YouTube A-B Loop: How to Repeat Any Video Section (2026 Guide)

You are watching a guitar tutorial on YouTube. The instructor plays a lick at 1:42 that you need to hear again. And again. And maybe forty more times. You reach for the progress bar, try to drag it back to the right spot, overshoot, try again, land at 1:38 instead of 1:42, and lose your focus entirely.

This is the problem that A-B looping solves. Instead of manually scrubbing back to the same timestamp, you mark two points in the video -- point A where the section starts, point B where it ends -- and the player repeats that exact segment on a continuous loop. Hands free, precise, and consistent every single time.

YouTube does not offer this feature natively. Its built-in loop option repeats the entire video from beginning to end, which is useless when you only care about a specific 15-second passage buried in a 10-minute video. But there are several ways to add A-B repeat capability to YouTube, and this guide covers all of them.

What Exactly Is an A-B Loop?

The term comes from audio equipment. Tape decks and CD players in the 1980s and 1990s had a physical "A-B repeat" button. Press it once to mark point A, press it again to mark point B, and the player would loop between those two timestamps indefinitely. Musicians used this to transcribe solos, language students used it to drill pronunciation, and DJs used it to isolate breakbeats.

The concept is identical when applied to YouTube videos. You pick a start time (A) and an end time (B), and the video player automatically jumps from B back to A each time it reaches the end of the selected section. The rest of the video is ignored. Only your chosen segment plays.

This is fundamentally different from YouTube's native loop, which restarts the entire video. If you are studying a 45-minute lecture and need to re-hear the explanation at 23:10, looping the full video means sitting through 23 minutes of content you have already absorbed before reaching the part that matters. A-B looping takes you straight to that explanation and keeps you there.

Why A-B Looping Matters More Than Full-Video Repeat

Full-video looping has its place. Background music playlists, ambient soundscapes, motivational compilations -- these are fine on infinite repeat. But the moment you are trying to learn something from a video, full-video loop becomes a hindrance rather than a help.

Here is why targeted section looping is so much more effective for learning:

Focused repetition builds skill faster. Cognitive science research on deliberate practice consistently shows that isolating difficult passages and repeating them is far more effective than running through entire pieces. A pianist who loops bars 17-24 of a sonata fifty times will master that passage faster than one who plays the entire movement ten times. A-B looping on YouTube applies this same principle to video-based learning.

Manual rewinding breaks concentration. Every time you grab the mouse, hunt for the right timestamp, and drag the slider, your focus shifts from the material to the interface. With an A-B loop running, the transition from point B back to point A is seamless. Your eyes stay on the fingering, the dance move, or the equation.

Consistency matters for muscle memory. When you manually scrub backwards, you never land on exactly the same frame twice. Sometimes you start half a second early, sometimes half a second late. An A-B loop hits the same timestamps every repetition, which means your muscle memory develops against a consistent reference point.

Three Methods to A-B Loop YouTube Videos

There are three practical approaches, each with different tradeoffs. The first is the most capable and the one I recommend for anyone who loops YouTube videos regularly.

1 Browser Extension: YouTube Looper Pro

A browser extension is the most seamless way to add A-B loop controls to YouTube because it integrates directly into the player. No URL copying, no tab switching, no separate interfaces. The controls appear right where you expect them, styled to match YouTube's own design.

YouTube Looper Pro is a free Chrome extension built specifically for this purpose. Here is how to set up an A-B loop with it, step by step:

Step 1: Install the extension

Visit the Chrome Web Store listing and click "Add to Chrome." The extension works on Chrome, Edge, Brave, and any other Chromium-based browser. Installation takes a few seconds and does not require a browser restart.

Step 2: Open any YouTube video

Navigate to the video you want to loop. You will see a new loop control panel integrated below the video player. It is minimal and unobtrusive -- a compact toolbar that blends with YouTube's dark interface.

