How to Cite a YouTube Video in MLA 9th Edition

To cite a YouTube video in MLA 9th edition, give the title of the video exactly as YouTube shows it, then YouTube as the container, the account that posted it after "uploaded by," the upload date, and the URL. This is the MLA's own example for a video whose creator is not named:

"Capybara Eat Huge Pumpkin." YouTube, uploaded by Alex Smith, 12 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YNwxZnABzA.

YouTube is italic in the formatted entry. Code blocks cannot show italics, so each example below names its italic parts underneath. When a quotation or a specific moment needs an in-text citation, add a timestamp: ("Capybara" 0:42). The rest of this guide covers the choices that the basic pattern leaves open: when the creator goes first instead of the title, when the title takes italics, how timestamps are written, and what to do with interviews, TV episodes, films, live streams and deleted videos.

The official MLA 9 rule for YouTube videos

MLA 9 has no YouTube template. A video goes through the same core elements as every other source, and the MLA Style Center's answer on citing YouTube videos shows how the elements map onto a video page.

Format:

Creator. "Title of Video." YouTube, uploaded by Account Name, Day Month Year, URL.

The title is copied exactly, including odd capitalization, the artist's name repeated inside it, and tags like "(Video)" or "Full Movie." The MLA's answer on titles of uploaded videos explains why: you are citing the version you watched, and the same work often appears on YouTube several times under different titles and at different lengths. Its example is a GE refrigerator commercial with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, posted by two accounts under two titles, five seconds apart in length. The entry has to say which one you saw.

Dates go day, month, year. The MLA's own YouTube entries abbreviate the longer months ("24 Apr. 2014," "20 Sept. 2013," "10 Aug. 2018") and leave June and July whole ("18 June 2008," "17 July 2014"). Note "Sept.", not "Sep.": the MLA writes four letters for September.

URLs come from the address bar. According to the MLA Handbook (9th ed., pp. 195-96), you can usually leave off "http://" or "https://" unless you want the link to stay clickable in software that needs the protocol, and every MLA example in this guide drops it. Whichever you choose, do the same in every entry.

Access dates are optional for most YouTube videos. The Handbook (9th ed., p. 211) asks for one when a work has no publication date or is likely to be changed or deleted. Every YouTube video displays an upload date, so you only need "Accessed" when you think the video might disappear: a reupload of someone else's work, or a clip from an account that deletes old posts.

Creator first or title first

This is the decision that changes the shape of the whole entry, and the MLA leaves it to you. The rule from the MLA's YouTube answer is short: if the primary creator of the video is clear, put that creator in the Author element. If it is not clear, start with the title and let "uploaded by" carry the account name.

The account that posts a video is not always the person who made it. The MLA's answer on uploaders of online works (written for the 8th edition, still the clearest statement of the problem) points out that you often cannot tell whether the uploader is the creator, and that even the MLA's own channel is called ModernLanguageAssoc. Its advice from that edition was to put the uploader in the Contributor slot regardless. The 9th-edition-era YouTube answer is more flexible: name the creator as author when that is clear, and add the uploader as well if it tells the reader something.

Three practical tests settle most cases:

1. The channel is the creator, and the creator is a person. A lecturer posting their own talks, a musician on their official channel. Put the person first, last name first. If the channel uses a handle that differs from the real name, the Handbook (9th ed., p. 118) lets you add the handle in square brackets after the name. When the handle and the name are close, the URL does the job and the brackets can go.
2. The channel is a brand or organization that made the video. A museum, a news outlet, a science channel known by its channel name. The Handbook (9th ed., p. 107) allows usernames and stage names in the Author element "especially if the person is well known by that form of the name." A channel name like Veritasium can stand as the author.
3. You cannot tell, or the uploader clearly did not make it. Fan reuploads, compilation channels, clips of TV broadcasts, anything with a generic account name. Start with the title and put the account after "uploaded by." Never write "Anonymous" in the Author slot: the Handbook (9th ed., p. 108) says to skip the element and begin with the title.

When the author and the uploader are the same, name them once. Library guides that follow MLA 9, such as the University of Portland's MLA 9 video guide, say the same thing: if the author's name is the same as the uploader, cite it once; if different, the author goes before the title and the uploader after "uploaded by."

Italics or quotation marks for the title

Students ask this more than anything else about YouTube citations, and the MLA's own examples are split, so it helps to know why.

The general principle comes from the MLA's post on styling titles of online works, written for the 8th edition: long or self-contained works take italics, and short works that are part of something larger take quotation marks. Applied to YouTube:

For most videos you will cite in a paper, quotation marks are the safe default; they match the MLA's 2022 YouTube answer and the library guides. Switch to italics when the video is a complete work in its own right: a film, a documentary, a full episode, a full-length interview. The line is not sharp. The same 8th-edition post italicized a knitting tutorial, Slip Slip Knit (SSK), as an independent work. Whatever you decide, apply the same choice to every similar video in your list.

Worked examples

Each example gives the works-cited entry, the italic parts, and the in-text forms. The real entries come from the MLA Style Center; placeholders are marked as such.

