Cite a YouTube video in APA 7
Citing a YouTube video in APA 7 catches students out because the uploader name takes the author slot, not the speaker on camera, and the upload date is the year. APA 7 (2020) added explicit rules for video uploads, and they apply to channels regardless of how informal the content is.
APA 7 rules for a YouTube video
- The channel name or uploader handle is the author, not the speaker on camera.
- Use the upload date as the publication date (year, month, day).
- Video title appears in italics; add [Video] in square brackets after the title.
- Container is YouTube; include the full watch URL.
- Timestamp the moment you reference in the in-text citation, not in the reference list.
- Use 'Retrieved DD Month YYYY, from URL' for sources that may change.
Worked example
APA 7 · YouTube videoA real YouTube video formatted using the APA 7 rules above.
Huberman, A. (2023, November 8). How to write a research paper [Video]. *YouTube*. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=example
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APA 7 YouTube video citation guide
Who counts as the author of a YouTube video
The single biggest mistake in APA 7 video citations is putting the wrong name in the author slot. APA wants the person or group who uploaded and owns the channel, not the person speaking on camera, because the channel is what readers can actually find again. So a clip from a university's channel is authored by the university, and a creator's video is authored by their channel name. When a real person's name and their channel handle differ, APA 7 lets you give the real name followed by the handle in square brackets, for example Huberman, A. [Andrew Huberman].
If the uploader is only ever known by a handle, use the handle as the author exactly as it appears, including capitalisation. Do not invent a real name you found elsewhere, and do not use the video's narrator if they are a guest rather than the channel owner. This rule keeps the reference pointing at a retrievable source: the channel is permanent in a way that a guest speaker is not.
Date, title, the [Video] tag, and the URL
The date is the upload date shown under the video, given in full as (Year, Month Day). The video title is italicised and kept in sentence case, and immediately after it you add the format tag [Video] in square brackets, not italicised. Then comes the container, which for an ordinary upload is simply YouTube, followed by the full watch URL. The pattern is therefore: Channel. (Year, Month Day). Video title [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Use the canonical watch URL rather than a shortened youtu.be link or a link with a timestamp parameter baked in, because the clean URL is the stable address of the whole video. If you need to point readers to a specific moment, do that in the in-text citation with a timestamp rather than in the reference. Live streams that have been archived are cited the same way using the date the stream was published.
Timestamps and in-text citations
APA 7 has an elegant solution for quoting from video: because there are no page numbers, you cite the timestamp of the moment you are referring to. An in-text citation looks like (Huberman, 2023, 12:41), pointing the reader to twelve minutes and forty-one seconds. For a direct quotation of something said on camera, include that timestamp; for a general reference to the video's overall argument, author and year alone are enough.
Treat AI-generated captions with caution when you quote — they are often slightly wrong, so listen to the audio and transcribe the words yourself. Paste the watch URL into the generator below to build the reference, then confirm two details by hand: that the channel, not the speaker, sits in the author position, and that the [Video] tag appears after the italicised title. Both are the exact points a marker checks first on a video citation.