To cite a TED Talk, cite the version you actually watched. A talk on TED.com and the same talk uploaded to YouTube are two different online versions: they can have different dates, titles, publishers or uploaders, URLs, and even different in-text authors in APA. This guide gives copy-ready APA 7, MLA 9, and Chicago 18 examples for both platforms.
TED.com: record the speaker, the date displayed by TED, the talk title, the TED or TEDx event when relevant, and the exact TED URL.
YouTube: record the channel, public date shown for the video, displayed video title, speaker, platform, and exact video URL. In APA, the channel becomes the author; in MLA and Chicago, the speaker can remain the creator while the channel is credited as uploader or poster.
TED.com vs YouTube: What Changes?
| Citation element | Watched on TED.com | Watched on YouTube |
|---|---|---|
| APA author | The speaker | The uploading channel or account |
| MLA lead | The speaker | The speaker when clearly responsible for the talk; name the channel after “uploaded by” |
| Chicago lead | The speaker or creator | The speaker or creator; record the channel as the posting party |
| Date | The month and year shown on the TED talk page | The full public date shown for the video on YouTube |
| Source details | TED Conferences or the named TED/TEDx event, depending on style | YouTube plus the channel name |
| URL | The exact TED talk page | The exact YouTube watch or share URL |
Do not mix the two versions. For example, do not use TED.com’s June 2010 date with YouTube’s URL unless your style explicitly asks you to describe both the original event and the later upload. The official pages for Brené Brown’s talk show the distinction clearly: TED lists TEDxHouston and June 2010, while the official TED YouTube upload is dated January 3, 2011.
Details to Collect Before Formatting
- Confirm the platform. Record whether you watched the talk on TED.com, YouTube, or another site.
- Copy the displayed title. Keep the original wording, then apply the capitalization required by your citation style.
- Record both roles. Save the speaker’s name and, for YouTube, the channel name. They are not interchangeable in every style.
- Record the version’s date. TED may show only a month and year; YouTube normally displays a full public date for the video.
- Save the exact URL. Link to the talk or video, not the TED or YouTube home page.
- Note the timestamp. For a direct quotation or a precise moment, record where the passage begins, such as
3:15.
YouTube distinguishes the date a file was uploaded from the public date shown beneath a video; those dates can differ when a video was private or scheduled before publication. For a citation, use the public date displayed with the version you watched, as explained in YouTube’s official upload help.
If you watched the YouTube version, the companion guide on how to cite a YouTube video explains channel names and timestamps in more detail. For a recording that is not a TED Talk, use the broader video citation guide.
How to Cite a TED Talk in APA 7
APA has a dedicated distinction for TED Talks. When the video is on TED.com, list the speaker as author, use the month and year shown on the talk page, italicize the title in sentence case, add [Video], name TED Conferences, and give the URL.
Speaker, A. A. (Year, Month). Title of talk in sentence case [Video]. TED Conferences. URL
Parenthetical: (Speaker, Year)
Narrative: Speaker (Year)
Direct quotation: (Speaker, Year, timestamp)
Brown, B. (2010, June). The power of vulnerability [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability
Parenthetical: (Brown, 2010)
Direct quotation beginning at 3:15: (Brown, 2010, 3:15)
When you cite the YouTube version, APA uses the uploading account as the author to aid retrieval. Use the full public date shown with the video and the title displayed on YouTube, followed by [Video], YouTube, and the URL. You may name the speaker naturally in your sentence, but the parenthetical citation still keys to the channel-author reference.
Channel Name. (Year, Month Day). Video title in sentence case [Video]. YouTube. URL
Parenthetical: (Channel Name, Year)
Direct quotation: (Channel Name, Year, timestamp)
TED. (2011, January 3). The power of vulnerability | Brené Brown | TED [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o
Parenthetical: (TED, 2011)
Direct quotation beginning at 3:15: (TED, 2011, 3:15)
These rules and the TED.com-versus-YouTube author change follow the official APA Style TED Talk reference examples. Our APA citation generator has generic Website and YouTube inputs, but no dedicated TED Talk type; see the tool limitations below before relying on its output for this source.
How to Cite a TED Talk in MLA 9
MLA treats a talk as an online lecture or speech. Begin with the speaker, put the talk title in quotation marks, and give the website or video platform as the container. An older official TED example used the former site label TED: Ideas Worth Spreading; the current website is branded simply as TED, which is the container used below. For YouTube, include the uploading channel as a contributor.
Speaker Last Name, First Name. “Title of Talk.” TED, Mon. Year, URL.
In-text: (Speaker Last Name timestamp)
Brown, Brené. “The Power of Vulnerability.” TED, June 2010, www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability.
