How to Loop a YouTube Video (Desktop, Mobile & Extension)

YouTube is the world's largest music player, lecture hall, and background ambiance machine combined. Millions of people use it daily as a tool for repetition: musicians learning songs by ear, language learners replaying pronunciation examples, students reviewing recorded lectures, and anyone who just found a track they cannot stop listening to.

The platform has a built-in loop feature, but it is not immediately obvious how to access it. Beyond the native option, there are URL tricks, playlist workarounds, and browser extensions that offer more advanced looping capabilities like A-B section repeat. This guide covers every method available in 2026.

Why Loop a YouTube Video?

Looping might sound simple, but it serves genuinely different purposes depending on the context:

• Music practice. Musicians use looped videos to play along with tutorials, backing tracks, or performances. Repeating a difficult passage over and over is fundamental to building muscle memory.
• Language learning. Replaying short clips helps train your ear for pronunciation, intonation, and natural speech patterns. Hearing the same phrase ten times is far more effective than hearing it once.
• Background audio. Ambient sounds, lo-fi music streams, and rain/fireplace videos are commonly looped for hours as focus background noise. Many of these videos are only 10 to 30 minutes long, so looping extends them indefinitely.
• Study and memorization. Recorded lectures, vocabulary lists, and educational content benefit from repetition. Looping lets you absorb the material passively over multiple plays.
• Dance and choreography. Dancers loop performance videos and tutorials to study movements at full speed, matching each repetition with their own practice.

Method 1: Right-Click Loop (Fastest)

This is the easiest and most direct method. YouTube has had a built-in loop feature since 2016, but it is hidden behind the right-click context menu.

1. Navigate to any YouTube video on desktop.
2. Right-click directly on the video player. A context menu appears with several options.
3. Click Loop.
4. The video will now restart automatically from the beginning each time it reaches the end.

A small checkmark appears next to the "Loop" option to confirm it is active. To disable looping, right-click the video again and click Loop to uncheck it.

Pros: Built into YouTube, no extensions or tools needed, one click to enable.
Cons: Loops the entire video only (no section repeat), not available on all mobile app versions, easy to miss because it is hidden in the context menu.

Method 2: Create a Single-Video Playlist

This method is slightly more involved, but it gives you access to YouTube's dedicated loop controls and works seamlessly on mobile.

1. Open the YouTube video you want to loop.
2. Click Save (the bookmark icon below the video) and add it to a new playlist. Name it anything you like.
3. Navigate to your new playlist (Library > Playlists) and play it.
4. In the playlist panel on the right side of the screen, click the loop icon (two arrows forming a circle). Click it once to loop the entire playlist, and click it again to loop the single video on repeat.

The loop icon has three states: no loop, loop playlist, and loop single video. The single-video loop state shows a small "1" on the loop icon.

Pros: Works on desktop and mobile, uses YouTube's official playlist looping, loop persists across sessions.
Cons: Requires creating a playlist first, extra steps compared to right-click, clutters your playlist library if you do this often.

Method 3: URL Modification Trick

There are third-party websites that take a YouTube URL and provide a looping player. The most well-known approach is modifying the URL directly in your browser's address bar.

ListenOnRepeat Method

Take any YouTube URL like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Change youtube.com to listenonrepeat.com:

https://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

The page loads a looping player that replays the video automatically.

YouTubeLoop Method

Similarly, change youtube.com to youtubeloop.net:

https://www.youtubeloop.net/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

These third-party sites embed the YouTube player and add loop controls. Some of them also offer section looping (A-B repeat), which YouTube itself does not support natively.

Pros: No extension needed, some offer A-B section repeat, works in any browser.
Cons: Third-party sites may contain ads, requires navigating away from YouTube, the site may go offline or change, potential privacy considerations.

Method 4: Use a Browser Extension (Most Powerful)

For the most control over looping behavior, a dedicated browser extension adds loop functionality directly into the YouTube player interface. This is the preferred method for musicians, language learners, and anyone who loops videos regularly.

