YouTube Embedded Players and Player Parameters

https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID

<iframe id="ytplayer" type="text/html" width="640" height="360"
  src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M7lc1UVf-VE?autoplay=1&origin=http://example.com"
  frameborder="0"></iframe>

<div id="ytplayer"></div>

<script>
  // Load the IFrame Player API code asynchronously.
  var tag = document.createElement('script');
  tag.src = "https://www.youtube.com/player_api";
  var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
  firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag);

  // Replace the 'ytplayer' element with an <iframe> and
  // YouTube player after the API code downloads.
  var player;
  function onYouTubePlayerAPIReady() {
    player = new YT.Player('ytplayer', {
      height: '360',
      width: '640',
      videoId: 'M7lc1UVf-VE'
    });
  }
</script>

https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID?playlist=VIDEO_ID&loop=1

April 27, 2021

The playsinline parameter definition has been updated slightly to explain that the parameter pertains to both mobile browsers on iOS and iOS WebViews.

October 15, 2020

The autoplay parameter definition has been updated to explain that if you enable Autoplay, playback will occur without any user interaction with the player; playback data collection and sharing will therefore occur upon page load.

October 13, 2020

Note: This is a deprecation announcement for the embedded player functionality that lets you configure the player to load search results. This announcement affects the player's list and listType parameters.

This change will become effective on or after 15 November 2020. After that time, setting the listType parameter value to search will generate a 4xx response code, such as 404 (Not Found) or 410 (Gone).

As an alternative, you can use the YouTube Data API's search.list method to retrieve search results and then load selected videos in the player.

In addition to the change described above, the showinfo parameter, which was deprecated in 2018, has been removed from this document.

August 23, 2018

Note: This is a deprecation announcement for the showinfo parameter. In addition, the behavior for the rel parameter is changing. Titles, channel information, and related videos are an important part of YouTube’s core user experience, and these changes help to make the YouTube viewing experience consistent across different platforms.

• The behavior for the rel parameter is changing on or after September 25, 2018. The effect of the change is that you will not be able to disable related videos. However, you will have the option of specifying that the related videos shown in the player should be from the same channel as the video that was just played.
  
  To be more specific:
  • Prior to the change, if the parameter's value is set to 0, then the player does not show related videos.
  • After the change, if the rel parameter is set to 0, the player will show related videos that are from the same channel as the video that was just played.
• The showinfo parameter, which indicates whether the player should display information like the video title and uploader before the video starts playing, is also being deprecated. Following the change, the channel avatar and video title will always display before playback begins, when playback is paused, and when playback ends. The avatar being displayed is new behavior that will be consistent across all embedded players.

These changes will become effective on or after September 25, 2018. After that time, the showinfo parameter will be ignored. The behavior following the changes is consistent with the current default behavior for embedded players with the exception of the channel avatar changes mentioned above.

August 16, 2018

The cc_lang_pref parameter can be used to specify the default language that the player will use to display captions. This parameter can be used in conjunction with the cc_load_policy parameter to automatically show captions in the specified language during playback.

September 15, 2017

The controls parameter's definition has been updated to remove references to the deprecated Flash (AS3) player. The value 2 has been deprecated as it was originally designed to provide a performance improvement for embeds that loaded a Flash player.

June 12, 2017

The new widget_referrer parameter helps to enable more accurate YouTube Analytics reporting when the YouTube player is embedded in a widget, and that widget is then embedded in a web page or application.

November 1, 2016

This document has been updated to remove references to the deprecated Flash (AS3) player as well as to parameters only supported by that player. The YouTube Flash player was deprecated in January 2015.

October 20, 2016

This update contains the following changes:

• The disablekb parameter definition has been corrected to note that the default value is 0, which means that keyboard controls are enabled. A value of 1 indicates that keyboard controls should be disabled.

  The list of keyboard controls that the player supports has also been updated to include the following:

  • [f]: Toggle full-screen display
  • [j]: Jump back 10 seconds in the current video
  • [k]: Play / Pause
  • [l]: Jump ahead 10 seconds in the current video
  • [m]: Mute or unmute the video
  • [0-9]: Jump to a point in the video. 0 jumps to the beginning of the video, 1 jumps to the time 10% into the video, 2 jumps to the point 20% into the video, and so forth.

