The best documentaries on YouTube: 15 free titles to watch in 2023

The global video-sharing service YouTube doesn’t often come up in discussions of the best streaming services or Netflix alternatives. It’s plenty popular, but it’s probably not where you go for the hottest new streaming shows and movies every week. There are plenty of awesome documentaries on YouTube you can stream for free. We’ve rounded up the best ones from different genres including crime, business, and technology, some of which have amassed millions of views.

Unlike the best free movies on YouTube, these YouTube documentaries aren’t geo-restricted, meaning they are available globally.

The best documentaries on YouTube

Editor’s note: We’ll be updating this list of the best documentaries on YouTube regularly as new ones hit the service.

Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware (2016)

What you need to know:

• Rating: Unrated
• Runtime: 68 minutes
• Director: Jim Demuth
• Main cast: Various
• Genre: Documentary, Technology, Science
• IMDB rating: NA

This documentary takes you inside the bustling city of Shenzhen, China, which has been dubbed The Silicon Valley of Hardware. Shenzhen is home to various companies manufacturing all sorts of consumer electronics including smartphones, tablets, and TVs, to name a few. It’s also a city where tons of copycat versions of the latest and greatest smartphones are made and sold. For a tech enthusiast, this YouTube documentary is a must-watch.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

This is the Zodiac Speaking (2007)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 19+
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Director: David Prior
• Main cast: George Bawart, Pierre Bidou, Russell T. Butterbach
• Genre: Documentary, Crime
• IMDB rating: 7

Back in the 1960s, a serial killer was on the prowl in California. Called the Zodiac killer, this vicious individual managed to outsmart law enforcement and never got caught. The killer even sent a series of letters to the press that included cryptograms believed to contain his identity. This is the Zodiac Speaking revolves around the murders of the serial killer and the person who may be behind them.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 9+
• Runtime: 105 minutes
• Director: Brian Knappenberger
• Main cast: Aaron Swartz, Tim Berners-Lee, Cory Doctorow, Peter Eckersley, Lawrence Lessig, Brewster Kahle
• Genre: Documentary, Biography, Crime
• IMDB rating: 8

If you’re into technology, you probably know or have at least heard of Aaron Swartz. He was a programming prodigy who helped develop the RSS web feed and was one of the co-founders of Reddit. He was also an internet activist who got into trouble with the law, which did not end well for him. This YouTube documentary follows the life of Aaron Swartz, showing you all his accomplishments along with his legal troubles.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

Pumping Iron (1977)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 7+
• Runtime: 86 minutes
• Director: George Butler
• Main cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Mike Katz, Franco Columbu, Serge Nubret, Ed Corney, Ken Waller
• Genre: Documentary, Sport
• IMDB rating: 7.3

This 1977 docudrama offers a look at the wild world of competitive bodybuilding, focusing on the 1975 IFBB Mr. Universe and 1975 Mr. Olympia competitions. While covering a lot of ground, the film does zero in on the competition between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno for the title of Mr. Olympia. The documentary is a fascinating time capsule, especially for fans of the two men — Schwarzenegger would go on to star in The Terminator and become an action movie icon and governor of California, while Ferrigno became the first live-action Incredible Hulk.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

Robin’s Wish (2020)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 3+
• Runtime: 76 minutes
• Director: Tylor Norwood
• Main cast: Robin Williams, Susan Schneider Williams, Shawn Levy, John R. Montgomery, David E. Kelley, Rick Overton
• Genre: Documentary, Biography
• IMDB rating: 7.3

Authorized by Robin Williams’s widow, Robin’s Wish looks at the late actor’s career and final days. While the documentary explores Williams’s life and career, it puts a special focus on the beloved actor’s final days, his struggles with diffuse Lewy body disease, and his eventual death by suicide, offering a loving portrait as well as shedding light on the disease.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

Hoop Dreams (1994)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 10+
• Runtime: 174 minutes
• Director: Steve James
• Main cast: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Gene Pingatore, Steve James, Dick Vitale, Bob Knight, Spike Lee
• Genre: Documentary, Sport
• IMDB rating: 8.3

One of the best sports documentaries of all time, Hoop Dreams is also naturally one of the best documentaries on YouTube. The film follows inner-city Black youths in Chicago as they train and work towards their dream of playing college basketball, with the eventual goal of an NBA career. The doc is an illuminating look at class, race, and the American Dream.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

13th (2016)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 17+
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Director: Ava DuVernay
• Main cast: Jelani Cobb, Angela Davis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Michelle Alexander, Cory Booker, Marie Gottschalk, Michael Hough
• Genre: Documentary, Crime, History
• IMDB rating: 8.2

