How to Cite a YouTube Video in APA Style | Format & Examples
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. APA TV show citations are different.
You can also use our free APA Citation Generator to generate YouTube citations in APA Style.
Cite a YouTube video in APA Style now:
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.
| APA format | Last name, Initials. [Channel name]. (Year, Month Day). Video title [Video]. YouTube. URL |
|---|---|
| APA reference entry | Stevens, M. [Vsauce]. (2017, August 14). The napkin ring problem [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J51ncHP_BrY |
| APA 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.
| APA format | Last name, Initials [Channel name]. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL |
|---|---|
| APA reference entry | University of Oxford. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/user/oxford |
| APA 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:
Cite this Scribbr article
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
Caulfield, J. (2023, December 27). How to Cite a YouTube Video in APA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/youtube/
