Enter any YouTube handle to calculate its live engagement rate and see how it stacks up against the 3.2% 2026 YouTube average — no manual math, no stale numbers.
YouTube engagement rate = (average likes + comments per video) ÷ subscribers × 100, measured over recent uploads. Brands also weigh views-per-video against subscriber count — a channel whose videos reach only a small fraction of subscribers has an audience that stopped watching, whatever the subscriber number says.
YouTube sits between Instagram and TikTok on engagement norms: the 2026 average is about 3.2% of subscribers engaging per video, with top channels above 6.5%. Subscriber counts on YouTube decay more gracefully than follower counts elsewhere — people rarely unsubscribe, they just stop watching — so the views-to-subscribers ratio is the honest health metric, and a big channel with views far below its subscriber base is the classic sign of a dead or padded audience.
Thresholds mirror the live tool above — 3.2% platform average, 6.5% top tier. Cross-platform comparison on the all-platform checker.
(avg likes + comments per post) ÷ followers × 100
Pull your last 12–24 posts, average the interactions, divide by your follower count, and multiply by 100. The calculator above does the same thing with live data — and adds the benchmark comparison brands actually use when they vet a YouTube account.
YouTube numbers are one slice of what brands vet. CreatorScore blends 7 agents — authenticity, engagement quality, content risk, sentiment, and more — into the 1–100 trust rating brands check before they sign.
Vetting creators for a brand? See how brands screen influencers at scale
The 2026 YouTube average is roughly 3.2% of subscribers engaging (likes + comments) per video; above 6.5% is exceptional. Views tell a parallel story: a healthy channel’s typical video reaches a meaningful fraction of its subscriber count. A 500K-subscriber channel averaging 10K views has an audience that stopped watching — whatever the subscriber number says.
Add likes and comments across recent uploads, divide by the number of videos, divide that per-video average by subscriber count, and multiply by 100. Example: 8,000 average interactions ÷ 250,000 subscribers × 100 = 3.2% — exactly the 2026 platform average.
For vetting, yes. Subscribers rarely unsubscribe — they just stop watching — so subscriber counts overstate real audience on older channels. Brands compare typical views to subscriber count: a channel at 500K subscribers whose videos get 8–10K views has roughly a 2% active audience, and sponsorship pricing should reflect the views, not the subscriber number.
Partly natural decay — audiences accumulated over years include many viewers who moved on but never unsubscribed. Rates also fall with scale on every platform. The distinction that matters: gradual decline with steady views is normal aging; low engagement PLUS views far below subscriber count PLUS subscriber spikes in the growth history points to purchased subscribers.