Selma director Ava DuVernay takes a look at the current US prison system in this Academy Award-nominated documentary. The movie’s premise is that even after the passage of the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which ostensibly outlawed slavery, Black men and women are still being criminalized and incarcerated in large numbers to keep them oppressed and enslaved.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

The White Helmets (2016)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 11
• Runtime: 40
• Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
• Main cast: Khalid Farah, Mohammed Farah, Abu Omar, Raed Saleh
• Genre:  Documentary, Short, War
• IMDB rating: 7.5

Von Einsiedel was inspired to make this film after he watched a low-quality, grainy video of a baby being rescued from under a pile of rubble. The documentary is based on volunteer workers in Syria, the ones who brave the dangers of war to help people. It follows three such workers as they work and train in Syria.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

Our Planet (2019)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 7
• Seasons: 2
• Creator:
• Main cast: David Attenborough
• Genre:  Documentary
• IMDB rating: 9.3

Narrated by the charming David Attenborough, Our Planet is a nature documentary that highlights the magic Earth offers, and then combines it with the bitterness of the fact that we are slowly but surely — ruining it.

Ready to watch? You can find the show right here on YouTube.

With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2010)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 7
• Runtime: 80
• Director: Terry Dougas
• Main cast: Stan Lee, Joan Lee, Sean Astin, Kenneth Branagh, Nicolas Cage, Michael Chiklis, Thomas Haden Church
• Genre:  Documentary, Biography
• IMDB rating: 7.1

Marvel fans wouldn’t want to give this one a miss, especially if every Stan Lee cameo has you feeling just a little bit excited. Stan Lee has created an unbelievably versatile world during a single lifetime, one that is way more complex than anything Harry Potter or its equivalents offer. You cannot walk into a Comic Con without being amassed with Spier Man, Iron Man, or Hulk. Want to know how he did it? Watch this documentary.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

 Holy Land: Startup Nations (2017)

What you need to know:

• Rating: Unrated
• Runtime: 89 minutes
• Director: Jim Demuth
• Main cast: Various
• Genre: Documentary, Business
• IMDB rating: NA

Israel is known as The Startup Nation, as it has the most tech startups and venture capital per capita in the world. This documentary takes you behind the scenes, showing you how technology and innovation are becoming the country’s dominant industries. It’s produced by Wired and shot in various cities throughout the country including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It’s a must-watch for those who love technology.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

Life In A Day (2011)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 11+
• Runtime: 95 minutes
• Director: Kevin Macdonald
• Main cast: Cindy Baer, Moica, Caryn Waechter, Drake Shannon
• Genre: Documentary, Drama
• IMDB rating: 7.6

Another one of the best documentaries on YouTube is called Life In A Day, which is very unique. It’s aimed at future generations who can check out what it was like to be alive on July 24, 2010. The documentary was created entirely from footage uploaded by YouTube users and shows various people living their day-to-day lives along with the challenges that come with it.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

The September Issue (2009)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 7+
• Runtime: 90 minutes
• Director: R.J. Cutler
• Main cast: Anna Wintour, Grace Coddington, André Leon Talley, Hamish Bowles, Tonne Goodman, Sienna Miller, Thakoon Panichgul
• Genre: Documentary
• IMDB rating: 7

The Vogue September issue is legendary, as is the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. In The September Issue, director R.J. Cutler gives us a peek behind the scenes, as Wintour works (and often butts heads) with model-turned-creative-director Grace Coddington. The two strong personalities clash but ultimately collaborate on the 2007 issue in this compulsively watchable exposé.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

Super Size Me (2004)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 6+
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Director: Morgan Spurlock
• Main cast: Morgan Spurlock, Daryl Isaacs, Lisa Ganjhu, Stephen Siegel, Bridget Bennett, Eric Rowley, Mark Fenton
• Genre: Documentary
• IMDB rating: 7.2

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock spent 30 days eating only food from fast food giant McDonald’s. As an added challenge, he never refused the option to “Super Size” his meal when offered. The results, which he filmed were catastrophic, as his health rapidly declined. While many of Spurlock’s findings have been debunked, this blockbuster documentary film was such a hit with audiences that it drove McDonald’s to abandon its Super Size offerings.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.

Citizenfour (2014)

What you need to know:

• Rating: 9
• Runtime: 114
• Director: Laura Poitras
• Main cast: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, William Binney, Barack Obama, Jacob Appelbaum, Julian Assange
• Genre:  Documentary, Biography
• IMDB rating: 8

Watch Laura Poitras and Glen Greenwald interview Edward Snowden over many sessions about why he did what did. Edward Snowden was the ultimate whistleblower — a complicated one at that because his reasons for espionage were wide and varied.

Ready to watch? You can find the movie right here on YouTube.