Regex for youtube URL

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\/|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

The captured groups are:

  1. protocol
  2. subdomain
  3. domain
  4. path
  5. video code
  6. query string

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


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\_-]+)

  • 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.

Tags:

Regex

Youtube

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