Arno Peck

Privacy Lite Video Embeds for YouTube replaces YouTube embeds with lightweight local placeholders.
Fast video embeds for YouTube. Nothing loads until click.
Trademark note: this is a third-party plugin and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google.
Before the visitor clicks, the frontend loads only local resources from the site:
<ul>
<li>local HTML markup;</li>
<li>local CSS from the plugin;</li>
<li>local JavaScript from the plugin;</li>
<li>locally cached video thumbnail, when available.</li>
</ul>
The YouTube player is created only after user interaction and uses the privacy-enhanced <code>youtube-nocookie.com</code> embed domain.
This can help reduce external frontend requests, improve perceived loading performance, and provide a more privacy-friendly default behavior for embedded YouTube videos.
Important: this plugin is a technical privacy/performance aid. It does not constitute legal advice and does not by itself guarantee compliance with privacy laws. Site owners remain responsible for their own privacy notices, consent setup, and legal assessment.
<h4>Main features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Replaces Gutenberg YouTube embed blocks.</li>
<li>Optional replacement scope for all YouTube videos found in post content.</li>
<li>Replaces classic oEmbed output when scope is set to “All”.</li>
<li>Replaces manually pasted YouTube iframes when scope is set to “All”.</li>
<li>Downloads YouTube thumbnails server-side into the WordPress uploads directory.</li>
<li>Serves thumbnails locally from <code>/wp-content/uploads/privacy-lite-video-embeds/</code>.</li>
<li>Falls back to a local CSS placeholder when no thumbnail can be downloaded.</li>
<li>Loads YouTube only after click.</li>
<li>Uses <code>youtube-nocookie.com</code> for the iframe player.</li>
<li>Optional privacy/consent text in the placeholder.</li>
<li>Optional autoplay after click.</li>
<li>Customizable overlay play button color.</li>
<li>Accessible button markup with keyboard support.</li>
<li>Admin tool to scan content and generate missing thumbnails.</li>
<li>Admin tool to clear the local thumbnail cache.</li>
<li>Privacy policy helper text for the WordPress privacy tools.</li>
</ul>

Privacy Lite Video Embeds for YouTube

Fast video embeds for YouTube. Nothing loads until click.

Pascal Birchler

What this plugin does:
<ul>
<li>Prevents others from embedding your site.</li>
<li>Prevents you from embedding other non-whitelisted sites.</li>
<li>Disables all JavaScript related to the feature.</li>
<li>Removes support for the WordPress embed block in the new block editor.</li>
</ul>
Just activate the plugin and you’re good to go.
Want embeds back again? Simply deactivate the plugin.

Disable Embeds

Works exactly as advertised. Thank you.

That does it without any extra clutter added to the admin. Thanks :)

Perfect

An easy way to drop some weight if you don’t need the functionality that the plugin disables. For me this has been a “set and forget” plugin. 

Does what it says, has been reliable

thanks

Finally, a no-fuss plugin that does exactly what it promises! Disable Embeds by Pascal Birchler is perfect if you're tired of WordPress's automatic embed features slowing down your site. Just activate and boom - no more unwanted embeds cluttering your content or others embedding your posts without permission. Love how it removes all the JavaScript bloat too. The best part? It's reversible - just deactivate when you need embeds back. Clean, lightweight, and effective!

Simple Solution to WordPress Embed Bloat

Don’t like the enhanced embeds in WordPress 4.4? Easily disable the feature using this plugin.

Privacy Lite Video Embeds for YouTube vs Disable Embeds