safe default for an automated rule: it removes the comment from public view but keeps it recoverable, exactly like Studio's own holds. Reserve reject or delete for patterns with no innocent version. The impersonation scam guide and how to stop spam comments cover the common families.

Some comments need you, not an action. A notify rule flags harassment or threats so you can decide whether to hide the user or report them, rather than letting a filter make that call. For tone and when to respond at all, see how to handle negative comments.

Before a rule goes live, preview it against comments your channel already received, and check what it would have missed. After it is live, CommentShark can replay it over older comments so last month's spam is cleaned up too. Keyword patterns are fragile at the edges; the regex cheatsheet helps with spacing and spelling tricks.

A Layered Moderation Setup

• Layer 1, Studio defaults: Basic hold level, a blocked words list and link holding. Free and always on.
• Layer 2, keyword rules: exact spam phrases and handles, held automatically across every video.
• Layer 3, AI intent rules: impersonation, scams and abuse that change wording faster than a list can.
• Layer 4, people: you or your moderators for criticism, edge cases and anything a filter shouldn't decide.

Moderation and replies work best together: once spam is held, the questions that are left are easier to answer, and many of them can be answered by rule. See how to automate YouTube comment replies.

Habits That Keep a Comment Section Healthy

• Publish your rules. YouTube lets you set channel guidelines; a pinned comment works too. Removals are easier to defend when the rules were visible.
• Don't over-moderate. Removing respectful criticism makes a channel look defensive. Hold abuse, not disagreement.
• Watch the first day. Most comments arrive soon after upload, so that is when a spam reply chain does the most damage.
• Review your filters weekly. Check the Held tab for false positives and add new spam phrases as they appear.
• Reward the good. Heart and pin the comments you want more of.

Frequently Asked Questions