Can You Turn Off Likes and Dislikes on YouTube?

There isn’t a setting that removes the Like and Dislike buttons from your videos entirely — viewers can always click them. What creators can actually control is whether the public like count is displayed.

How to Hide Your Public Like Count

  1. Go to YouTube Studio and open the video from the Content tab.
  2. Click into the video’s details, then find the Show ratings on video page or similar option in the Options section.
  3. Turn this off to hide the like count from public view on that video.

You (and your Studio dashboard) can still see the actual like and dislike numbers — only the public display changes.

What You Can’t Do

  • You can’t disable the Like/Dislike buttons themselves — viewers can still click them even if the count is hidden.
  • Public dislike counts have already been hidden platform-wide by YouTube since 2021 for every channel; this isn’t something you turn on or off per video.

Why Creators Hide the Like Count

Some creators find that hiding the visible count reduces “pile-on” behavior, where a video already showing a lot of dislikes attracts more out of momentum rather than genuine reaction to the content.

Related: See can you see who liked your video and can you see who dislikes your video.

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FAQ

Can I remove the Like/Dislike buttons entirely?

No, viewers can always click them regardless of your settings.

Are public dislike counts visible on YouTube?

No, YouTube hid public dislike counts platform-wide back in 2021.

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