Youtube Publish Date
View on Chrome Web StoreChrome will indicate if you already have this installed.
Overview
See the exact upload date for any YouTube video — never wonder "how many weeks is 'a few weeks ago'?" again.
This free, lightweight extension replaces YouTube's vague relative timestamps with the precise publish date wherever they appear: the watch page, home, subscription feed, search results, the "Up next" sidebar, playlists, channels, and even Shorts. As a bonus, it can also show the channel's subscriber count next to each video — handy for spotting a small creator's hidden gem in a feed dominated by big channels.
✦ WORKS EVERYWHERE ON YOUTUBE
Watch page (under the video title)
Home page and subscription feed
Search results
"Up next" sidebar with recommendations
Playlists
Channel pages and the channel's featured video
Shorts — both the swipeable player and the carousel on the home page
End screen suggestions
In-player card overlays
✦ TWO FORMATS, YOUR CHOICE
Switch between "Apr 25, 2026" and "Apr 25, 2026, 17:32" right from the extension popup. Changes apply instantly to every open YouTube tab.
✦ OPTIONAL RELATIVE FORMAT FOR FRESH VIDEOS
For videos under 24 hours old you can keep the readable "3 hours ago" instead of a full date. Toggleable in the popup.
✦ SUBSCRIBER COUNT (OPTIONAL)
Enable a small badge that shows how many subscribers the uploader's channel has — formatted naturally as "29K subscribers", "1.2M subscribers", or "479M subscribers". Appears under videos in the home feed and Shorts carousel, next to channel names in search and the recommendations sidebar, and inline next to the date in the Shorts player. The badge is automatically hidden on the channel's own page (where the count is already shown in the header). Off by default — flip the switch in the popup whenever you want it.
✦ FORCE MODE (OPTIONAL)
A safety toggle for users on slow networks or with heavy YouTube tabs. When enabled, the extension refreshes more frequently, processes every card on the page (not just visible ones), and reloads cached data on each navigation between YouTube pages. Slightly more network activity, but ensures dates and badges always show up. Off by default.
✦ AUTOMATIC LOCALE
Dates and labels are formatted in the same language as your YouTube interface — English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and more. Powered by the browser's built-in Intl APIs. No extra setup.
✦ LIGHTWEIGHT AND FAST
The extension uses YouTube's own internal endpoints to look up the publish date and subscriber count — the same ones the site itself calls. No external servers, no API keys, no third-party libraries. Each video and channel is fetched once per session and cached in memory.
✦ PRIVACY
The extension runs only on youtube.com. It does not collect, log, or transmit any information about you or your browsing. The only network requests are to YouTube's own metadata API, for content already visible on your screen. The "storage" permission is used solely to remember your format and toggle preferences locally.
Free and open source — no subscriptions, no premium tier, no upsells.
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