Can You Stream on Twitch and YouTube at the Same Time with OBS?

Yes, you absolutely can stream to both Twitch and YouTube simultaneously using OBS!

Multi-streaming is growing in popularity, but getting setup can seem daunting. In this guide, I‘ll walk you step-by-step through everything you need to broadcast professional, high-quality streams to both platforms concurrently using the free OBS software.

By the end, you‘ll be able to expand your reach and engage audiences across multiple streaming sites with a single stream. Let‘s dive in!

Why Should You Multi-Stream?

Before we get into the how-to, here are some excellent reasons to consider multi-streaming to Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms:

Reach More Viewers

The #1 reason to stream to multiple sites is to expand your potential audience.

Each platform has its own distinct community – YouTube excels at evergreen discoverability while Twitch offers tight creator-viewer engagement. You want to take advantage of both!

Multi-streaming puts your content in front of followers across different services, helping you reach more relevant viewers.

Diversify Discovery

Relying on a single site like Twitch for growth can be limiting. Their discovery mechanisms like browse and hashtags are finite.

But each additional platform you stream on compounds discoverability:

Get promoted in Twitch browse AND YouTube recommendations
Appear in Facebook‘s live streams list AND Twitter‘s #live feed
Come up in search results and related streams on all connected sites

More exposure avenues = more opportunities for new people to find your stream!

Maximize Revenue Sources

Monetizing as a streamer often means piecing together income from multiple sources:

Subscriptions on Twitch
SuperChats/memberships on YouTube
Stars on Facebook
Tips across various sites

Multi-streaming gives you more potential monetization channels in one go. Instead of earning from just Twitch or just YouTube, you earn incremental revenue across every platform you broadcast on.

Build Redundancy

Any experienced streamer knows the pain of a sudden disconnection or platform outage. Live streaming is a technically intensive endeavor with a lot of potential points of failure.

By spreading your stream across multiple sites, you insulate yourself against issues on any one platform. If your Twitch stream drops, your YouTube and Facebook streams stay intact.

No more lost streams and revenue! For the most reliable broadcasting, multi-streaming is a must.

Enjoy Platform Flexibility

Every platform has its own rules around content and features. With multi-streaming, you can customize certain elements of your stream for each platform‘s rules and audience while keeping the same core:

Webcams – Show your Twitch webcam, but disable it on YouTube kids content
Chat – Interact heavily with Twitch chat, while sticking to SuperChats on YouTube
Overlays – Display your Twitch alerts and graphics, customized YouTube assets
Curation – Play licensed music on Facebook, copyright-safe tracks on Twitch

This selective customization paired with a consistent gaming stream gives you maximum flexibility.

Now that you know the many benefits, let‘s dive into the setup…

Step 1: Download and Install OBS Studio

To get started, you need a robust and reliable streaming program. OBS Studio is by far the most popular choice amongst professional streamers and content creators.

Why OBS Studio?

Here‘s an overview of what makes OBS the best free streaming software:

Open source – completely free with no hidden costs
Packed with features – chroma keying, plugins, overlays, scenes, etc.
Cross-platform – works great on Windows, Mac, and Linux
Optimized encoders – get the most quality out of your system
Community support – huge user base for help and guides
Flexible – capture any input source and customize endlessly

OBS is trusted by the top streamers for rock-solid live streaming. And best of all – no license fees or monthly subscriptions!

Download and Install OBS

Head to OBSProject.com and download the latest installer for your Windows, Mac, or Linux machine.

Run through the installation process, leaving all the settings at their defaults for now. We‘ll optimize OBS in the next steps.

Once installation completes, launch OBS for the first time.

Run the Auto-Configuration Wizard

When you first start OBS, an "Auto-Configuration Wizard" will pop up. This helps select the optimal settings for your system and use-case.

Choose "Optimize for streaming, recording is secondary". Then check the boxes next to "Twitch" and "YouTube Live" since those are the platforms we‘ll be streaming to.

The wizard will automatically choose encoder settings tailored for multi-platform streaming based on your hardware. Just leave them as-is for now.

Click through the rest of the screens in the wizard, and finish by clicking "Apply Settings" to save your stream profiles.

And that‘s it! OBS is now installed and configured for basic multi-streaming. Now we need to link our accounts…

Step 2: Connect Your Streaming Accounts to OBS

To go live on Twitch or YouTube, you first need to connect your accounts within OBS.

