How to Cite a Video in APA
Updated October 2026
Citing a video in APA comes down to one template and a handful of rules. Below: the exact 7th edition format, a real example produced by our citation engine, and the in-text form — or paste your source into the generator on this page and copy the finished citation.
The APA format
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in sentence case. Site Name. https://url
APA (7th edition) formats a video reference as shown above. A real example, generated by our citation engine:
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. (2023, September 12). Why you should put yourself first. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVTXPUF4Oz4
In-text(Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, 2023)
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Citation style
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020). The 7th dropped the publisher location and the "Retrieved from" prefix that the 6th required.
Finding the pieces
Or skip the hunt: Paste the video's URL into the generator. It works out what the source is, fills every field from the source's own record, and is already set to APA.
- Author — the channel or creator who uploaded it
- Date — the upload date shown on the video page
- Title — the video's title as published
- Platform — YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok — serves as the site/container name
APA's formatting rules at work
- Authors are inverted with initials: Alvarez, M.
- Titles use sentence case — only the first word, proper nouns, and the word after a colon are capitalized
- The date comes right after the author, in parentheses
- DOIs are formatted as full links: https://doi.org/10.xxxx
Video-specific pitfalls
- Quote a video with a timestamp in place of a page number: (Channel, 2023, 2:30)
- If the creator's real name is known, APA puts it first with the channel in brackets
- Films and TV episodes have their own richer formats — these patterns are for online video
In-text citations in APA
APA cites in the text with author and date: (Alvarez, 2024) for a paraphrase, with a page or paragraph locator for quotes — (Alvarez, 2024, p. 12) or (Alvarez, 2024, para. 3). Three or more authors shorten to et al. from the first citation: (Harris et al., 2020).
No author? A short version of the title stands in, in quotes: ("First Words of Title," 2024). No date? Use (Author, n.d.).
Building the References
Every in-text citation pairs with a full entry on the References page, alphabetized by author. Add each citation to your bibliography as you generate it, and the Bibliography Builder assembles and exports the finished page to Word with the title, ordering, and indentation APA requires.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the basic APA format for a video?
- Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in sentence case. Site Name. https://url — see the worked example above, generated by the same engine that powers the free citation tool.
- How do I cite a specific moment?
- With a timestamp where a page number would go: (Author, Year, 2:30) in APA, (Author 02:30) in MLA. Pause the video at the quote to read it off.
- How do I cite a video in APA in-text?
- Author and year: (Alvarez, 2024), adding a page or paragraph locator for direct quotes.
- Can I get this citation in other styles too?
- Yes — every result in the generator renders APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE simultaneously. Generate once, switch styles with one click.