How to cite a YouTube video in APA Style
To cite a YouTube video in APA Style, you include the person or organization that uploaded it, their channel name (if different from their real name), the upload date, the video title (italicized), “Video” in square brackets, the name of the site, and a link to the video.
Note that the same format works for other video sites like Vimeo; just replace “YouTube” with the name of whatever site the video is from. TV shows are cited differently.
You can also use our free APA citation generator to generate YouTube citations in APA Style.
Where to find citation information for a YouTube video
The information you’ll need for your citation is easy to locate on YouTube. It’s located just below the video, as shown in the image below.
Authors and channel names
The “author” of a YouTube video is not necessarily the person or group who created the video. Instead, APA requires you to list the uploader of the video in the author position. This makes it easier for the reader to locate the video.
If the uploader is an individual whose real name is known and is different from their channel name, both should be included. The real name is written in the standard format, while the channel name follows in square brackets and is written exactly as it is on YouTube, retaining any unconventional capitalization or spacing.
| Format | Last name, Initials. [Channel name]. (Year, Month Day). Video title [Video]. YouTube. URL |
|---|---|
| Reference entry | Stevens, M. [Vsauce]. (2017, August 14). The napkin ring problem [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J51ncHP_BrY |
| In-text citation | (Stevens, 2017) |
If the author’s real name is unknown or the uploader is not an individual, the channel name is included alone, with no brackets.
Where the channel name is the same as the author’s real name, it only needs to be written once:
In-text citations for YouTube videos
For an in-text citation of a YouTube video, use whichever name appears first in the full citation, whether that’s a real name or a channel name:
- (Stevens, 2017)
- (University of Oxford, 2019)
When you quote or refer to a specific part of a video, include a timestamp pointing to the relevant moment in the video:
If the person quoted is not the uploader, it’s best to specify their identity in the text, as in this TED Talk citation:
How to cite a YouTube channel
Sometimes you might need to cite a whole channel instead of a single video, as when you’re discussing a channel’s content in general.
In this case, don’t include the year the channel was created – just use “n.d.” (no date) as it’s the current content of the channel that’s relevant. Write “YouTube channel” instead of “Video” in the square brackets, and include a retrieval date, since channel content will change over time.
| Format | Last name, Initials [Channel name]. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL |
|---|---|
| Reference entry | University of Oxford. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/user/oxford |
| In-text citation | (University of Oxford, n.d.) |
“Home” refers to the homepage of the channel; if you’re citing something else like the videos or playlists tab, replace accordingly:
6 comments
Effie Kyrikakis
September 10, 2021 at 9:11 AMHi Jack,
Really helpful information, very clearly presented.
I was wondering if you know the APA 7 section that refers to how do we deal with unlisted YouTube videos, lectures for example- that are part of a University course material but not open to the general public?
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
September 13, 2021 at 4:18 PMHi Effie,
APA suggests dealing with sources like that differently depending on whether your audience will have access to them. Most likely, you're writing a paper for a university course, so the reader will have access to the unlisted video; therefore, you can cite it like a normal YouTube video, including the URL and all other available information. If you were writing an article for publication in a journal, though, you would have to cite it as a personal communication instead, since the reader would not have access to the video.
Megan
February 12, 2021 at 3:17 AMHow would you do in text citations if you have multiple references from the same Youtube Channel and Person, just with different video titles.
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
February 17, 2021 at 4:15 PMHi Megan,
See the information here on avoiding ambiguity in in-text citations. When referring to the same author, different citations may be distinguished by year (if the videos are from different years). When they're from the same year, add letters to distinguish them, e.g. (Scribbr, 2020a) … (Scribbr, 2020b). These letters should also be added in the corresponding reference entries.
Celina
October 19, 2020 at 8:32 AMHow do I cite Blogs using the APA 7th edition.
Shona McCombes (Scribbr Team)
November 17, 2020 at 8:32 PMHi Celina,
See our guide to citing websites in APA for info on how to cite a blog in the 7th edition :) Hope that helps!