What Is the YouTube Logo?
The YouTube logo is a red rounded rectangle with a white play triangle inside it, set beside the name YouTube in black letters. It belongs to YouTube, the video-sharing platform that Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim founded in February 2005, and which Google bought in 2006.
The play button also works on its own as the app icon, and YouTube's other services, such as YouTube Music and YouTube Kids, carry marks of their own. The play button with the wordmark is available as the YouTube logo SVG.
YouTube Logo Facts
| Introduced | August 2017 |
| Symbol | A white play triangle in a red rounded rectangle |
| Logo type | Combination mark: play button and wordmark |
| Earlier mark | "You" in black beside "Tube" in a red rounded box, from 2005 to 2017 |
| Owner |
What the YouTube Logo Means
The play button is the control you press to start a video, so the symbol says what the site does before you read the name. YouTube had used it as its app icon and in many adverts before it joined the logo, and Christopher Bettig, then head of YouTube's art department, said the button had "taken on a life of its own".
The red was chosen for screens. When it launched in 2017 YouTube picked pure RGB red, #FF0000, which Bettig described as a red "that goes to the RGB of video". The original logo made a small joke of the name: as Bettig put it, it showed "the word tube in a tube", with the second half of the name printed inside a red tube shape.
YouTube Logo History
The first logo, used from 2005, set "You" in black and placed "Tube" inside a red rounded rectangle. For a time it carried the slogan "Broadcast Yourself", which YouTube dropped in 2010. A version with a darker red followed in 2011.
On 29 August 2017 YouTube replaced that design for the first time in 12 years. The red shape around "Tube" was removed, a red play button moved to the left of a cleaned-up wordmark, and the red became brighter. YouTube said the new logo was designed for a multi-screen world,. Bettig called the change "an evolution, not a revolution".
In late 2024 YouTube moved its brand red to a softer, slightly cooler shade, which it applies to the logo. The team said the old pure red appeared orange on some screens and caused burn-in on televisions. Alongside it came a red-to-magenta gradient for parts of the app, such as the video progress bar, while the logo itself stays red.
The Play Button on Its Own
Since 2017 the play button can stand alone as a short form of the logo wherever a screen is too small for the wordmark. Short-video rival TikTok took a different route with a musical note (compare the TikTok logo), while streaming service Netflix relies on a red letter N (compare the Netflix logo).
For more brands like YouTube, browse our social media logos.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did YouTube change its logo?
YouTube replaced its original "Tube in a box" logo with the play button design on 29 August 2017, the first change in 12 years. In late 2024 it softened the shade of red.
What colour is the YouTube logo?
The play button is red with a white triangle, and the wordmark is black. From 2017 the red was pure RGB red, #FF0000, until YouTube moved to a softer red in late 2024.
What was the slogan on the old YouTube logo?
"Broadcast Yourself", which appeared with the logo in its early years and was removed in 2010.