YouTube Looper Pro is a Chrome extension that integrates loop controls directly into the YouTube player. Here is what it adds:

• One-click full video loop. A loop button appears directly in the YouTube player controls bar. Click it to toggle looping on or off without right-clicking.
• A-B section repeat. Set a custom start point (A) and end point (B) within the video. The player loops only that section, jumping back to point A every time it reaches point B. This is invaluable for practicing a specific passage in a music tutorial or replaying a key moment in a lecture.
• Loop counter. See how many times the video has looped so far. Useful for tracking practice repetitions.
• Keyboard shortcuts. Control looping without touching the mouse. Set and adjust A/B points, toggle loop, and reset with keyboard keys.

Other looping extensions include Looper for YouTube, Magic Actions for YouTube, and Enhancer for YouTube. The key features to compare are whether they support A-B repeat, whether the controls integrate into the YouTube player cleanly, and whether they work with YouTube's latest player design.

Pros: A-B section repeat, integrated into YouTube player, keyboard shortcuts, loop counter, persistent settings.
Cons: Requires installing an extension.

How to Loop a YouTube Video on Mobile

YouTube App (iOS and Android)

1. Open the YouTube app and play the video you want to loop.
2. Tap the video to reveal the controls overlay.
3. Tap the gear icon (Settings) at the top of the player, or tap the three-dot menu above the video title.
4. Look for Loop video and toggle it on.

The exact location of the loop option varies between app versions. In some versions it appears under the gear icon in the player. In others, it is in the three-dot overflow menu below the video title. If you cannot find it, try long-pressing the video player area, as some app versions show a quick-action menu with the loop option.

Mobile Browser Method

If you watch YouTube in your mobile browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox), the right-click method from Method 1 does not work because mobile browsers do not have a right-click. Instead, use the playlist method (Method 2) or the URL trick (Method 3), both of which work on mobile browsers.

How to Loop a Specific Section of a YouTube Video (A-B Repeat)

This is the feature most people are actually looking for when they search for YouTube looping. Musicians need to loop a 16-bar solo. Language learners need to replay a single sentence. Students need to re-watch a 30-second explanation ten times.

YouTube's built-in loop only replays the entire video. There is no native A-B repeat feature. Here are your options for section looping:

Option 1: Browser Extension

Extensions like YouTube Looper Pro add A-B repeat controls directly into the YouTube player. You mark a start point (A) and an end point (B), and the extension loops that segment continuously. Most extensions let you adjust the points while the loop is running, so you can fine-tune the section boundaries on the fly.

Option 2: Third-Party Websites

Sites like listenonrepeat.com and youtubeloop.net offer A-B repeat through their custom player interfaces. You enter the YouTube URL and use their controls to set loop boundaries. This works without installing anything but requires leaving YouTube.

Option 3: YouTube Chapters as a Workaround

If the video has chapters (timestamped sections in the description), you can repeatedly click the chapter you want to replay. This is not automatic looping, but it gives you quick access to specific sections without scrubbing through the timeline manually.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I loop a YouTube video on desktop?

Right-click anywhere on the video player and select "Loop" from the context menu. The video will automatically restart from the beginning each time it reaches the end. A checkmark appears next to the Loop option to confirm it is active. To turn it off, right-click and click Loop again.

Can I loop just a section of a YouTube video?

YouTube's built-in loop replays the entire video only. To loop a specific section, you need a browser extension like YouTube Looper Pro that supports A-B repeat. This lets you set a start time and end time, and the player loops only that segment. Third-party websites like listenonrepeat.com also offer this feature without requiring an extension.

How do I loop a YouTube video on my phone?

In the YouTube mobile app, tap the video to show controls, then tap the gear icon or the three-dot menu. Look for the "Loop video" toggle and enable it. The exact location varies by app version. If you cannot find it, try the single-video playlist method: save the video to a new playlist, play the playlist, and use the playlist loop controls.

Does looping a YouTube video increase the view count?

YouTube counts legitimate views from loops, but its anti-spam systems cap repeated views from the same session after a certain point. Looping a video a handful of times will typically count as additional views. Running it on loop hundreds of times in a row will not inflate the view count proportionally.

Can I loop a YouTube playlist?

Yes. When viewing a playlist, click the loop icon (two curved arrows) in the playlist panel. It cycles through three states: no loop, loop entire playlist, and loop current video only. This works on both desktop and the YouTube mobile app.