Guide
How to stop spam comments on YouTube
You can cut most YouTube comment spam for free with the tools already in YouTube Studio. What is left, the disguised scams that target your viewers, needs either a lot of manual work or an automatic service. Here is everything that works, cheapest first.
By Dan, founder of RemoveSpam · Updated
Step by step
Turn on YouTube’s automated filters
In YouTube Studio’s community settings, hold potentially inappropriate comments for review, and increase strictness if spam keeps getting through. It is free and removes a lot of junk.
Block links and add blocked words
Hold comments with links for review, and add the words and names you keep seeing: coin names, “WhatsApp”, “Telegram”, “investment manager”. Update the list when spam changes.
Hide repeat spammers
Use “Hide user from channel” on accounts that keep coming back. It helps against the minority that return; most spam accounts post once.
Add a moderator
If someone you trust is online when you are not, give them moderator rights so they can remove spam during the hours after an upload.
Clean up old videos with a free tool
For a backlog of spam on older videos, a free bulk tool such as YT-Spammer-Purge can scan and delete it in one go.
Automate it if spam keeps winning
If you still find scam comments under every upload, especially disguised ones, automatic protection is the remaining step. That is the job RemoveSpam does.
When the free tools are enough
On a channel that gets a handful of spam comments a week, YouTube’s filters plus an occasional manual check are usually enough. There is no need to pay for anything until spam outpaces the time you have to remove it.
When they are not
The free tools struggle in three situations: spam that disguises itself (lookalike letters, mutating coin names), spam that arrives while you are offline, and channels where scam comments target viewers’ money. On the channels RemoveSpam protects, the median channel’s comments are 60% spam, and 90% of it lands within a day of upload.
RemoveSpam handles that automatically: it checks your newest video every minute, matches every comment against scam patterns updated daily, and logs every removal so you can check its work. Genuine comments, including criticism, stay up.
Common questions
Can I turn off comments to stop spam?
You can, but you lose the conversation and community that comments bring, which for many channels is a big part of why viewers come back. Removing spam keeps the benefits of comments without the scams.
Does holding all comments for review stop spam?
It stops spam from being seen, but every genuine comment waits too, and you have to review all of them. It works on small channels and becomes a full-time job on large ones.
The scams behind this
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