How to Embed a YouTube Video
WP Media Player wraps a YouTube video in its own player chrome, so the viewer never sees the default YouTube embed. Paste the URL, pick a preset, and the title and thumbnail fill in automatically.
Paste the YouTube URL
Open the media editor from WP Media Player > Media > Add New. In the source picker, select YouTube. Paste any YouTube video URL — standard watch links, shortened youtu.be links, embed URLs, and Shorts URLs are all recognized.
When you continue to the editor, the video title and thumbnail are fetched automatically from YouTube’s oEmbed API. The thumbnail is set as the poster image, and the title fills the Video Title field. You can override either of these manually if needed.
Choose a Preset and Aspect Ratio
With the YouTube video loaded, pick a Preset from the six free skins or leave the default. Set the Aspect Ratio — YouTube videos are almost always 16:9, but you can override this if the content is vertical or square.
The Load Strategy dropdown controls when the player initializes. Visible is the default and works well for most YouTube embeds.
Enable Privacy-Enhanced Mode (Optional)
YouTube privacy-enhanced mode routes embeds through youtube-nocookie.com instead of youtube.com. This prevents YouTube from setting cookies on the viewer’s browser until they actually press play.
To enable it site-wide, go to WP Media Player > Settings > YouTube and toggle Privacy Mode on.
Add a Subscribe Button (Optional)
In WP Media Player > Settings > YouTube, toggle Show Subscribe Button to display a YouTube subscribe button on every YouTube embed. When enabled, the YouTube Channel URL or ID field appears. Paste your full channel URL or just the channel ID — the UC... string.
The subscribe button appears inside the player chrome below the video, styled to match the selected preset.
What to Check
- The video title and thumbnail appear in the media editor after pasting the URL
- The player renders on the frontend with the correct preset skin
- If privacy mode is enabled, the embed src uses youtube-nocookie.com
- The subscribe button appears below the player when the setting and channel URL are both set
Next Steps
YouTube is one of six supported sources. To embed from Vimeo or a direct file URL instead, see how to embed a Vimeo video or how to use a direct video or audio URL.