Loopcast for YouTube

Run a 24/7 YouTube live stream without leaving a PC on

Upload the video once. We encode it to YouTube’s recommended live spec and keep it looping to your stream key from our datacenter, restarting it if the connection ever drops.

Setup

Two things to copy across

YouTube gives you a reusable stream key, which is what makes an unattended loop practical: the key does not change between sessions, so a restart reconnects to the same broadcast.

Your ingest URL

We fill this in for you - YouTube uses one primary ingest endpoint for everybody.

rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2
Your stream key

In YouTube Studio, open Go live and copy the key from the Stream tab. Paste it into Loopcast once and you are done.

Treat it like a password - anyone holding it can broadcast to your channel.
The rules

What YouTube allows, plainly

Looping pre-recorded video as a live stream is allowed on YouTube - it is an established format, and the platform has promoted it. That is not a blank cheque, though, and the limits are worth knowing before you start rather than after a strike.

Loop something substantial

A full trailer or a long reel is fine. Looping a few seconds of footage over and over is the fastest way to be treated as low-effort repetitive content.

Use audio you are licensed for

A 24/7 loop is 24/7 exposure for whatever is on the soundtrack. Copyrighted music will mute, demonetise or strike the stream - and it will do it repeatedly.

Do not fake being there

Do not stage chat or imply someone is present and interacting. A loop that is honestly a loop is fine; one pretending to be a person is not.

Label AI content

If any part of the video is AI-generated, disclose it in the description. That is YouTube’s rule, not ours.

Loopcast does not moderate what you broadcast and cannot review your rights to it - your channel stays your responsibility. If you are unsure, check YouTube’s own live streaming policies before you go live.
The specifics

What goes out to YouTube, and what it costs

The numbers worth knowing before you commit, taken straight from the encoder settings and the price list.

1080p at 30 fps

H.264 video at a constant 6,000 kbps with a keyframe every 2 seconds, and 128 kbps AAC stereo audio. That sits inside YouTube's recommended range for 1080p30 live, so there is nothing to tune in YouTube Studio.

Any common file, up to 4 GB

Upload an MP4, MOV or most other video formats, up to 4 GB each. We encode it to the spec above once, ahead of time, so the loop does not depend on how the original was exported.

About $22 a month, around the clock

$0.72 a day for one stream running 24/7, which is $21.60 over 30 days, and less with the bonus minutes in larger packs. No subscription: minutes are only spent while you are live, and paid minutes never expire.

It restarts itself

If the connection to YouTube drops, the stream is relaunched within seconds. If YouTube keeps refusing, we back off and keep retrying every five minutes for a full day, so an outage on their side heals without you.

No access to your channel

All Loopcast needs is the stream key. You never sign in to Google through us and we never ask for permission to manage your channel, videos or comments.

The same video on Kick or Steam

Add a second platform to the same stream for 75% of the rate (+$0.54 a day) and a third for half (+$0.36). The encode is made once and shared between them.

The other ways to run a 24/7 YouTube loop

OBS on your own computer works, but the machine has to stay on and online for as long as the stream does, and a Windows update or a router restart ends the broadcast until someone notices.

A rented server running ffmpeg gets the PC out of the picture, but the encoder settings, the restarts and keeping the server patched are then your job.

Loopcast is the hosted version of that server: no hardware, nothing to maintain, and you pay by the minute you are on air. Loopcast vs OBS, in detail.

Pricing

One honest price

No tiers, no seat fees, no surprises. Your balance is minutes of broadcasting - buy a pack, stream as long as you like.

Per live stream
$0.72/day
+$0.54/day for the second platform
+$0.36/day for the third platform
24 hours a day · bigger packs include up to 30% bonus
No contract · cancel anytime · pay only for the minutes you are live
✓ 24/7 looped broadcast to YouTube
✓ YouTube-spec auto-transcoding
✓ Auto-restart on drop
✓ Unlimited video length & size
✓ Live status, logs & start/stop control
✓ Billed by the minute, only while live

7 free days when you sign up. A week of one stream around the clock, no card required.

Create your first stream
FAQ

Questions

Yes. Streams run from our datacenter, not your machine. If a broadcast drops we relaunch it automatically. It keeps going until you stop it or your minutes run out.