<p>Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most frequent malignancy worldwide. Laparoscopic total gastrectomy (LTG) has been used in early and advanced gastric cancer. YouTube® is the most widely used online video platform used as training tool for surgical procedure. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened this educational trend. This study aims to evaluate the educational quality of LTG YouTube® video on by using the LAParoscopic surgery Video Educational GuidelineS (LAP-VEGaS) video assessment tool. A YouTube ® search was conducted using “laparoscopic total gastrectomy.” Videos were rated by two investigators using the LAP-VEGaS video assessment tool. The association between the scores and the video characteristics (e.g., video authors, year of uploading and length of video) was assessed. The LAP VEGaS Score median was 6.00 (range 2–17, IQR (4–9)) and mean of 6.79 SD (± 3.38). According to LAP VEGaS Score, 18 videos were ≥ 11, while 89 ones were &lt; 11. Correlation between LAP VEGaS Score, views (<i>r</i>_<i>s</i> = 0.317, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and video time (<i>r</i>_<i>s</i> = − 0.338, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) turned out week. No association between score and upload time (<i>r</i>_<i>s</i> = 0.03, <i>p</i> = 0.761) was recorded. No statistically significant discrepancy was detected between years of upload (&lt; 2020, ≥ 2020) (<i>p</i> = 0.781). LAP VEGaS scores were significantly higher for videos lasting less than 10&#xa0;min (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and for videos uploaded by Surgical Scientific Societies (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). Educational quality turned out to be low. The COVID-19 pandemic and publication of LAP-VEGaS guidelines did not seem to have affected video quality. Paper’s main novel aspects: - This is the first study to evaluate the educational quality of YouTube video on laparoscopic total gastrectomy using the LAP-VEGaS tool. - A number of evaluated cases and an analysis of all videos available on YouTube, in comparison to other studies, represent strong points in our study.</p>