How to Find a YouTube Video ID (Any Link, Any Device)

Every YouTube video has a unique 11-character ID. You need it to build thumbnail URLs, embed codes, API requests or spreadsheets of videos. Here’s where to find it in every type of link.

Where the ID is in each link

Everything after the ID — &t=, ?si=, &feature= — is extra information (start time, sharing source) and isn’t part of the ID.

On a computer

Open the video and look at the address bar. The ID is the 11 characters after v=, stopping at the next & if there is one.

On a phone

1. In the YouTube app, tap Share → Copy link.
2. Paste the link somewhere you can read it (notes, a chat with yourself).
3. The ID is the 11 characters after youtu.be/ and before ?.

Many links at once

If you have a list of links — from a spreadsheet, a document or a chat — paste everything into our video ID extractor. It finds every YouTube link, removes duplicates and gives you the IDs, clean watch links and HD thumbnail links. You can copy the result as CSV for Google Sheets or Excel.

What you can do with a video ID

• Get the thumbnail: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/maxresdefault.jpg (see the thumbnail URL guide), or use the thumbnail downloader.
• Embed the video: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VIDEO_ID — the embed code generator builds the full code.
• Link to a moment: https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID?t=90 — see linking to a specific time.

Don’t confuse it with other IDs

Playlist IDs usually start with PL and are longer; channel IDs start with UC and have 24 characters. Only the 11-character code identifies a single video.

In YouTube Studio

If it’s your own video, open YouTube Studio → Content and click the video. The address bar shows studio.youtube.com/video/VIDEO_ID/edit, and the Video link box on the right side of the details page shows the short youtu.be/VIDEO_ID link. Both contain the same ID, and they work even for private and unlisted videos.

In a playlist link

A link like youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&list=PLxxxx contains two IDs: the video ID after v= and the playlist ID after list=. A link that only has youtube.com/playlist?list=… points to the whole playlist and contains no video ID — open one of its videos first.

Extract IDs in Google Sheets or Excel

If your links are in column A, this Google Sheets formula pulls the ID from watch, youtu.be, Shorts, embed and live links:

=REGEXEXTRACT(A2, "(?:v=|youtu\.be/|shorts/|embed/|live/)([A-Za-z0-9_-]{11})")

Excel doesn’t have REGEXEXTRACT in every version, so for Excel (or for hundreds of mixed links) it’s faster to paste everything into the video ID extractor and copy the CSV.

Check that an ID is correct

A valid ID is exactly 11 characters from A–Z, a–z, 0–9, - and _. IDs are case-sensitive: dQw4w9WgXcQ and dqw4w9wgxcq are different videos. To test one, open https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID; if YouTube says Video unavailable, the ID is mistyped, the video was deleted, or it’s private. A common copy mistake is losing the last character or including the ? or & after it.