Kick stream key and RTMP URL: where they are, and why guides disagree

Kick shows you two values on one screen, and the address you get is often not the one another tutorial quotes. Here is why that happens, plus the limits Kick's ingest enforces.

Last updated: August 20268 min read

Kick gives you a stream URL and a stream key on the same dashboard screen and tells you to copy both. That instruction carries more weight here than on YouTube or Twitch, because the address you are shown is not guaranteed to match the one in someone else's tutorial.

Kick runs on Amazon's managed live video service, which issues each account its own contribute host - something like rtmps://fa723fc1b171.global-contribute.live-video.net:443/app. There is no single Kick address to memorise, and the one that circulates most widely in tutorials, rtmp://ingest.kick.com/live, does not appear anywhere in Kick's own documentation and does not resolve in DNS. Copy what your dashboard shows you, not what you read.

Where to find your Kick stream key and stream URL

Both values live on one screen, and they belong together - a key from one account will not authenticate against another account's host.

Open the Kick Creator Dashboard

Everything is behind your own channel, so sign in as the account that will go live.

Go to kick.com, open the account menu and choose Creator Dashboard.
In the sidebar: Channel → Stream URL and Key, which is where Kick's own instructions send you.
The page shows a Stream URL and a Stream Key, both hidden behind a reveal control.
Resetting the key is a Reset button on the same dashboard - and the old key stops authenticating the moment you press it, so it ends whatever is live.

🔑Kick's help centre keeps the current path documented at help.kick.com - worth checking rather than trusting a screenshot from last year.

Copy the URL and the key as a pair

This is the step that separates a Kick setup from a YouTube one.

Copy the Stream URL first, then the Stream Key. They are issued together.
If your URL ends at the host, Kick's documentation says to append :443/app - their worked example is rtmps://fa723fc1b171.global-contribute.live-video.net:443/app. No encoder adds it for you.
Do not substitute an address from a guide. rtmp://ingest.kick.com/live is quoted in several of them; it is not in Kick's documentation and the hostname does not resolve.
The key is a password: regenerate it if it has ever been visible on stream or in a screenshot.

🔌This is why a Kick address copied out of the dashboard sometimes fails where a YouTube one would not - the missing /app looks like a working URL and is not one.

Paste both into the encoder as a custom server

Kick is usually configured as a custom RTMP destination rather than a named service.

In OBS: Settings → Stream → Service Custom….
Server takes the stream URL including :443/app.
Stream Key takes the key on its own - never the joined URL.
Newer OBS builds list Kick as a service; if yours does, use it and paste only the key.

⚙️An RTMPS address on port 443 is the one to keep when a network blocks 1935 - which is most corporate and campus networks.

Stay inside Kick's encoding limits

Kick's ingest is stricter about the codec than YouTube's, and publishes exactly what it takes.

H.264 only. HEVC and AV1 will not connect.
8,000 kbps ceiling, with 6,000 the working number for 1080p60.
60 fps maximum.
CBR rate control and a 2-second Keyframe Interval.

🚀A stream that connects and then dies a few seconds later is nearly always the codec or the ceiling, not the address.

What a Kick ingest address is made of

A Kick address, in the form Kick's help centre documents - and the form AWS documents for the service underneath it - joined with its key:

rtmps://a1b2c3d4e5f6.global-contribute.live-video.net:443/app/sk_eu-west-1_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

rtmps:// - RTMPS, TLS on port 443. Kick's contribute hosts are handed out in the secure form.
a1b2c3d4e5f6.global-contribute.live-video.net - your own Ingest Server. The id in front is per account, which is exactly why there is no single 'Kick RTMP URL' to memorise.
:443/app - the port and the application name. AWS's own worked example for an IVS ingest is rtmps://a1b2c3d4e5f6.global-contribute.live-video.net:443/app/<key>, and Kick's help centre tells you to append exactly :443/app when your dashboard shows only the host. The same /app appears on every Twitch ingest, because both sit on that network.
sk_… - the Stream Key. IVS-issued keys carry an AWS region - AWS's example is sk_us-west-2_abcd1234efgh5678ijkl - and a key and a host from different accounts will never authenticate together.

The id in the host is the only part that varies between accounts. That is the whole reason two correct Kick tutorials can show two different addresses - and the reason an address copied out of one of them will not authenticate your key.

Encoder settings for Kick

Kick's help centre publishes both the ceiling and a recommended OBS profile; these are the numbers that stay inside them without wasting bandwidth.

Codec: H.264 (x264 or a hardware H.264 encoder). Kick's ingest takes nothing else, which rules out the HEVC and AV1 presets newer GPUs offer.
Bitrate: 6,000 kbps at 1080p60, 4,500 at 1080p30, 3,000 at 720p60. Kick's documented range is 1,000-8,000 kbps and there is little reason to sit at the top of it.
Rate control: CBR. An RTMP ingest expects a steady rate; variable bitrate is what produces stalls under load.
Keyframe Interval: 2 seconds, fixed - not 'auto'.
Audio: AAC-LC. Kick publishes no audio spec of its own; the service underneath it accepts AAC-LC at 96-320 kbps, 44.1 or 48 kHz, stereo or mono, and 128-160 kbps stereo is the setting that fits every platform in a fan-out.

The bitrate calculator turns a measured upload speed into a number you can hold, which matters more than the ceiling: a bitrate your line cannot sustain produces Dropped Frames regardless of what the platform permits.

