PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Online video (Vimeo and others)

How to Cite an Online Video in APA 7 (Vimeo and Others)

An online video in APA 7 follows one pattern wherever it's posted: the person or group responsible for it, the date, the title in italics, the label [Video], the name of the platform or website, and the URL. On Vimeo, the account that posted the video is the author and Vimeo is the site name. On an organization's own website, the organization's name goes where the site name goes, and it drops out when it's the same as the author. A recorded webinar gets [Webinar] instead of [Video]. The in-text citation is the author and the year: (McNelis, 2024).

The format

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the video [Video]. Platform or Website Name. https://xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts ยท Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Choose Videos (online) as the reference type. Then pick the kind of video:

  • A streaming (online) video, then A video posted on a streaming site (e.g., video on YouTube), for Vimeo and sites like it. Type Vimeo as the Platform.
  • A streaming (online) video, then A video on its own website (e.g., video on TED website), for a video on an organization's or company's site. Type the organization as the Website Name. If it's the same as the author, PERRLA leaves it out of the reference for you.
  • A recorded webinar for a webinar recording, so the reference says [Webinar].

Add the presenter as an Individual, or the organization as a Group or Organization with its abbreviation in the Abbrev. box, and PERRLA spells the name out in the reference and uses the abbreviation in your citations.

PERRLA's reference search reads Vimeo links too. Paste one in to bring in the title and the URL, then fill in the author (the account that posted the video, spelled out if it's an organization) and the upload date Vimeo shows. For a video on an organization's own site, add it by hand as above, so it gets the [Video] or [Webinar] label.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author

The author is the person or group responsible for the video. On a platform like Vimeo, that's the account that posted it. On an organization's website, it's the presenter named on the page, or the organization itself when no person is credited.

McNelis, A. M.

Write an organization's name out in full, even when the account or the page uses an abbreviation. The Vimeo account for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing is called NCSBN, but the reference spells out the name, and NCSBN goes in your in-text citations.

National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

2. Date

Use the most specific date the video's page gives: the full date if there is one, the month and year if that's all, or the year alone. For a recording of a conference talk, the event's month and year often appear with the video.

(2024, January).

No date anywhere on the video or its page? Write (n.d.). A copyright year in the site's footer doesn't count.

3. Title and [Video] or [Webinar]

Italicize the title and put it in sentence case. Then add the label in square brackets, not italic: [Video] for a video, or [Webinar] for the recording of a webinar.

The NCLEX uses computer adaptive testing (CAT) [Video].

Keep abbreviations the way the title writes them, like NCLEX and CAT. Sentence case lowers ordinary words, never acronyms.

4. Platform or website name

Next comes where the video lives. For a video posted on Vimeo, write Vimeo. For a video on an organization's own website, write the organization's name, the way a webpage reference names its site.

Vimeo.

When the website's name is the same as the author's, leave it out so the name doesn't appear twice, and go straight to the URL.

5. URL

End with the address of the page where the video plays, with no period after it and no "Retrieved from" in front of it. Copy it exactly, even when it has a typo in it, so the link still works.

https://vimeo.com/734784944

Examples

A Vimeo video from an organization

A video from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing explaining how computer adaptive testing works on the NCLEX. The organization posted it on Vimeo under the account name NCSBN. The reference spells the name out, and NCSBN shows up in the citations.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN], 2022)
  • Narrative citationNational Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN, 2022)
  • Later citations(NCSBN, 2022)

A video on an organization's own website

A talk by Angela M. McNelis of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, recorded at the 2024 NCSBN Scientific Symposium and posted on NCSBN's website. The page names her as the presenter and says the video is from the January 2024 symposium, so she's the author and the date is January 2024. The organization that runs the site goes where the site name goes.

  • Parenthetical citation(McNelis, 2024)
  • Narrative citationMcNelis (2024)

A recorded webinar

A webinar for parents, caregivers, and educators on irritability in children, presented by clinical psychologist Ramaris German and posted on the National Institute of Mental Health's website on October 23, 2024. It's a recording of a webinar, so it takes [Webinar]. The title is the one the NIMH page gives it, in sentence case.

  • Parenthetical citation(German, 2024)
  • Narrative citationGerman (2024)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for an online video gives the author from the reference and the year, wherever the video is posted.

