To cite a YouTube video, you need the name of the channel or person who uploaded it, the video title, the upload date and the URL. APA and MLA then arrange those pieces differently, and Chicago adds the running time. The examples below use a made-up channel and a placeholder link so you can see the pattern clearly; swap in the details of your own video.
Quick templates
| Style | Reference format |
|---|---|
| APA 7 | Channel or Uploader. (Year, Month Day). Title of video [Video]. YouTube. URL |
| MLA 9 | “Title of Video.” YouTube, uploaded by Channel Name, Day Month Year, URL. |
| Chicago 17 (bibliography) | Channel or Creator. “Title of Video.” YouTube video, running time. Month Day, Year. URL. |
What you need before you start
Open the video and collect these details. Everything is on the watch page, under the player.
- Uploader. The channel name. If a real name is shown on the channel and differs from the handle, note both.
- Creator, if different from the uploader: for example, a speaker whose talk was posted by an event or university channel.
- Title, exactly as it appears, including any punctuation.
- Upload date. Click the view count or “more” under the video to see the full date.
- Running time, for Chicago only.
- URL. Use the full watch link, not a shortened share link with tracking parameters.
How to cite a YouTube video in APA 7
APA treats the uploader as the author, even when someone else appears in the video. The title is in italics and sentence case (capitalise only the first word, proper nouns and the first word after a colon), followed by the description [Video] in square brackets.
Reference list entry
Example Science Channel. (2024, March 5). How volcanoes form: A beginner’s guide [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX
If the channel belongs to an individual and their real name is known, give the name in the usual author format and the channel name in square brackets after it:
Rivera, J. [Example Science Channel]. (2024, March 5). How volcanoes form: A beginner’s guide [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX
In-text citation
- Parenthetical: (Example Science Channel, 2024)
- Narrative: Example Science Channel (2024) explains that…
The APA Style website’s YouTube reference example follows the same pattern, and it is the page to check if your instructor asks for a source.
How to cite a YouTube video in MLA 9
MLA puts the video title in quotation marks and the website, YouTube, in italics as the container. Titles use title case. Dates go day, month, year, with most months abbreviated (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.; May, June and July are written in full). MLA recommends leaving out https:// from the URL.
When the channel made the video
If the uploader is also the creator, MLA does not repeat the name as both author and publisher. Start with the title and name the channel after “uploaded by”:
“How Volcanoes Form: A Beginner’s Guide.” YouTube, uploaded by Example Science Channel, 5 Mar. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX.
When someone else created it
If a named person gave the talk or made the film and a different channel posted it, the creator comes first:
Rivera, Jordan. “How Volcanoes Form: A Beginner’s Guide.” YouTube, uploaded by Example University, 5 Mar. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX.
In-text citation
Use whatever starts the Works Cited entry: the author’s last name, or a shortened title in quotation marks.
- (Rivera)
- (“How Volcanoes Form”)
The MLA Style Center has more worked examples of online video.
How to cite a YouTube video in Chicago 17
Chicago’s notes-and-bibliography system uses a numbered footnote the first time you cite the video, and an entry in the bibliography. Both give the medium as “YouTube video” followed by the running time. Titles use headline-style capitalisation in quotation marks.
Footnote
1. Example Science Channel, “How Volcanoes Form: A Beginner’s Guide,” YouTube video, 12:45, March 5, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX.
Shortened note (later citations)
2. Example Science Channel, “How Volcanoes Form.”
Bibliography entry
Example Science Channel. “How Volcanoes Form: A Beginner’s Guide.” YouTube video, 12:45. March 5, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX.
If you use Chicago’s author-date system instead, the in-text citation is (Example Science Channel 2024), and the reference list entry moves the year up after the author. Chicago’s 18th edition, published in 2024, keeps the same basic pattern for online video; check which edition your course follows.
Citing a timestamp
When you quote or refer to a specific moment, point your reader to it. A timestamp takes the place of the page number you would give for a book.
| Style | In-text with timestamp |
|---|---|
| APA 7 | (Example Science Channel, 2024, 2:10) |
| MLA 9 | (“How Volcanoes Form” 00:02:10–00:02:45) |
| Chicago 17 | Add the time to the footnote, for example “at 2:10”. |
APA uses the time at which the quoted part begins. MLA gives a range in hours, minutes and seconds. The reference list entry does not change: it still cites the whole video with its normal URL, not a link that jumps to the timestamp.
Shorts, comments and other special cases
YouTube Shorts
Cite a Short the same way as any other video, using its own URL. In APA that looks like:
Example Science Channel. (2024, June 2). Why lava glows [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XXXXXXXXXXX
Shorts often have hashtags or emoji in the title. Keep words that carry meaning and drop decorative emoji.
A comment on a video
Cite a comment only when the comment itself is your evidence, for example in a study of online audiences. APA gives the commenter as the author, the first 20 words of the comment as the title, and a bracketed description naming the video:
Username. (2024, March 7). First twenty words of the comment go here exactly as written [Comment on the video “How volcanoes form: A beginner’s guide”]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX
In MLA, use the comment text (or a description of it) as the title and name the video as the container. Because comments can be edited or deleted, save a screenshot with the date in case you need to show it later.
No upload date shown
YouTube always records an upload date, so check the description panel first. If you genuinely cannot find one, APA uses (n.d.) and adds a retrieval date before the URL; MLA leaves the date out and adds an access date at the end.
A video embedded in another website
If you watched a YouTube video embedded in an article, cite the video itself from YouTube where possible, because that is the original source. Cite the article separately if you also used its text.
Generate it automatically
Formatting by hand is useful to learn, but for a long reference list it is slow and easy to get wrong. The citation generator in the Plagiarism Checker Plus web app fills in the details from a URL, DOI or ISBN and formats the result in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 17, Harvard, IEEE, AMA, Turabian and other styles. It is included with a free account.
- Open the citation generator and choose your style.
- Paste the YouTube link. Check the channel name, title and date it fills in.
- Copy the reference into your list, and use the in-text format shown above in your writing.
Always compare a generated citation against the rules on this page. Channel names and titles on YouTube are not always formatted the way a style guide expects, so a quick read-through catches most issues. For other source types, see the citation generator overview.