How do I get the YouTube video ID from a URL?

user_380562 0
Viewed 346457

I want to get the v=id from YouTube’s URL with JavaScript (no jQuery, pure JavaScript).

Example YouTube URL formats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8nQa1cJyX8&a=GxdCwVVULXctT2lYDEPllDR0LRTutYfW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8nQa1cJyX8

Or any other YouTube format that contains a video ID in the URL.

Result from these formats

u8nQa1cJyX8

youtube url javascript regex
47 Answers

The best solution (from 2019-2021) I found is that:

function YouTubeGetID(url){
   url = url.split(/(vi\/|v=|\/v\/|youtu\.be\/|\/embed\/)/);
   return (url[2] !== undefined) ? url[2].split(/[^0-9a-z_\-]/i)[0] : url[0];
}

I found it here.

/*
* Tested URLs:
var url = 'http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/4e_kz79tjb8?version=3';
url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=g-vrec&v=Y1xs_xPb46M';
url = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ab25nviakcw#';
url = 'http://youtu.be/Ab25nviakcw';
url = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab25nviakcw';
url = '<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ab25nviakcw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>';
url = '<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/Ab25nviakcw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/Ab25nviakcw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>';
url = 'http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/Ab25nviakcw/default.jpg';
url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGL22PTIOAM&feature=g-all-xit';
url = 'BGL22PTIOAM';
*/
user_80021800

Given that YouTube has a variety of URL styles, I think Regex is a better solution. Here is my Regex:

^.*(youtu.be\/|v\/|embed\/|watch\?|youtube.com\/user\/[^#]*#([^\/]*?\/)*)\??v?=?([^#\&\?]*).*

Group 3 has your YouTube ID

Sample YouTube URLs (currently, including "legacy embed URL style") - the above Regex works on all of them: 

http://www.youtube.com/v/0zM3nApSvMg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0zM3nApSvMg?rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg&feature=feedrec_grec_index
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg
http://youtu.be/0zM3nApSvMg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg#t=0m10s
http://www.youtube.com/user/IngridMichaelsonVEVO#p/a/u/1/QdK8U-VIH_o

Hat tip to Lasnv

user_15920

tl;dr.

Matches all URL examples on this question and then some.

let re = /(https?:\/\/)?(((m|www)\.)?(youtube(-nocookie)?|youtube.googleapis)\.com.*(v\/|v=|vi=|vi\/|e\/|embed\/|user\/.*\/u\/\d+\/)|youtu\.be\/)([_0-9a-z-]+)/i;
let id = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o".match(re)[7];

ID will always be in match group 8.

Live examples of all the URLs I grabbed from the answers to this question: https://regexr.com/3u0d4

Full explanation:

As many answers/comments have brought up, there are many formats for youtube video URLs. Even multiple TLDs where they can appear to be "hosted".

You can look at the full list of variations I checked against by following the regexr link above.

Lets break down the RegExp.

^ Lock the string to the start of the string. (https?:\/\/)? Optional protocols http:// or https:// The ? makes the preceding item optional so the s and then the entire group (anything enclosed in a set of parenthesis) are optional.

Ok, this next part is the meat of it. Basically we have two options, the various versions of [optional-subdomain].youtube.com/...[id] and the link shortened youtu.be/[id] version.

(                                                  // Start a group which will match everything after the protocol and up to just before the video id.
  ((m|www)\.)?                                     // Optional subdomain, this supports looking for 'm' or 'www'.
  (youtube(-nocookie)?|youtube.googleapis)         // There are three domains where youtube videos can be accessed. This matches them.
  \.com                                            // The .com at the end of the domain. 
  .*                                               // Match anything 
  (v\/|v=|vi=|vi\/|e\/|embed\/|user\/.*\/u\/\d+\/) // These are all the things that can come right before the video id. The | character means OR so the first one in the "list" matches.
  |                                                // There is one more domain where you can get to youtube, it's the link shortening url which is just followed by the video id. This OR separates all the stuff in this group and the link shortening url.
  youtu\.be\/                                      // The link shortening domain
)                                                  // End of group

Finally we have the group to select the video ID. At least one character that is a number, letter, underscore, or dash.

([_0-9a-z-]+)

You can find out much more detail about each part of the regex by heading over the regexr link and seeing how each part of the expression matches with the text in the url.

user_37389560

This regex matches embed, share and link URLs.

const youTubeIdFromLink = (url) => url.match(/(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.|m\.)?youtu(?:be)?\.(?:com|be)(?:\/watch\/?\?v=|\/embed\/|\/)([^\s&\?\/\#]+)/)[1];


console.log(youTubeIdFromLink('https://youtu.be/You-Tube_ID?rel=0&hl=en')); //You-Tube_ID

console.log(youTubeIdFromLink('https://www.youtube.com/embed/You-Tube_ID?rel=0&hl=en')); //You-Tube_ID

console.log(youTubeIdFromLink('https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=You-Tube_ID&rel=0&hl=en')); //You-Tube_ID
user_61719220

I have got a Regex which supports commonly used url's which also includes YouTube Shorts

