Keyboard ShortcutsYouTube keyboard shortcuts
YouTube's player can be controlled from the keyboard on a computer, and the keys are easier than aiming a mouse at the small buttons under a video. They are the same on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebooks, because they belong to the website and not to the system.
Click once on the video, or on the page, so that the player is listening to the keyboard. If the cursor is in the search box or a comment box, the keys type letters as usual.
The eight to learn first
- K or Space plays and pauses.
- J goes back 10 seconds and L goes forward 10 seconds.
- Left arrow and Right arrow move 5 seconds.
- F switches full screen on and off.
- M mutes and unmutes.
- C turns captions on and off.
- Shift + > speeds up and Shift + < slows down.
- 0 to 9 jump to 0 percent, 10 percent, and so on up to 90 percent of the video.
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| K or Space | Play or pause |
| J | Go back 10 seconds |
| L | Go forward 10 seconds |
| Left arrow | Go back 5 seconds |
| Right arrow | Go forward 5 seconds |
| 0 to 9 | Jump to that tenth of the video: 5 is the halfway point |
| Home | Go to the start |
| End | Go to the end |
| , | Go back one frame, while paused |
| . | Go forward one frame, while paused |
| Shift + N | Play the next video |
| Shift + P | Play the previous video, in a playlist |
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| M | Mute or unmute |
| Up arrow | Raise the volume |
| Down arrow | Lower the volume |
| Shift + > | Play faster |
| Shift + < | Play slower |
| C | Captions on or off |
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| F | Full screen on or off |
| T | Theatre mode on or off |
| I | Open the miniplayer |
| Esc | Leave full screen, or close the miniplayer |
| / | Go to the search box |
| Shift + ? | Show the list of keyboard shortcuts |
K is safer than Space
Space plays and pauses only when the player has the keyboard's attention. If you have clicked somewhere else on the page, Space scrolls the page down instead. K, J and L work wherever you are on the page, as long as you are not typing in a box. The three sit side by side on the keyboard: J back, K pause, L forward.
Studying from a video
For lectures and tutorials, a few keys make a real difference.
- Shift + > raises the speed in steps. Many people follow a clear speaker comfortably at one and a quarter or one and a half times the normal speed.
- Shift + < slows a fast speaker, or a demonstration you need to follow step by step.
- J takes you back ten seconds to hear a sentence again.
- C shows captions, which help with unfamiliar accents and technical words.
- , and . step one frame at a time while paused, useful for reading a line of code or a figure that flashes past.
- 0 to 9 jump around a long video quickly.
Volume keys and the arrow keys
Up and Down change the volume only when the player itself is selected. If the page scrolls instead, click the video once.
Phones and televisions
These keys are for the YouTube website on a computer. The phone app uses taps and gestures: a double tap on the left or right side of the video skips backwards or forwards. Televisions use the remote. A keyboard attached to a tablet works with some of the keys.
The official list
Press Shift + ? on any video page to see YouTube's own current list. Sites change their shortcuts from time to time, and that panel is always up to date.
This is an independent reference site. It is not connected with Microsoft, Apple, Google or any other maker of the programs named here. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to say where a shortcut works. Programs change; if a shortcut does not work for you, check the program's own help.