How to block keywords on YouTube (and why YouTube won’t)
You can’t block keywords with YouTube’s own settings: there’s nowhere to tell it “never show me videos with this word”. To do it, you need a browser extension on a computer, either one that hides videos matching the exact words you list, or one that filters by topic. YouTube’s own controls still help a little, so here’s each option and what it really does.
Updated November 3, 2026What YouTube lets you do instead
None of these take a word, but between them they steer what YouTube shows you.
- Not interested. Click the three dots next to a video on your Home page or in Up next, and choose Not interested. YouTube shows you fewer videos like it, one video at a time.
- Don’t recommend channel. In the same menu, this keeps a channel off your Home page and out of Up next. Its videos still turn up in search. More on this in how to block a YouTube channel.
- Clear or pause your history. Recommendations are built mostly from what you watch and search, so if a topic has taken over, deleting those videos from your watch history helps. See how to reset your YouTube recommendations.
- Restricted Mode. It hides videos YouTube thinks may be mature. It’s not a keyword filter: you can’t tell it what to hide, and it hides every comment too.
Block words in comments on your channel
If you’re a creator, YouTube does have a word list, for your own channel. In YouTube Studio, open Settings, then Community, and add words and phrases to Blocked words, separated by commas. Comments with those words are held for review: you’ll find them on your Comments page, under Held, where you can approve or delete them. The list also covers live chat.
It only covers comments on your videos. It does nothing to what you see when you watch other people’s.
Block keywords with an extension
On a computer, extensions can do what YouTube won’t. There are two kinds.
Keyword lists. A free extension like BlockTube hides videos whose titles or channel names match the words you list, and it can hide comments by keyword too. It supports regular expressions for patterns, so one entry can cover several spellings. Because it matches exact text, it’s predictable: a video with your word in the title is gone, every time.
Topic filters. Instead of words, you describe what you want gone, and the extension judges each video by what it’s about. That catches videos that never use your word, at the cost of being a judgment rather than an exact match.
Either way, it only works in a browser on a computer. Chrome on phones doesn’t run extensions, and neither does the YouTube app.
Why keyword lists leak
Keyword blocking is a great start, but YouTube titles are written to get clicks, not to be filtered:
- Titles that dodge the word. Block “election” and you’ll still get “What happened last night?” over a picture of a ballot box.
- Thumbnails. Much of what a video is about is in its thumbnail, which has no words to match.
- Spoilers. A spoiler is a fact, not a word. “I can’t believe he’s back” gives it away without saying anything you could have listed.
- Every spelling and nickname needs its own entry, and new ones keep coming.
For a side-by-side look at a keyword list and a topic filter, see BlockTube vs Remedy.
Block a topic, not just a word
Remedy is a Chrome extension that filters YouTube by what videos are about. Write what you don’t want, like “no election coverage”, “no reaction videos” or “no prank channels”, or switch on categories like Rage-bait or Sad or depressing. It checks each video’s title and channel as it loads and removes the matches from your Home page, search results, the sidebar, Shorts and comments. On Plus, it checks thumbnails too.
The same filter works on X, Reddit, Instagram and other sites. It doesn’t stop a video you open from a link, and it works on a computer, in Chrome, not in the YouTube app.
Questions
Can you block keywords on YouTube?
Not with YouTube’s own settings. You can mark videos Not interested and stop a channel being recommended, but there’s no list of words to block. On a computer, a browser extension can do it.
Does Restricted Mode block keywords?
No. It hides videos YouTube judges potentially mature, using its own signals, and you can’t add words to it. It also hides all comments.
Can I block keywords in the YouTube app on my phone?
No. The app has no keyword filter, and phones don’t run Chrome extensions, so the closest you can get is Not interested and Don’t recommend channel.
How do I block words in comments on my own channel?
In YouTube Studio, add them to your channel’s Blocked words list, under the Community settings. Comments that contain them are held for you to review instead of going up.