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Updated . Example details checked against YouTube oEmbed for 5MuIMqhT8DM (title and channel); upload date June 3, 2019.
The MLA format
Pattern
Creator’s Last name, First name. “Title of the Video.” YouTube, uploaded by Channel, Day Month Year, URL.
- Creator is the person whose work it is, here the speaker. If the channel made the video itself, skip the author and let “uploaded by” name it.
- Title as it appears on the video page, in quotation marks.
- YouTube is the container, in italics. “Uploaded by” names the channel, because YouTube itself did not make the video.
- Date the video was posted, day month year.
A real example
Works Cited entry
Walker, Matt. “Sleep Is Your Superpower | Matt Walker | TED.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 3 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM.
In-text citation
(Walker 00:03:42)
When details are missing
- No creator separate from the channel: start with the title, and keep “uploaded by” and the channel name.
- Citing a moment: give the hours, minutes and seconds shown on the player: (Walker 00:03:42).
- Hard to tell who made it: cite under the title. Do not guess a name.
With no creator named: the title leads
Works Cited entry
“Sleep Is Your Superpower | Matt Walker | TED.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 3 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM.
In-text citation
(“Sleep Is Your Superpower” 00:03:42)
Common mistakes
- Writing YouTube as the author. YouTube is the platform. The person or channel who made the video comes first or after “uploaded by.”
- A shortened youtu.be link. Use the full address from the browser, without https://.
- No time stamp for a quotation. A quotation from a video needs the time it starts, the way a book quotation needs a page.
Or let Format do it.
Paste the video’s link and Format looks it up and picks Online video; check the title, channel and date against the video page. Format writes the Works Cited entry and the in-text citation in MLA 9, exactly as shown above, and builds the Works Cited page when you export to Word or PDF. MLA and APA are free.
Questions
Do I italicize YouTube?
Yes. In MLA, YouTube is a container, like a journal or a website, so it is italic.
How do I cite a TED talk?
On YouTube, cite it as a YouTube video, as above. On ted.com, cite it as a web page with the speaker as author and TED as the website.
What if the channel and the creator are the same?
Give the name once. Start with the title and keep “uploaded by” and the channel.
More citation guides
The same source in other styles
Similar sources in MLA
Every source kind is on the MLA page, and every style is on How to cite.