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Channel ID FinderHandle in, permanent UC… ID out

Enter a @handle, legacy channel name, or any channel URL and get its underlying, never-changing Channel ID.

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How the lookup works

This tool resolves whatever you enter to a youtube.com channel page and reads the permanent Channel ID embedded in it - the same ID YouTube's own systems and most third-party tools use internally, independent of whatever handle is currently displayed.

A note on reliability

Because this depends on reading YouTube's public channel page, an occasional failed lookup usually means a temporary block or an unusual handle - retrying after a few seconds almost always works.

Questions

Frequently asked

A handle like @mkbhd is a display name a channel can change. The Channel ID (starting with "UC") is a permanent internal identifier that never changes, even if the handle does.
Most third-party tools, APIs, RSS feeds, and older embed widgets require the permanent Channel ID rather than the handle, since the handle isn't guaranteed to stay the same.
A handle (@name), a full channel URL (youtube.com/@name, /channel/UC…, /c/name, or /user/name) - just the plain channel name also works.
The channel may not exist, the handle may be mistyped, or YouTube briefly rate-limited the request - wait a few seconds and try again.
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