PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/TED Talk

How to Cite a TED Talk in APA 7

For a TED Talk on TED.com, an APA 7 reference lists the speaker as the author, the month and year shown on the talk's page, the talk title in italics and sentence case, the label [Video], TED Conferences as the publisher, and the URL: Gawande, A. (2012, March). For the same talk on YouTube, the account that posted it (TED) is the author, the date is the upload date, and YouTube is the site name. The in-text citation is the author and the year: (Gawande, 2012) for TED.com, or (TED, 2012) for YouTube.

The format

Speaker, A. A. (Year, Month). Title of the talk [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · 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

Paste the talk's TED.com address into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA recognizes TED talk pages: it lists the speaker as the author, fills in the talk title, and sets TED Conferences as the publisher, the way APA 7 shows a talk from TED's website. Then check the date. The talk's page shows the event with a month and year, like TED2012 • March 2012. That's the date APA uses, so set the Publication Date to that month and year.

Watched the talk on YouTube? Paste the YouTube link instead. PERRLA fills in the account that posted it (TED or TEDx Talks), the upload date, and YouTube as the platform, which is the format APA uses for the YouTube version. Then compare the title with YouTube's. If YouTube's title ends with the speaker's name or the event, add that back: it's part of the title.

Adding one by hand? Choose Videos (online), then A streaming (online) video. For TED.com, pick A video on its own website (e.g., video on TED website), add the speaker as an Individual, and type TED Conferences as the Website Name. For YouTube, pick A video posted on a streaming site (e.g., video on YouTube), add TED as a Group or Organization, and type YouTube as the Platform.

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

The parts of the reference

1. Author: the speaker or the account

Where you watched the talk decides the author.

  • On TED.com: the speaker, written as last name and initials.

Gawande, A.

  • On YouTube: the account that posted the video, which for most talks is TED, and for independently organized TEDx events is TEDx Talks. The speaker isn't the author here, so name them in your sentence.

TED.

2. Date

Give the most specific date the version you watched shows. On TED.com, the talk's page lists the event with a month and year, like TED2012 • March 2012, so the reference gets the year and the month.

(2012, March).

On YouTube, use the upload date under the video, with the year, month, and day. The same talk often has a different date on YouTube than on TED.com, so match the date to the version in your reference.

(2012, April 16).

3. Talk title and [Video]

Italicize the title of the talk and put it in sentence case. Then add the label [Video], not italic, and a period. If the title ends in a question mark, keep it, and the period still goes after the label.

How do we heal medicine? [Video].

On YouTube, TED titles usually include the speaker's name, and TEDx titles add the event too. Keep them: they're part of the title as posted, and APA's own TED example on YouTube keeps the speaker's name in the title.

What an ICU nurse learned about being human | Christie Watson | TEDxVienna [Video].

4. Publisher or site name

For a talk on TED.com, credit TED Conferences as the publisher. For a talk on YouTube, write YouTube as the site name. Neither one is italic.

TED Conferences.

5. URL

End with the link to the talk itself: the TED.com page for that talk, or the YouTube video. No period after it.

https://www.ted.com/talks/atul_gawande_how_do_we_heal_medicine

Examples

A TED Talk from the TED website

Surgeon and writer Atul Gawande's talk on why medicine needs teams and systems, given at TED2012. The talk's page on TED.com shows March 2012, so the reference has the year and month. The citation quotes the line "Autonomy was our highest value," which starts at 4:51 in TED's transcript.

  • Parenthetical citation(Gawande, 2012, 4:51)
  • Narrative citationGawande (2012, 4:51)

The same TED Talk on YouTube

Gawande's talk again, this time from TED's YouTube channel. TED posted it, so TED is the author. The date is the YouTube upload date, and the title keeps the speaker's name the way YouTube shows it.

  • Parenthetical citation(TED, 2012)
  • Narrative citationTED (2012)

A TEDx talk from the TED website

Researcher Brené Brown's talk on vulnerability, given at TEDxHouston and later featured on TED.com, where its page shows TEDxHouston • June 2010. A TEDx talk on TED.com takes the same format as any TED Talk: the speaker as author, TED Conferences as the publisher.

  • Parenthetical citation(Brown, 2010)
  • Narrative citationBrown (2010)

A TEDx talk on YouTube

A talk on nursing by Christie Watson, a writer and professor of medical and health humanities, given at TEDxVienna and posted on the TEDx Talks channel. TEDx Talks posted it, so it's the author, and the title keeps the speaker and the event as YouTube shows them.

