How to Turn Off YouTube Autoplay for Yourself or Your Child

To turn off Autoplay on YouTube, open a regular video and switch Autoplay off in the player. On Android and iPhone, you can also go to Settings → Playback → Autoplay next video and turn it off. This stops YouTube from automatically starting another related video when the current one ends.

If you're setting this up for a child, you have two options. You can show an older child how to turn off Autoplay themselves, or use YouTube's parental controls to prevent a younger child with an eligible supervised account from turning it back on.

The difference is who controls the setting afterward. And even with Autoplay disabled by a parent, some videos may continue playing through playlists, as we found in our tests.

How to Turn Off YouTube Autoplay on Any Device

Whether you're changing the setting for yourself, helping an older child, or setting up a shared family device, here's where to find Autoplay.

Steps to turn off Autoplay on Android and iPhone

• Open Profile → Settings. Scroll down to Video and audio preferences, select Playback, and turn off Autoplay next video.
  
• You can also use the Autoplay switch in a regular video player when it's visible.

  

Can't find the Autoplay switch in the player? In our tests, the switch remained visible after being turned off on a Samsung phone and an iPhone 14. However, it disappeared from the player on a Huawei P30 Pro, and we couldn't find it in the player on an iPhone 17 Pro. The mobile Settings menu still provided access to Autoplay.

Steps to turn off Autoplay on Computer, Smart TV or Game Console

• Computer: Open a regular YouTube video and click the Autoplay switch at the bottom of the player.
• Smart TV or game console: Open the YouTube app, go to Settings → Autoplay, and select Off

The mobile and desktop steps above reflect our hands-on tests. The TV steps are based on YouTube's official Autoplay instructions. YouTube may change its menus over time, so check that page if your interface looks different.

What Happens After You Turn Off Autoplay?

In our tests, regular standalone videos stopped instead of automatically playing another related video.

On the Samsung, iPhone and Huawei phone, the video remained on its final frame with a Replay button in the center and a More videos option in the corner. In Chrome, the video ended on a More videos recommendation screen.

You could still manually select another video, but YouTube didn't automatically start one through the regular Autoplay feature.

Helping Older Kids Change the Setting Themselves

For older children and teens, you don't necessarily need parental supervision just to turn off Autoplay.

You can show your child where the setting is and let them make the change. This gives them a way to decide whether YouTube should automatically move to another related video.

However, they can generally turn the regular setting back on. If your family has agreed that Autoplay should remain disabled, supported child accounts offer a parent-managed option.

How Parents Can Disable Autoplay for a Child

Turning off Autoplay on a child's device and disabling it through parental supervision aren't the same thing.

With the regular setting, children can generally turn Autoplay back on. With Hide autoplay enabled in Family Center for an eligible child account, the child cannot change that restriction.

We tested this with YouTube Kids, supervised kid accounts, and supervised teen accounts. The available controls and what children saw on their devices differed.

1For Children Using YouTube Kids

Autoplay is off by default in YouTube Kids, but children can normally turn it on themselves.

To prevent that, you can change the setting from your linked parent account.

Here's the Family Center path we used:

What we found: After the parent enabled Hide autoplay, the child's Autoplay control became grayed out. When the child tried to change it from the video's three-dot menu, YouTube displayed: Autoplay is turned off. Ask a parent for help.

When we allowed Autoplay again through Family Center, the child regained the ability to change the setting.

This is the difference between simply turning off Autoplay in the YouTube Kids player and having a parent disable it.

Note: Google's YouTube Kids parental controls documentation calls this setting Disable autoplay, while our Family Center interface showed Hide autoplay under What they can watch.

2For a Supervised Kid Account on YouTube

If your child uses a supervised YouTube account, you can also disable Autoplay through Family Center. The parent-side path is the same as for YouTube Kids: You → Settings → Family Center → Your child's account → What they can watch → Hide autoplay → On.

However, the restriction looks different on the child's device.

In our tests, Hide autoplay was available in the child's Family Center controls under What they can watch, although the interface was not identical to the YouTube Kids setup.

Although the parent-side setting works the same way, the restriction looks different on the child's device.

The more noticeable difference appeared on the child's device. In our tests, after the parent enabled Hide autoplay:

• The Autoplay switch no longer appeared in the child's regular video player.
  
• Autoplay next video in the child's Profile Settings became grayed out, so the child couldn't change it.
  

This differs from YouTube Kids, where the disabled Autoplay control remained visible and displayed an "Ask a parent for help" message when tapped.