What to know before pointing a 24/7 stream at Kick

Most of the friction here is technical rather than editorial - and the technical part is documented by Kick itself - but one policy question comes up constantly.

Kick publishes no simulcasting restriction of the kind Twitch used to have. In a Kick-plus-Twitch fan-out, the binding rules are Twitch's - individually contracted creators have their own agreements, which no general guide can speak for.
Regenerating the key kills whatever is live. The old key stops authenticating immediately, so treat it as an outage, not a setting.
One key, one channel. Two encoders pushing the same key at once is not a supported way to multistream and produces exactly the conflict you would expect.
Transcoding is not guaranteed for small channels on any platform in this class, so viewers on weak connections may only have your source rendition.
Kick's chat and Twitch's chat cannot be merged into one on-stream overlay if you also broadcast to Twitch - that restriction comes from Twitch's rules, not Kick's.

How one broadcast reaches Kick, Twitch and YouTube at the same time - and which platform's rules bind - is in the multistreaming guide.

The errors people paste into a search box

Kick's failure modes are unusually address-shaped, which is the opposite of most platforms.

"Failed to connect to server"

The encoder never reached an ingest. On Kick the first suspect really is the address.

Check the URL ends in :443/app. A bare host is the single most common Kick mistake.
Confirm you copied the URL from your own dashboard rather than from a guide - rtmp://ingest.kick.com/live in particular does not resolve.
If the network blocks port 1935, use the rtmps:// form on 443.
Re-open the dashboard: a URL saved months ago may point at a host your account no longer uses.

"Invalid stream key"

The ingest answered and refused the key, which usually means the pair was broken apart.

Copy the key again, watching for a trailing space.
Make sure the key and the URL came from the same account on the same visit.
If the key was regenerated anywhere, the old one died at that moment.
Check the joined URL did not end up in the key field.

The stream connects and then drops after a few seconds

The handshake succeeded and the ingest rejected what followed it.

Switch the encoder back to H.264 if it is set to HEVC or AV1.
Bring the bitrate under 8,000 kbps.
Cap the frame rate at 60.
Set the keyframe interval to a fixed 2 seconds rather than 'auto'.

"Every guide gives a different Kick RTMP URL"

Not an error, and the reason the other three are so common.

Kick issues contribute hosts under each account, so two correct tutorials can quote two different addresses.
Some of the addresses in circulation are not Kick endpoints at all: rtmp://ingest.kick.com/live has no DNS record, checked 2026-08-27.
The only authoritative address is the one on your own Stream Key page.
Tools that let you paste your own ingest URL - rather than assuming one - are the ones that keep working when Kick moves an account.

Running a Kick stream around the clock

A 24/7 channel on Kick has the same problem it has anywhere: the encoder has to be somewhere that never sleeps. A desktop at home is a machine that must stay on, on a connection that must stay up, with an operating system that will eventually decide to restart itself.

TheLoops runs that encoder in a datacentre instead. You upload the videos once, paste the Kick stream URL and key exactly as the dashboard gave them - including a host we have never seen before, because Kick issues them per account - and the stream runs from there.

The same broadcast can reach Twitch and YouTube at the same time, because the video is encoded once and the packets are copied (Fan-out). Destinations per broadcast run 1 on the free plan, then 3, 6 and 10 as the plans go up; pricing has the detail.

Keep a Kick stream live without a machine of your own

Paste the URL and key exactly as Kick issued them - even a host nobody has seen before - and let the stream run from a datacentre.

✓Any RTMP or RTMPS ingest, not a fixed list

✓Automatic restart if the platform drops the connection

✓Up to 10 destinations from one broadcast

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Kick streaming questions

What is the Kick RTMP URL?

There is no single one. Kick runs on Amazon's contribute network and issues each account its own host, in the form rtmps://<id>.global-contribute.live-video.net:443/app. The address that works for you is the one on your own Creator Dashboard → Channel → Stream URL and Key page. Note that rtmp://ingest.kick.com/live, quoted in several third-party guides, is absent from Kick's documentation and does not resolve.

Where do I find my Kick stream key?

Creator Dashboard → Channel → Stream URL and Key, behind a reveal control, next to the stream URL. Copy both together: the key authenticates against the host it was issued with, so mixing values from two accounts fails even when each is individually correct. Resetting the key is a button on the same dashboard, and the old key stops working the moment you press it.

Why does my Kick URL not work in OBS?

Nine times in ten the port and application name are missing. If the dashboard shows a bare host such as rtmps://abc123.global-contribute.live-video.net, Kick's own instructions are to append :443/app. After that, check the key sits in the key field on its own rather than appended to the URL.

What are Kick's bitrate and codec limits?

Kick's help centre gives 1,000-8,000 kbps, a maximum of 60 fps, and X264/H.264 only - so the HEVC and AV1 presets on newer GPUs will not connect. Its recommended OBS profile is CBR, a 2-second keyframe interval, the veryfast preset, profile main and tune zerolatency; 6,000 kbps at 1080p60 sits comfortably inside all of it.

Can I stream to Kick and Twitch at the same time?

Yes, and the rules to read are Twitch's rather than Kick's. Twitch's Simulcasting Guidelines apply to everyone without an exclusivity agreement, on two conditions: the Twitch broadcast must not be the degraded one, and you must not actively push Twitch viewers towards the concurrent stream elsewhere. Kick publishes no comparable restriction.