1. A video with no clear creator

"Capybara Eat Huge Pumpkin." YouTube, uploaded by Alex Smith, 12 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YNwxZnABzA.

Italic: YouTube. In-text: ("Capybara") or, with a timestamp, ("Capybara" 0:42). Narrative: The video "Capybara Eat Huge Pumpkin" shows... Shorten the title in the parenthetical to its first noun phrase, as the Handbook (9th ed., p. 237) asks for titles longer than a noun phrase. Start the short form with the word the entry is alphabetized under, so the reader can find it.

2. A video whose creator is clear

Beyoncé. "Beyoncé – Pretty Hurts (Video)." YouTube, 24 Apr. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXQLa-5n5w.

Italic: YouTube. In-text: (Beyoncé) or (Beyoncé 2:15). Narrative: In the video for "Pretty Hurts," Beyoncé... The artist's name appears twice because the title is copied as YouTube shows it. Do not tidy it. There is no "uploaded by" here because the artist and the posting account are the same.

3. An organization's channel, title first

"2016 MLA-Prize-Winning Publications." YouTube, uploaded by ModernLanguageAssoc, 18 Jan. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKROuhFF9dU.

Italic: YouTube. In-text: ("2016 MLA-Prize-Winning"). The MLA used this entry to show an uploader whose account name does not match the organization's name. Copy the account name exactly, including run-together words and odd capitals.

4. A channel known by its channel name

Channel Name. "Title of Video." YouTube, Day Month Year, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID.

Placeholder pattern. Italic: YouTube. In-text: (Channel Name 3:10). Use this shape when the channel is the recognizable creator, such as a science communicator or a news organization. The channel name is the author, so "uploaded by" would only repeat it.

5. An interview posted on YouTube

West, Kanye. Jimmy Kimmel's Full Interview with Kanye West. YouTube, uploaded by Jimmy Kimmel Live, 10 Aug. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmZjaYdS3fA.

Italic: Jimmy Kimmel's Full Interview with Kanye West and YouTube. In-text: (West 4:02). The person interviewed is the author. The MLA's answer on interviews found on YouTube italicizes the title because the video is a stand-alone work and leaves out "interview conducted by" because the title already says who asked the questions. It also copies the account name, Jimmy Kimmel Live, without the exclamation mark that the TV show's own title carries.

6. A TV episode someone uploaded

MAS*H Season 10 Episode 3 Rumor at the Top. YouTube, uploaded by DINH TAN 3, 21 Jan. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rMSkzmHz1o.

Italic: the whole title and YouTube. In-text: (M\A\S\H Season 10 12:30). Because you watched it on YouTube, the MLA's answer leaves the series title, season and episode out of their usual places and treats YouTube* as the container. The title as the uploader typed it already carries that information. As published, this entry also keeps the playlist parameters ("&list=" and "&index=") copied from the address bar. Trimming them leaves a shorter URL that still opens the same video, which is why they are cut here.

7. A feature film on YouTube

Moby Dick. Directed by John Huston, MGM, 1956. YouTube, 8 Jan. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Yc8KPH-X0.

Italic: Moby Dick and YouTube. In-text: (Moby Dick 1:02:15). A film is self-contained, so its own details form the first container (director, studio, year), and YouTube is the second container with its upload date and URL. Take the original details from the video description if they are there. Our guide to citing a movie in MLA 9 covers the film side in more depth, including when to lead with the director.

8. A reupload with a messy title

Night of the Comet Widescreen Full Movie 1984. YouTube, uploaded by Jen Dobbins, 20 Sept. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=me4pOQOt20s.

Italic: Widescreen Full Movie 1984 and YouTube. The film title inside the uploader's title, Night of the Comet, goes roman (not italic) as a title within a title. In-text, the MLA's own example is (Night 1:09-12). In your prose you can still call the film Night of the Comet; the uploaded title belongs in the entry and the parenthetical, because that version is the one you quoted. In the original, the URL ends with "&t=10s", a start-time parameter YouTube adds when you copy a link from a paused video. It does no harm, but delete it if you want the link to open at the beginning.

In-text citations and timestamps

An MLA 9 in-text citation has two parts: the first word or words of the works-cited entry, and a location in the source when you quote or point at a specific part. For a video, the location is a timestamp. The Handbook (9th ed., p. 250) asks you to "cite the relevant time or time span," giving "the numbers of the hours, minutes, and seconds as displayed in your media player, separating the numbers with colons."

"As displayed in your media player" settles the most common formatting question. YouTube shows a nine-minute mark as 9:14 and an hour-long mark as 1:02:15, so those are the timestamps you write. Some library guides pad every time to two-digit hours (00:09:14). That is consistent with the rule only when your player shows it that way; the MLA's own examples write the time as it appears.

Parenthetical, single moment: ("Capybara" 0:42)

Parenthetical, range: the MLA writes ranges with the shared part given once, as in its own example (1:22:07–18), meaning 1:22:07 to 1:22:18.

