How to Cite a YouTube Video in MLA

How to Cite a YouTube Video in MLA: Quick Answer

Start with the person or group that created the video when that creator is obvious. If it is not, start with the title. Copy the title exactly as YouTube shows it. Italicize YouTube. Add uploaded by plus the account name when that name is useful or when you have no separate creator. Use the upload date in day-month-year form. End with the watch URL you opened, usually without https://. Pair every Works Cited line with an in-text citation that uses whatever you put first, plus a timestamp when you point at a moment.

The old version of this page invented Sam Harris, MIT OpenCourseWare, Formation, Cosmos, Brené Brown, Khan Academy, 60 Minutes, Vimeo, Netflix, BBC, Toni Morrison, NASA, Vsauce, Veritasium, and John Green citations with placeholder watch IDs such as abc123xyz. Those fabricated citations stay gone. Use the official strings below.

What This Guide Covers (and What It Does Not)

This is the MLA 9 source-type guide for a file you played on YouTube or another sharing site. A Netflix, Hulu, disc, or theater copy of the same movie belongs on the MLA film and TV guide. A native X, Instagram, or TikTok post belongs on the MLA social-media guide. An APA assignment belongs on the APA YouTube guide. Several Style Center posts linked below still carry an eighth-edition note; the 30 March 2022 YouTube Q&A and Handbook 5.41 / 6.28 are the ninth-edition anchors.

The Official Rule, from the MLA Handbook

A YouTube video uses the same nine core elements as every other MLA source. The file you played is the source. YouTube is the container. The uploader belongs in the Contributor element, not automatically in Author. The location is the URL (MLA Handbook, 9th ed., 5.41, 5.84). The YouTube Q&A and the online-video Q&A restate the template for the platform. The Contributor-element note (7 April 2021) points at Handbook 5.38–5.41 for the full rule.

Those sentences are why you do not rename Pretty Hurts, why you do not promote every channel to Author, and why a Netflix app citation belongs on the MLA film guide instead of this page. Fill the slots the watch page actually prints. Leave the rest out.

Official Style Center YouTube Examples

When the creator is clear

The Style Center's current creator-is-clear example is Beyoncé's music video. Beyoncé is the Author. The title is copied with the platform's extra words and punctuation, including the en dash and (Video). YouTube is the container. The date is the one under the player. The URL starts at www.youtube.com.

In the text, key the citation to the first element: (Beyoncé). If you name Beyoncé in the sentence and you are not pointing at a moment, you need no parentheses. If you quote a lyric or describe a shot, add a 6.28 timestamp.

When no creator is named

If the watch page does not identify a primary creator, omit Author and begin with the title. Put the account in the Contributor element after YouTube, introduced by uploaded by.

The Style Center adds that you may still list the uploader even when a creator is clear, if that account helps a reader recover the file. The in-text citation then follows the title: (“Capybara”).

The uploader slot, even when the organization uploaded its own video

The uploaders Q&A (28 November 2017; eighth-edition note) puts the account in Other contributors whether or not it looks like the author. A verification badge is not required, and the account name may not match the organization's everyday name. The Modern Language Association's channel is ModernLanguageAssoc. Handbook 5.41 uses that upload as the model.

An entire film uploaded to YouTube

When the file is a complete film, treat the movie as a self-contained work and YouTube as a second container. Pull original publication facts from the description only when they are actually there. The Style Center's film example is John Huston's Moby Dick. The movies, videos, and television page adds a director-first Sanctuary upload.

Copy the Title YouTube Prints

Do not clean a messy upload title into the official movie title. The titles-of-uploaded-videos Q&A (4 January 2018; eighth-edition note) says you are citing that file, which may be cropped, retitled, or a different cut. In your prose you may still use the work's familiar name.

The same Q&A shows why two uploads of one commercial are two sources: Elaine May and Mike Nichols appear under different titles and different runtimes. Cite the file you opened, not a composite of every copy on the site.

Interviews and TV Episodes on YouTube

An interview uses the interviewee as Author and then follows the online-video template. The interview Q&A (26 May 2020) italicizes that title because the Style Center treats the upload as a stand-alone work. Copy the account name exactly: Jimmy Kimmel Live is not Jimmy Kimmel Live!

A TV episode you actually watched on YouTube is cited from the upload, not from a DVD or streaming-app record. The TV-on-YouTube Q&A (29 March 2021) starts with the title as YouTube prints it, italicizes that title when the file is treated as stand-alone, lists the uploader, and omits a separate season-and-episode number if those facts are not how the site presents the file. The official example keeps the playlist query string. For a broadcast, disc, or Netflix-app episode, use the MLA film and TV guide instead.

Quotation Marks or Italics?

This is the failure the old page taught backwards. It said every video title takes quotation marks. Official examples do not. Short works and typical clips use quotation marks. A self-contained film, or an interview or TV episode the Style Center treats as stand-alone, is italicized. YouTube is always the italic container.

In-Text Citations and Timestamps

MLA in-text citations point at the Works Cited line, then at a location when the source has one. Videos have no page numbers. Handbook 6.28 tells you to cite the hours, minutes, and seconds your player shows, with colons and no spaces. The Style Center's in-text overview (1 April 2021) places that rule in 6.3–6.30.