Step 3: Set point A (loop start)

Play the video until you reach the moment where you want the loop to begin. Press the [ key on your keyboard, or click the start marker button in the loop toolbar. A visual marker appears on the progress bar, showing exactly where point A is set.

Step 4: Set point B (loop end)

Continue playing until you reach the end of the section you want to repeat. Press the ] key or click the end marker button. A second marker appears on the timeline. The region between A and B is now visually highlighted on the progress bar.

Step 5: Activate the loop

Press L to toggle looping on. The video will now play from A to B and then instantly jump back to A, repeating continuously. Press L again to disable the loop and resume normal playback.

Step 6: Fine-tune your points

If point A or B is not quite right, just navigate to the correct position and press [ or ] again. The marker updates instantly. You can also type exact timestamps into the input fields for frame-accurate placement.

Why this is the best method

• Keyboard shortcuts keep your hands free. When you are holding a guitar, following along on a piano, or mirroring a dance move, clicking buttons is impractical. The [ ] L shortcuts let you control everything without reaching for the mouse.
• Saved loop points persist across sessions. Close the tab, shut down your computer, come back three days later -- your A and B markers are still exactly where you left them. This is critical for ongoing practice routines.
• Works with playback speed. Slow the loop to 0.5x to learn a passage note by note, then gradually increase to full speed as you improve. The loop points remain locked to the correct timestamps at any speed.
• No ads, no external sites. Everything happens on YouTube itself. You never leave the page or deal with third-party advertising.
• Loop counter tracks repetitions. See how many times you have looped the section, which is useful for structured practice goals like "repeat this 30 times before moving on."

If you have read our guide on how to loop a specific part of a YouTube video, this is the same tool -- but here we are focusing specifically on the A-B loop workflow and why it is such an effective practice technique.

2 Online Web Tools

If you do not want to install anything, several websites offer YouTube A-B looping through their own embedded players. Tools like LoopTube, ListenOnRepeat, and YouRepeat let you paste a YouTube URL, set start and end timestamps, and loop the section in your browser.

How they work:

1. Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to loop
2. Go to the looping website and paste the URL
3. The site loads the video in an embedded player
4. Enter your start and end times (usually in seconds or MM:SS format)
5. Click play and the section loops

The tradeoffs:

These tools work for occasional use, but they add friction to every session. You need to copy a URL, switch tabs, and interact with an unfamiliar interface. Most of these sites show advertising around the player. None of them save your loop points -- close the tab and you start from scratch next time. And the timestamp controls are typically less precise than keyboard shortcuts, requiring you to type exact second values rather than marking points in real time as the video plays.

For a one-off loop where you do not care about saving your points or precision, these sites get the job done. For regular practice sessions, the tab-switching workflow gets old quickly.

3 Video Editing Software

Technically, you could download a YouTube video, import it into video editing software like DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro, trim it to the section you want, export that clip, and play it on loop in a media player with A-B repeat support.

This approach gives you absolute control over the clip boundaries, and some media players (like VLC) have excellent built-in A-B repeat features. But the overhead is enormous. Downloading, importing, trimming, and exporting a clip for every section you want to practice turns a 10-second task into a 10-minute one. It is only worth considering if you need to loop a section offline, without internet access, or if you need to add annotations or slow-motion effects that YouTube's player does not support.

For the vast majority of use cases, editing software is overkill. A browser extension does the same job instantly and without leaving YouTube.

Best Practices for A-B Looping

Setting two points and pressing play is simple. Getting the most out of your loops requires a bit more intention. These practices will help you learn faster and avoid common pitfalls.

Set Precise Start and End Points

Where you place point A matters more than you might think. If you are looping a guitar riff, set A a beat or two before the passage starts. This gives you a brief moment to prepare your fingers before the difficult part begins. If you cut it too tight, you will feel rushed at the start of every repetition.

