Chicago 17th edition (notes–bibliography)
How to cite a YouTube video in Chicago 17th edition (notes–bibliography)
The person who uploaded a video is often not the person who made it, and styles disagree about whether the channel name, the real name, or both belong in the entry.
THE FORMAT
A YouTube video in Chicago, at a glance
Last, First. “Title of Video.” YouTube video, MM:SS. Posted Month Day, Year. URL.
Whitlock, Andrea. “How a Linotype Machine Actually Works.” YouTube video, 18:42. Posted August 12, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Pd9Qw2LmA.
1. Andrea Whitlock, “How a Linotype Machine Actually Works,” YouTube video, 18:42, posted August 12, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Pd9Qw2LmA.
In prose: 4. Whitlock, “Linotype Machine.”
Northgate Institute for Public Health. “Air Quality Sensors: A Field Demonstration.” YouTube video, 9:05. Posted May 2, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz7Ax0QpN4c.
In text: 7. Northgate Institute for Public Health, “Air Quality Sensors: A Field Demonstration,” YouTube video, 9:05, posted May 2, 2022, at 3:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz7Ax0QpN4c.
Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE automatically — cite a source once and the bibliography builds itself. See how citations work .
BEFORE YOU FORMAT
What Chicago needs from a YouTube video
Elements to collect
- Uploader — the channel name, plus the creator’s real name when it is known
- Full date the video was posted
- Title of the video, exactly as it appears
- Platform name
- URL of the specific video
Rules specific to this entry
- Chicago puts the person or body responsible for the content first. That is often the channel rather than a named individual — when the two differ, lead with the creator and add “posted by [channel]” before the date.
- Give the total running time in the entry, and point at a specific moment in the note with a timestamp: “at 4:12.”
- “YouTube video” is a description of the medium, so it stays in roman type. Only the video’s own title is set off, and it takes quotation marks rather than italics.
- If you cite more than a handful of videos, settle on one arrangement of title, medium, running time, and date, and apply it to all of them — Chicago cares more about internal consistency here than about a single canonical order.
Building the entry, step by step
Collect the details
Before you format anything, gather every element Chicago needs for a YouTube video: Uploader — the channel name, plus the creator’s real name when it is known; Full date the video was posted; Title of the video, exactly as it appears; Platform name.
Build the bibliography entry
Arrange those details in the Chicago order: Last, First. “Title of Video.” YouTube video, MM:SS. Posted Month Day, Year. URL.
Add the in-text citation
In the body of your paper, cite it as 1. Andrea Whitlock, “How a Linotype Machine Actually Works,” YouTube video, 18:42, posted August 12, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Pd9Qw2LmA. — or work the same reference into your sentence as 4. Whitlock, “Linotype Machine.”.
Check it against the exceptions
Chicago puts the person or body responsible for the content first. That is often the channel rather than a named individual — when the two differ, lead with the creator and add “posted by [channel]” before the date.
Chicago RULES
The conventions behind every Chicago entry
The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) is the authority. Where a journal or department publishes its own house rules, those win — check your submission guidelines before the bibliography is final.
The rules that apply across every source — author order, capitalization, how the bibliography is sorted, and where Chicago entries most often go wrong — are collected on the Chicago 17th edition (notes–bibliography) guide.
The same YouTube video in another style
Switching styles late in a draft is normal. Here is the same source formatted five other ways.
Questions about Chicago and online videos
What if the YouTube video has no author?
Move the title into the author position and alphabetize by the first significant word of that title — ignoring an initial “A”, “An” or “The”. In the text, use a shortened form of the title where the author name would go.
What do I need before I can cite a YouTube video?
Uploader — the channel name, plus the creator’s real name when it is known, Full date the video was posted, Title of the video, exactly as it appears, and the rest of the elements listed above. The person who uploaded a video is often not the person who made it, and styles disagree about whether the channel name, the real name, or both belong in the entry.
Is there anything unusual about a YouTube video in Chicago?
Chicago puts the person or body responsible for the content first. That is often the channel rather than a named individual — when the two differ, lead with the creator and add “posted by [channel]” before the date.
What else catches people out here?
Give the total running time in the entry, and point at a specific moment in the note with a timestamp: “at 4:12.”
Can I reformat this YouTube video in another style later?
By hand, you would retype the entry — the element order, punctuation and italics all differ between styles. In Copyeditor, sources are stored as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole reference list at once.
Cite it once
and never reformat it again
Copyeditor keeps sources as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole bibliography at once.
