Regex for youtube URL

Question

I am using the following regex for validating youtube video share url's.

var valid = /^(http\:\/\/)?(youtube\.com|youtu\.be)+$/;
alert(valid.test(url));
return false;

I want the regex to support the following URL formats:

http://youtu.be/cCnrX1w5luM  
http://youtube/cCnrX1w5luM  
www.youtube.com/cCnrX1w5luM  
youtube/cCnrX1w5luM  
youtu.be/cCnrX1w5luM

I tried different regex but I am not getting a suitable one for share links. Can anyone help me to solve this.

score 101 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '23 at 13:10

Here's a regex I use to match and capture the important bits of YouTube URLs with video codes:

^((?:https?:)?\/\/)?((?:www|m)\.)?((?:youtube(-nocookie)?\.com|youtu.be))(\/(?:[\w\-]+\?v=|embed\/|live\/|v\/)?)([\w\-]+)(\S+)?$

Works with the following URLs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk&feature=featured
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//m.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk
m.youtube.com/watch?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk

https://www.youtube.com/v/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?fs=1&hl=en_US
http://www.youtube.com/v/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?fs=1&hl=en_US
//www.youtube.com/v/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?fs=1&hl=en_US
www.youtube.com/v/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?fs=1&hl=en_US
youtube.com/v/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?fs=1&hl=en_US

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?autoplay=1
https://www.youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://www.youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//www.youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
www.youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
https://youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?autoplay=1
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
https://youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk

https://youtu.be/DFYRQ_zQ-gk?t=120
https://youtu.be/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
http://youtu.be/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
//youtu.be/DFYRQ_zQ-gk
youtu.be/DFYRQ_zQ-gk

https://www.youtube.com/HamdiKickProduction?v=DFYRQ_zQ-gk

https://www.youtube.com/live/sMbxjePPmkw?feature=share

The captured groups are:

protocol
subdomain
domain
path
video code
query string

https://regex101.com/r/vHEc61/1

https://youtube.com/foo_bar- and https://youtube.com/foo_bar and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= are not valid YouTube video URLs, but this regex will match them. — Joey Mason, Jul 27 '17 at 17:00
It doesn't match a valid link like https://www.youtube.com/live/sMbxjePPmkw?feature=share . I have added `|live\/` after `|embed\/` part. **Final regex version**: `^((?:https?:)?\/\/)?((?:www|m)\.)?((?:youtube(-nocookie)?\.com|youtu.be))(\/(?:[\w\-]+\?v=|embed\/|live\/|v\/)?)([\w\-]+)(\S+)?$` — nezort11, May 21 '23 at 22:59
This matches `youtuxbe/-` which is not a valid YouTube URL. Changing the regex to `^((?:https?:)?\/\/)?((?:www|m)\.)?((?:youtube(-nocookie)?\.com|youtu\.be))(\/(?:[\w\-]+\?v=|embed\/|live\/|v\/)?)([\w\-]+)(\S+)?$` fixes this for me. — Ilshidur, Aug 31 '23 at 08:29

Bernhard Barker · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-28T22:02:16.710

You're missing www in your regex
The second \. should optional if you want to match both youtu.be and youtube (but I didn't change this since just youtube isn't actually a valid domain - see note below)
+ in your regex allows for one or more of (youtube\.com|youtu\.be), not one or more wild-cards.
You need to use a . to indicate a wild-card, and + to indicate you want one or more of them.

Try:

^(https?\:\/\/)?(www\.youtube\.com|youtu\.be)\/.+$

Live demo.

If you want it to match URLs with or without the www., just make it optional:

^(https?\:\/\/)?((www\.)?youtube\.com|youtu\.be)\/.+$

Live demo.

Invalid alternatives:

If you want www.youtu.be/... to also match (at the time of writing, this doesn't appear to be a valid URL format), put the optional www. outside the brackets:

^(https?\:\/\/)?(www\.)?(youtube\.com|youtu\.be)\/.+$

youtube/cCnrX1w5luM (with or without http://) isn't a valid URL, but the question explicitly mentions that the regex should support that. To include this, replace youtu\.be with youtu\.?be in any regex above. Live demo.