  • A presenter: (McNelis, 2024) or McNelis (2024)
  • An organization with an abbreviation: spell the name out the first time with the abbreviation in square brackets, then use the abbreviation: (National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN], 2022), then (NCSBN, 2022). In a narrative citation it's National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN, 2022), then NCSBN (2022).
  • A webinar: the same as any video: (German, 2024)
  • A quote or a specific moment: add the timestamp where it starts, in minutes and seconds, or hours, minutes, and seconds for a long recording: (Author, Year, 1:05:09).
  • No date: (Author, n.d.)

Common mistakes

  • Vimeo. (2022, July 29). The NCLEX uses computer adaptive testing (CAT) [Video].National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2022, July 29). The NCLEX uses computer adaptive testing (CAT) [Video]. Vimeo.Vimeo is the platform, never the author. The author is the account that posted the video, and Vimeo goes after the title.
  • NCSBN. (2022, July 29).National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2022, July 29).Spell out a group author's name in the reference, even when the account uses an abbreviation. The abbreviation belongs in your citations.
  • The NCLEX Uses Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) [Video].The NCLEX uses computer adaptive testing (CAT) [Video].Video titles take sentence case in APA 7. Lower the ordinary words and keep acronyms like NCLEX and CAT in capitals.
  • McNelis, A. M. (2024, January). Simulation: Using screen-based virtual simulation in family nurse practitioner education. Retrieved from https://www.ncsbn.org/...McNelis, A. M. (2024, January). Simulation: Using screen-based virtual simulation in family nurse practitioner education [Video]. National Council of State Boards of Nursing. https://www.ncsbn.org/...A video needs its [Video] label and the name of the site it's on, and APA 7 dropped "Retrieved from" before a URL.
  • German, R. (2024, October 23). Community conversations webinar series video: Is your kid often angry, cranky, irritable? [Video]. National Institute of Mental Health.German, R. (2024, October 23). Community conversations webinar series video: Is your kid often angry, cranky, irritable? [Webinar]. National Institute of Mental Health.APA labels the recording of a webinar [Webinar], which tells readers it was a live online presentation, recorded.

Quick checklist

  • The presenter, the posting account, or the organization as author, with group names spelled out
  • The most specific date the page gives, or (n.d.)
  • Title in italics and sentence case, then [Video] or [Webinar]
  • The platform (Vimeo) or the organization that runs the website
  • No site name when it matches the author
  • The URL of the page where the video plays

Questions students ask

How do I cite a Vimeo video in APA 7?

Exactly like a YouTube video, with Vimeo as the site name: the account that posted it, the date, the title in italics, [Video], Vimeo, and the URL. If the account is an organization, spell out its full name in the reference.

How do I cite a video on a company's or organization's website?

Use the presenter named on the page as the author, or the organization if no person is credited. After the title and [Video], name the organization that runs the site, then give the page's URL. When the organization is also the author, skip the site name so it isn't listed twice.

How do I cite a recorded webinar?

List the presenter, the date, the title in italics, [Webinar], the organization that hosts the recording, and the URL. In PERRLA, choose Videos (online) and then A recorded webinar. A webinar you attended live that wasn't recorded, or that others can't watch, is a personal communication: cite it in your text only, with no reference entry.

The same video is on YouTube and on the organization's website. Which do I cite?

The one you watched. The two versions can have different dates and even different titles: NIMH's page dates the webinar above October 23, 2024, while NIMH's YouTube channel posted it on November 5, 2024 with a slightly different title. Copy every part of the reference from the same version.

What if an online video has no date?

Write (n.d.) in the reference, and use n.d. in the citation: (Author, n.d.). Look for a date on the video itself or near it on the page first, and don't use the copyright year in the site's footer.

My instructor posted a video in Canvas. How do I cite it?

If the video is also online for anyone to watch, on YouTube, Vimeo, or an organization's site, cite that public version so any reader can find it. If it's only in your course site, you can still cite it in a paper for that class, because your instructor and classmates can open it. Use the course site's name, like Canvas, where the site name goes, and its login page as the URL. For a paper going to readers outside the class, cite it as a personal communication instead.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.8, 8.9, 8.17, 8.21, 8.28, 9.8, 9.11, 9.14, 9.17, 9.19, 9.21, and 10.12, and the APA Style website's YouTube, TED Talk, and classroom-source guidance. The Vimeo video's account, title, and upload date were confirmed through Vimeo on October 21, 2026, and the NCSBN and NIMH pages were opened the same day to confirm each presenter, title, date, and URL.

PERRLA formats Vimeo videos, videos on organization websites, and recorded webinars, with the right label and the site name only when it belongs.

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