How to Delete Comments on YouTube: A Complete Guide

YouTube's comment section can be a lively place — but not always in a good way. Whether you're a creator cleaning up spam on your videos or a viewer who regrets something you posted, knowing how to delete comments gives you real control over your experience on the platform. Here's exactly how it works, across every surface and device.

The Two Types of Comment Deletion on YouTube

Before diving into steps, it helps to understand the two distinct deletion scenarios YouTube supports:

• Deleting your own comments — removing something you wrote on someone else's video (or your own)
• Deleting comments on your videos — removing comments other people have left on content you own as a creator

These are separate actions with different permissions. You can always delete your own comments. You can only delete other people's comments if they appear on your own channel's videos.

How to Delete Your Own YouTube Comments

On Desktop (Browser)

1. Go to the video where you left the comment
2. Find your comment in the comment section
3. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) next to your comment
4. Select "Delete"
5. Confirm when prompted

The comment disappears immediately and permanently — YouTube does not have an undo function for this.

On Mobile (iOS and Android)

1. Open the YouTube app and navigate to the video
2. Scroll to find your comment
3. Long-press the comment, or tap the three-dot menu that appears beside it
4. Tap "Delete"
5. Confirm the deletion

The mobile experience is largely the same across iOS and Android, though the interface layout may vary slightly depending on your app version.

Finding Your Comments Faster

If the video has thousands of comments and you can't locate yours by scrolling, you can find it through your Google Account activity:

1. Go to myactivity.google.com
2. Filter by YouTube activity
3. Locate the comment and click through to the video

This saves significant time compared to manual scrolling.

How Creators Delete Comments on Their Own Videos 🎬

If you run a YouTube channel, you have moderation authority over every comment left on your content.

Deleting Individual Comments (Desktop)

1. Open YouTube Studio at studio.youtube.com
2. Click "Comments" in the left sidebar
3. Find the comment you want to remove
4. Hover over it and click the three-dot menu
5. Select "Delete"

YouTube Studio is generally the most efficient place to manage comments at scale — it surfaces all comments in one dashboard, rather than requiring you to visit each video individually.

Deleting Individual Comments (Mobile — YouTube Studio App)

The YouTube Studio app (separate from the main YouTube app) gives creators comment management on mobile:

1. Open the YouTube Studio app
2. Tap "Comments" from the dashboard
3. Find the comment, tap the three-dot menu
4. Tap "Delete"

Bulk Comment Management

YouTube Studio also allows you to manage multiple comments at once:

1. In the Comments tab, check the box next to multiple comments
2. Use the bulk action menu to delete, hold for review, or report

This is especially useful after a video goes viral and attracts a wave of spam or inappropriate content.

Hiding a User vs. Deleting Comments

One distinction creators often miss: YouTube gives you more options than just deletion.

Hiding a user is often more practical than individually deleting every comment from someone who keeps returning. You'll find this option in the same three-dot menu next to any comment in YouTube Studio.

What Happens After You Delete a Comment

• Deletion is permanent — there's no recycle bin or undo
• Replies to a deleted comment are also removed when the parent comment is deleted
• The commenter receives no notification that their comment was deleted
• Deleted comments do not leave a visible placeholder (unlike some other platforms)

Factors That Affect Your Experience 🔍

A few variables change how straightforward comment deletion feels in practice:

Volume of comments — Channels with high comment traffic will find desktop YouTube Studio far more manageable than hunting through comments video by video. Smaller creators managing a handful of comments may find the main YouTube app perfectly sufficient.

Device and app version — Older versions of the YouTube or YouTube Studio app occasionally show different menu placements. If your menu doesn't match the steps above, check whether an app update is available.

Account role — If you manage a channel through a Brand Account with multiple managers, the ability to delete comments depends on your assigned role. Owners and managers can delete comments; communications managers have limited moderation access.

Comment filtering settings — If you've set up keyword filters or held comments for review, some comments may never appear publicly in the first place, making deletion a non-issue for those cases.

Live chat vs. standard comments — Comments made during a YouTube Live stream appear in live chat, not the standard comment section. These are managed differently, through the live stream dashboard, and standard post-video comment deletion tools don't apply to them retroactively in the same way.

The Gap Worth Knowing About

YouTube's comment tools are fairly capable — but how much control you actually need, and which tools make sense, depends on the size of your channel, how often you post, and what kind of community engagement you're managing. A creator with millions of subscribers navigating coordinated spam has a very different moderation reality than someone who posted a handful of videos and wants to remove an embarrassing comment they left years ago. The mechanics are the same; the workflow that makes sense is not.