What LUFS for YouTube? Loudness and true peak explained

What is LUFS?

LUFS, loudness units relative to full scale, measures how loud sound seems to a person, not how high its peaks go. The method is set out in ITU-R BS.1770: the signal is weighted to match the ear's sensitivity, near-silent stretches are gated out, and what is left is averaged. One LU is one decibel, and LKFS, the name American broadcasters use, is the same unit. A loudness meter gives several readings:

Integrated: the whole piece, start to finish. This is the number platforms normalise.
Short-term: a sliding three seconds, for how loud a passage is.
Momentary: a sliding 400 milliseconds, for how loud this moment is.
Loudness range (LRA): how far the loudness moves over the piece, in LU.

Because loudness figures sit below full scale, they are negative: "14 LUFS" in conversation means −14.

What is true peak?

True peak is the highest level a signal reaches once it is turned back into a continuous wave, including peaks between samples that an ordinary sample meter misses. It is written in dBTP. Those in-between peaks matter because encoding to a lossy format and playback on a phone can push them past full scale, where they clip. So every standard sets a ceiling below zero: −1 dBTP in EBU R128 and in Spotify's advice, −2 dBTP in the American ATSC A/85.

What is the best LUFS for YouTube?

About −14 LUFS integrated, with true peaks below −1 dBTP. YouTube has never published a figure. The mastering engineer Ian Shepherd reported in September 2019 that YouTube had changed its playback reference to −14 LUFS: louder videos are turned down to it and quieter ones are not turned up. You can see this on any video in Stats for nerds, where "content loudness" says how far above YouTube's reference the video sits; a positive figure means it is being turned down.

YouTube also has Stable volume, on by default, which its help page says works by "continuously adjusting volume levels to reduce variations in sound". It is turned off for YouTube Music and official music videos.

So there is no reward for going louder than −14, and a real cost for going far below it: a video mixed at −20 LUFS plays about 6 dB quieter than the one before it.

A hand holds a television remote and turns the volume down in a dim living room at night, the television glowing out of focus. — Loudness normalisation does for every video what viewers once did with the remote: it turns the loud ones down.

What loudness do other platforms and broadcasters use?

Each has its own target, and each measures with the same BS.1770 method:

Where	Loudness target	True peak ceiling	Who says so
YouTube	About −14 LUFS, turned down only	Not published; −1 dBTP is the usual advice	Measured by Ian Shepherd; YouTube publishes no figure
Spotify	−14 LUFS (Premium listeners can pick Loud, −11, or Quiet, −19)	Below −1 dBTP; below −2 dBTP if the master is louder than −14	Spotify for Artists
Apple Podcasts	About −16 LKFS, ±1 dB	−1 dBFS true peak	Apple Podcasts for Creators
European broadcast	−23.0 LUFS	−1 dBTP	EBU R 128 (2023)
US broadcast	−24 LKFS, about ±2 dB tolerance	Below −2 dBTP	ATSC A/85 (2026)
Streaming TV services	One target between −23 and −27 LKFS		ATSC A/85 (2026), Annex L

For loudness for podcasts, −16 LUFS is the figure to remember: it is what Apple asks for, and it leaves speech some room to breathe. Broadcast is quieter again because a television evening mixes adverts, films and news, and a low common level leaves headroom for all of them.

Why does mastering louder only cost you?

Because a louder master is turned down to the same level, and what it gave up to get loud stays given up. To raise a mix's average, a limiter flattens its peaks: a plosive, a snare or a door slam loses its attack. On YouTube both versions then play at about −14 LUFS, and the loud one sounds flatter beside the one that kept its dynamics.

The opposite mistake is just as real. YouTube does not turn quiet videos up, so a voice mixed at −24 LUFS plays about 10 dB below the video before it, and viewers reach for the volume or leave.

How does Sharpy set loudness on export?

The window's export panel puts Destination, Codec and Loudness popups in one dialog, so one choice sets the shape, the codec and the loudness, and a reel cannot go out quieter than everything around it. Streaming destinations get −14 LUFS; choose a different target in the Loudness popup when you need one.

Sharpy measures the finished file, not a prediction, and lands on the number even when the limiter is working hard. In a test, a minute of recording that a single pass would have left at −14.32 LUFS was written at −14.07 LUFS with a true peak of −1.14 dBTP, and a mix of bursts the limiter held for four fifths of its length went from 2.3 LU short to on target. Any true peak above −1 dBTP is flagged.

The meter you mix with measures the render too: an EBU Mode meter as EBU Tech 3341 defines it, held to the EBU's own test signals, and Sharpy's R128 readings agree with ffmpeg's within 0.06 LU. Dialogue can be levelled clip by clip to −23 LUFS first so every speaker matches; the export then sets the whole mix to its target. Audio mixing for video shows that step, and export the finished video the rest of the export panel.

Loudness is your call: when you hand Sharpy a reference video, its measured loudness is shown beside the target you chose, not put in its place. The true-peak ceiling is not a matter of taste, so a standing instruction cannot switch it off.

Frequently asked questions

Is 14 LUFS too loud?

No. −14 LUFS is the level YouTube and Spotify play at, so a video mastered there is neither turned down nor left quieter than its neighbours.

Is 12 LUFS loud enough?

Yes, louder than it needs to be. YouTube turns a −12 LUFS video down by about 2 dB, so it plays at the same level as a −14 video with less dynamic range.

Is 10 LUFS too loud?

For YouTube, yes. A −10 LUFS master is turned down by about 4 dB, and the limiting it took to get there stays in the sound.

What LUFS should a podcast be?

About −16 LUFS, the level Apple Podcasts asks for, with true peaks no higher than −1 dB.

Is LUFS the same as dB?

A change of 1 LU is a change of 1 dB, but LUFS measures perceived loudness over time, where a level meter shows the signal at an instant.

Does Sharpy set the loudness for me?

Yes. Every export carries a loudness target from its destination, and Sharpy measures the finished file to confirm it landed there, on your Mac.

Sources

Checked on 18 October 2026.