I think the question mark in `youtu\.?be` is wrong: you allways want to have the exact string `youtu.be` in the URL if the URL is indeed is pointing to http(s)://youtu.be. ? — Tomáš Pospíšek, Nov 28 '21 at 20:18

score 20 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 29 '20 at 12:45

20

I know I'm like 2 years late to the party, but I was needing to write something up anyway, and seems to fit every test case that I can throw at it. Should be able to reference the first match ($1) to get the ID. Matches the http, https, www and non-www, youtube.com, youtu.be, /watch? and /watch.php? on youtube.com (youtu.be does not use these), and it supports matching even when there are other variables in the URL string (?t= for time, ?list= for playlists, etc).

(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:youtu\.be\/|(?:www\.|m\.)?youtube\.com\/(?:watch|v|embed)(?:\.php)?(?:\?.*v=|\/))([a-zA-Z0-9\_-]+)

edited Sep 29 '20 at 12:45

mzalazar

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answered Jun 12 '15 at 04:14

xeon927

313
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Any chance you could update this to support https://www.youtube.com/watch/IDHERE, which is valid? – Jacob Morrison Jun 17 '16 at 03:30
4

@JacobMorrison Another two years late, but what the hell - updated the code :) – xeon927 Oct 13 '18 at 11:56
`^(?:https?:)?(?:\/\/)?(?:youtu\.be\/|(?:www\.|m\.)?youtube\.com\/(?:watch|v|embed)(?:\.php)?(?:\?.*v=|\/))([a-zA-Z0-9\_-]{7,15})(?:[\?&][a-zA-Z0-9\_-]+=[a-zA-Z0-9\_-]+)*$` Improved it a bit so it checks entry starts and ends with url, so things like `extra text youtube.com/embed/DFYRQ_zQ-gk extra text` are not valid. Also added validation id is not less than 7 symbols – cuddlemeister Mar 02 '21 at 17:49

Joey Mason · Answer 4 · 2017-04-27T17:05:03.720

12

Format for YouTube videos has changed. This regex works for all cases:

^(http(s)??\:\/\/)?(www\.)?((youtube\.com\/watch\?v=)|(youtu.be\/))([a-zA-Z0-9\-_])+

Tests here.

edited Apr 27 '17 at 17:05

answered Dec 07 '16 at 23:51

Joey Mason

707
1
8
15

what has changed? phuc77's answer seems better. – Ashish Gupta Jul 27 '17 at 11:32
2

Not all of these tests will pass using phuc77's answer: https://regex101.com/r/RyE7OM/2/tests. Specifically, https://youtube.com/foo_bar and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= should not validate. – Joey Mason Jul 27 '17 at 16:56
This answer should be used by anyone searching for a solution. It is the best I've found till now. – Naveen Niraula Jun 05 '18 at 08:51
1

If you wanted to catch the ID, then there's a typo in your regex, the + sign at the end should be before the last parenthesis because otherwise it's going to capture only last letter. The final regex should look like this `^(http(s)??\:\/\/)?(www\.)?((youtube\.com\/watch\?v=)|(youtu.be\/))([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)` – Maciej Pk Feb 15 '19 at 09:15
The phuc77 seems better, this answer doesn't pass all the test : https://regexr.com/4b2fh – user2226755 Mar 27 '19 at 06:02

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 30 '15 at 14:35

5

Based on so many other regex; this is the best I have got:

((http(s)?:\/\/)?)(www\.)?((youtube\.com\/)|(youtu.be\/))[\S]+

Test: http://regexr.com/3bga2

answered Jul 30 '15 at 14:35

yusuf

3,596
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Games Brainiac · Answer 6 · 2013-10-15T09:46:05.623

3

Try this:

((http://)?)(www\.)?((youtube\.com/)|(youtu\.be)|(youtube)).+

http://regexr.com?36o7a

edited Oct 15 '13 at 09:46

answered Oct 15 '13 at 09:20

Games Brainiac

80,178
33
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There are a few unnecessary brackets there - `...(youtube\.com/|youtu.be|youtube).*`, and you probably want to escape the `.` in `youtu.be`, and you may want to put the `/` outside (so it's included for `youtu.be` and `youtube`). – Bernhard Barker Oct 15 '13 at 09:41

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 25 '21 at 16:16

3

I took one of the answers from here and added support for a few edge cases that I noticed in my dataset. This should work for pretty much any valid url.

