Going out to your platform

By the end, when you hit Start stream in the dashboard, your Cloud OBS will go live on the channel you picked for it.

You need: a plan with Cloud OBS · your platform’s stream key · 5 minutes

Two different keys, don’t mix them up

It’s the number one mistake on day one.

	What it is	Where it comes from	Where you paste it
Stream key	The input: this is how the feed reaches you from your phone or your encoder	From the dashboard, under Stream Keys	Into Moblin, BELABOX, Larix, IRL Pro…
Your platform’s stream key	The output: this is how your stream goes out to Twitch, Kick or YouTube	From your platform’s creator dashboard	Into Account → Streaming channels

If you paste your platform’s key into the encoder you won’t connect, and if you paste your stream key as the output, your platform will reject it. Careful with the names: your platform calls its own key a “stream key” too. On this site, a plain stream key is always your Enhanced IRL one (the one you copy from Stream Keys); the one from Twitch, Kick or YouTube is always your platform’s stream key, and that’s also what the field where you paste it here is called.

Shortcut: don’t hunt for the key

If you broadcast to Twitch or YouTube, you don’t have to copy anything: connect your account from Account → Platform connections and we fill the key in for you. How it works, in Connect your Twitch, YouTube or Kick account. On Kick the key is still entered by hand, with the steps below.

Steps

1. Open your platform’s creator dashboard and copy two things: the RTMP URL (something like rtmp://live.twitch.tv/app) and your stream key from that platform.
2. In the Enhanced IRL dashboard, go to Account → Streaming channels and hit Add channel.
3. Choose the Platform: Twitch, Kick, YouTube or Other.
4. Write the Channel name (your username on that platform). The Display name (optional) is optional, just so you recognise it in the list.
5. Paste the RTMP server (optional) and, in the Platform stream key (optional) field, your platform’s stream key. With Twitch or YouTube you can leave the server empty: we use their main server. With Kick or Other, paste the URL from their dashboard: they don’t have a fixed one.
6. Leave Channel active switched on and hit Create channel.
7. Go back to your server and open the OBS control tab. In the Output card, pick that channel and save.
8. Hit Start stream.

Treat it like a password

Your platform’s stream key gives access to your channel. If you think it has leaked, regenerate it on your platform and update the channel here.

Changing the channel of a server you already have

The output channel is picked in the Output card of the OBS control tab, and you can change it as often as you like. It’s saved right away: no need to turn the server off, restart it or regenerate it.

If you change it while live

Nothing gets cut. Your current broadcast keeps going out on the old channel, and the new one takes over the next time you start the stream.

Editing the ingest URL or the platform stream key of a channel that’s already in use also reaches the server as soon as you save.

If you delete or deactivate the channel it was using

That server is left with no destination: you have to pick it another one under Output before you can broadcast again. It doesn’t adopt another channel on its own, so you never end up broadcasting somewhere you didn’t mean to.

The output quality is yours to set too

On that same tab you have the server’s output bitrate, resolution and FPS, up to the cap your plan gives you:

Plan	Output	Resolution and FPS
OBS Basic	4,000 kbps	720p 60 fps
OBS Standard	5,000 kbps	1080p 30 fps
OBS Pro	8,000 kbps	1080p 60 fps

• The bitrate and the channel can be touched even while you’re broadcasting: they take over on the next stream.
• The resolution and the FPS can’t: OBS won’t change them with the broadcast running. Stop the stream, change them and start again.

Landscape or portrait

Orientation is where you pick the shape of your broadcast:

• Landscape (16:9) — the usual one for Twitch, Kick or YouTube.
• Portrait (9:16) — for TikTok, Shorts or Reels. Your plan gives you the same pixels, turned around: 1080p becomes 1080×1920.

Changing it restarts your server (under a minute) to re-fit your scenes to the new size, and it can’t be changed while you’re broadcasting either. Anything you moved by hand inside OBS stays as you left it; the rest is re-fitted for you.

One server, one orientation

A Cloud OBS broadcasts in one orientation at a time. To be landscape and portrait at the same time you need a second Cloud OBS, and it can read the same stream key as the first one.

The factory overlays are designed landscape

Starting soon, No signal, Ending and Break / Privacy are built for 16:9: in portrait they show up as a band in the middle. Leave them, switch them off, or bring your own from Scenes and overlays.

If you broadcast to TikTok, your TikTok stream key comes from their own creator dashboard and they change it every time you go live: you’ll have to update it in Account → Streaming channels before you start.

All of it stays saved. Restarting the server, or turning it off and back on, doesn’t take you back to the old values.

See Plans and pricing for the full table.

One destination, not several

Note

There’s no multistream. A Cloud OBS puts the same picture out to a single channel: if you want that picture on two platforms at once, this doesn’t do it.

Going out in two formats is a different thing: with vertical output the same server puts out landscape to Twitch or Kick and a 9:16 to TikTok or Instagram at the same time, each with its own destination.

Not working?

• You hit Start stream and nothing shows up on your channel: almost always the ingest URL or the key is missing under Account → Streaming channels. Go over them: stray spaces when pasting break the key.
• The server is left with no output channel: that happens if you delete or deactivate the channel it was using. Pick it another one under OBS control → Output.
• Your platform rejects you: you pasted your Enhanced IRL stream key instead of your platform’s stream key.
• You’re broadcasting but it stutters: see Unstable bitrate.

Next step

• Connect your Twitch, YouTube or Kick account — so you never touch the key again.
• The web control panel — where you go live and come back off.
• Scenes and overlays — get ready what your audience will see.