The 8 SponsorBlock Categories, Explained (and Which to Turn On)

SponsorBlock isn't an all-or-nothing switch. Every segment in its community database is filed under one of eight categories, and you decide — category by category — what gets skipped and what plays through. That matters, because "skip the sponsor read" and "skip every aside the creator makes" are very different viewing experiences.

If you're new to the project, start with our explainer on what SponsorBlock is and how the community data works. This guide assumes the basics and goes category by category: what each one covers, and a sensible default for whether to turn it on. In Mira, each category is its own toggle under Settings → General → SponsorBlock.

The eight categories

1. Sponsor

Paid promotions, product placements, and the classic mid-video sponsor read — "this video is brought to you by…". This is the category that gave the project its name, and it's the one nearly everyone enables. If you only turn on one toggle, make it this one.

Recommendation: on.

2. Intro

Animated logos, title sequences, and the "what's up guys, welcome back to the channel" preamble before anything happens. Usually five to twenty seconds you've seen a hundred times if you follow the channel.

Recommendation: on. The rare intro you'd miss is a click away with Undo.

3. Outro

End cards, credits, and the closing "thanks for watching" once the substance of the video is over. Skipping outros mostly means the video simply ends when its content does.

Recommendation: on, unless you like browsing a creator's end-card suggestions.

4. Self-promotion

Unpaid plugs for the creator's own things: merch, a second channel, a course, a newsletter, an upcoming tour. It's not a sponsor read — no outside money — but it's still a pause in the content.

Recommendation: personal taste. Turn it on if you're there strictly for the content; leave it off if you follow creators closely and want to hear what they're up to.

5. Interaction reminders

"Like and subscribe," "hit the bell," "comment below." Usually brief, always familiar.

Recommendation: on. These segments are short, so the cost of skipping them is near zero.

6. Preview / recap

Two related things: the "coming up in this video…" montage at the start, and recaps of earlier videos in a series. Both repeat material you're about to see or have already seen.

Recommendation: on for most viewing. If you dip in and out of long series and rely on recaps to reorient yourself, leave it off.

7. Non-music sections

A category specifically for music videos: the talking, skits, or extended intros wrapped around the actual song. With this on, a music video plays as just the music.

Recommendation: on if you use YouTube for music; it has no effect anywhere else.

8. Filler / tangents

Off-topic digressions, drawn-out jokes, dead air — the most aggressive and most subjective category. One viewer's filler is another viewer's favorite part, and with this enabled a conversational video can feel abruptly condensed.

Recommendation: off to start. Try it later if you find yourself still scrubbing past tangents by hand.

Seeing categories on the timeline

Mira can also show you where segments are before anything gets skipped. Enable Color-Code by Category in the SponsorBlock settings and each segment type appears in its own color on the video's progress bar — so a glance at the timeline tells you there's a sponsor read at the midpoint and an outro at the end.

A sensible starting point

If you'd rather not think about it: turn on Sponsor, Intro, and Preview/Recap, leave Filler off, and decide on the rest as you go. That combination removes the segments almost everyone skips anyway while leaving the creator's own voice intact. Mira's first-launch setup pre-selects recommended options, and you can revisit them anytime in Settings — on any device. The walkthrough for SponsorBlock on the Mac shows where everything lives on macOS.

Things to note

• Category lines can blur. A creator plugging their own sponsor-adjacent product sits somewhere between Sponsor and Self-promotion, and contributors don't always agree — so occasionally a segment is filed where you wouldn't expect.
• Filler is genuinely subjective. Submissions in that category reflect one contributor's sense of what's skippable; expect it to feel uneven across channels.
• Not every category is marked on every video. A video can have its sponsor read marked but not its intro — coverage depends on what contributors got around to.