Regex Pattern:

(youtu.*be.*)\/(watch\?v=|embed\/|v|shorts|)(.*?((?=[&#?])|$))

Javascript Return Method:

function getId(url) {
  let regex = /(youtu.*be.*)\/(watch\?v=|embed\/|v|shorts|)(.*?((?=[&#?])|$))/gm;
  return regex.exec(url)[3];
}

Types of URL's supported:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg&feature=feedrec_grec_index
http://www.youtube.com/user/IngridMichaelsonVEVO#p/a/u/1/QdK8U-VIH_o
http://www.youtube.com/v/0zM3nApSvMg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg#t=0m10s
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0zM3nApSvMg?rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg
http://youtu.be/0zM3nApSvMg
https://youtube.com/shorts/0dPkkQeRwTI?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/0dPkkQeRwTI

With Test:

https://regex101.com/r/5JhmpW/1

user_176750120

You can use the following code to get the YouTube video ID from a URL:

url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg"
VID_REGEX = /(?:youtube(?:-nocookie)?\.com\/(?:[^\/\n\s]+\/\S+\/|(?:v|e(?:mbed)?)\/|\S*?[?&]v=)|youtu\.be\/)([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11})/
alert(url.match(VID_REGEX)[1]);
user_101782800

This can get video id from any type of youtube links

var url= 'http://youtu.be/0zM3nApSvMg';
var urlsplit= url.split(/^.*(youtu.be\/|v\/|embed\/|watch\?|youtube.com\/user\/[^#]*#([^\/]*?\/)*)\??v?=?([^#\&\?]*).*/);
console.log(urlsplit[3]);
user_86537190

A slightly changed version from the one mantish posted:

var regExp = /^.*(youtu.be\/|v\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/|watch\?v=|\&v=)([^#\&\?]{11,11}).*/;
var match = url.match(regExp);
if (match) if (match.length >= 2) return match[2];
// error

This assumes the code is always 11 characters. I'm using this in ActionScript, not sure if {11,11} is supported in Javascript. Also added support for &v=.... (just in case)

user_9684510

I made a small function to extract the video id out of a Youtube url which can be seen below.

var videoId = function(url) {
   var match = url.match(/v=([0-9a-z_-]{1,20})/i);
   return (match ? match['1'] : false);
};

console.log(videoId('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'));
console.log(videoId('https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=17s&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'));
console.log(videoId('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&t=17s'));

This function will extract the video id even if there are multiple parameters in the url.

user_18950940

If someone needs the perfect function in Kotlin to save their time. Just hoping this helps

fun extractYTId(ytUrl: String?): String? {
    var vId: String? = null
    val pattern = Pattern.compile(
        "^https?://.*(?:youtu.be/|v/|u/\\w/|embed/|watch?v=)([^#&?]*).*$",
        Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE
    )
    val matcher = pattern.matcher(ytUrl)
    if (matcher.matches()) {
        vId = matcher.group(1)
    }
    return vId
}
user_92277550

Here's a ruby version of this:

def youtube_id(url)
   # Handles various YouTube URLs (youtube.com, youtube-nocookie.com, youtu.be), as well as embed links and urls with various parameters
   regex = /(?:youtube(?:-nocookie)?\.com\/(?:[^\/\n\s]+\/\S+\/|(?:v|vi|e(?:mbed)?)\/|\S*?[?&]v=|\S*?[?&]vi=)|youtu\.be\/)([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11})/
   match = regex.match(url)
   if match && !match[1].nil?
      match[1]
   else
      nil
   end
end

To test the method:

example_urls = [
   'www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/dQw4-9W_XcQ?rel=0',
   'http://www.youtube.com/user/Scobleizer#p/u/1/dQw4-9W_XcQ',
   'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=channel',
   'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ&playnext_from=TL&videos=osPknwzXEas&feature=sub',
   'http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ',
   'http://www.youtube.com/user/SilkRoadTheatre#p/a/u/2/dQw4-9W_XcQ',
   'http://youtu.be/dQw4-9W_XcQ',
   'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=youtu.be',
   'http://youtu.be/dQw4-9W_XcQ',
   'http://www.youtube.com/user/Scobleizer#p/u/1/dQw4-9W_XcQ?rel=0',
   'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ&playnext_from=TL&videos=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=sub',
   'http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ',
   'http://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4-9W_XcQ?rel=0',
   'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ',
   'http://youtube.com/v/dQw4-9W_XcQ?feature=youtube_gdata_player',
   'http://youtube.com/vi/dQw4-9W_XcQ?feature=youtube_gdata_player',
   'http://youtube.com/?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
   'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
   'http://youtube.com/?vi=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
   'http://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
   'http://youtube.com/watch?vi=dQw4-9W_XcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
   'http://youtu.be/dQw4-9W_XcQ?feature=youtube_gdata_player'
]

