Search YouTube Videos & Shorts by Keyword & Filters

GET/v1/youtube/search

Searches YouTube videos and Shorts without the 100-unit quota penalty of official YouTube Data API v3 search.list. Supports filtering by type (video or shorts), sort_by (relevance, date, views, rating), upload_date, and duration. Cost: 1 Credit per item returned (minimum 10 Credits per non-empty call).

Query Parameters

querystringrequired
Search query string (also accepts q or keyword).
typestring
Filter by content type: video or shorts.
sort_bystring
Sort order: relevance, date, views, or rating.
upload_datestring
Filter by upload timeframe: hour, today, week, month, year.
limitinteger
Maximum number of results to return (1–100).
cursorstring
Continuation cursor for next page.

Example Request (cURL / Python / JavaScript)

curl "https://api.youtubeapi.io/v1/youtube/search?query=ai+agents" \
  -H "x-api-key: yt_live_your_api_key"

Live Response Preview

{
  "code": 0,
  "provider": "https://youtubeapi.io",
  "status": "ok",
  "msg": "success",
  "data": {
    "query": "youtube api",
    "type": "video",
    "sortBy": "relevance",
    "nextCursor": null,
    "continuation": null,
    "hasMore": false,
    "items": [
      {
        "kind": "video",
        "videoId": "M7lc1UVf-VE",
        "videoType": "video",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7lc1UVf-VE",
        "title": "YouTube Developers Live: Embedded Web Player Customization",
        "description": "Learn how to customize the YouTube IFrame Player API.",
        "channelId": "UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw",
        "channelTitle": "Google for Developers",
        "channelHandle": "googledevelopers",
        "lengthSeconds": 1340,
        "viewCount": 1945200,
        "likeCount": 14500,
        "commentCount": 980,
        "publishDate": "2013-05-15T18:00:00.000Z",
        "publishedText": "2013-05-15",
        "category": "Science & Technology",
        "isLiveContent": false,
        "isShort": false,
        "isFamilySafe": true,
        "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/M7lc1UVf-VE/hqdefault.jpg",
        "keywords": [
          "youtube api",
          "google developers"
        ],
        "hasTranscript": true
      }
    ]
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "3c4d5e6f-3333-4444-5555-666677778888",
    "endpoint": "/v1/youtube/search",
    "cached": true,
    "source": "pg",
    "items_count": 1,
    "credits_charged": 10,
    "has_more": false,
    "next_cursor": null,
    "latency_ms": 8
  }
}

Response Fields

Successful search results

Field	Type	Sample / Notes
`code`	integer
`provider`	string
`status`	string
`msg`	string
`data`	object
`query`	string
`type`	string
`sortBy`	string
`nextCursor`	stringnull
`continuation`	stringnull
`hasMore`	boolean
`items`	array of VideoData
`kind`	"video" \| "short" \| "live"
`videoId`	string	11-character YouTube video ID.
`videoType`	"video" \| "short" \| "live"
`url`	string	Canonical YouTube video or Shorts URL.
`title`	string	Video title.
`description`	string	Full video description including timestamps and links.
`channelId`	string	Channel ID (`UC...`).
`channelTitle`	string	Channel display name.
`channelHandle`	stringnull	Channel handle without `@` (e.g. `mrbeast`).
`lengthSeconds`	integer	Video duration in seconds.
`viewCount`	integer	Total view count.
`likeCount`	integer	Total like count.
`commentCount`	integer	Total comment count.
`publishDate`	stringnull	ISO 8601 publish timestamp.
`publishedText`	stringnull	Relative or formatted publish date text.
`category`	stringnull	YouTube video category.
`isLiveContent`	boolean
`isShort`	boolean
`isFamilySafe`	boolean
`thumbnailUrl`	stringnull	High-resolution thumbnail URL.
`keywords`	array of string
`hasTranscript`	boolean	True if captions/transcripts are available.
`meta`	ResponseMeta
`request_id`	string	Unique UUID for tracing and support.
`endpoint`	string	Canonical endpoint path.
`cached`	boolean	True if served from L1 Redis or L2 PostgreSQL 16 asset sink.
`source`	string	Data source tier (`redis`, `pg`, `upstream_primary`, `upstream_fallback`, `oembed`).
`items_count`	integer	Number of records returned in `data`.
`credits_charged`	integer	Credits deducted for this request ($1 = 10,000 Credits).
`has_more`	boolean	Whether additional pages are available via `next_cursor`.
`next_cursor`	stringnull	Continuation cursor for the next page.
`latency_ms`	integer	End-to-end gateway latency in milliseconds.

Status Codes

200: Successful search results