This authorizes OBS to access your streaming keys to let you broadcast. Here‘s how to link your accounts:

Connect Your Twitch Account

In OBS, click the Settings gear ⚙️ icon.
Navigate to the "Stream" section.
Under "Service", click on the Twitch icon.
The Twitch website will open – sign into your Twitch account here.
Click "Authorize" to grant OBS access to your Twitch streaming credentials.

Once connected, your Twitch username will show under "Stream Key" in OBS.

Get Your Twitch Stream Key

Still under Settings > Stream in OBS:

Go to your Twitch Dashboard
Find your main account‘s Stream Key under Channel Settings.
Copy your Stream Key from Twitch.
Paste the key into the "Stream Key" field in OBS.

This unique stream key tells Twitch‘s servers which account you are streaming from when going live.

Connect Your YouTube Account

First, you need to install the Google login and YouTube streaming plugins for OBS:

In OBS, go to Tools > Plugins
Search for "Google" and "YouTube"
Install both plugins and restart OBS

Next, link your YouTube account:

Go to Settings > Stream
Under "Service", select "YouTube / YouTube Gaming"
When prompted, sign into YouTube via your Google account
Click "Authorize" to grant OBS access to your YouTube account

Once connected, you‘ll see your YouTube user name in OBS.

Get Your YouTube Stream Key

Just like with Twitch, we need to enter our unique YouTube stream key into OBS:

Go to the YouTube Studio dashboard
Click on "Live Streaming" in the left menu
Under stream name & key, click Copy to grab your key
In OBS Settings > Stream, paste this key into the "Stream Key" field

And that‘s it! With those steps complete, OBS is now authorized to stream to both your Twitch and YouTube accounts.

Step 3: Configure OBS for Multi-Streaming

We have OBS connected to both platforms separately, but how do we stream to both concurrently from a single encoder?

The answer is by using a free service called Restream to take our single OBS output, and distribute it to both platforms simultaneously.

Here‘s how to setup Restream integration with OBS:

Sign up for a free Restream account at restream.io
Connect/authorize your Twitch and YouTube accounts in the Restream dashboard
Under "Add Channel", select Twitch + YouTube
Copy your Restream stream key from the dashboard
In OBS Settings > Stream, select "Custom Streaming Server"
Enter rtmp://live.restream.io/live as URL
Paste your Restream stream key into OBS

That‘s all it takes! Now when you go live in OBS, it will push your single video stream to Restream‘s servers, which will then replicate and broadcast your stream out to both Twitch and YouTube concurrently.

No fiddling with multi-encoding or complex OBS setups required!

Why Use Restream?

Restream makes multi-streaming incredibly easy by acting as the "middleman" between your encoder and platforms. Here are some of the key benefits of using Restream:

Requires just a single encoder setup in OBS.
Stream to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Mixer and more simultaneously.
Built-in aggregation of chats from all platforms into one window in OBS.
Free accounts let you stream up to 4 platforms at once.
Paid plans ($20/mo) enable 8+ platforms, portals, recording, and more.
Cloud-based so you don‘t need beefy on-premise hardware.

For most streamers, Restream provides all the multi-streaming functionality you need on an easy-to-use platform.

However, advanced streamers can also build complex direct OBS multi-streaming rigs without a middleman. But Restream saves you the headache!

Okay, with our accounts connected and Restream configured, let‘s move on to optimizing…

Step 4: Configure Your Encoder Settings

When live streaming, your "encoder" is the software component that compresses and encodes your raw input into a streamable digital video signal.

For multi-streaming, you need to use encoder settings optimized for stability across multiple platforms.

Here are the key settings to configure in OBS Settings > Output:

Video Bitrate

The bitrate is the maximum amount of data encoded per second of video, measured in Kbps (kilobits per second).

For dual streaming at 720p 60fps, use a bitrate between 3500-6000 Kbps.

For a 1080p multi-stream, use 6000-8500 Kbps.

Too low and quality suffers. Too high and your viewers may buffer.

Keyframe Interval

Keyframes are complete video frames encoded periodically. Shorter keyframe intervals help reduce pixelation and artifacts.

For multi-streaming, set this to 2 seconds or 50 frames for a balance of quality and efficiency.