  In addition, the effect of pressing the [arrow left] or [arrow right] keys has changed. These keys now jump 5 seconds back (arrow left) or ahead (arrow right) in the current video.

August 11, 2016

This update contains the following changes:

• The newly published YouTube API Services Terms of Service ("the Updated Terms"), discussed in detail on the YouTube Engineering and Developers Blog, provides a rich set of updates to the current Terms of Service. In addition to the Updated Terms, which will go into effect as of February 10, 2017, this update includes several supporting documents to help explain the policies that developers must follow.

  The full set of new documents is described in the revision history for the Updated Terms. In addition, future changes to the Updated Terms or to those supporting documents will also be explained in that revision history. You can subscribe to an RSS feed listing changes in that revision history from a link in that document.

December 18, 2015

European Union (EU) laws require that certain disclosures must be given to and consents obtained from end users in the EU. Therefore, for end users in the European Union, you must comply with the EU User Consent Policy. We have added a notice of this requirement in our YouTube API Terms of Service.

August 19, 2015

• The autohide parameter has been deprecated for the HTML5 player. In HTML5 players, the video progress bar and player controls display or hide automatically. That behavior corresponds to an autohide setting of 1.

• The theme parameter has been deprecated for the HTML5 player. HTML5 players now always use the dark theme.

March 9, 2015

• The document has been updated to reflect the fact that YouTube <object> embeds, the YouTube Flash Player API and the YouTube JavaScript Player API have all been deprecated as of January 27, 2015. A deprecation warning appears in several sections of this document to help point readers to the IFrame Player API as an alternative.

• The definition of the autohide parameter has been updated to clarify the meaning of the parameter's values. The default behavior (autohide=2) is that if the player has a 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio, the player's video progress bar and player controls display or hide automatically. Otherwise, those controls are visible throughout the video.

• The definition of the hl parameter has been updated to note that the parameter value could be an ISO 639-1 two-letter language code or a fully specified locale. For example, fr and fr-ca are both valid parameter values.

• The definition of the enablejsapi parameter has been reworded to clarify that the parameter enables a player to be controlled via API calls. The API could be either the IFrame Player API or the JavaScript Player API.

October 14, 2014

• The HTML5 player now supports the cc_load_policy, disablekb, end, fs, list, and listType parameters. The parameter descriptions have been updated accordingly.

July 18, 2014

• The new hl parameter can be used to set the player's interface language. The interface language is used for tooltips in the player and also affects the default caption track. The selected caption track may also depend on the availability of caption tracks and user's individual language preferences.

  The parameter's value is an ISO 639-1 two-letter language code, though other language input codes, such as IETF language tags (BCP 47) may also be handled properly.

• The definition of the playsinline parameter, which only affects HTML5 players on iOS, has been modified slightly. The definition now notes that setting the parameter value to 1 causes inline playback only for UIWebViews created with the allowsInlineMediaPlayback property set to TRUE.

January 28, 2014

• The playsinline parameter controls whether videos play inline or fullscreen in an HTML5 player on iOS. Setting the value to 1 causes inline playback.

• The Selecting content to play section has been updated to explain how to find YouTube video IDs and playlist IDs using the YouTube Data API (v3) rather than the older API version.

• The controls parameter's definition has been updated to reflect the fact that the parameter value only affects the time that the Flash player actually loads in IFrame embeds. In addition, for IFrame embeds, the parameter value also determines when the controls display in the player. If you set the parameter's value to 2, then the controls display and the Flash player loads after the user initiates the video playback.

May 10, 2013

This update contains the following changes:

• YouTube no longer identifies experimental API features and services. Instead, we now provide a list of YouTube APIs that are subject to the deprecation policy.

July 20, 2012

This update contains the following changes:

• The definition of the controls parameter has been updated to reflect support for a parameter value of 2 and to explain that, for AS3 players, the parameter value determines the time when the Flash player actually loads. If the controls parameter is set to 0 or 1, the Flash player loads immediately. If the parameter value is 2, the Flash player does not load until the video playback is initiated.

June 5, 2012

This update contains the following changes:

• The HTML5 player now supports the color, modestbranding, and rel parameters, and the definitions for these parameters have been updated accordingly.

