Best free courses · UPSC
Best free UPSC courses on YouTube, ranked by total hours
Updated 2026-10-01 · 14 courses · totals are live
UPSC preparation on YouTube is free and enormous: the big channels post whole subjects as full-chapter lectures of one to two hours each. What nobody posts is the total. One course per GS subject from the list below comes to about 430 hours, before current affairs, answer writing or a single mock test, and that is the number to plan around.
The totals are live, counted from each playlist, and none of these playlists has missing videos. Most are from UPSC Wallah, Physics Wallah's UPSC channel, which puts complete subjects on YouTube for free; StudyIQ's modern history and Drishti IAS's CSAT fill the gaps. A few of the playlists run newest first, which matters when you plan, so the notes say which.
From 13h 25m (CSAT Maths — Drishti IAS) to 4d 15h 23m (Complete Indian Polity for UPSC Preparation 🎯).
| # | Course | Videos | Total | At 1.5× |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Complete Indian Polity for UPSC Preparation 🎯 · Complete Indian Polity — UPSC Wallah 92 full-chapter lectures averaging 73 minutes, from the historical background and the making of the Constitution to the doctrines of constitutional interpretation and other countries' constitutions. The UPSC course visitors measure most on this site. |
92 | 4d 15h 23m | 3d 2h 15m |
| 2 | Ancient History by RS Sharma | COMPLETE UPSC PREPARATION · Ancient History by R. S. Sharma — UPSC Wallah One lecture per chapter of R. S. Sharma's ancient history textbook, 29 in all and averaging an hour and three quarters: from why ancient history matters and its modern historians to social change and India's legacy in science. |
29 | 2d 2h 42m | 1d 9h 48m |
| 3 | Class 11 Geography NCERT | Complete UPSC Preparation · Class 11 Geography NCERT — UPSC Wallah The class 11 geography NCERTs chapter by chapter, from geography as a discipline and the origin of the earth to India's climate and natural vegetation. Twenty long lectures, averaging nearly two and a half hours. |
20 | 2d 5m | 1d 8h 3m |
| 4 | Complete Indian Economy | Complete UPSC Preparation · Complete Indian Economy — UPSC Wallah Key concepts and national income first, then the rest of the syllabus through to the service sector and sustainable development. A few of the last chapters are out of order. |
27 | 1d 23h 43m | 1d 7h 48m |
| 5 | International Relations | IR FOR UPSC | FREE UPSC Preparation · International Relations — UPSC Wallah India's relations with its neighbours, regions and the major powers, plus terrorism and the diaspora, one chapter per lecture. The playlist runs backwards, with chapter 1 at the bottom, and opens with a current-affairs video on military exercises. |
29 | 1d 16h 5m | 1d 2h 43m |
| 6 | Complete Science and Tech for UPSC | Sambhav Batch Free Series · Complete Science and Technology — UPSC Wallah From science in everyday life and India's science and technology sector to intellectual property rights, in 16 lectures of over two hours each. Part of the free Sambhav series. |
16 | 1d 10h 50m | 23h 13m |
| 7 | Complete Physical Geography | Sambhav Batch Free Series · Complete Physical Geography — UPSC Wallah From the origin of the universe and the solar system to the world's climatic regions and oceanography. Much of it overlaps the class 11 NCERT course above, in fewer hours. |
21 | 1d 10h 26m | 22h 57m |
| 8 | Complete CSAT for UPSC 2026 | Sambhav Batch Free Series · Complete CSAT for UPSC 2026 — UPSC Wallah From the basics of numbers and averages to reading comprehension, ending with an analysis of the 2026 prelims CSAT paper. |
24 | 1d 9h 19m | 22h 13m |
| 9 | Aasan Modern History Series For UPSC 2027 | By Alok Ojha Sir | StudyIQ IAS · Aasan Modern History — StudyIQ IAS Alok Ojha from the arrival of the Portuguese and the Carnatic wars through land revenue, the press laws and the Surat split to the Simon Commission. Still being added to, and it runs newest first: lecture 1 is at the bottom. |
35 | 1d 4h 38m | 19h 5m |
| 10 | Complete Environment for UPSC | Sambhav Batch Free Series · Complete Environment — UPSC Wallah Ecology and ecosystems first, through to sustainable agriculture, environmental laws and organisations, and environmental impact assessment. |
16 | 1d 3h 33m | 18h 22m |
| 11 | Medieval History By Satish Chandra | UPSC Preparation · Medieval History by Satish Chandra — UPSC Wallah One lecture per chapter of Satish Chandra's medieval India, from the age of the three empires to the decline of the Mughal empire. |
20 | 1d 2h 33m | 17h 42m |
| 12 | Complete Art and Culture | Sambhav Batch | UPSC · Complete Art and Culture — UPSC Wallah Architecture, sculpture and pottery, then the religions and philosophies of ancient India and the Bhakti and Sufi movements, in nine lectures. The shortest GS course here. |
9 | 14h 52m | 9h 55m |
| 13 | CSAT Reasoning — Drishti IAS Data sufficiency, coding-decoding and the other reasoning topics in short videos of about 20 minutes. It runs newest first, so each topic's part 2 comes before its part 1. |
38 | 13h 51m | 9h 14m |
| 14 | CSAT Maths — Drishti IAS Percentages through to data interpretation in short videos, plus a set of expected questions. Like the reasoning playlist, each topic's part 2 comes before its part 1. |
37 | 13h 25m | 8h 56m |
Totals count available videos only and update as the playlists change. Private or deleted videos are excluded. Compare the top 5 side by side →
How to choose
- Starting from zero? Go NCERT first: the class 11 geography course above and UPSC Wallah's NCERT Polity, before the full polity course.
- The whole GS set — one course per subject, one of the two geography courses, without CSAT — is about 430 hours. At 1.5× and three hours a day, that is about three months of lectures, before current affairs: UPSC Wallah's daily newspaper analysis alone runs to hundreds of videos.
- Short on time for polity? UPSC Wallah's free Sambhav series has a shorter Indian Polity course, about a third of the length of the full one.
- CSAT: UPSC Wallah's course teaches it start to finish; Drishti IAS's two playlists are for practice by topic once you know the methods.
Plan the whole syllabus
Open each course here, set your speed and daily hours in the planner, and it gives you a finish date; the exam guide shows how to work backwards from prelims. For a playlist that runs newest first, start ticking from the bottom. Tick videos off as you go and every date updates.