# Test each one
example_urls.each do |url|
   raise 'Test failed!' unless youtube_id(url) == 'dQw4-9W_XcQ'
end

To see this code and run the tests in an online repl you can also go here: https://repl.it/@TomChapin/youtubeid

user_15467850

i wrote a function for that below:

function getYoutubeUrlId (url) {
    const urlObject = new URL(url);
    let urlOrigin = urlObject.origin;
    let urlPath = urlObject.pathname;

    if (urlOrigin.search('youtu.be') > -1) {
        return urlPath.substr(1);
    }

    if (urlPath.search('embed') > -1) {
        // Örneğin "/embed/wCCSEol8oSc" ise "wCCSEol8oSc" return eder.
        return urlPath.substr(7);
    }

   
    return urlObject.searchParams.get('v');
},

https://gist.github.com/semihkeskindev/8a4339c27203c5fabaf2824308c7868f

user_109569180

In C#, it looks like this:

public static string GetYouTubeId(string url) {
    var regex = @"(?:youtube\.com\/(?:[^\/]+\/.+\/|(?:v|e(?:mbed)?|watch)\/|.*[?&amp;]v=)|youtu\.be\/)([^""&amp;?\/ ]{11})";

    var match = Regex.Match(url, regex);

    if (match.Success)
    {
        return match.Groups[1].Value;
    }

    return url;
  }

Feel free to modify.

user_79054370

Simplifying Jacob Relkin answer, all you need to do is this:

const extractVideoIdFromYoutubeLink = youtubeLink => {
    return youtubeLink.split( 'v=' )[1].split( '&' )[0];
};
user_70345170

Here's a radically different solution.

You could request the JSON oEmbed document from 'https://www.youtube.com/oembed?format=json&url=' . rawurlencode($url) and then thumbnail_url has a fixed format, match it with a PCRE pattern like https://i.ytimg.com/vi/([^/]+), the first group is the YouTube ID.

user_3088510

try npm package youtube-id

tested on different urls:

const tested = [
  'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={YOUTUBE_ID}&nohtml5=False',
  'https://youtu.be/{YOUTUBE_ID}',
  'www.youtube.com/embed/{YOUTUBE_ID}'
  // ....
]
user_29441370

Here's a shortest and the easiest regex for that

url = url+'&'    
regex = "v=(.*?)&|youtu.be\/(.*?)&"
user_116638020

Modified Regex from the above answer by Dipo with support of Youtube shorts link

(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?youtu(?:be)?\.(?:com|be)(?:\/watch\/?\?v=|\/embed\/|\/shorts\/|\/)(\w+)

tested Links

https://youtu.be/YOUTUBE_ID?123
https://www.youtube.com/embed/YOUTUBE_ID?123
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOUTUBE_ID?asd

https://youtu.be/YOUTUBE_ID&123
https://www.youtube.com/embed/YOUTUBE_ID&123
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOUTUBE_ID&asd

https://youtu.be/YOUTUBE_ID/123
https://www.youtube.com/embed/YOUTUBE_ID/123
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOUTUBE_ID/asd
https://youtube.com/shorts/YOUTUBE_ID?feature=share

Please check your test case from here

https://regex101.com/r/BUSmeK/1

user_128309570

Python3 version:

import re

def get_youtube_id(url):
   match = re.match('^.*((youtu.be\/)|(v\/)|(\/u\/\w\/)|(embed\/)|(watch\?))?\?v?=?(?P<id>\w*).*', url);
   return match.group('id')

If you are looking to include it in a shell/bash/zsh/fish script, here's how to do it:

echo -n "$YOUTUBE_URL" | python -c "import re; import sys; m = re.match('^.*((youtu.be\/)|(v\/)|(\/u\/\w\/)|(embed\/)|(watch\?))?\?v?=?(?P<id>\w*).*', sys.stdin.read()); sys.stdout.write(m.group('id'))"

Example:

echo -n "https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=APYVWYHS654" | python -c "import re; import sys; m = re.match('^.*((youtu.be\/)|(v\/)|(\/u\/\w\/)|(embed\/)|(watch\?))?\?v?=?(?P<id>\w*).*', sys.stdin.read()); sys.stdout.write(m.group('id'))"  

APYVWYHS654
user_44427490 
/^https?:\/\/(?:(?:youtu\.be\/)|(?:(?:www\.)?youtube\.com\/(?:(?:watch\?(?:[^&]+&)?vi?=)|(?:vi?\/)|(?:shorts\/))))([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11,})/i

Here is an optimized regex that finds the video id and follows the YouTube oEmbed definition for embed urls exactly. You can see my matches against test URLs here: https://regex101.com/r/q4mWg1/1

It purposefully doesn't match protocol relative URLs (// instead of https://) and youtube-nocookie.com URLs as those aren't in the oEmbed definition and decrease performance.

You can view the oEmbed spec here: https://oembed.com/

The offical providers definitions, including the one for YouTube, are here: https://oembed.com/providers.json

I found this very useful on Wordpress sites where I needed to match against the oEmbed URLs in the post content.

user_8382970
user_156288740

Here comes the Powerful Python

import pytube

yt = pytube.YouTube("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwM2ApskJy4")

video_id = yt.video_id

print("video id from utl..",video_id)
user_67844070
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