Skip to main content

How to create a playlist on YouTube

Playlists aren’t just for streaming music and road trips. You can make them for videos as well — even YouTube videos. Maybe you just want to organize your favorite YouTube videos better, or maybe you just need a themed playlist for some reason. Regardless of why, making a playlist on YouTube is actually fairly simple.

Here’s how to create a playlist on YouTube.

Related content

Step 1: Log in to your Google account

youtube playlist screenshot step 1
Screenshot

YouTube accounts require a Google account to sign in and you’ll need a YouTube account to make a playlist. And so, if you don’t have a Google account, you’ll need to create one, and then sign in to YouTube with that account.

Step 2: Find the first YouTube video for your playlist

Go ahead and pick out one of the videos you’d like to include in your new playlist and go to the video’s YouTube page.

Step 3: Select the Save icon beneath that video

youtube playlist step 3 screenshot
Screenshot

On the video’s YouTube page and beneath the video itself, select the Save icon. The icon looks like three horizontal lines paired with a plus sign.

Step 4: Select the Create New Playlist option

youtube playlist screenshot step 4
Screenshot

The menu that pops up will offer you a number of options to save your chosen video.

Basically, you can save the video to your other playlists, save it to YouTube’s preset Watch Later playlist, or create a new playlist and save the video to the new one. Since we’re making a new playlist, go ahead and select Create New Playlist from the menu.

Step 5: Name your playlist

youtube playlist screenshot step 5
Screenshot

Once you select Create New Playlist, that same menu should expand to help you finish creating your playlist. In the expanded menu, within the text box labeled Name, type in the name of your new playlist.

Step 6: Choose your privacy level

Youtube playlist screenshot step 6
Screenshot

In that same expanded menu, you can also pick the type of privacy level you desire for your playlist. From the drop-down menu designated as Privacy, you can select from Public, Unlisted, or Private. Public indicates that your playlist can be seen or searched for by anyone. Unlisted signifies that anyone who has a link to your playlist can see it. Private means precisely what it states, that you are the sole person who can see the playlist. No one else will be able to view it.

Step 7: Select the Create button

After you’ve given your playlist a name and decided on a privacy level for it, click the blue Create button at the bottom of the menu. After you do this, you’ll have a  new playlist, and the video you selected will be immediately added to it.

To look at your brand-new playlist, click the Menu icon that’s hanging out in the top-left corner of the page. This will look like three horizontal lines piled on top of one another. Having done that, you’ll see a menu appear on the left side of the page. Your new playlist should display as an option in this menu. (You may need to click Show More in order to see it.) Choosing your playlist from this menu will cause your playlist to pop up on the right side of your screen, and your first saved video for it should be displayed directly within the playlist.

We also encourage you to look at our handy guide on how to download YouTube videos.

Editors' Recommendations

Anita George
Anita has been a technology reporter since 2013 and currently writes for the Computing section at Digital Trends. She began…
The funniest YouTube videos of all time

Humor is very personal, but some things are just universally funny. We're sure that you have your favorite YouTube videos for turning a frown upside down, but these are ours. Some of them are insanely popular, while others have dropped beneath the radar, but all of them are sure to bring on the giggles.

Note: While all of the below videos are found on YouTube and meet YouTube's accepted standards for content, some of them do contain adult language, and so they may not be considered safe for work.
Buzz and the dandelions
Buzz and the Dandelions

Read more
The best YouTube channels
woman sitting and using laptop

Biggest doesn’t always mean the best, and millions of subscribers don’t always mean that those channels are producing high-quality content. With the massive amount of content YouTube offers daily, it can be difficult to keep up with the content you like. You might not even know where you should begin.  

Luckily, we do -- if you’re looking for some quality content this year, we know which channels are worth checking out.
Science, philosophy, and learning
Minute Physics

Read more
How to turn off Restricted Mode on YouTube
woman sitting at table watching laptop

YouTube's Restricted Mode feature is useful if you'd rather not view videos with mature content. It also prevents children from viewing such content when they use a web browser or Google's app. But what happens when you no longer need this restriction?

This guide will teach you how to turn off Restricted Mode on YouTube in any web browser and through Google's YouTube app for mobile. Simply follow these instructions again to toggle it back on if you want to enable Restricted Mode later.

Read more