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A talk is cited in APA 7th edition by the type of copy you actually used: the TED website, a TED or speech video on YouTube, a conference session, a webinar, or a speech reproduced in a book. Each has its own template, and the descriptor in square brackets after the title is what tells the reader which kind of source it is. This page puts all of them side by side so you can pick the template before you write the entry.
The format
Every template below follows the same author-date spine: who is responsible for the recording, the date, the title with a bracketed descriptor, then where it can be found. The pieces change by source type:
| Your source | Reference-list pattern | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| TED talk on the TED website | Speaker. (Year, Month Day). Title [Video]. TED Conferences. URL | Swansea University library guide |
| TED talk watched on YouTube | TED. (Year, Month Day). Title | Speaker [Video]. YouTube. URL | Swansea University library guide |
| Speech on YouTube | Author. (Year, Month Day). Title [Video]. YouTube. URL | Holmesglen library guide; APA reference examples handout (YouTube video) |
| Speech published on a website | Organisation or Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of webpage. Publisher (if different from author). URL | Holmesglen library guide |
| Conference session | Presenter. (Year, Month Day-Day). Title [Conference session]. Conference Name, City, State, Country. URL | APA reference examples handout, Section 10.5 |
| Webinar | Presenter(s). (Year). Title [Webinar]. Organisation. URL | APA reference examples handout, Section 10.12 |
| Speech quoted inside an edited book | Cite only the book, not the speech | Holmesglen library guide |
The one non-obvious rule is who counts as the author when the talk is on YouTube. For a TED talk watched on the TED channel, the Swansea guide lists the account owner, TED, as the author, and moves the speaker into the title after a vertical bar. For a TED talk on the TED website, the speaker is the author and TED Conferences is the publisher.
Examples
The names, titles and URLs below are fictitious illustrations built on the patterns above; they are not real talks or real people. Where an example comes from the APA handout, it is marked as such.
How to cite a TED talk in APA
From the TED website (fictitious example):
Rivera, M. (2024, March 12). The case for slower science [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/example
The same talk watched on TED’s YouTube channel (fictitious example):
TED. (2024, April 2). The case for slower science | Mara Rivera [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXAMPLE
How to cite a speech in APA
A recorded speech on YouTube follows the video pattern (fictitious example):
Example University. (2023, May 20). Commencement address to the class of 2023 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXAMPLE
A speech whose text is published on a website drops the bracketed descriptor and treats the page like a webpage (fictitious example):
Example Research Council. (2022, October 5). Opening remarks to the annual funding forum. https://example.org/remarks
How to cite a conference session in APA
The APA handout’s own example is: Davidson, R. J. (2019, August 8-11). Well-being is a skill [Conference session]. APA 2019 Convention, Chicago, IL, United States. [URL]. The date is the range of the conference, followed by the session title and the descriptor.
How to cite a webinar in APA
The APA handout’s own example is: Lee, C., McAdoo, T., & Denneny, S. (2023). APA Style seventh edition refresher for instructors [Webinar]. American Psychological Association. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/tutorials-webinars
In-text citation version
The in-text form is author and year, as for any other source. For the TED website entry above the Swansea guide’s pattern is (Rivera, 2024) or Rivera (2024). For a TED talk watched on YouTube, the in-text author is the channel: (TED, 2019). When you quote directly from a video, include a timestamp in place of a page number: the Swansea guide shows (TED, 2019, 8:51), and the Holmesglen guide shows the minute-and-second form for a quotation reached through another source: (Harris, 2020, as cited in BBC, 2020, 1.40).
If you read a speech only as it was reproduced in an edited book, the Holmesglen guide says to cite the book alone in the reference list and cite the speech in text as (Original Author, Year of speech, as cited in Secondary Author, Year).
Common errors
- Dropping the bracketed descriptor. The handout entries carry [Conference session], [Webinar] or [Video] after the title. Leaving it out removes the signal that the source is a recording or event, not a document.
- Using the speaker as author for a YouTube copy. The Swansea guide lists the account that posted the video, TED, as the author; the speaker’s name goes in the title after “|”.
- Using a page number for a video quotation. Use a timestamp instead.
- Citing the speech when you read it in a book. Cite the book, with the “as cited in” in-text form above.
- Copying the TED site template onto a YouTube link. The publisher element changes from TED Conferences to YouTube, and the author changes with it.
In a thesis or manuscript
The template depends on the copy you watched, not on the event. If the same talk exists on the TED site and on YouTube, cite the one you actually viewed. If you manage references in software, see changing the citation style in Zotero and citing sources in PowerPoint with Zotero.
For neighbouring source types, see our guides to citing a YouTube video in APA, citing a preprint, citing ChatGPT and other AI tools and the APA format table.
Style-guide edition
This page follows the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020). The APA reference examples handout, labelled “Last updated March 3, 2026”, was checked on 2026-10-29, as were the two university library guides listed in Sources.
FAQ
How do you cite a TED talk in APA?
Use the TED website pattern if you watched it there (speaker as author, TED Conferences as publisher, [Video] after the title), or the YouTube pattern with TED as the author if you watched it on TED’s channel. Both are in the table above.
How do you cite a speech in APA?
Match the template to where you accessed it: a YouTube recording uses the [Video] pattern, a published text uses the webpage pattern, and a speech seen only in an edited book is cited through that book.
How do you cite a webinar in APA?
Follow the handout pattern: presenters, year, title with [Webinar], the organisation, and the URL.
Is a talk cited differently from a speech?
In APA 7th, the template depends on the medium (website, YouTube, conference, webinar, book), not on whether you call it a talk or a speech.
Sources
- American Psychological Association. APA Style reference examples handout (7th edition), Sections 10.5 and 10.12, last updated March 3, 2026: apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf. Date checked: 2026-10-29.
- Holmesglen Institute Library. APA 7 referencing guide, Speeches: holmesglen.libguides.com/apa7/speeches. Date checked: 2026-10-29.
- Swansea University Library. APA 7 referencing guide, TED Talk: libguides.swansea.ac.uk/APA7Referencing/TEDTalk. Date checked: 2026-10-29.
