How to cite a YouTube video in APA, MLA and Chicago
Every citation style asks for the same four facts about a video: who uploaded it, when, what it is called and where to find it. The hard part is usually finding the exact upload date and the channel name as YouTube lists them. This free YouTube citation generator reads those details from YouTube and formats them for you in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard, plus an APA in-text citation.
Below is how to use it, and how each style works, with a worked example for each so you can check the result against your style guide.
How to use the citation generator
- Copy the link of the video you are citing. Watch links,
youtu.belinks, Shorts and live stream links all work. - Paste it into the box at the top of this page and press Create citation.
- The tool looks up the channel name, upload date, title and duration from YouTube's public data.
- APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard citations appear side by side, with an APA in-text citation underneath.
- Press Copy on the style you need and paste it into your reference list.
- Re-apply italics in your document and check the title's capitalization (more on both below).
Whatever link you paste, the citation uses the standard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= address for the video, which is the form most style guides show.
What goes into a YouTube video citation
- Creator: the channel name, or the real name of the person behind it if you know it.
- Date: the day the video was uploaded, not the day you watched it.
- Title: the video title as it appears on YouTube.
- Where: YouTube as the site, and the video's URL.
- Extras: Chicago adds the video length, and Harvard adds the date you accessed it.
How to cite a YouTube video in APA 7
Format: Channel Name. (Year, Month Day). Title of video [Video]. YouTube. URL
Example (a made-up video for illustration): Example Channel. (2024, March 14). How volcanoes form: A short explainer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00
The title goes in italics and in sentence case: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. YouTube titles are often written in title case or all caps, and the generator keeps the title exactly as uploaded, so you may need to lower-case some words yourself.
If you know the real name of the person who made the video, APA puts it first with the channel name in square brackets, for example: Rivera, J. [Example Channel]. When the person and the channel are the same, the channel name alone is fine.
APA in-text citation: use the channel and the year, like (Example Channel, 2024). For a direct quote, add the timestamp where the words start: (Example Channel, 2024, 3:45). The generator shows the basic in-text version for every video.
How to cite a YouTube video in MLA 9
Format: "Title of Video." YouTube, uploaded by Channel Name, Day Mon. Year, URL.
Example (made up): "How Volcanoes Form: A Short Explainer." YouTube, uploaded by Example Channel, 14 Mar. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00.
A few MLA details the generator handles for you: the title goes in quotation marks, YouTube is the italic container, months are abbreviated (except May, June and July), and the URL drops the https://. MLA uses title case, so here you may need to capitalize words that the uploader wrote in lower case.
If the person who made the video is different from the channel that uploaded it, or your instructor wants the creator first, start with the creator's name (Last, First) and keep "uploaded by" for the channel. MLA in-text citation: use the creator or a shortened title, and a time range for the part you quote, for example ("How Volcanoes Form" 03:45-04:10).
How to cite a YouTube video in Chicago
Format (bibliography entry): Channel Name. "Title of Video." Month Day, Year. YouTube video, length. URL.
Example (made up): Example Channel. "How Volcanoes Form: A Short Explainer." March 14, 2024. YouTube video, 8:12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00.
Chicago is the only one of the three that includes the running time, which the generator reads from YouTube. For a footnote, the same parts are separated by commas instead of periods: 1. Example Channel, "How Volcanoes Form: A Short Explainer," March 14, 2024, YouTube video, 8:12, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00.
Chicago editions and the author-date variant place the date and the words "YouTube video" a little differently, so check which version your class or publisher uses.
Harvard, briefly
Format: Channel Name (Year) Title of video. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).
Harvard has several house styles. The generator follows the common Cite Them Right pattern and fills in today's date as the accessed date. Check your university's guide for small differences.
Citing a specific moment in a video
When you quote or point to one part of a video, the reader needs the timestamp as well as the citation. APA puts it in the in-text citation, as in (Example Channel, 2024, 3:45). MLA uses a time range in parentheses. In a digital paper or slide deck you can also link straight to that second with our YouTube timestamp link generator.
Mistakes to check before you submit
- Italics disappear on paste. The Copy button copies plain text, so re-apply italics to the APA and Harvard title and to YouTube in MLA.
- Capitalization. Fix sentence case for APA and title case for MLA and Chicago. Remove emoji and hashtags from the title if your style guide asks you to.
- The date is one day off. YouTube stores the upload time in UTC, so a video posted late at night can show a different date in your time zone. If they differ, follow your instructor's preference.
- Reuploads. If a channel reposted someone else's lecture or clip, cite what you watched, and mention the original creator when you know who it is.
- The real name. For well-known creators, some styles want the person's name, not only the channel.
Who uses a YouTube citation generator
Mostly students writing essays and lab reports, including medical and nursing students who learn from lecture channels. Researchers and teachers use it for reading lists and papers, and journalists use it to record where a quote came from. If you cite YouTube more than once a term, checking the upload date by hand gets old quickly.
Is it free?
Yes. You can create your first 3 citations with no account. After that, a free Claras account lets you keep going, and the tool allows about 5 lookups a day from one connection. A free account gives you 3 videos a month in Claras itself, with no card.
Quoting a video, not just citing it
A citation tells readers where the video is. To quote it, you need the exact words and where they are said. Claras gives you the full transcript with timestamps when the video has captions (the language is detected automatically), an AI summary with key points, and clickable chapters. You can ask the video a question in the Ask AI chat and the answer cites the timestamp, which makes it easy to find the line you want to quote. Transcripts export as TXT, PDF or .srt, or you can send one to NotebookLM, ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
Pro is $5 a month for 50 videos a day, and Unlimited is $12 a month with no daily cap. Both come with a 14-day free trial, and until December 31 yearly Pro is $29.99 and yearly Unlimited is $39.99. See pricing, or start with a free account.