Adding videos to your site

You can add videos to:

Video Blocks
Gallery Blocks
Gallery Pages
Project Pages
Cover Pages
Banners (some templates)

This guide reviews the different areas of your site where you can add videos and links to specific steps for each one.

You can embed videos (not upload directly)

Squarespace supports embedding videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Animoto, and Wistia. These services are highly respected for their streaming quality, upload ease, and video playback control.

Embedding videos from another host helps your site load faster, enables visitors to share your videos, and provides multiple options for video hosting. For these reasons, there's no option to upload a video directly to Squarespace.

Hosting options for your video

Before embedding a video on your site, upload the video to a supported external hosting service. Click the links below for help with this:

Tip: Add a quick link to your YouTube or Vimeo profile page by displaying a social icon.

Keep in mind:

Background videos only support YouTube and Vimeo.
Only public videos will display on your site. This includes hidden or unlisted videos that are accessible by links or embed codes.
360-degree videos aren't supported.
Vimeo's fullscreen button stays hidden while you're logged into your Squarespace site. To test the fullscreen version of your video, log out or open your site in a private or incognito window.
Vimeo's player bar displays in the background if you have a Vimeo Basic account. Upgrade to Vimeo Plus or Pro to remove the player bar from your videos.

Add videos to pages and posts

You can add videos to any editable blocks area, and to Cover Pages. This table covers the different ways you can add videos and the requirements for each.

Tip: See the sections below for help adding videos to Gallery Pages or Index Pages.

Area	Requirements
Video Block	One video per block. Videos play with sound when clicked. You can set them to autoplay.
Gallery Block	Show multiple videos in a grid, slideshow, carousel, or stack. Videos can mix with static images. Videos play with sound when clicked. You can set them to autoplay.
Summary Block	Pull videos from a Gallery Page to display in a grid, slideshow, carousel, or stack. When clicked, videos open in a lightbox and play with sound. Filter by category or tag. Ensure every video has a thumbnail image for best results.
Cover Pages	Available in some layouts Videos play in a lightbox with sound when clicked.

Add videos to Gallery Pages

Gallery Pages showcase your images and videos. Their style, layout, caption display, and behavior depend on your template. For example, the Wexley template opens images and videos in a lightbox.

Most Gallery Pages have more than one layout option.
You can move images and videos from one Gallery Page to another.
Pull videos from a Gallery Page into a Summary Block to filter by category or tag.
Videos play with sound.
Videos can be set to autoplay.

If you don't like your template's Gallery Page, and don't want to switch templates, you can add a Gallery Block to a Layout Page instead. This gives you the option of four layouts: grid, slideshow, carousel, or stacked. To learn more, visit Gallery Blocks vs Gallery Pages.

Add background videos

You can display a video as the background behind page content. There are two ways to do this:

Content area	Video options
Cover Page	Add a Cover Page to your site and give it a silent, looping background video. Background videos are supported for most layouts and can only use YouTube or Vimeo videos.
Site background	Some templates support a site-wide background image. For these templates, use a .gif image as your site background. This creates a silent, looping background video.

Add video banners

Some templates support video banners, which display at the top of the page. These banners:

Play automatically and loop
Play without sound
Can only use YouTube and Vimeo videos
Display overlay text
Sometimes display a static image on mobile

Tip: The Bedford family's slideshow banner also supports videos.

Add videos to Index Pages

Some templates have Index Pages, which arrange images and content from different pages in unique layouts.

For stacked Indexes, add background videos or Video Blocks to content sections.
For slideshow and grid Indexes, use .gif images to create moving slides or thumbnails.
You can add Gallery Pages to Indexes in the Brine, Momentum, and Pacific template families.
You can add Video Blocks to the page headers above Indexes in the Avenue and York template families.

Use animated .gifs

Animated .gif images play automatically, loop, and don't include sound. You can use a .gif anywhere on your site where you can add images, including:

Troubleshooting

Note: 360-degree videos aren't supported, and can cause issues with your site's speed and display.

Videos take too long to load

If a video takes a while to load, it probably needs that extra time to buffer. Many longer or HD videos require additional time to load, especially if you factor in your internet connection.

Clicking "Play" on a video starts the buffering process. If you pause the video and wait for content to load in the background, you should be able to build up the buffer and play the video with fewer issues.

Vimeo videos aren't playing in HD

To display HD Vimeo videos, use the embed code to add the video, rather than the video’s URL. Uploading 1080p HD videos to Vimeo requires their Plus or PRO membership plan.

Buttons and controls aren’t showing on Vimeo videos

Vimeo enables "Tiny Mode" when a Video Block is less than 300 pixels wide or 170 pixels tall. Tiny Mode hides buttons and additional information, such as the title, control bar, and the Watch Later/Share buttons. To prevent this, visitors can view the Video Block on a larger display.

The fullscreen button isn't appearing or working

When logged into your site, the Vimeo and YouTube players don't have a fullscreen option. You can view the fullscreen version by opening the page in a private or incognito window in your browser.

Videos are different sizes

In Video Blocks, Gallery Blocks, and Gallery Pages, video aspect ratio is determined by the thumbnail from the host site. If you're placing Video Blocks in rows or using grid galleries, the rows may be uneven.

For Video Blocks, there's not a way to change this. For Gallery Blocks, enable Crop Images to set the videos to a uniform aspect ratio. For Gallery Pages, set the Aspect Ratio to any setting except Auto.

Wistia videos are too small

On Project Pages, Wistia videos display in a smaller frame. To avoid the issue, you can use a different video hosting platform.

FAQ

Do plays on my website count?

Each video service controls when video plays count, not Squarespace. Plays of embedded videos might add to your view count, depending on where the video is hosted:

YouTube - Doesn't count views of embedded videos. However, YouTube provides a breakdown of where viewers are finding your videos. Learn more in YouTube Analytics documentation.
Vimeo - Vimeo counts views from embedded videos. Learn more in Vimeo's documentation.

For help with other services, visit their documentation.

If Squarespace doesn't support my video host, how do I add my video?

In most cases, we recommend uploading your video to a supported service. If that isn't possible, or if you need to keep it hosted elsewhere, you still have some options.

Any video sharing service that supports the oEmbed standard can be added to these areas using its embed URL or code:

Video Blocks
Gallery Blocks
Gallery Pages
Cover Pages

Embed codes can't be added to Cover Page background videos.

If this doesn't work and there's no problem with the embed URL or code (like a typo), it's likely that the video host doesn't support the oEmbed standard. If you can't upload it to a service that supports oEmbed, paste the code into a Code Block. Note that custom code like this falls outside of the scope of Squarespace support.

Next steps

Choose whether to add your video using a URL or an embed code.