How to Find the Source of a Video on the Web (2025)

If you’ve ever wanted to find the source of a video you’ve watched online, you’ll know it’s no easy feat. Even after a lot of searching, you may not turn up results. Here’s how to search for the full video from a clip you’ve seen online.

There are many reasons you might want to find the source of a video. Maybe you need to properly credit the original source or check on copyright status; or maybe you’re out to find the full video from which a short clip was posted online. Some of these methods involve a lot of metaphorical elbow grease; others employ advanced tools to get to the source of a video.

1 Reverse Search for a Video Using Screenshots

Reverse searching using screenshots is arguably the most helpful way to find the video source.

This method requires you to take screenshots from a video and upload them to a reverse image search engine. The algorithm identifies the color, pixels, and other elements in the screen grab, and tries to locate the video source.

You can perform a reverse search with Google’s reverse image search or similar services offered by Bing, Prepostseo, IDQB, and others.

Other options include TinEye and reverse image search apps available on Android and iOS, such as Google Lens. Just upload screenshots to any of these tools and see if they can lead you to the video you want.

2 Manually Hunt Down the Video Source

Performing a manual search on Google, Bing, Yandex, and similar search engines is an easy way to find out where a video came from.

Despite being straightforward, this is not a reliable method. You have to navigate through an overwhelming number of search results. It is time intensive and there’s no guarantee you’ll find the video.

To find the source of a video using this method, look for clues within it, such as the subject of the video, people’s names mentioned in the video, or dialogue from the script.

For instance, if you’ve seen a video showing how meat is processed in a factory, the video might feature the name of one of the factory managers. You can use this information and other clues, such as the factory name, as the basis for your search.

Once you’ve gathered these hints, you can mix them up to search for the video using the search engine of your choice. Then, look at the search results that the search engine presents to see if you can find the right video. You may have to go through a lot of content before you find what you’re looking for.

If you’re having no luck with standard internet searches, try Google’s Advanced Video Search tool to find the source of a video. You’ll need to do some data gathering before you begin.

This method involves entering a few words from the video transcript, selecting the language, choosing the release date, and selecting a few other options. The tool shows you related videos based on your input.

To find the source of a video you’ve seen online using Google’s Advanced Video Search tool, follow these steps:

1. Open the Advanced Video Search tool.
2. Fill out the fields based on what you’ve collected from the clip.
3. Filter videos by language, duration, time, etc., to narrow your search results.
4. Click on the Advanced Search button.
5. Google will show you relevant results for your search, so check them out and see if you find the video you're looking for.

4 Use On-Screen Elements to Locate the Video Source

On-screen elements in a video can also help you find its source. Often, the people putting video clips online repost videos taken from other sources without changing anything.

If the video has the logo of its original publisher or the name of a brand visible, you can use that information to find the source. So pay close attention to the video for any on-screen elements.

If you find the brand’s name or logo in the video, find out which brand it belongs to and visit its social media profiles. There is a good chance you’ll find the video there. Similarly, you can also use other visual elements to locate the source of videos you’ve seen online.

5 Find the Video Source Using the Fake News Debunker Extension

The Fake News Debunker browser extension is used by journalists to find news sources, but you can also use it to locate the source of a video clip posted online.

Here’s how to use this powerful tool:

1. Go to the Fake News Debunker extension page and add it to your browser.
2. Click on the extension; then click Open Toolbox.
3. Navigate to the Video tab and go to the Keyframes section, where you can segment the video.
4. Either paste the video link or download and upload the video to the Source of the video section. Then, hit Submit, and the tool will extract frames from each video sequence as screenshots.
5. Right-click on any of these screenshots, expand the Fake news debunker menu from the context menu, and select the search engine of your choice.
6. Go through the search results and try and find the video you’re looking for. If reverse searching fails on one search engine, use another.

Using images with more visual elements and clearer content will help search engines find relevant videos more quickly. So, carefully pick the image you want to reverse search.

It’s never been more important to get to the bottom of claims made on the internet. It’s not easy, but it can be done. You can confirm the authenticity of content in a viral video by finding out where it came from. The process may take some practice, but these tools and techniques should make your task that much easier.