Notice what the Buffy pair teaches. The Works Cited line uses the long upload title in quotation marks. The parenthetical citation shortens it to (“Buffy”). The Handbook span keeps the leading zeros the player shows. Total running time does not appear in the Works Cited line.

Official examples do not all print time the same way. Handbook 6.28's Buffy pair uses hours-minutes-seconds with leading zeros (00:03:16–17). The Style Center's Night of the Comet sentence uses minutes and seconds without a leading hour (1:09-12) and a hyphen rather than an en dash. Follow 6.28 when you are choosing a form: copy the numbers your player displays, with colons and no spaces. Do not invent a third house style.

That sentence is the paraphrase-timestamp Q&A (17 November 2020; eighth-edition note). A timestamp is required when you quote a displayed moment. It is optional, and useful, when you only paraphrase a scene.

URLs, Dates, Playlists, and Facts YouTube Leaves Out

• URL: Handbook 5.84 normally drops https:// and //. Official YouTube examples start at www.youtube.com/watch?v=. A youtu.be short link is acceptable if that is the URL you opened, but prefer the watch URL from the address bar.
• Playlist parameters: Copy the URL of the file you used. The official M*A*S*H example keeps &list= and &index=. Do not strip query strings just to make the citation look cleaner, and do not add a playlist ID you never opened.
• Upload date, not watch date: Use the date under the player, in day-month-year form with an abbreviated month (24 Apr. 2014). Do not substitute the day you viewed the video.
• No date: Omit the date. Do not write n.d. An access date is optional and is most useful when the upload date is missing or the file is likely to move.
• No runtime: MLA does not put the total length in the Works Cited entry. Time belongs in the in-text citation. A &t=10s fragment may already sit on an official URL, as it does on Night of the Comet; that is part of the copied location, not a substitute for a 6.28 timestamp.
• Deleted video: If you still have a recoverable URL or archive copy, cite the version you used and describe the status only when a reader needs that fact. Do not invent a placeholder watch ID.
• Captions or a transcript: If you are quoting the captions rather than the soundtrack, say so in your prose. Do not add a homemade Transcript. tag that the official examples do not use.

Finding the facts is mechanical. The title sits above the player. The channel name sits below it. Click the date if YouTube has collapsed it to "3 years ago." Copy the URL from the address bar after you have opened the watch page, not from a homepage or playlist card.

YouTube Shorts, Comments, and Live Streams

The Style Center has not published a separate Shorts, comment, or live-stream template. Use the same core-elements pattern. These rows are labelled templates, not official strings.

A Short is still a YouTube video. Copy the on-screen title, the account, and the URL you opened. A comment is a short untitled work attached to the video; describe it rather than inventing a title. A live event you watched as a recording uses the upload date of that recording. If you only saw it live and the file is gone, treat it as a source you can no longer recover and say so in your prose.

Vimeo and Other Hosts

The template does not change when the container is Vimeo or another sharing site. The MLA Handbook list of works-cited examples includes an MLA-produced Vimeo file. The online-video Q&A (28 September 2017; eighth-edition note) adds a no-author YouTube knitting clip. Netflix, Hulu, and other subscription apps are versions or containers of films and series, not YouTube; they belong on the MLA film guide.

How to Evaluate a YouTube Source

MLA will format a citation for a weak source just as cleanly as it formats Pretty Hurts. The citation is not a quality badge. Before you lean on a video in a paper, ask who uploaded it, whether the account name matches a known institution, whether the description cites recoverable sources, and whether you are looking at an official channel or a reupload. A university lecture on the school's channel is a different kind of evidence from a compilation with a rewritten title.

• Prefer the official or institutional upload when one exists. Two files of the same lecture are two versions.
• Read the description for credits. That is how the Style Center recovered Huston and MGM for Moby Dick.
• Treat comments, like counts, and "verified" ticks as weak signals. The uploaders Q&A already warns that a missing badge does not prove a fake upload.
• If you need a peer-reviewed claim, follow the video to the paper, then cite the article.

Common Mistakes

• Title-casing a messy upload title. Copy the wording YouTube prints. Pretty Hurts keeps (Video). Night of the Comet keeps Widescreen Full Movie 1984.
• Quotation marks on a stand-alone film, interview, or TV episode. Moby Dick, the Kanye interview, and the M*A*S*H upload are italicized.
• Putting the channel in Author by default. Start with the creator only when that person is clear. Otherwise start with the title and use uploaded by.
• Renaming ModernLanguageAssoc to Modern Language Association. Reproduce the account.
• Using the day you watched the video. The publication date is the upload date.
• Adding the runtime to Works Cited. Keep time in the parenthetical citation.
• Stripping an official playlist query. The M*A*S*H example keeps &list= because that is the URL the Style Center opened.
• Citing a Netflix or classroom-disc copy with a YouTube template. Change guides.
• Keeping `https://`. Official YouTube examples drop the protocol.

Related guides

• How to cite a YouTube video in APA
• How to cite a film or TV show in MLA
• How to cite a podcast in MLA
• How to cite a website in MLA
• How to cite social media in MLA
• Citing a source with no author
• Citing a source with no date
• APA vs MLA