How to Find Your Twitch Stream Key

Your Twitch stream key is in the Creator Dashboard under Settings → Stream. Copy it from there into your streaming software, and never show it on stream: anyone who has it can broadcast to your channel. If it leaks, reset it from the same page.

Where to find your Twitch stream key

1. Log in on twitch.tv, click your profile picture in the top right, and choose Creator Dashboard.
2. In the left sidebar, open Settings → Stream.
3. Find your Primary Stream key. Click Copy to put it on your clipboard without showing it on screen.
4. Paste it into the stream key field of your broadcasting software.

Never show your stream key on stream, in screenshots or in tutorials. Copying it with the Copy button keeps it hidden if your screen is being captured.

What happens if your stream key leaks

Twitch calls the stream key your “authorization key”. Your encoder sends it to Twitch to prove it’s allowed to stream to your account. Anyone who has it can go live on your channel without your password, and whatever they broadcast appears on your channel. Twitch warns that sharing it “could compromise your channel”.

If you think someone has your key, reset it right away:

1. Go to Creator Dashboard → Settings → Stream.
2. Click Reset next to your stream key. The old key stops working.
3. Copy the new key into your streaming software. You can skip this if you use Connect Account in OBS.

Changing your Twitch password also resets your stream key. If someone else may have had access to your account, change your password and turn on two-factor authentication.

Using your stream key in OBS Studio

OBS gives you two ways to link Twitch. With the first, you never have to handle the key yourself.

Option 1: Connect Account (recommended)

1. In OBS, open Settings → Stream.
2. Set Service to Twitch.
3. Click Connect Account (recommended) and log in to Twitch in the window that opens.

Twitch’s setup steps for Enhanced Broadcasting (the Enable Enhanced Broadcasting checkbox under Multitrack Video) also use Connect Account. It needs OBS Studio 30.2 or newer.

Option 2: Use Stream Key

1. In Settings → Stream, set Service to Twitch.
2. Click Use Stream Key.
3. Paste your key into the Stream Key field and click Apply.

Most streamers can leave the server on the automatic choice. Twitch says most broadcasters don’t need to set an ingest server manually. Before your first stream, check your output settings with our bitrate calculator and the OBS encoder settings guide.

Other software that asks for an RTMP URL

Some tools want a server URL and a key, or one combined URL. Twitch’s format is rtmp://TWITCH-INGEST-SERVER/app/STREAM-KEY, where the ingest server is a Twitch server picked from its recommended ingest list. If the tool has a built-in Twitch option, use that instead.

Letting someone else stream to your channel

Don’t hand out your own key. Twitch has guest stream keys for channels run by more than one person:

1. In the Creator Dashboard, open your stream settings and go to the permissions section.
2. Under People who can stream to your channel, enter the other person’s email address. Double-check it.
3. They receive a guest stream key that starts with live_sub_.

Resetting your own key does not affect guest keys. Removing the person from your authorized list is the only way to cancel a guest key.

When you don’t need a stream key

• Twitch mobile app: going live from the iOS or Android app doesn’t use a stream key.
• Connect Account in OBS (and similar login options in other apps): the app gets authorization by logging in, so you never copy the key.

If you still can’t go live with the right key, Twitch lists the usual causes: a streaming suspension, an unstable connection or too little upload speed (it suggests at least 3–6 Mbps), the wrong server, or encoder settings that don’t work.

Sources: Twitch Help: Twitch Stream Key FAQ · Twitch Help: Enhanced Broadcasting with Multiple Encodes · Twitch Help: Why Can’t I Stream?