# Add a URL


> One field, two outcomes: a URL serving a file is fetched into your library, a URL serving a page becomes a live web page.
Choose **New content**, then the **Web** tab, and paste a URL.

## What Screenly does with it

It looks at what the URL actually serves.

**A page** becomes a live web page in your library. Nothing is stored: the screen loads it fresh each time it plays. That is the right outcome for a dashboard, an intranet page, or anything that should always be current. See [Web pages](/docs/content/web-pages/).

**A file**, if the URL points directly at a supported image, video, or PDF, is fetched and stored in your library like an upload. This saves downloading it to your machine and uploading it again.

The distinction is what the server returns, not what the URL looks like. A link to a page *containing* an image gives you the page, not the image.

## When a URL will not verify

If we cannot reach the URL, you get **Content could not be verified** and an **Add anyway** option.

That is not always an error. A page on your own network is unreachable from our servers but perfectly reachable from the screen, which is on that network. Add it anyway and it works.

It is an error when the URL is simply wrong, or the page needs a login. For the second case, see [Authenticated pages](/docs/content/web-pages/authenticated-pages/).

## URLs behind a login

Fetching a file from a URL happens once, at the moment you add it, using nothing but the URL. If the file is behind authentication the fetch fails.

Download it and upload it directly, or use the API.

## YouTube and Vimeo

Paste the video page URL. Screenly handles the playback rather than downloading the file.