How do I get the YouTube video ID from a URL?

I want to get the v=id from YouTube’s URL with JavaScript (no jQuery, pure JavaScript).

Example YouTube URL formats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8nQa1cJyX8&a=GxdCwVVULXctT2lYDEPllDR0LRTutYfW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8nQa1cJyX8

Or any other YouTube format that contains a video ID in the URL.

Result from these formats

u8nQa1cJyX8

Solution 1:

I made an enhancement to Regex provided by "jeffreypriebe" because he needed a kind of YouTube URL is the URL of the videos when they are looking through a channel.

Well no but this is the function that I have armed.

<script type="text/javascript">
function youtube_parser(url){
    var regExp = /^.*((youtu.be\/)|(v\/)|(\/u\/\w\/)|(embed\/)|(watch\?))\??v?=?([^#&?]*).*/;
    var match = url.match(regExp);
    return (match&&match[7].length==11)? match[7] : false;
}
</script>

These are the types of URLs supported

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg&feature=feedrec_grec_index
http://www.youtube.com/user/IngridMichaelsonVEVO#p/a/u/1/QdK8U-VIH_o
http://www.youtube.com/v/0zM3nApSvMg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg#t=0m10s
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0zM3nApSvMg?rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg
http://youtu.be/0zM3nApSvMg

Can be found in [http://web.archive.org/web/20160926134334/] http://lasnv.net/foro/839/Javascript_parsear_URL_de_YouTube

Solution 2:

I simplified Lasnv's answer a bit.

It also fixes the bug that WebDeb describes.

Here it is:

var regExp = /^.*(youtu\.be\/|v\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/|watch\?v=|\&v=)([^#\&\?]*).*/;
var match = url.match(regExp);
if (match && match[2].length == 11) {
  return match[2];
} else {
  //error
}

Here is a regexer link to play with: http://regexr.com/3dnqv

Solution 3:

You don't need to use a regular expression for this.

var video_id = window.location.search.split('v=')[1];
var ampersandPosition = video_id.indexOf('&');
if(ampersandPosition != -1) {
  video_id = video_id.substring(0, ampersandPosition);
}

Solution 4:

None of these worked on the kitchen sink as of 1/1/2015, notably URLs without protocal http/s and with youtube-nocookie domain. So here's a modified version that works on all these various Youtube versions:

// Just the regex. Output is in [1].
/^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*/

// For testing.
var urls = [
    '//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/up_lNV-yoK4?rel=0',
    'http://www.youtube.com/user/Scobleizer#p/u/1/1p3vcRhsYGo',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKZDdG9FTKY&feature=channel',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ-K7nCVnBI&playnext_from=TL&videos=osPknwzXEas&feature=sub',
    'http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom?v=NRHVzbJVx8I',
    'http://www.youtube.com/user/SilkRoadTheatre#p/a/u/2/6dwqZw0j_jY',
    'http://youtu.be/6dwqZw0j_jY',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dwqZw0j_jY&feature=youtu.be',
    'http://youtu.be/afa-5HQHiAs',
    'http://www.youtube.com/user/Scobleizer#p/u/1/1p3vcRhsYGo?rel=0',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKZDdG9FTKY&feature=channel',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ-K7nCVnBI&playnext_from=TL&videos=osPknwzXEas&feature=sub',
    'http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom?v=NRHVzbJVx8I',
    'http://www.youtube.com/embed/nas1rJpm7wY?rel=0',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFZbP64dsU',
    'http://youtube.com/v/dQw4w9WgXcQ?feature=youtube_gdata_player',
    'http://youtube.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ?feature=youtube_gdata_player',
    'http://youtube.com/?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
    'http://youtube.com/?vi=dQw4w9WgXcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
    'http://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
    'http://youtube.com/watch?vi=dQw4w9WgXcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player',
    'http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?feature=youtube_gdata_player'
];

var i, r, rx = /^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*/;

for (i = 0; i < urls.length; ++i) {
    r = urls[i].match(rx);
    console.log(r[1]);
}

Solution 5:

/^.*(youtu.be\/|v\/|e\/|u\/\w+\/|embed\/|v=)([^#\&\?]*).*/

Tested on:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0zM3nApSvMg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0zM3nApSvMg?rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg&feature=feedrec_grec_index
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg
http://youtu.be/0zM3nApSvMg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg#t=0m10s
http://www.youtube.com/user/IngridMichaelsonVEVO#p/a/u/1/KdwsulMb8EQ
http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/v/dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/e/dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/?feature=player_embedded&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
http://www.youtube.com/user/IngridMichaelsonVEVO#p/u/11/KdwsulMb8EQ
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/6L3ZvIMwZFM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0

Inspired by this other answer.