• The definition of the showinfo parameter has been updated to explain how that if the player is loading a playlist, and you explicitly set the parameter value to 1, then, upon loading, the player will also display thumbnail images for the videos in the playlist. Note that this functionality is only supported for the AS3 player since that is the only player that can load a playlist.

May 4, 2012

This update contains the following changes:

• The showinfo parameter's definition has been updated to reflect the fact that the HTML5 player supports this parameter.

May 3, 2012

This update contains the following changes:

• The new end parameter specifies the time, measured in seconds from the start of the video, when the player should stop playing a video. Note that the time when playback is stopped is measured from the beginning of the video and not from the value of either the start player parameter or the startSeconds parameter, which is used in YouTube Player API functions for loading or queueing a video.

March 29, 2012

This update contains the following changes:

• The new Embedding a YouTube player section explains different ways to embed a YouTube player in your application. This section covers manual IFrame embeds, IFrame embeds that use the IFrame Player API, and AS3 and AS2 object embeds. This section incorporates information from the old Example usage section, which has been removed.

• The new Selecting content to play section explains how to configure the player to load a video, a playlist, search results for a specified query, or uploaded videos for a specified user.

• The new list and listType parameters let you specify the content that the player should load. You can specify a playlist, a search query, or a particular user's uploaded videos.

• The definitions of the fs and rel parameters have been updated to more clearly explain the default parameter values for the AS3 player.

• The border, color1, egm, hd, and showsearch parameters, which are all only supported for the deprecated AS2 Player API, have been moved to a new section named deprecated parameters only used in the AS2 Player API.

• The document no longer provides a way to filter the parameter list to only display parameters supported in either the AS3, AS2, or HTML5 player. Instead, each parameter definition has been updated to identify the players that support that parameter.

August 11, 2011

This update contains the following changes:

• The new theme and color parameters let you customize the appearance of the embedded player's player controls. See the YouTube API blog for more information.

June 8, 2011

This update contains the following changes:

• The new modestbranding parameter lets you use a YouTube player that does not show a YouTube logo. As of this release, the parameter was only supported for the AS3 embedded player and for IFrame embeds that loaded the AS3 player. As of June 5, 2012, the HTML5 player also supported this parameter.

February 14, 2011

This update contains the following changes:

• The documentation has been updated to note that the AS2 Player API has been deprecated. The deprecation of the AS2 Player API was actually announced on October 14, 2009.

February 3, 2011

This update contains the following changes:

• The documentation has been updated to identify parameters supported in the HTML5 (IFrame) embedded player.

• The document now displays all of the parameters supported in any of YouTube's embedded players (HTML5, AS3, AS2).

• The following parameters are supported in the AS2 player but have been deprecated for the newer AS3 and HTML5 players: border, color1, color2, egm, hd, and showsearch.

  In addition, the loop parameter has limited support in the AS3 player and in IFrame embeds, which could load either an AS3 or HTML player. Currently, the loop parameter only works in the AS3 player when used in conjunction with the playlist parameter. To loop a single video, set the loop parameter to 1 and set the playlist parameter value to the same video ID already specified in the Player API URL:
  

  https://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID?version=3&loop=1&playlist=VIDEO_ID

  Similarly, the controls and playlist parameters are supported in the AS3 and HTML5 players but are not and will not be supported in the AS2 player.

  As noted above, IFrame embeds can load either an AS3 or HTML5 player. Though some parameters are not supported in both players, an IFrame embed that loads the AS3 player will support all parameters that work with that player and ignore all other parameters. Similarly, an IFrame embed that loads the HTML5 player will support all parameters that work with that player while ignoring all other parameters.

• The parameter list has been updated to include the autohide parameter, which indicates whether the player's video controls will automatically hide after a video begins playing.

• The parameter list has been updated to include the controls parameter, which indicates whether the player's video controls will display at all. (Player controls do display by default.)

• The parameter list has been updated to include the playlist parameter, which specifies a comma-separated list of video IDs to play.

• The definition of the fs has been updated to note that the fullscreen option will not work if you load the YouTube player into another SWF.

• The example at the end of the document has been updated to use the embedded AS3 player instead of the embedded AS2 player. The parameters used in the example have also been updated to only include parameters that the AS3 player supports.

  In addition, the instructions for constructing the URLs that contain player parameters have been updated to reflect the URL formats used by the AS3 and AS2 embedded and chromeless players as well as by the HTML5 player.