YouTube Channel Shorts API
Scrape YouTube Channel Shorts data with one API call. Returns a list of YouTube Shorts published by a channel, read from the channel's own Shorts shelf. Each short includes view count, like count, comment count, title, thumbnail, duration and exact publish date (measured 100% coverage on all six across 96 items, 2026-08-11), and unlike `/v1/youtube/search?type=shorts` every item carries channel identity. This is the Shorts complement to `/v1/youtube/channel/videos`, which is long-form only: the two sets are disjoint, so calling both and concatenating gives the channel's full catalogue for 2 credits. Every item carries `post.ext.content_type` (`short` here, `video` there) so the merged list stays separable. Send `include=channel` to add the channel's subscriber count, name, avatar and channel id to every row in the same call (1 credit). TITLES: the free per-video lookup swaps YouTube's English machine-translated listing title for the creator's own; a title not swapped carries `post.ext.title_maybe_translated: true` (`exact_dates=false` skips the lookup).
Last updated October 2026Maintained by the SocialCrawl team
Returns the Shorts published by a channel, each with title, view count, like count, and thumbnail.
Use it when you want only a channel's Shorts; channel/videos returns its regular uploads instead.
Searching 68 platforms in parallel
TikTok·
Instagram·YouTube·
Facebook·
X·
LinkedIn·
Reddit·
Threads·
Pinterest·
Twitch·
Truth Social·
Snapchat·
Kick·
Bluesky·
Kwai·
Rumble·
Spotify·
Apple Music·TikTok Shop·
Amazon Shop·
Google Shopping·
Trustpilot·
TripAdvisor·
Yelp·
Linktree·
Komi·
Pillar·
lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·
Finance·
Polymarket·
Tavily·
Hacker News·
GitHub·
Perplexity·
Naver·
Utility·
Universal SearchTikTok·Instagram·YouTube·Facebook·X·LinkedIn·Reddit·Threads·Pinterest·Twitch·Truth Social·Snapchat·Kick·Bluesky·Kwai·Rumble·Spotify·Apple Music·TikTok Shop·Amazon Shop·Google Shopping·Trustpilot·TripAdvisor·Yelp·Linktree·Komi·Pillar·lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·Finance·Polymarket·Tavily·Hacker News·GitHub·Perplexity·Naver·Utility·Universal SearchTikTok·Instagram·YouTube·Facebook·X·LinkedIn·Reddit·Threads·Pinterest·Twitch·Truth Social·Snapchat·Kick·Bluesky·Kwai·Rumble·Spotify·Apple Music·TikTok Shop·Amazon Shop·Google Shopping·Trustpilot·TripAdvisor·Yelp·Linktree·Komi·Pillar·lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·Finance·Polymarket·Tavily·Hacker News·GitHub·Perplexity·Naver·Utility·Universal SearchTikTok·Instagram·YouTube·Facebook·X·LinkedIn·Reddit·Threads·Pinterest·Twitch·Truth Social·Snapchat·Kick·Bluesky·Kwai·Rumble·Spotify·Apple Music·TikTok Shop·Amazon Shop·Google Shopping·Trustpilot·TripAdvisor·Yelp·Linktree·Komi·Pillar·lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·Finance·Polymarket·Tavily·Hacker News·GitHub·Perplexity·Naver·Utility·Universal SearchWhat can you do with the Channel Shorts API?
The Channel Shorts endpoint gives you structured YouTube data with computed fields in a single request. No scraping infrastructure to build or maintain.
Example Request
curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel/shorts?since=2026-09-01&handle=MrBeast"import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel/shorts",
params={
'since': '2026-09-01',
'handle': 'MrBeast',
},
headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
data = response.json()const response = await fetch(
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel/shorts?since=2026-09-01&handle=MrBeast",
{
headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
},
);
const data = await response.json();Parameters worth sending
since=2026-09-01Returns only posts after this date, so a daily poll pays only for the pages with new posts.
Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| since | No | Only shorts published on or after this date: YYYY-MM-DD (midnight UTC) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Older shorts are left off the page, and the page that reaches one ends the walk: `next_cursor` is not returned and `pagination.stopped_at` is `since`. Pinned shorts sit out of date order and never end the walk. The page still costs what a page costs, so a daily poll pays for the pages it walks and no more. |
| stop_at_id | No | The id (`post.id`) or URL (`post.url`) of the newest short you already hold. The page stops just before it: that short and everything after it are left off, `next_cursor` is not returned, and `pagination.stopped_at` is `known_id`. A pinned short never counts as the stop point. If it is not on this page the page is returned in full with its cursor, so keep walking. `pagination.stopped_at` is `end` when the list ran out first and `null` while there is more to walk. |
| handle | No | YouTube channel handle without the @ symbol |
| channelId | No | Can pass channelId or handle |
| sort | No | Sort by newest (descending publish date) or popular (descending view count). Both orderings are genuinely applied, unlike `/v1/youtube/search`'s `popular`, which is a popularity-weighted ranking rather than a view sort. (newest | popular) |
| continuationToken | No | Continuation token to get more videos. Get 'continuationToken' from previous response. |
| include | No | Set to `channel` (one token only) to add the channel's subscriber count to every row (`post.ext.author_followers`, YouTube's own figure, rounded to three significant figures above 1,000) plus `post.author.display_name`, `.avatar_url` and `post.ext.channel_id` where missing. Every row is the same channel, so this is one channel lookup for the whole page: 1 credit, refunded if the channel could not be read, and free when the channel was looked up recently. Adds well under a second (never more than 8). Read `data.hydration` for what it did. (channel) |
| exact_dates | No | On by default and free: every row is joined to the per-video lookup, one lookup per page (two on a page past 50 rows, side by side), adding about 0.2 to 0.7 seconds (never more than 3). The same lookup swaps the listing title, often YouTube's English machine translation, for the creator's own, and `computed.language` follows it; a title not swapped carries `post.ext.title_maybe_translated: true`. Set to `false` to skip the lookup and keep the listing title, marked by `post.ext.title_maybe_translated`. A row the lookup could not resolve keeps the listing title and the marker, and `_warnings` carries `original_titles_partial` (some rows) or `original_titles_unavailable` (none). The dates on this endpoint are exact either way. (true | false) |
| until | No | Only rows published on or before this date: YYYY-MM-DD (that whole UTC day is included) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Newer rows are left off each page and the walk does not stop, so older pages follow. A row with no date is kept. `published_before`, `end_date` and `to_date` are accepted and applied as `until`. |
What does the YouTube Channel Shorts API return?