^(?:https?:)?(?:\/\/)?(?:youtu\.be\/|(?:www\.|m\.)?youtube\.com\/(?:watch|v|embed)(?:\.php)?(?:\?.*v=|\/))([a-zA-Z0-9\_-]{7,15})(?:[\?&][a-zA-Z0-9\_-]+=[a-zA-Z0-9\_-]+)*(?:[&\/\#].*)?$

answered Apr 25 '21 at 16:16

zmanplex

31
1

This seems to catch all the cases plus it gets the video ID in a separate group – Xequtor Jun 02 '22 at 19:24
This works better than any other regex in this thread, Thank @zmanplex – Xequtor Jun 03 '22 at 06:24

Akash Jain · Answer 8 · 2017-10-11T14:18:46.290

1

I tried this one and it works fine for me.

(?:http(?:s)?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:(?:watch)?\?(?:.*&)?v(?:i)?=|(?:embed|v|vi|user)\/))([^\?&\"'<> #]+)

You can check here https://regex101.com/r/Kvk0nB/1

edited Oct 11 '17 at 14:18

answered Oct 11 '17 at 14:13

Akash Jain

894
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Are you sure that this is working? – Jorgesys Nov 15 '21 at 19:41

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 27 '21 at 10:41

https://regexr.com/62kgd

^((http|https)\:\/\/)?(www\.youtube\.com|youtu\.?be)\/((watch\?v=)?([a-zA-Z0-9]{11}))(&.*)*$

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPz9zqakRbk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPz9zqakRbk&t=11

http://youtu.be/cCnrX1w5luM&y=12

http://youtu.be/cCnrX1w5luM

http://youtube/cCnrXswsluM

www.youtube.com/cCnrX1w5luM

youtube/cCnrX1w5luM

user3342816 · Answer 10 · 2023-04-08T21:55:55.023

Modified from phuk using

capturing only-token / using non-capturing groups for all but token
multi-line with comments /x or here @x x(PCRE_EXTENDED)
using @ as delimiters as to be able to use / without escape.
non-escape on - at end of character lists.
E.g. [\w-] not [\w\-]

Example at regex101 with an experimental inclusion of # Possible: oembed?url=...v=:

https://regex101.com/r/0pZCmF/1

$yttok_regex = <<<EOR
@^

# Possible: http://
#       https://
#       //
(?:(?:https?:)?//)?

# Possible: www.
#       m.
(?:(?:www|m)\.)?

# Possible: youtube.com
#       youtube-nocookie.com
#       youtu.be
(?:(?:youtube(?:-nocookie)?\.com|youtu.be))?

# Possible: /[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+?v=
#       /embed/
#       /v/
(?:/(?:[\w-]+\?v=|embed/|v/)?)?

# TOKEN:    [a-zA-Z0-9_-]
([\w-]+)

# Possible:
#       Anything not space+
(?:\S+)?

# EOF pattern with x(PCRE_EXTENDED) flag:
$@x
EOR;

Optionally use:

# TOKEN:    [a-zA-Z0-9_-]
([\w-]{11})

To match only 11-char long tokens.

(PS: as SO still refuses to honor 8-char wide tab, the lineup is not as nice as locally, - but hey. They also do what ever they can to mangle up the source, - which used to work. But they clearly hate tabs to eternity and back and would like all code to be non-indented. Likely negative indented just to make it even worse. But hey. Why use letters at all in code - perhaps we should start using emoticons instead. (The code would in many cases be more readable)) — user3342816, Apr 04 '23 at 14:02

rolandvarga · Answer 11 · 2013-10-15T09:26:22.663

-5

Check this pattern instead:

r'(?i)(http.//|https.//)*[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+\.\w+'

edited Oct 15 '13 at 09:26

answered Oct 15 '13 at 09:16

rolandvarga

126
1
10

Regex for youtube URL

11 Answers11

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