You're trying to nail that one specific guitar riff. Or maybe you're a student desperately trying to understand a three-second chemistry reaction that happens way too fast. We’ve all been there, hovering our mouse over the playback bar, clicking back and forth, missing the mark by a mile. It’s annoying. Honestly, it’s one of those minor digital frustrations that feels way more taxing than it should be. YouTube has a "Loop" button, sure, but it loops the whole video. That's rarely what you actually need.
If you want to loop part of a YouTube video, you have to get a little bit creative because Google hasn’t baked a "loop selection" tool directly into the main player interface yet. Why? Who knows. Maybe they want the view counts on the whole video to stay high. Regardless, you have options that range from simple URL hacks to third-party tools that basically turn YouTube into a high-end transcription or practice suite.
The Built-In Loop is a Blunt Instrument
Let's address the elephant in the room. If you right-click a YouTube video, you see the "Loop" option. It’s been there for years. But if the video is a 20-minute lo-fi hip hop mix and you only want that one specific transition at the 4:12 mark, that right-click is useless. It’s a binary switch. On or off. The whole thing or nothing.
For most people, the struggle isn't finding the loop button; it's finding the segment button. Since that doesn't exist natively, we have to look at the workarounds that actually work in 2026.
Using Third-Party Loopers (The Easiest Way)
There are dozens of sites designed for this exact purpose. You’ve probably heard of YouTubeLoop or ListenOnRepeat. These are the old-school veterans of the space. You basically take the URL of the video you’re watching, paste it into their search bar, and they give you a specialized player with two sliders. One for the start, one for the end.
It’s tactile. You drag the little blue bars until you’ve isolated the "loop part of a YouTube video" that you care about, and then you just let it run. Sites like Looper for YouTube (which often exists as a Chrome extension) take it a step further. They integrate a button right under the original YouTube player. No tab switching. No copy-pasting.
The extension route is usually the "pro" move. If you’re a musician or a dancer, you don't want to be faffing around with new tabs every time you change videos. You want a "Loop" button right next to the "Share" button. Extensions like Enhancer for YouTube are incredibly popular for this because they do a thousand other things—like volume boosting and ad blocking—but their loop segment tool is remarkably precise. You can even set it to loop a specific number of times before stopping, which is weirdly helpful for memorization.
The URL Trick: Old But Gold
There’s a trick that’s been floating around the internet for over a decade. It still works, mostly because of how web redirects function. If you’re on a video like youtube.com/watch?v=abcdefg, you can just type the word "repeat" after "youtube" in the address bar.
So it becomes youtuberepeat.com/watch?v=abcdefg.
This bounces you to a third-party site that automatically loads the video in a loop-friendly interface. It’s a quick-and-dirty method. Is it the most elegant? No. Does it sometimes have more ads than the original site? Yeah, occasionally. But if you’re on a public computer and can’t install extensions, it’s a lifesaver.
Mobile is a Different Beast Entirely
Looping a part of a video on an iPhone or Android is a nightmare. The mobile app is strictly controlled. You don't get right-click menus. You don't get extensions (unless you're using a niche browser like Kiwi or Orion).
On mobile, your best bet is actually "Chapters." Many creators now break their videos down into segments. If you’re lucky, the part you want to loop is its own chapter. While you still can’t natively loop a single chapter indefinitely with one tap, you can at least jump back to the start of the segment with a double-tap on the left side of the screen.
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If you’re desperate for a true loop on mobile, you’re stuck using the browser version of YouTube in "Desktop Mode." It’s clunky. The buttons are tiny. Your thumbs will feel like giant sausages. But it allows you to use those third-party looping websites that the mobile app tries to hide from you.
Why Precise Looping Matters for Learning
There is actual science behind why we do this. It's called spaced repetition, sort of. But more accurately, it’s about "chunking." When you’re trying to learn a language or a physical skill, your brain can only process so much data at once.
If you watch a 10-minute tutorial on how to do a kickflip, you aren't going to learn it. But if you loop part of a YouTube video—specifically the three seconds where the rider's back foot hits the tail—and watch it fifty times in a row, your brain starts to pick up on the micro-movements. The angle of the ankle. The timing of the jump.
Music teachers have been doing this for decades with "A-B Repeat" buttons on high-end CD players and tape decks. YouTube is just the modern version of that.
The Technical Side: Use Embed Codes
If you’re a bit of a nerd or you’re building a website and want to show off a specific clip on a loop, you can do this through the YouTube Embed API. You don't need to be a senior developer to do it, either.
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YouTube allows you to add parameters to the URL in the embed code. You can specify a start time and an end time in seconds.
For example:&start=30&end=45&loop=1&playlist=VIDEO_ID
By setting the start and end, and then—critically—telling YouTube it’s a "playlist" consisting only of that one video, the player will reset to the start point you chose every time it hits the end point. It’s a bit of a hacky workaround, but it’s the only way to make a loop "permanent" for anyone else viewing your page.
Common Issues and Frustrations
Sometimes, the loop isn't seamless. You’ll get a tiny "hiccup" or a loading circle for a fraction of a second. This usually isn't your internet; it's just how the player buffers. YouTube’s player is designed to look ahead and buffer the next part of the video, not jump back to a previous part.
When you force it to loop, you’re essentially breaking its "look-ahead" logic. It has to clear the cache and re-render those previous frames. If you need 100% seamless, frame-perfect looping, you might actually be better off downloading the video (using a tool like yt-dlp) and using a local media player like VLC.
VLC has a dedicated "A-B Loop" button. You click it once for point A, once for point B, and it loops perfectly with zero lag. For serious study, local is always better than web-based.
Actionable Steps for Better Looping
If you’re ready to stop fighting the playback bar, here is the most efficient path forward:
- For Casual Browsing: Install the Looper for YouTube Chrome extension. It adds a "Loop" button directly under the player. You can check a box that says "Loop a portion" and just type in the timestamps. It's the most "native" feeling solution.
- For Mobile Users: Open the video in a mobile browser (like Safari or Chrome), request the "Desktop Site," and use the right-click trick or a third-party site like ListenOnRepeat.
- For Serious Skill Building: Download the clip. Use a tool to grab the video file and open it in VLC Media Player. Hit
View > Advanced Controlsto see the A-B loop button. This gives you the most control over playback speed and frame-by-frame analysis without worrying about buffering or ads. - For Creators: Use the YouTube Studio editor to trim your videos into shorter, more digestible clips if you notice people are constantly re-watching one section. Your "Heatmap" in analytics will tell you exactly where people are looping—look for the "Most Replayed" peaks in the progress bar.
Focusing on these smaller segments makes the massive amount of content on YouTube actually usable for deliberate practice. Don't let the interface limit how you learn.