Specific moment: (Brown 3:15)
If Brown is named in the sentence: (3:15)
Speaker Last Name, First Name. “Displayed Video Title.” YouTube, uploaded by Channel Name, Day Mon. Year, URL.
In-text: (Speaker Last Name timestamp)
Brown, Brené. “The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown | TED.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 3 Jan. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o.
Specific moment: (Brown 3:15)
The public MLA page for online lectures and speeches supplies the speaker-first TED pattern, while its current online-work page confirms the core-elements approach. MLA’s current in-text overview says to include a timestamp or another location marker when it helps identify the cited part. The MLA citation generator can format a generic online video, but its YouTube form cannot store speaker and uploader as separate roles.
How to Cite a TED Talk in Chicago 18
Chicago 18’s official video examples lead with the speaker or creator. For a TED.com video, identify it as a TED Talk, give the event or location when supplied, the date, duration when useful, and the URL. In notes and bibliography, the first note uses commas while the bibliography entry separates major elements with periods.
Bibliography: Brown, Brené. “The Power of Vulnerability.” TED Talk, TEDxHouston, June 2010. Video. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability.
First note: 1. Brené Brown, “The Power of Vulnerability,” TED Talk, TEDxHouston, June 2010, https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability.
Shortened note at 3:15: 2. Brown, “Power of Vulnerability,” at 3:15.
For the YouTube version, keep the known speaker as creator and identify the channel as the party that posted the video. Chicago does not turn the uploader into the author merely because the video is on YouTube.
Bibliography: Brown, Brené. “The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown | TED.” TED Talk, TEDxHouston, June 2010. Posted January 3, 2011, by TED. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o.
First note: 1. Brené Brown, “The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown | TED,” TED Talk, TEDxHouston, June 2010, posted January 3, 2011, by TED, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o.
Chicago author-date
Brown, Brené. 2010. “The Power of Vulnerability.” TED Talk, TEDxHouston, June. Video. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability.
In-text at 3:15: (Brown 2010, at 3:15)
The current Chicago 18 notes-bibliography guide includes both a TED Talk and a separately posted YouTube lecture; the matching author-date guide shows the same source types. The Brown entries above apply those official patterns to the verified TED and YouTube metadata. Chicago’s official examples include a duration when one is available; add it only after verifying the value displayed by the version you watched. The Chicago citation generator does not collect the event, runtime, speaker, and uploader as distinct TED Talk fields, so manually verify its result.
What This Site’s Generator Can and Cannot Do
The current generator has generic Website and YouTube source forms. It does not have a dedicated TED Talk, speech, lecture, television, or episode workflow, and it does not automatically look up metadata from a pasted TED or YouTube URL.
- The YouTube form can hold a channel, upload date, title, and URL, which is enough for a generic online-video draft.
- It cannot reliably preserve the speaker and channel as two separate roles for MLA or Chicago.
- It has no separate fields for TED/TEDx event, venue, original talk date, runtime, or a quoted timestamp locator.
- The Website form does not automatically apply APA’s special TED Talk pattern with
[Video]and TED Conferences.
Use the appropriate generator only as a formatting starting point, then compare the result with the platform-specific template above. Do not describe the tool as a TED metadata lookup or a TV citation generator.
Common TED Talk Citation Mistakes
- Mixing platform metadata: the date and URL must describe the version you watched.
- Using the speaker as APA’s YouTube author: APA uses the uploading channel for a YouTube video.
- Using the channel as Chicago’s author when the speaker is known: Chicago leads with the creator and records who posted the video separately.
- Omitting APA’s media label: place
[Video]immediately after the italicized title. - Adding a year to an MLA parenthetical citation: use the speaker or title plus a timestamp, not the year.
- Claiming the original event date is the YouTube date: a talk presented in 2010 may have been published on YouTube in 2011.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the author when you cite a TED Talk?
On TED.com, APA, MLA, and Chicago normally lead with the speaker. On YouTube, APA uses the uploading channel as author. MLA and Chicago can still lead with the known speaker or creator and identify the channel as uploader or posting party.
How do you cite a TED Talk in APA from the TED website?
List the speaker, the month and year shown on TED, the italicized title in sentence case, [Video], TED Conferences, and the exact URL. The in-text citation uses the speaker and year.
Does the TED Talk citation change if I watched it on YouTube?
Yes. Cite the YouTube version’s displayed title, full public date, channel, platform, and URL. In APA, the channel becomes the author. In MLA and Chicago, the known speaker can remain the creator while the channel is credited separately.
What is the in-text citation for a TED Talk?
For TED.com, APA uses the speaker and year, such as (Brown, 2010); for YouTube, it uses the channel and year, such as (TED, 2011). MLA uses the first element of the Works Cited entry plus a timestamp when relevant, such as (Brown 3:15). Chicago notes-bibliography uses a numbered note and a shortened note for later citations.