Upload and embed a playable video into your GitBook docs

Drag and drop a video from your desktop into GitBook, then set it up so users can play that video on the page

Embedding videos from sources like YouTube and Loom are easy in GitBook — all you need to do is paste the URL into the editor. But did you know you can upload and host a video from your desktop in GitBook so that your users can play it like any other embed?

Let’s dive in — and if you want to watch this guide in video form, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Uploading and embedding large video files may impact the loading speed of your page, which can affect performance and SEO. We recommend only using this process for small video files under 2MB, such as short tutorials or demos.

1

Drag and drop your video

First, create a new line on your page and simply drag and drop your video onto the line. This will upload your video to your space’s Files area.

When the upload is done, the video will appear as a file block on the page. But how do you turn that into an embedded, playable video?

2

Click to open the video file

Click the file block in the editor. Your video will open in a new browser tab and start playing automatically.

3

Copy the URL

You now have the hosted video’s URL — select and copy it from your browser’s address bar.

4

Paste the URL into GitBook

Head back to your GitBook page, create a new line, and paste your video’s URL into the editor. Hit Enter and the URL will automatically embed into the page, adding the video in a dedicated player.

You can add a caption to the video, or just leave it as it is. Your users will see the embedded video and can click to play it right on your docs page.

5

Delete the file block

To clean up your page, you can now delete the file block that was created when you uploaded the video — you don’t need it on the page any more!

Don’t worry, it’ll still be accessible in your space’s Files tab in the table of contents, and deleting the block won’t delete the hosted file.

How to upload a video and show it to users as a playable video.