How To Find And Use Your Twitch Stream Key [Solved]

Twitch is a popular, Amazon-owned video streaming service.

Founded in 2011, Twitch’s initial focus was streaming video game play, but it has evolved to host other entertainment formats including music, television series and talk shows.

According to Lifewire, every month sees over 2 million unique streamers sharing content- with over 17,000 of them monetizing with the Twitch Partner program.

If you want to get in on the action, you’ll need to use a Twitch Stream Key along with some streaming software.

Below we’ve laid out some simple steps to help you locate your key and integrate it with the popular, free Open Broadcast Software streaming solution.

How To Get The Stream Key For Twitch.tv

1. Once logged in to your Twitch account, Click on your username in the top right corner and select Dashboard from the drop-down:

2. In the left panel, click Settings:

3. Then click Stream Key and then Show Key:

4. A popup will appear5. After you click I Understand, your Twitch Stream Key will appear:

6. Now you’ve got your Stream KeyIf you want to add your Stream Key to Open Broadcast Software, here’s how to get started: 1. Go to OBS2.

Click File and then Settings:

3. In the popup, click Stream from the left panel4. Input Twitch as the Service5. Choose a server location that’s closest to you6.

Paste in your Twitch stream key

7. Click Apply and then OK

Twitch Stream Key (Video How To)

The video creator above provides a tutorial series on how to setup OBS for Twitch streaming.

The first part is going to be how to get your Twitch stream key, which will allow you to stream to twitch using OBS, and it’s very easy to do.

He cautions, never show your Twitch key to anyone, because they can use it and stream on your account.

So the first thing you want to do is go to the main Twitch home page- if you’re logged in you will see in the top right-hand corner that you have your username.

You’re going to click on your username and see a drop-down menu from there you’re going to navigate Dashboard and click.

Then, you’re going go to the Settings, tab, press the Settings tab and go to where it says, Stream Key, and then you’re going to press Show Key.

You’ll get a warning message that you should never show your key to anyone and not even the twitch admins.

Next, indicate that accept the warning- then highlight your streaming key.

Now, you’ll want to add this key to OBS.

Click File, settings Stream and then you’re going to select your service, which is going to be “Twitch”. For the server, select the server that is closest to you.

Then paste in your key- and that’s it!

XSplit And The Stream Key

The YouTube channel The Breakdown, provides a video tutorial on connecting your streaming key with the popular streaming software Xsplit.

He walks you through the initial Output setup- you’ll be setting up a new output to Twitch. You’ll authorize your account by clicking the Authorize- watch the video for the remaining setup instructions.

One tip- try raising your bitrate to at least 1,500. Once activated, it’ll go through and test all of your settings by your stream location, check to find the best server.

To test if it’s working, head over to your Twitch Dashboard- if you see yourself live then you are live streaming on Twitch TV.

How To Make Money On Twitch

Popular ‘Twitcher’ The Wulff Den, offers some advice in the video above if you want to use your streaming key to make oodles of profit. He discusses how easy it is to just point the camera at yourself and you play video games. (Joking.)

If you want to become a successful twitch streamer, the number one thing he recommends is the right equipment. Just use your PlayStation or Xbox camera, because the content is what’s most important!

You need personality. Why are people going to come to watch your channel- you need a personality!

Set a schedule! Viewers need to know when they’re going to see you so set yourself a schedule. In his opinion, those streamers who have made the most money stream 5 to 7 days a week, up to 4 to 12 hours a day.

Pick a game you love! Select one game make sure you love it. Because it’s likely you’ll be playing it a lot.

Engage your audience! You can’t just sit there like a lump when you play- you need to be engaging your followers. Talking constantly! It’s like you’re a radio host, he says.

That way they’ll want to keep returning to hang out with you every time you go live.

Watch the full video for all the tips!

Why Do You Need A Twitch Stream Key?

A Twitch Stream Key enables you to use a custom RTMP server URL so you can broadcast to your Twitch account without having to log into the application’s Account Manager.

What Do You Need To Stream On Twitch?

A Good Computer: Most streamers are doing so from a desktop or laptop computer. Twitch itself recommends a personal computer that is at minimum an Intel Core i5-4670 processor (or the AMD equivalent), that has at least 8GB of RAM and is using at least Windows 7. Mac users can also, stream- don’t worry!

A Twitch Account: Pretty obvious.

Streaming Software: The most indispensable element is decent broadcasting software so you can push your gameplay to the e-sports world. The free Open Broadcasting Software (OBS), XSplit, and UStream are the 3 of the most popular options.

Microphone & Camera: Many computers have integrated microphones and cameras- but you can up your game by installing some third-party solutions to boost the production value of your stream.

What’s Reddit Saying?

It can be difficult to find the key- oftentimes Twitch updates its user interface, which frustrates some Redditors:

Eh, where is Steam key now? from r/Twitch

Twitch & Stack Overflow

One developer coded an app for broadcasting to twitch.tv using C++.  He was trying to figure out how to use the following URL to pull the stream key just by using the username & password:http://www.twitch.tv/user_name/dashboard/streamkey

A technical response came from another user who explained that the Twitch API is actually JavaScript Object Notation (json) based and in order to accept your stream key you’ll have to authorize your app to connect with the API.

In order to do this, you’ll find the settings under the Connections tab within Twitch.tv’s user profile. You’ll find an option to “register your app” and then you’ll receive a client-id header for get requests.

The last step is to connect your Oauthv2 key to the headers or as a param during the query to the specific get request.

Summary

If you’re looking to become a Twitch streaming legend- whether you’re playing League of Legends or Minecraft, getting the technical set up correct is the first hurdle.

Follow our key set up guide above and you’ll be well on your way to internet stardom!