Narrative: Beyoncé opens the video with... (2:15). When you name the creator or the title in your sentence, the parenthetical holds the timestamp alone.

Quoting dialogue: if you quote an exchange between two speakers, set it off as a block. The MLA's answer on quoting dialogue from film and TV gives each speaker's name in capitals followed by a period, indents the block half an inch, and puts the timestamp in parentheses after the last line (MLA Handbook 6.40).

Do you need a timestamp when you paraphrase? The MLA's answer is that a timestamp helps a reader find the scene, so you might want to include it. If you are summarizing the whole video's argument, no timestamp is needed. If you are describing one demonstration or one claim at minute twelve, give it. For a fuller treatment of the parenthetical and narrative forms across sources, see the complete guide to in-text citations.

The Handbook (9th ed., p. 248) says not to invent page or paragraph numbers for sources that have none, and the same logic applies here: never count seconds by hand from a transcript that has no time markers. Use the player.

Special cases

YouTube Shorts

The MLA has not published a Shorts-specific answer. A Short is a video on YouTube with its own URL, so it takes the same entry: title (often the first line of the caption, copied exactly), YouTube, uploader or creator, date, URL. A Short often has no separate title, only a caption. The MLA's social media guidance handles this by using text from the post as the title, shortened with an ellipsis at the end if it is long, or a plain description such as "Video of a capybara eating a pumpkin" if there is no text at all. A description takes no quotation marks and no italics. Timestamps are rarely worth giving for a 40-second clip.

A live stream

The MLA's live stream answer (published 2025) changes one word and adds one element. The account is "streamed by" instead of "uploaded by," and "Live stream." goes at the end:

"Tata Steel Wijk Aan Zee 2025 | Nodirbek vs. World Champ Gukesh and More in Rd 6." YouTube, streamed by chess24, 24 Jan. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSunIEIMfJA. Live stream.

Italic: YouTube. If you watched the recording after the stream ended, cite it as an ordinary video: "uploaded by chess24," and no "Live stream." at the end. If the stream is one person's own broadcast, that account goes first as the author. To single out one commentator, begin with their name and role: Sachdev, Tania, commentator.

A video that has been deleted or made private

You can only cite what you can describe. If you watched the video before it disappeared, cite it as you saw it, keep the URL, and add an access date at the end with the day you watched it ("Accessed 2 Nov. 2026."). The Handbook's rule on access dates for works likely to be deleted (9th ed., p. 211) covers exactly this. If you never saw it and only know of it from someone else, cite the source where you read about it instead.

A comment under a video

The MLA has no YouTube-comment example. The closest official model is its answer on forum comments, which treats the commenter as the author and the thread as the title, with the site as the container. The defensible adaptation for YouTube:

Commenter Name. Comment on "Title of Video." YouTube, Day Month Year, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID.

Placeholder pattern. Italic: YouTube. "Comment on" is a description, so it stays plain. YouTube shows comment dates as "3 months ago" rather than a calendar date. For social media, the MLA says to give the post date if you can determine it and otherwise the copyright date of the page. If you cannot pin the date down, add an access date. Instructors differ on this one, so if your course has a rule, it wins.

A screenshot or frame from a video in your paper

If you put a still from a video into your paper as a figure, the caption can work like an in-text citation, keyed to the works-cited entry and carrying the timestamp. For example: "Fig. 1. Still from Berrow, See the Quiet Beauty (2:23)." The matching entry names the director as author and National Geographic as the uploader.

A lecture from your course

A recorded lecture posted on YouTube is a YouTube video: lecturer as author, lecture title, YouTube, uploader if it is a department account, date, URL. A lecture posted only inside your learning management system takes that system as the container instead. An 8th-edition-era MLA answer gives "Blackboard, Utopia University" as the container and publisher, with "Video recording." at the end. Check with your instructor whether they want class lectures cited at all.

A TED talk on YouTube

Cite the version you watched. A TED talk seen on YouTube takes YouTube as the container and TED's channel as the uploader. The same talk seen on ted.com takes the TED website as the container. If you watched both, cite the one you quote from.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Putting the channel name first when the channel did not make the video. Reupload and compilation channels are the usual culprits. If you are not sure the account is the creator, start with the title and use "uploaded by."
• Fixing the title. Students correct capitalization, remove the artist's name or delete "(Official Video)." The MLA wants it copied exactly, because that is what identifies the version.
• Giving only the year. YouTube shows a full upload date, so give the day and month too. Generators, ours included, can drop it.
• "Sep." for September. MLA writes "Sept."
• Writing "Anonymous" when there is no clear creator. Skip the Author element instead (Handbook, 9th ed., p. 108).
• Putting the timestamp in the works-cited entry. Timestamps belong in the in-text citation. The entry cites the whole video.
• Zero-padding times that the player does not show. Write what YouTube displays: 9:14, not 00:09:14, unless your instructor or your other entries use the padded form.
• Citing the original when you watched a copy. A film or TV episode watched on YouTube is cited with the YouTube container and the uploader. Our MLA 9 works cited formatting guide covers the page-level rules once the entries are right.

Quick-reference table