Encoder

If your GPU supports it, use NVENC encoding for the best performance. Otherwise, use x264 software encoding.

Internet Speed

Make sure you have at least 5 Mbps upload speed for a 720p multi-stream, and 10+ Mbps for 1080p. Otherwise, viewers may experience lag and buffering.

Getting your bitrate, CPU usage, and internet speeds balanced takes some tweaking. Monitor your streams on each platform and adjust settings until you hit the sweet spot between quality and reliability.

Step 5: Configure Your Cameras and Audio

Since Twitch and YouTube have slightly different rules around sources, we want to customize cameras and audio capture for each platform:

Webcams

For your face/green screen cam, add it as a global source in OBS. This will be output to both platforms.
To show a platform-exclusive camera, add it as a source in just that platform‘s scene.

For example, have your main webcam overlay visible on both Twitch and YouTube, while only showing your cat cam to Twitch subscribers in that scene.

Audio

Set your primary microphone as a global source to capture your voice across all platforms.
To play platform-specific audio, add it as a source in just that platform‘s scene.

This allows you to play licensed music over Facebook while using copyright-safe tracks on Twitch.

Segmenting sources gives endless flexibility in customizing elements of your multi-stream!

Step 6: Customize Scenes and Graphics

Even through you‘re playing the same core game footage, you can customize the production elements of your stream for each platform:

Scene Layouts

Use different scenes and layouts in OBS for each platform:

Arrange your webcam, graphics, chat, etc uniquely on Twitch and YouTube
Switch to platform-specific layouts when interacting with each audience

Matching the layout to the platform helps engagement feel natural.

Overlays and Alerts

Display graphics tailored for each platform:

Show your Twitch overlays, alerts, and event animations
Trigger custom YouTube assets like sub/donation banners

This makes your production feel hand-crafted for each community.

Moderation

You can apply different moderation standards per platform:

Use Nightbot on Twitch but rely on trusted YouTube mods
Enable unique banned words lists on each platform
Vary the speed and volume of chat participation

Your community guidelines may differ across sites – match moderation to each.

Take advantage of OBS‘s powerful customization to craft an engaging, natuve experience across all your concurrent streams!

Advanced Setup: Dual PC Multi-Streaming

For professional, full-time streamers, a "dual PC setup" is the gold standard for live streaming:

Dedicated Gaming PC

Focuses solely on high FPS gameplay performance without compromise. Gets your gameplay directly to the capture card with ultra-low latency.

Separate Streaming PC

Handles all the stream encoding, compositing, and distribution. Ideally has a high core count CPU and dedicated GPU for best quality and stability.

Adding a capture card allows passing gameplay video from the gaming rig to the streaming computer with almost no performance hit.

This setup prevents OBS and multi-streaming from affecting your gaming FPS. And it unlocks the ability to stream at higher qualities across multiple platforms concurrently.

Restream – Is a Paid Subscription Worth it?

The free tier of Restream meets most basic multi-streaming needs: streaming to up to 4 destinations concurrently, chat aggregation, basic analytics.

But for serious streamers, a paid Restream subscription may be worth it:

Restream Pro ($20/month)

Stream to 8 platforms at once
2 hours MP4 recording per month
Stream at up to 1080p resolution

Restream Studio ($49/month)

Stream to unlimited platforms
100 hours MP4 recording per month
Portals for embedding your stream
Mobile streaming
Up to 4K streaming resolution

For streamers earning decent revenue across platforms, the paid features easily pay for themselves in expanded audience, redundancy, and production value.

Start Multi-Streaming on Twitch and YouTube!

And that covers everything you need to know to get started streaming concurrently to both Twitch and YouTube using OBS and Restream!

Here are a few final tips to recap:

Optimize encoder settings for stability and quality tradeoff
Customize graphics, layouts, and moderation for each platform
Monitor chat engagement levels on each platform
Analyze stats separately on Twitch and YouTube
Troubleshoot issues by checking each platform individually

With multi-streaming, you can grow your reach across platforms while keeping production quality high. It does take extra effort compared to single-platform streaming, but pays dividends in expanding your audience.

I hope you found this guide helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions. I‘m always happy to help fellow streamers level up their productions.

Now get out there, engage new communities, and start expanding your multi-stream presence!