Point B should extend slightly past the last note or word of the section. Cutting off the final note mid-sustain sounds jarring and disrupts your sense of phrasing. Give the section room to breathe before the loop restarts.

Combine Looping with Speed Control

This is where A-B looping becomes a genuine practice superpower. Start by looping your target section at 0.5x speed. At half speed, every note in a solo, every syllable in a foreign phrase, and every count in a dance routine becomes clearly audible and visible. Master the section slowly first.

Then increase incrementally: 0.6x, 0.75x, 0.85x, 1.0x. Each step up challenges your developing muscle memory just enough to keep improving without overwhelming it. This graduated speed approach is the same method professional musicians use when learning difficult repertoire, and it works just as well with YouTube tutorials.

If you are practicing guitar this way, our guide to practicing guitar with YouTube covers the speed progression method in more detail.

Save Loops for Multi-Day Practice

Learning a complex skill rarely happens in a single session. A dancer working through a routine might spend three days on the verse choreography, a week on the chorus, and another week on the bridge. Each of those sections lives in a different part of the tutorial video, and hunting for the right timestamps at the start of every session is wasted time.

With YouTube Looper Pro, your A-B loop points are saved automatically per video. Come back tomorrow and your markers are right where you left them. Over time, you build a personal library of practice segments across multiple videos -- each one ready to go the instant you open the page.

Use the Loop Counter for Structured Practice

Open-ended repetition leads to mindless going-through-the-motions. Instead, set a target: "I will loop this passage 20 times, then take a break." The loop counter keeps you accountable. When you hit your target number, evaluate your progress. Can you play it clean? Move on to the next section or increase the speed. Still rough? Do another set of 20.

This structured approach prevents both under-practice (quitting after five repetitions because it feels hard) and over-practice (grinding the same section for an hour when your brain stopped absorbing twenty minutes ago).

Who Benefits Most from A-B Looping?

Musicians and Instrument Learners

This is the original and most common use case. A guitarist learning a solo, a bassist transcribing a groove, a pianist working through a difficult passage -- all of them need to hear the same few bars dozens or hundreds of times. A-B looping eliminates the constant manual rewinding that makes practice sessions exhausting before your fingers even get tired.

The combination of A-B looping and slow playback is especially powerful. A 16th-note run at 120 BPM that sounds like a blur at normal speed becomes perfectly clear at 0.5x. Loop it, learn it slowly, and build speed gradually.

Language Learners

Pronunciation is built through repetition. When a native Mandarin speaker demonstrates a tone, or a French speaker shows how to produce a nasal vowel, you need to hear it many times in a row to train your ear and your mouth. A-B looping a 3-second phrase lets you focus entirely on sound reproduction without constantly clicking back to the right moment.

This is particularly valuable with dialogue-heavy content. Loop a single exchange from a movie scene, a podcast interview, or a news broadcast. Slow it down to catch the linking between words. Repeat until you can shadow the speaker in real time.

Dancers and Choreography Students

Dance tutorials move fast. An instructor demonstrates eight counts of choreography in ten seconds, then moves on. Without A-B looping, you are constantly pausing, scrubbing back, overshooting, and losing your place. With a loop set, the same eight counts repeat automatically while you mirror the movement, check your form, and build the sequence into muscle memory.

Slowing the loop to 0.75x or 0.5x is critical for complex choreography. At half speed, you can see exactly where the weight shifts, where the arms go, and how the transitions connect. Once the movement pattern is in your body, speed it back up.

Students Reviewing Academic Content

Lecture recordings and educational videos are dense. A professor explains a key concept in 90 seconds, and you need to hear it three or four times for it to click. Rather than rewatching the entire 50-minute lecture, set A and B around the critical explanation and loop it until you understand every step. This is far more time-efficient than scrubbing through a long video trying to find the right moment.

It also works well for step-by-step demonstrations -- math problem walkthroughs, science experiments, software tutorials -- where each step builds on the previous one and you need to see the whole sequence multiple times in context.