YouTube player shortcut keys.
These controls belong to YouTube’s website. Click inside the player first and move focus out of search boxes or comments. For play and pause, K avoids the button-focus behavior of the spacebar.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| K | Toggle playback |
| J / L | Jump back / ahead by 10 seconds |
| ← / → | Seek by 5 seconds with the seek bar focused |
| M | Toggle the audio |
| F | Enter or leave the full-screen player |
| C | Show or hide available captions |
| > / < | Increase / decrease playback speed |
| . / , | Advance / go back one frame while paused |
| 0 | Jump to the start |
| 1–9 | Jump to a tenth of the video’s duration |
| Shift + N | Play the next video |
| Shift + P | Return to the previous playlist item |
| I | Switch to YouTube’s miniplayer |
On many keyboards, > means Shift plus the period key and < means Shift plus the comma key. Keyboard layouts differ. The reference above is based on YouTube’s official keyboard help.
How to skip 10 seconds on YouTube.
Press L to move ten seconds ahead, or J to replay the previous ten seconds. Click the video first if a key types into a search field instead. The arrow keys are different: they seek by five seconds when the seek bar has focus.
Following a fast tutorial? Press K to pause, then use the comma and period keys to step through individual frames. Use < to reduce playback speed when you need more time to follow along.
Seeking behavior may differ for live streams or videos without a normal seekable timeline.
Extra shortcuts in YT Desktop.
These are app menu accelerators, separate from YouTube’s website hotkeys. The app window must be active. Use Command on Mac and Control on Windows or Linux.
| Action | Mac | Windows / Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Search YouTube | ⌘ + K | Ctrl + K |
| Always on Top | ⌘ + Shift + T | Ctrl + Shift + T |
| Picture-in-Picture | ⌘ + Shift + P | Ctrl + Shift + P |
| Reload the page | ⌘ + R | Ctrl + R |
| Copy the current video URL | ⌘ + Shift + C | Ctrl + Shift + C |
| Reset page zoom | ⌘ + 0 | Ctrl + 0 |
Picture-in-picture or Always on Top?
Picture-in-Picture requests a floating video player. Always on Top keeps the app’s main window above other windows. YouTube’s I shortcut opens its own in-page miniplayer; that is a different feature. Floating-window behavior depends on your operating system, webview, and player support.
You can also use the View and Playback menus when you don’t want to memorize keys. Ready to try them? Get YT Desktop, or check the installation guide.
Shortcut not working?
- Check focus. Exit any search, comment, or other text field and click the player. Some shortcuts depend on which player control is selected.
- Check which shortcut you’re using. YT Desktop’s menu accelerators apply in the app; they are not extra shortcuts for a regular browser tab.
- Try the menu or player button. Desktop environments, accessibility tools, browser extensions, and keyboard layouts may intercept a key combination.
- Check the video state. Frame stepping needs a paused video, captions must be available, and the previous-video key applies to playlists.
If an app shortcut still fails, tell us the shortcut and your operating system. YouTube’s interface changes over time, so a web player update can also affect app behavior.