Turn YouTube on or off for users

As an administrator, you manage who in your organization can upload and play YouTube content. You can turn on the YouTube service for everyone in your organization, specific organizational units, or specific groups.

Users signed in with their Google Workspace account with the service turned on can use more features, such as uploading content or commenting on videos. Users signed in with their Google Workspace account with the service turned off can still use YouTube, but can't use or save information, similar to a user signed out of their account. 

After September 1, 2021:

• If the service is set to On, students in primary/secondary institutions (K–12) have a more restricted experience. To learn more about these restrictions, go to Control access to Google services by age.
• If the service is set to Off, students signed in with a Google Workspace for Education account, regardless of age, can't use YouTube.com or YouTube apps. However, they can still view embedded YouTube videos assigned in Google Workspace for Education products, such as Google Classroom, and YouTube videos embedded in third-party platforms. In addition, students can view YouTube videos accessed through the Classroom feature, practice sets. All users can continue to link and preview videos in Docs.

Note: Managing access to YouTube in the Google Admin Console only limits a user’s access to YouTube when signed in with their Google Workspace account. It doesn't control a user’s access to YouTube if they sign in with Incognito Mode or when third-party cookies are blocked.  

Control who uses YouTube in your organization

Before you begin: To turn a service on or off for certain users, put their accounts in an organizational unit (to control access by department) or add them to an access group (to allow access for users across or within departments).

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2.  In the Admin console, go to Menu  AppsAdditional Google ServicesYouTube.
3. Click Service status.

4. To turn a service on or off for everyone in your organization, click On for everyone or Off for everyone, and then click Save.

5. (Optional) To turn a service on or off for an organizational unit:

   1. At the left, select the organizational unit.
   2. To change the Service status, select On or Off.
   3. Choose one:
      • If the Service status is set to Inherited and you want to keep the updated setting, even if the parent setting changes, click Override.
      • If the Service status is set to Overridden, either click Inherit to revert to the same setting as its parent, or click Save to keep the new setting, even if the parent setting changes.
        Note: Learn more about organizational structure.
6. (Optional) To turn on a service for a set of users across or within organizational units, select an access group. For details, go to Use groups to customize service access.

Can't turn on YouTube? There might be restrictions against using that service in your area. For details, go to Unable to turn on a service.

Next steps

Learn about other admin controls in the YouTube admin help.

Learn to use YouTube at the YouTube Help Center.

Related topic

• Control access to Google services by age