How to cite a YouTube video in APA

The APA format for citing a youtube video is:

Uploader, U. [Channel name]. (Year, Month Day). Title of video [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxx

Examples

Okonkwo, D. [Daniel Okonkwo]. (2023, May 14). Three habits that quietly drain your week [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcd1234

Standard case for an individual's own channel. The uploader name and channel name happen to match; APA still permits writing both because the brackets aid retrieval.

Generated citation (APA 7th edition)

Smith, J. A. (2024). The title of the work. Publisher Name.

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APA citation fields explained

Uploader (author position)	The person or group who posted the video, not the person speaking in it. APA explicitly treats the uploader as the author for retrievability - that account is what someone would search for to find the video. If the uploader is an individual, format as `Surname, F. M.` If only a username or screen name is given (no real name), use the username as written, with no inversion: `PBS Eons.` Do not invent a real name from a username, and do not list the on-screen speaker as the author when the channel belongs to someone else.
Channel name in square brackets	The display name of the channel, in square brackets, immediately after the uploader. Skip this field only when the uploader name and channel name are identical - for example, when the uploader is already `PBS Eons` and so is the channel. Do not put the channel name in italics or quotation marks; the brackets do the work.
Date	The date the video was posted to YouTube, formatted as `(Year, Month Day)`. Use the upload date shown beneath the video, not the date of any event depicted in it. If a video was posted years after the event was recorded, the upload date is still what goes here. Use `(n.d.)` only if YouTube shows no date at all, which is rare.
Title	Sentence case - capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Italicize the entire title. Use the title exactly as it appears on YouTube, but adjust capitalization to APA's sentence case. All-caps titles are converted to sentence case; emoji and decorative symbols can be omitted if they obscure readability.
Format descriptor	The bracketed tag `[Video]` follows the title with a space between them and a period after the closing bracket. APA uses `[Video]` for moving-image content broadly; [YouTube video] is not the APA tag.
Site name and URL	Write YouTube as the site name in plain text, followed by a period, then the full URL. Use the canonical watch URL (the one that begins `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=`), not a youtu.be short link or a search-result URL. Do not use "Retrieved from" - APA 7 removed that prefix.

Examples of youtube video citations in APA

Video posted by an individual creator

Okonkwo, D. [Daniel Okonkwo]. (2023, May 14). Three habits that quietly drain your week [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcd1234

Standard case for an individual's own channel. The uploader name and channel name happen to match; APA still permits writing both because the brackets aid retrieval.

Video posted by an organizational channel

TED-Ed. (2021, March 9). How language shapes the way we think [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efgh5678

The channel itself is the uploader, so no separate channel-name bracket is used. This is the right format when the speaker in the video does not own the channel - the channel is the citable account.

Video posted under a username only

Veritasium. (2020, August 1). The discovery that transformed pi [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijkl9012

When the uploader operates only as a username (no real-name byline anywhere on the channel), use the username as the author. Do not look up the creator's legal name and substitute it.

Video where the speaker is not the uploader

Big Think. (2018, June 17). Robert Sapolsky on stress and the developing brain [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnop3456

The interview features Sapolsky, but Big Think runs the channel that posted it. The uploader goes in the author position because that is what the reader searches to retrieve the video. Mention Sapolsky in the text of your paper if you need to attribute his ideas.

Video with no upload date shown

HistoricalArchives. (n.d.). 1962 newsreel: New York transit strike [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrst7890

Use (n.d.) only if YouTube genuinely shows no date. The 1962 in the title is part of the content, not the publication date - the upload date is what goes in the date slot, and when missing, n.d. is correct.

APA edge cases for YouTube video

Tricky citations don't have to be tricky. Pick a scenario to see the rule and a worked example.

Scenario 01

Citing a specific moment in the video

YouTube videos have no page numbers, so direct quotes and references to specific moments use a timestamp in the in-text citation: (Okonkwo, 2023, 2:15). The timestamp marks the start of the moment being quoted or paraphrased. The reference list entry stays the same - the timestamp belongs only in the in-text citation, not in the reference.

Scenario 02

Live stream or premiere

Once a livestream ends and is archived as a watchable video, cite it as a regular YouTube video using the date the stream took place. If the video is later edited or reposted with a new URL, cite the version you actually viewed and use that URL - not the original livestream link, which may no longer resolve.

Scenario 03

Video that has been deleted or made private

If the video was available when you viewed it but is no longer accessible, retain the citation as you originally formatted it. APA does not require removal of references that have become unavailable. If the deletion is relevant to your argument, note it in the body of the paper. Do not substitute an archived URL unless you actually viewed and are citing the archived version.

Scenario 04

Channel as a whole, not a specific video

To refer to a YouTube channel as a whole rather than to a specific video, format as: Uploader. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL. Use the channel's home URL, include a retrieval date because channel pages update over time, and use the format descriptor [YouTube channel] rather than [Video].

Scenario 05

Comment on a YouTube video

To cite a comment, treat the commenter's username as the author and use the first 20 words of the comment (or fewer if the comment is short) as the title, in plain text and followed by [Comment on the video Title of video]. The URL points to the comment thread, not the video alone.

Scenario 06

TED Talk uploaded to YouTube

If you watched a TED Talk on YouTube, cite the YouTube version using this template, with TED or TED-Ed as the uploader. If you watched the same talk on the TED website, cite that version instead - the URL determines which template applies. Do not mix the two versions in a single reference.

APA in-text citations

In-text citation format

APA uses author–date parenthetical citations. The author is whatever appears in the author position of the reference list entry - usually the uploader, sometimes a channel name, occasionally a username.

Paraphrase

Behavioral nudges can quietly shift weekly routines (Okonkwo, 2023).

Direct quote with timestamp

Okonkwo (2023) describes the pattern as "a thousand small permissions we never remember granting" (2:15). Timestamps replace page numbers for any audiovisual source.

Username as author

(Veritasium, 2020) - usernames in the reference list become the author name in-text, with no quotation marks and no italics.

Organization channel

(TED-Ed, 2021) - when the channel is the uploader, the channel name is the author for in-text purposes.

No date

(HistoricalArchives, n.d.) - the abbreviation occupies the date slot.

References

Works Cited

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.
American Psychological Association. (n.d.).
eference examples: Audiovisual media. APA Style. apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/youtube-references
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). APA reference list: Other non-print sources. Purdue OWL. owl.purdue.edu

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Other APA source types

Switch citation style

APA citation fields explained

Examples of youtube video citations in APA

APA edge cases for YouTube video

APA in-text citations

In-text citation format

Paraphrase

Direct quote with timestamp

Username as author

Organization channel

No date

References

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Create a full bibliography

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