TED Talks Usage Policy

Usage policy sections

TED Talks under Creative Commons License
TED Talks for for-profit companies
Projecting TED Talks to a group
Media requests

Commercial cases: Using a TED Talk in a commercial context (on an intranet system, at a company event, in training materials, within a TED-branded video offering or editorial program, and more), requires a license. Please fill out our media licensing request form to inquire about licensing TED content. Read more below about bringing TED Talks to for-profit companies.

Non-commercial cases: We encourage you to share TED Talks that are licensed for distribution under our Creative Commons license, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) which means it may be shared by following a few requirements. Certain TED Talks that are licensed to TED such as performances and or other talks that we have shared but not created may not be distributed.

• Attribute TED as the owner of the TED Talk and include a link to the talk, but do not include any text that shows TED endorses your website or platform.
• Do not use the TED site content for any commercial purposes, for sale, sublicense or in an app of any kind for any advertising, or in exchange for payment of any kind.
• You cannot remix, create derivative work or modify the TED site content in any way.
• You may not add any further more restrictions that we have provided to the TED site content, such as additional legal restrictions, or charge any fees or technological restrictions to accessing the content.

Embedding TED Talks on your blog or site:

• Type of site/company: Bloggers, news/information websites and nonprofits (by which we mean: registered 501(c)3 organizations in the United States, and the equivalent in all other countries), may share one or more TED Talks under a Creative Commons (CC) license, provided that they follow the rest of the guidelines on this page and sharing the TED Talks is not the central purpose of your site. This means that we expect the usage under Creative Commons to be one to share ideas, not to use TED Talks as the main content for your site, which provides revenue or other sources of income that relies on content we are providing. If you are interested in licensing TED Talks for other purposes, or for more regular usage, please contact us for more details.
• Transcripts and subtitles may be used under the same Creative Commons license in conjunction with the TED Talk video. Copyright on the transcripts is owned by TED and any edits, different usage rights or changes to these documents are not permitted without permission. Thus, if you wanted to publish a TED Talk in a book, test, play, or otherwise, for any other publication, permission is required.
• Video player: You must use the TED embeddable player. This allows us to further our overall mission by tracking video usage. Scraping video from TED.com is not permitted.
• Attribution: You must add a visible link back to TED.com
• Running talks in their entirety: You may not edit TED Talks, or alter them in any way. This is essential for preserving the integrity of the speaker's ideas.

Commercial applications of TED Talks require a license. Companies and organizations looking to embed or hyperlink TED content in contexts that include (but are not limited to) internal communications, employee training materials, and company websites must inquire about licensing TED Talks. Please note that no promotional applications of TED content are permitted. Licenses for commercial applications involve a fee, which supports TED’s nonprofit mission of Ideas Worth Spreading.

If you are a for-profit company seeking to: license TED Talks, create a TED-branded video offering, television series, or original editorial program or other service offering -- please check if your company’s business matches with one or more of the categories listed below, as you will require a formal distribution partnership with TED. To submit an inquiry, please fill out our media licensing request form.

• Internet Video Service
• Audio Service
• Specialized Cable/Satellite Channel
• Home Entertainment Device
• IPTV Service and Set Top Box Manufacturer
• Mobile and Tablet Manufacturer
• Web Browser Applications and Stores
• Subscription-Based Educational Service (Online Education Company)
• Corporate Education Provider
• In-flight, Hospitality or Hotel Entertainment Provider
• Other Commercial Entity

If you'd like to learn more about corporate partnerships with TED, read about how to partner with us or email partnerships@ted.com.

We encourage you to find creative ways to share TED Talks with your friends, family, students, colleagues and communities. See below for specific examples. Please note that some of the below use cases require a license.

TED Talks in the classroom
Many educators use TED Talks to stimulate discussions with students or to complement course materials and we encourage you to do so as well. You can stream TED Talks from TED.com or from TED’s official YouTube channel, as long as you comply with the terms of the Creative Commons license outlined above. Feel free to share links to TED.com or TED’s official YouTube channel with students on online forums or class websites.

TED-Ed videos
On YouTube.com/TEDEducation are made available under YouTube's standard policy, not Creative Commons. For more information about licensing TED-Ed videos, please fill out our media licensing request form.

TED Talks at non-TED conferences
Conference presenters can stream TED Talks from TED.com or TED’s official YouTube channel in a non-commercial, educational context. Commercial entities require a license to show TED Talks at a conference or industry event and should fill out our media licensing request form. Presenters using TED in a non-commercial context can stream TED Talks from TED.com or TED’s official YouTube channel, as long as you comply with the terms of the Creative Commons license outlined above. In particular, the talks must be shown unedited, including the TED visuals and if applicable those of the partner conference or TEDx event, and those of the TED Talks sponsor, as well as the copyright information. For more information about using TED Talks in a commercial context at conferences or industry events, please contact us.

If you’re interested in organizing a TED-like event in your own community, please learn more about how to do so through our TEDx initiative.

Screening to groups
A variety of companies, organizations and institutions request use of TED Talks for screening within common areas, for educational use in exhibits, and for employee training and development. Some of these use cases require a license. For more information about obtaining a license for these purposes, please fill out the media licensing request form.

TED Talks in documentaries
Requests for use within a documentary should be submitted via our media licensing request form.

TED Talks on a television channel
At this time we are not extending licenses for use of TED content to cable, cable access, or PEG channels.

Requests for TED Photos
At this time we do not license speaker photos or TED images outside of formal licensing partnerships.

Translating TED Talks
For those interested in helping to translate TED talks, learn more about joining TED Translators! You may even find that the talk you're looking for is already translated into your language. If you have a Distribution Partner License Agreement with TED to exhibit TED Talks on your platform, your agreement will specify the use of subtitles provided by TED.

Need more information, or have a unique request? Please submit your licensing request using our TED Talks media licensing request form.

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How long will it take to hear back regarding my media request?
We ask for a minimum of two weeks to review and process all media requests. As an organization dedicated to spreading worthy ideas, processing can take longer due to our conference schedule or company holidays. Please know that we are working as quickly and as diligently as possible, however, to address your request!

I have a great person in mind to be a TED speaker. How can I share this with TED?
If you would like to nominate a speaker for a TED Talk, please go here.

How can I bring TED into the classroom for English language learning?
TED is currently partnered with National Geographic Learning to license our content directly to schools for ELL. You can learn more about this initiative here. For additional questions, please submit a media request.

Can I use TED content in my song or music?
It is important for TED that the integrity of the speaker's idea is protected and that the talk is not edited or used in a context not intended. With that in mind, we cannot permit using TED content in this way.

Where do I direct press related inquiries for TED content?
For press information, images and media resources about TED conferences, TED.com and TED Talks, please get in touch with Erin Allweiss at tedpress@thenumber29.com.

Can I translate TED content for my YouTube channel?
We do not permit individuals and/or organizations to translate or dub outside of the official TED Translator community, as modifying the content in this way is not covered under TED's Creative Commons license. Please also note TED and TED-Ed have official channels on YouTube, and our distribution policy does not permit re-uploading TED content onto other YouTube channels. If you are interested in making ideas more accessible to your community, join our TED Translator community!