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YouTube Video ID Finder

Get the video ID from any YouTube link, plus clean watch and embed links.

  • 100% free
  • Works instantly
  • Nothing is sent anywhere

Last reviewed by the OnlineToolPro team

Supports watch, youtu.be, Shorts, embed, live and mobile links. Up to 50 at once. Runs in your browser.

What is the YouTube Video ID Finder?

A video ID is the 11-character code that identifies every YouTube video — it's the part after “v=” in a normal link, or after “youtu.be/” in a short one. This tool pulls the ID out of any YouTube link format and gives you clean watch and embed links.

How it works

How to use the YouTube Video ID Finder

3 simple steps. No experience needed.

What can you use it for?

  • Get the ID a plugin, website builder or app asks for when you add a video.
  • Tidy up messy links that include playlist, timestamp or tracking parameters.
  • Turn a Shorts or mobile link into a normal watch link.
  • Extract IDs from a list of links in one go, for a spreadsheet or report.

Good to know

What is a YouTube video ID?

Every YouTube video has an 11-character ID made of letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores — for example dQw4w9WgXcQ. It appears in every link format, but in different places, which makes it easy to copy the wrong part.

You need the ID for embeds, API requests, analytics spreadsheets, chapters tools and many browser extensions.

Supported link formats

  • youtube.com/watch?v=ID (including extra parameters like &t=42s or &list=…)
  • youtu.be/ID short links
  • youtube.com/shorts/ID
  • youtube.com/embed/ID and youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ID
  • youtube.com/live/ID, m.youtube.com and music.youtube.com links

Example

Paste https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=abc123 and you get the ID dQw4w9WgXcQ, the canonical URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ (tracking parameters removed) and the embed URL https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ.

Limitations

  • Parsing happens in your browser and doesn't check whether the video exists or is public.
  • Channel, playlist and search URLs don't contain a single video ID and are reported as not recognised.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do I find the ID of a YouTube Short?

It's the part after /shorts/ in the link. Paste the Shorts URL here and the tool extracts it for you.

Does this remove tracking parameters?

Yes. The canonical URL contains only the video ID, so parameters like ?si= and &feature= are dropped.

Can I convert many links at once?

Yes. Paste up to 50 links, one per line, and use “Copy all IDs” to copy them as a list.

Related guides

Step-by-step help for getting more out of the video id finder.

All guides

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