What is the shortcut to skip forward in a YouTube video?

The right arrow key skips forward five seconds and the left arrow key goes back five. L and J jump ten seconds in each direction. Number keys 0 through 9 jump to that tenth of the video, so 5 lands at the halfway point.

Why do YouTube keyboard shortcuts sometimes not work?

Almost always because focus is somewhere else on the page — usually the search box or a comment field. Click once on the video itself and the shortcuts start working again. This is also why K is safer than Space for pausing.

How do I change YouTube playback speed with the keyboard?

Shift and period speeds playback up, Shift and comma slows it down. Each press moves one step through YouTube's speed options.

Every YouTube keyboard shortcut worth knowing

September 21, 2026 · 5 min read

Most people drive YouTube with the mouse and a scrub bar. That is fine for a music video and genuinely costly for a two-hour lecture, where you are constantly seeking, re-listening and adjusting speed.

Here is the full set, followed by the handful that are actually worth building into muscle memory.

Playback

K — play or pause. Works regardless of where you clicked last.
Space — also play or pause, but only when the player has focus. Otherwise it scrolls the page.
M — mute and unmute.
F — toggle fullscreen.
T — toggle theater mode.
I — toggle the miniplayer.
Esc — leave fullscreen or the current mode.

Seeking

Left / Right arrow — back or forward five seconds.
J / L — back or forward ten seconds.
0–9 — jump to that tenth of the video. 3 lands at 30%.
Home / End — jump to the start or the end.
, / . — step one frame back or forward while paused.

Speed, captions and volume

Shift + . — speed up one step.
Shift + , — slow down one step.
C — toggle captions.
O / W — while captions are on, change opacity and window colour.
+ / − — while captions are on, resize caption text.
Up / Down arrow — volume in 5% steps.

Playlists and navigation

Shift + N — next video.
Shift + P — previous video in a playlist.
/ — focus the search box.
? — open YouTube's own shortcut list.

The five that actually matter

A list this long is not something anyone memorises at once. If you are working through long-form content, these five carry almost all the benefit:

K instead of Space, because it works no matter what you last clicked.
J and L for ten-second jumps — the right size for catching a sentence you missed.
Shift + . and Shift + , to speed up during familiar material and slow down for dense parts. Varying speed within a video helps more than picking one and sticking to it.
C for captions, which are the fastest fix for an unfamiliar accent or bad audio.
A number key to move around a long video without hunting on the scrub bar.

When shortcuts stop working

If nothing responds, focus has moved to the search box or a comment field and your keystrokes are going there. Click once on the video and try again. This is the whole argument for K over Space.

What the shortcuts still cannot do

Shortcuts move you around a video quickly. None of them help you return to a specific moment tomorrow — for that you need something that persists between sessions.

YTMark adds two more to the list: B saves the moment you are on, and Shift+B opens your saved moments for that video. For the wider picture, see how to bookmark a YouTube timestamp and how to take notes on YouTube courses.

Frequently asked questions

What is the shortcut to skip forward in a YouTube video?: The right arrow key skips forward five seconds and the left arrow key goes back five. L and J jump ten seconds in each direction. Number keys 0 through 9 jump to that tenth of the video, so 5 lands at the halfway point.
Why do YouTube keyboard shortcuts sometimes not work?: Almost always because focus is somewhere else on the page — usually the search box or a comment field. Click once on the video itself and the shortcuts start working again. This is also why K is safer than Space for pausing.
How do I change YouTube playback speed with the keyboard?: Shift and period speeds playback up, Shift and comma slows it down. Each press moves one step through YouTube's speed options.