To link to a moment in a YouTube video on a computer, pause at that moment, right-click the player and choose "Copy video URL at current time". The link in your clipboard starts playback at that second. On a phone, or for any other moment, add ?t= and the time to the link yourself.
On a computer: two ways
Right-click the player. Pause where you want the link to start, right-click anywhere on the picture and choose "Copy video URL at current time".
Use the Share button. Pause at the moment, click Share below the player, tick "Start at" (it fills in the current time, and you can type another one), then click Copy.
By hand: add the time to the link
A timestamp link is the normal link plus a t value in seconds, or in minutes and seconds. Use ? when the link has no question mark yet, and & when it already has one:
| Link | Opens at |
|---|---|
https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID?t=90 | 1:30 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID&t=90s | 1:30 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID&t=1h2m5s | 1:02:05 |
This works the same on every device, so it is also the way to do it on a phone.
On a phone
The share sheet in the YouTube app has no start time. Tap Share, choose Copy link, paste the link where you want it and add ?t= with the time to the end, for example ?t=245 for 4:05. When the copied link already has a ? in it, add &t=245 instead.
Timestamps in a description become chapters
Write times at the start of lines in a description, and YouTube turns them into links. On your own uploads they also split the progress bar into chapters, when the list follows YouTube's rules:
- The first timestamp is
0:00. - There are at least three timestamps, in order.
- Every chapter is at least 10 seconds long.
0:00 Intro
1:45 Setting up the account
6:20 The first transcript
12:05 Questions
Times in comments become links too, which is how viewers point each other to a moment.
When the link starts at the beginning
- The separator is wrong. A link with
?t=afterwatch?v=has two question marks; the second one must be&. - The player is embedded on a website. The embedded player reads
startinstead oft, in seconds:https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID?start=90. It also readsend, to stop at a given second.
Finding the moment in a long recording
A timestamp link is only as quick as finding the second it points to. In a long recording, search the text instead of scrubbing:
- YouTube's own transcript panel shows a time on every line, and clicking a line jumps there. Our guide on getting the built-in transcript shows where it is.
- A YoutubeToText transcript starts a new paragraph at every change of speaker and at least every 30 seconds, each with its time, so you can search everything that is said and read off the second you need. For chapters, ask the built-in AI on your transcript for a list of sections with a time and a title, then check the times by playing them before you paste them in. On a long one the AI reads the first part of the transcript only, roughly 25 to 35 minutes of speech.