YouTube video ID finder
Free · Runs in your browser · Updated 26 September 2026
YouTube video ID finder
Video ID
aBcD1234EfGRead from a watch link.
Standard addresses
- Watch page
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBcD1234EfG
- Short link
- https://youtu.be/aBcD1234EfG
- Embed
- https://www.youtube.com/embed/aBcD1234EfG
Thumbnail image addresses
- Small, 120 × 90
- https://img.youtube.com/vi/aBcD1234EfG/default.jpg
- Medium, 320 × 180
- https://img.youtube.com/vi/aBcD1234EfG/mqdefault.jpg
- High, 480 × 360
- https://img.youtube.com/vi/aBcD1234EfG/hqdefault.jpg
- Standard, 640 × 480
- https://img.youtube.com/vi/aBcD1234EfG/sddefault.jpg
- Maximum, 1280 × 720
- https://img.youtube.com/vi/aBcD1234EfG/maxresdefault.jpg
These are the addresses YouTube uses; the tool does not load them. Not every size exists for every video, and thumbnails belong to the people who made them.
Found 1 video ID.
Where the ID is
The same ID, in every link shape.
| Link | Where the ID is |
|---|---|
youtube.com/watch?v=ID | The v parameter. Other parameters (t, list, feature) are ignored. |
youtu.be/ID | The first part of the path. |
youtube.com/shorts/ID | After /shorts/. |
youtube.com/embed/ID | After /embed/. Also youtube-nocookie.com. |
youtube.com/live/ID | After /live/. |
m.youtube.com and music.youtube.com | The same shapes on the mobile and music sites. |
Using the ID
What you can build from it.
With the ID you can write the standard addresses by hand, which the tool also lists: the watch page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID, the short link https://youtu.be/ID and the embed address https://www.youtube.com/embed/ID. YouTube also serves thumbnail images at https://img.youtube.com/vi/ID/hqdefault.jpg and similar names for other sizes; not every size exists for every video.
- The tool never loads those addresses. Nothing you paste is sent to YouTube or anywhere else.
- Thumbnails and videos belong to the people who made them. Having the address does not give you the right to reuse them.
- IDs are case-sensitive: aBc and abc are different videos.
FAQ
Questions people ask first.
- What does a YouTube video ID look like?
- Eleven characters made of letters, digits, hyphens and underscores, for example aBcD1234EfG. It is the part after v= in a watch link, after the last slash in a youtu.be link, and after /shorts/, /embed/ or /live/ in those links.
- Does this tool contact YouTube?
- No. It reads the ID out of the text you paste, in your browser. It does not fetch the video, its title or its thumbnail, so it works offline once the page has loaded and nothing about your list leaves your device.
- Can it find a channel ID or a playlist ID?
- No. It finds video IDs only. Channels and playlists have their own IDs, and clips have IDs that are not the video’s. If you paste one of those links, the tool says which kind it is.
- Why do some links have extra parts such as t= or si=?
- Those are a start time (t=), a sharing tracker (si=) or a playlist (list=). They are not part of the ID. The tool ignores them and returns only the 11 characters.
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