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This page covers streaming to YouTube with a stream key you copy from YouTube yourself. If you’d rather connect your channel and let Streamloop manage the broadcast, use the managed connection instead. Use a stream key when you want to create and control the broadcast in YouTube Studio — for example, on a channel you can’t connect with Google sign-in.

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Get your stream key from YouTube

1

Open YouTube Live

In YouTube Studio, click Create → Go live to open the live control room.
2

Copy the stream key

On the Stream tab, copy the Stream key (it looks like live_xxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx). The ingest URL is rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2.
Use the channel’s persistent stream key, not the one-off key of a single scheduled broadcast. A one-off key stops working when that broadcast ends, and your 24/7 loop ends with it. If your channel has never streamed, YouTube can take up to 24 hours to enable live streaming.

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Add it to Streamloop

1

Open the destination picker

In your loop’s General tab, click Connect a destination (or Add destination if your loop has a destination list).
2

Choose YouTube (RTMP stream key)

Pick YouTube · RTMP stream key. Give it a Display name, leave the RTMP URL as the pre-filled rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2, paste your Stream key, and click Save destination.
Shortcut: paste the stream key straight into the destination search box. Streamloop detects the YouTube format and connects it for you — you’ll see “Connecting YouTube key…” while it links.

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What you manage where

With a stream key, you own the broadcast settings. Set the title, description, privacy, and thumbnail in YouTube Studio — Streamloop only sends the video to the key you provided. For title, privacy, thumbnail, and schedule control inside Streamloop, switch to the managed connection.
Ready to go live? Add your key on streamloop.app, or follow the quickstart.