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A YouTube video ID is a unique 11-character code that YouTube assigns to every content uploaded to the platform. It consists of letters (A-Z, a-z), numbers (0-9), hyphens (-), and underscores (_). The video ID provides a clean reference and is especially helpful to developers, who use them for website embeds, data tracking, and making API calls. Follow the instructions for the respective YouTube content or URL type below to get the video ID.

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Standard YouTube video URL

Copy the 11 characters after v= in the video URL. Ignore any extra parameters after an ampersand (&) symbol. For example, if the video URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqz-KE-bpKQ, the video ID would be aqz-KE-bpKQ.

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YouTube Shorts or Live

Copy the final 11-character segment after the last forward slash (/) in the YouTube Shorts or Live URL. For example, if the Shorts URL is youtube.com/shorts/aqz-KE-bpKQ, the video ID would be aqz-KE-bpKQ.

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Shortened URL

Copy the characters following the final forward slash (/). For example, if the shortened URL is https://youtu.be/j4dMnAPZu70, the video ID would be j4dMnAPZu70.
Last modified on September 21, 2026