  • Parenthetical citation(TEDx Talks, 2022)
  • Narrative citationTEDx Talks (2022)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for a TED Talk uses the author from your reference and the year. That's the speaker for a talk from TED.com, and TED or TEDx Talks for a talk from YouTube.

  • From TED.com: (Gawande, 2012) or Gawande (2012)
  • From YouTube: (TED, 2012) or (TEDx Talks, 2022)
  • A quote: add the timestamp where the quote starts, since a talk has no page numbers. Gawande (2012) said that in medicine's past, "autonomy was our highest value" (4:51). Or, in parentheses: "Autonomy was our highest value" (Gawande, 2012, 4:51).
  • The speaker isn't the author: for a talk from YouTube, name the speaker in your sentence and cite the account: Christie Watson argued that nursing doesn't set out to cure (TEDx Talks, 2022).

TED.com transcripts show the time for each line, which makes the timestamp easy to find. The timestamp belongs to the version you cite: a talk can start at a different second on YouTube than on TED.com. Want the backstory on TED, TEDx, and YouTube versions? Read our APA Obscura post on TED Talks.

Common mistakes

  • TED. (2012, March). How do we heal medicine? [Video]. TED Conferences.Gawande, A. (2012, March). How do we heal medicine? [Video]. TED Conferences.On TED.com, the speaker is the author. TED shows up only as the publisher, TED Conferences.
  • Gawande, A. (2012, April 16). How do we heal medicine? | Atul Gawande [Video]. YouTube.TED. (2012, April 16). How do we heal medicine? | Atul Gawande [Video]. YouTube.On YouTube, the author is the account that posted the talk. Name the speaker in your sentence instead.
  • Brown, B. (2010, June). The power of vulnerability [Video]. TEDxHouston.Brown, B. (2010, June). The power of vulnerability [Video]. TED Conferences.The event's name isn't the publisher. A TEDx talk on TED.com gets TED Conferences, like any other TED Talk.
  • Gawande, A. (2012). How do we heal medicine? [TED Talk]. TED Conferences.Gawande, A. (2012, March). How do we heal medicine? [Video]. TED Conferences.APA's label for a TED Talk is [Video], and the date is as specific as the talk's page allows, which on TED.com is the month and year.
  • Gawande, A. (2012, March). How do we heal medicine? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3QkaS249BcTED. (2012, April 16). How do we heal medicine? | Atul Gawande [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3QkaS249BcMixing the two versions gives a reference nobody can match. Each part (author, date, title, site, and URL) has to come from the version you watched.

Quick checklist

  • TED.com: the speaker as author; YouTube: TED or TEDx Talks as author
  • TED.com: the month and year from the talk's page; YouTube: the full upload date
  • Talk title in italics and sentence case, then [Video]
  • TED Conferences for TED.com, YouTube for YouTube
  • Every part from the same version, ending with its URL
  • A timestamp in the citation when you quote

Questions students ask

Who is the author of a TED Talk in APA 7?

It depends on where you watched it. On TED.com, the speaker is the author. On YouTube, the account that posted the video is the author, usually TED or TEDx Talks, and you can name the speaker in your sentence.

What date do I use for a TED Talk?

The date the version you watched shows. A talk's TED.com page shows the event with a month and year, so use those: (2012, March). On YouTube, use the full upload date under the video: (2012, April 16).

How do I cite a TEDx talk?

The same way as a TED Talk. On TED.com, the speaker is the author and TED Conferences is the publisher, with no extra mention of TEDx. On YouTube, TEDx talks are usually posted by the TEDx Talks channel, so that's the author, and the event's name stays in the title if YouTube shows it there.

Is the publisher TED or TED Conferences?

For a talk on TED.com, APA credits TED Conferences as the publisher. For a talk on YouTube, the account is named TED, and it goes in the author position, with YouTube as the site.

Can I cite the TED Talk transcript instead of the video?

Cite the talk as a video, and use the transcript to find your quote and its timestamp. The transcript shows the time for each line, so you can give the time where your quote starts: (Gawande, 2012, 4:51).

How do I cite a TED-Ed lesson on YouTube?

Like any YouTube video: the account that posted it, TED-Ed, is the author, followed by the upload date, the lesson title in italics with [Video], YouTube, and the URL.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.17, 8.28, 9.8, 9.14, 9.19, 9.21, and 10.12, and the APA Style website's TED Talk reference examples. Each talk was opened on TED.com and YouTube on October 21, 2026, to confirm the speaker or account, title, date shown, and URL; the 4:51 timestamp comes from TED's own transcript of the talk.

PERRLA builds the TED Talk reference from its TED.com or YouTube link, with the right author for the version you watched.

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