Some cube moves are easier to learn watching someone's hands do them — the angle of the turn, the regrip between algorithms, the small things written guides flatten out. If you'd rather have the text-first version, that's our written guide. Below are four YouTube channels we keep coming back to. It isn't exhaustive — there are dozens of strong cube creators online — but these four cover most of what a beginner needs.
J Perm
Run by Dylan Wang, a competitive speedcuber who goes by his channel name in the community. J Perm is generally considered the most popular beginner-friendly cube tutorial channel on YouTube, and his beginner-solve walkthrough is the one most people send to a friend who just bought their first cube. He talks slowly enough to follow, the camera angle actually shows what his fingers are doing, and he names each step before he does it. Beyond the beginner method he also teaches CFOP, F2L (the first two layers solved as one combined step), and the longer last-layer algorithm sets, so the channel keeps being useful once you've outgrown the basics. If you bounced off a written guide, start here.
Z3Cubing
Charles Stadelman runs Z3Cubing, and the format is part news desk, part hands-on lab. His hardware reviews compare flagship cubes side by side, often within days of release, and he's become the community's go-to for live reaction videos when a new world record drops — pulling up the solve, walking through what happened move by move, sometimes within hours of it being set. The technique videos assume you already know which way to hold the cube. Less of a teaching channel, more of a weekly check-in with the sport.
CubeHead
CubeHead treats cubing history as a real subject worth essay-length treatment. The videos are long-form, documentary-style, often twenty or thirty minutes, and built on interviews with top cubers, archival footage from old competitions, and the kind of timeline work most YouTube channels can't be bothered with. Histories of how speedsolving methods evolved, profiles of record-holders, the strange politics of how a particular algorithm became standard. They're not trying to teach you anything new about your own solves. What they offer is context — why the sport looks the way it does, who built the methods you're learning. Worth saving for the lull between "I can solve it" and figuring out what you want to learn next.
TheCubicle
TheCubicle is an American speed-cube retailer, and their channel leans into what they know: detailed reviews of new cubes, comparisons between flagship models, tips on setup (lubrication, tensioning, magnet strength), and short technique videos. It's the place to go when you start wondering whether the cube you bought at a supermarket is the reason your times have stalled. It probably isn't. Most plateaus come down to technique. But their videos will tell you honestly when it actually is, and what to look at first if you do decide to upgrade.
If you only watch one, make it J Perm. The others are for once you've outgrown the basics.
Four channels is nowhere near the full picture. There are excellent cubers teaching, reviewing, and documenting the sport whose names aren't on this page only because we had to stop somewhere. If there's a channel you think belongs here, the contact email at the bottom of the page reaches us — we read everything that comes in.