Both experiences allowed parents to keep Autoplay disabled, but the child-facing controls differed.

You can find more about the available settings in YouTube's supervised kid account documentation.

3What About Supervised Teens?

YouTube turns Autoplay off by default for users ages 13–17, but teens can normally turn it on or off themselves.

We tested two supervised teen setups: one with an account the teen created and another with an account created with a parent's help.

We didn't find a parent-managed Autoplay setting in Family Center for either setup. In both cases, the teen could still turn Autoplay on or off.

That's an important difference from supervised kid accounts. Linking a teen's YouTube account for supervision doesn't necessarily give parents the same Autoplay restrictions available for younger children.

4Who Actually Controls Autoplay?

For older kids who can manage the setting themselves, a conversation about when to leave Autoplay off may be enough. For younger children, Family Center provides a way to keep the setting disabled.

However, even the parent-managed restriction doesn't stop every form of continuous playback, as our playlist tests showed.

What Turning Off Autoplay Does and Doesn't Do

Turning off Autoplay stops YouTube from automatically starting another related video after a regular standalone video finishes.

For families, this can create a natural stopping point where a child decides whether to continue watching. But it isn't a universal setting that makes YouTube stop after every video.

Here's what we found when testing different playback experiences.

Why Do Playlists Keep Playing When Autoplay Is Off?

A YouTube playlist is a collection of videos arranged to play in sequence.

For this test, we used the AirDroid Parental Control playlist on AirDroid's official YouTube channel.

We found that the playlist automatically advanced to the next video even when regular Autoplay was turned off. Enabling the parent-managed Autoplay restriction through Family Center didn't stop the playlist from continuing either.

This is an important limitation for parents who expect YouTube to stop after every video.

Even if your child can't turn the regular Autoplay setting back on, a playlist may still allow several videos to play continuously.

If your family's rule is to watch one video at a time, open the chosen video outside a playlist. Don't rely on the Autoplay setting alone to interrupt playlist playback.

These findings describe the playlist behavior we tested; other playback contexts may differ.

What About YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts doesn't use the same next-video Autoplay switch as regular videos.

In our Android, iPhone, and Chrome tests, we didn't find the standard Autoplay switch in the Shorts player.

When a Short ended without us swiping to another one, the current Short replayed rather than automatically advancing to the next. On mobile, we also saw a Swipe up for next video prompt.

That's what happened in our test environments, rather than a guarantee of how every version of Shorts behaves.

Turning off regular Autoplay doesn't prevent children from continuing through Shorts by swiping. Shorts viewing time requires separate controls.

What Is Playback in Feeds?

Playback in feeds is another YouTube setting, but it controls a different behavior.

It determines whether video previews automatically play while you're browsing the Home feed or search results, before opening the video.

We compared two settings:

• Off: Video previews did not automatically play while we browsed.

• Always on: Video previews automatically played as we scrolled.

If you want to stop those previews, find Playback in feeds in YouTube's settings and select Off.

This setting doesn't replace Autoplay next video. One controls previews while browsing; the other controls whether another related video starts after the one you're watching.

If you can't locate Playback in feeds, refer to YouTube's inline player instructions.

When Turning Off Autoplay Isn't Enough

If your goal is simply to stop YouTube from automatically starting another related video after a regular standalone video, its built-in Autoplay control may be enough.

But if you're concerned about playlists, Shorts, viewing time, or content, a different approach may help.

• If playlists are the concern: Choose individual videos outside playlists when you want a clear stopping point. Our tests found that even a parent-managed Autoplay restriction didn't stop playlist videos from continuing.
• If Shorts are the concern: YouTube offers daily Shorts feed limits through Family Center for supported supervised accounts, including a zero-minute option for supervised teen accounts.
• If screen time is the concern: Consider Google Family Link, Apple Screen Time, or YouTube's available time-management features. These address how long or when a child can use YouTube rather than which video starts next.
• If content is the concern: Review YouTube Kids or supervised YouTube content settings. Disabling Autoplay doesn't determine which videos your child can access.

For families that need app-specific schedules or time limits, AirDroid Parental Control can help manage YouTube use on supported child devices. Available controls vary by operating system, and advanced iPhone app-management features require Supervision Mode. AirDroid doesn't directly change YouTube's internal Autoplay setting.

The goal isn't necessarily to add more restrictions. It's to choose a setting that addresses your family's actual concern while giving your child an appropriate role in managing their own viewing habits.

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