Every response follows one unified schema. Here is a real, unmodified response body, so you can see the exact fields you get back before spending a credit.
Example response
{
"success": true,
"platform": "youtube",
"endpoint": "/v1/youtube/channel/shorts",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"post": {
"id": "CEJXqm2eiJ0",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEJXqm2eiJ0",
"content": {
"text": "What’s Inside My Briefcase?",
"media_urls": null,
"thumbnail_url": "https://img.youtube.com/vi/CEJXqm2eiJ0/maxresdefault.jpg",
"duration_seconds": 40
},
"author": {
"username": "user_e32d6a",
"display_name": null,
"avatar_url": null,
"verified": null
},
"engagement": {
"views": 28866975,
"likes": 580691,
"comments": 13000,
"shares": null,
"saves": null
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": null,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-09-27T16:00:14.000Z",
"ext": {
"content_type": "short",
"categoryTitle": "Entertainment",
"description": null
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.020566,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 34640370,
"vs_creator": {
"ratio": 1.32,
"metric": "views",
"reason": null
}
}
},
{
"post": {
"id": "T_SMf9j50uc",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_SMf9j50uc",
"content": {
"text": "Can We Build an Entire Village?",
"media_urls": null,
"thumbnail_url": "https://img.youtube.com/vi/T_SMf9j50uc/maxresdefault.jpg",
"duration_seconds": 39
},
"author": {
"username": "user_e32d6a",
"display_name": null,
"avatar_url": null,
"verified": null
},
"engagement": {
"views": 21817759,
"likes": 788700,
"comments": 16000,
"shares": null,
"saves": null
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": null,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-09-18T16:00:01.000Z",
"ext": {
"content_type": "short",
"categoryTitle": "Entertainment",
"description": null
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.036883,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 26181311,
"vs_creator": {
"ratio": 0.76,
"metric": "views",
"reason": null
}
}
}
],
"total": null,
"creator_baseline": {
"baseline": null,
"reason": "fewer_than_eight",
"rows_used": 2,
"cadence": "omitted"
},
"dropped": 0
},
"credits_used": 1,
"request_id": "req_example000000",
"cached": false,
"pagination": {
"next_cursor": null,
"has_more": false,
"page_size": 2,
"stopped_at": "since"
},
"credits_remaining": 9999,
"source": "captured",
"captured_at": "2026-10-02T07:29:58.564Z",
"redacted": true
}Live sample illustrating the unified response shape. Field values reflect the record you query.
How does the YouTube Channel Shorts API work?
Send a GET request with your API key and get back clean, structured JSON in our unified schema. Supported computed fields are populated when the source provides the required inputs.
Method
GET
Response
JSON
How do you scrape social media data in seconds?
The fastest social media scraping API for developers. Scrape profiles, posts, comments, and analytics from 68 platforms covering 10B+ monthly active users.
One schema, every platform
Query 68 platforms with identical response structures. Write your integration once.
Computed fields, not just scraped
When an endpoint supports these metrics and the source provides the required inputs, the normalized record includes engagement_rate, estimated_reach, content_category, and language. Ready to use.
See your data before you code
Visual Data Explorer. Paste any URL, get rich result cards, sortable tables, CSV export.
import requests
response = requests.get(
'https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/tiktok/profile',
params={'handle': 'charlidamelio'},
headers={'x-api-key': 'sc_YOUR_API_KEY'}
)
data = response.json(){
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"data": {
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"followers": 152400000
},
"engagement": {
"likes": 12400000000,
"engagement_rate": 0.087
},
"metadata": {
"language": "en",
"content_category": "lifestyle"
}
}
}Have a question? We got answers
Find answers to frequently asked questions about SocialCrawl's API, pricing, and capabilities.
Contact usHow do I list a YouTube channel's Shorts?
Can I sort Shorts by newest or popular?
What fields come back for each Short?
How do I paginate through all Shorts on a channel?
Why is this a separate endpoint from channel videos?
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