How to Find a YouTube Video ID From Any Link (Shorts, youtu.be)

The short answer

A YouTube video ID is the 11-character code that identifies one video, such as AbC123xyz_0. In a normal link it comes after watch?v=; in a short link it comes after youtu.be/; in a Shorts link it comes after /shorts/. Stop at the first & or ? after it. Paste any common link into the YouTube Thumbnail Downloader and it pulls out the ID for you and shows the video's thumbnails.

What a video ID looks like

Every YouTube video has an ID that is:

• 11 characters long
• made of letters (upper and lower case matter), digits, hyphens - and underscores _
• the same no matter which link format, app or country you use

The ID is what you need for embedding a video, for building thumbnail URLs, for some analytics and API work, and for telling two similar-looking videos apart. Everything else in a link (timestamps, playlist codes, share tracking) is extra.

Where the ID is in each type of link

Link type	Example	The ID
Standard watch link	youtube.com/watch?v=AbC123xyz_0	AbC123xyz_0
Watch link with timestamp	youtube.com/watch?v=AbC123xyz_0&t=42s	AbC123xyz_0
Watch link in a playlist	youtube.com/watch?v=AbC123xyz_0&list=PL...	AbC123xyz_0
Short share link	youtu.be/AbC123xyz_0?si=k9...	AbC123xyz_0
Shorts	youtube.com/shorts/AbC123xyz_0	AbC123xyz_0
Embed code	youtube.com/embed/AbC123xyz_0?start=10	AbC123xyz_0
Mobile site	m.youtube.com/watch?v=AbC123xyz_0	AbC123xyz_0
YouTube Music	music.youtube.com/watch?v=AbC123xyz_0	AbC123xyz_0
Playlist page only	youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...	No video ID

The rule of thumb: find v=, youtu.be/, /shorts/ or /embed/, then copy the next 11 characters.

What the extra parts mean

• &t=42s or ?t=42 starts playback at 42 seconds.
• &list=... is the playlist the video was opened from.
• &index=3 is the video's position in that playlist.
• ?si=... is a share identifier added by the Share button. It is not part of the video ID.
• ?start=10 in embed links sets the start time.

None of these change which video it is.

How to get the link on each device

On a computer

Open the video and copy the address from the browser's address bar, or click Share under the video and then Copy. The Share button gives a youtu.be link.

On the YouTube app (Android or iPhone)

Tap Share under the video, then Copy link. You get a youtu.be/...?si=... link. For a Short, tap the share arrow on the right side of the screen and copy the link.

From an embedded video on a website

If the site shows a YouTube player, the page source contains an address with /embed/ followed by the ID. In most browsers you can also right-click the player and choose Copy video URL.

Using the thumbnail downloader to read the ID

Open the YouTube Thumbnail Downloader.

Paste the link and click Get Thumbnails (or press Enter).

The tool reads the ID and loads four thumbnail sizes from YouTube's image server: Max-Res HD, Standard, High and Medium.

The thumbnail addresses it shows include the ID, in the form img.youtube.com/vi/AbC123xyz_0/maxresdefault.jpg, so you can confirm you have the right video at a glance. For what each size is and why Max-Res is sometimes missing, see how to download a YouTube thumbnail in HD.

Links the tool recognises

The tool finds the ID in links that contain any of these:

• youtube.com/watch?v= (including www., m. and music. versions)
• youtu.be/
• youtube.com/shorts/
• youtube.com/embed/

Links it does not recognise, and the workaround

If you see Could not find a video ID, the link is in a format the tool does not read. These are the usual ones:

• Live links: youtube.com/live/AbC123xyz_0
• Privacy-enhanced embeds: youtube-nocookie.com/embed/AbC123xyz_0
• Watch links where v= is not first, such as watch?app=desktop&v=AbC123xyz_0 or watch?feature=share&v=AbC123xyz_0
• Old-style links: youtube.com/v/AbC123xyz_0
• A bare ID pasted on its own

The fix is the same for all of them: find the 11-character ID by eye, then type youtu.be/ in front of it and paste that, for example youtu.be/AbC123xyz_0. The tool reads that format.

Checking you have the right ID

• Count the characters. It should be exactly 11. If you have 12 or more, you probably copied part of &t= or ?si=.
• Watch the case. AbC123xyz_0 and abc123xyz_0 are different videos, or one may not exist at all.
• Look for stray punctuation. A full stop or bracket copied from a chat message at the end of a link breaks it.
• Test it. Open youtube.com/watch?v= plus your ID in a browser. If the right video loads, the ID is correct.

Common problems

The thumbnail shows a grey placeholder. The ID may be wrong, or the video may be private or deleted. YouTube's image server returns a placeholder image rather than an error, so the tool cannot tell you which. Check the ID by opening the video.

A playlist link gives no thumbnails. A playlist?list= page is not one video. Open the first video in the playlist and copy that link instead.

The ID has a hyphen or underscore and looks wrong. It is not. These are normal characters in YouTube IDs.

You need IDs for many videos. Doing it by hand is fine for a few. For a whole channel or playlist, the official YouTube Data API returns video IDs in bulk and is more reliable than copying links one at a time.

If you are planning a video and want to check how your title, description and links will look when shared, the Meta Tag Generator is useful for the page you embed it on.