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YouTube Search API
Scrape YouTube Search data with one API call. Searches YouTube by keyword. Returns matching videos, shorts, and live streams (an untyped search returns all three; `type` scopes to one kind, including channels and playlists). Each video result includes title, URL, thumbnail, view count, publish date, duration, channel info, and badges. DATES: without `includeExtras=true`, `post.published_at` on EVERY result type is derived by the upstream from a relative label such as "4 months ago", so it is approximate (measured up to four months off) and its time-of-day is not real. Send `includeExtras=true` for the exact per-second publish instant, or use `/v1/youtube/search/advanced`, which carries one on every result. Durations for Shorts also need the flag. Send `include=engagement` to fill likes, comments, the duration, the exact publish time and the channel id on every video and Short in the same call from the per-video lookup (faster than `includeExtras`, and it keeps the full page), and `include=channel` to add each channel's subscriber count (`post.ext.author_followers`); each costs 1 credit per distinct video or channel filled, at most 5 per page.
Last updated September 2026Maintained by the SocialCrawl team
Returns YouTube search results for a keyword: videos, channels, playlists, shorts, and live streams, each with title, thumbnail, views, and channel.
Use it for a general keyword search across every content kind; search/advanced returns videos only but adds date, license, and country filters.
Searching 65 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 Search
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 Search·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 Search
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 Search·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 Search
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 Search·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 Search
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 SearchYouTube API
What can you do with the Search API?
The Search 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/search?query=javascript+tutorial&type=videos"import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/search",
params={
'query': 'javascript tutorial',
'type': 'videos',
},
headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
data = response.json()const response = await fetch(
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/search?query=javascript+tutorial&type=videos",
{
headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
},
);
const data = await response.json();Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| query | Yes | Search keyword or phrase. |
| uploadDate | No | Upload date filter. Reliable on its own (no `type`). With `type=shorts`, windows narrower than `this_year` are rejected with a 400 because YouTube returns an empty set for them; `this_year` is accepted but measured to return ~5x fewer unique Shorts across a paginated walk (the upstream re-serves the same items under an advancing `continuationToken`), so the recommended pattern for Shorts recency is no `uploadDate` at all plus `includeExtras=true` and a client-side filter on `post.published_at`. With other `type` values the upstream currently ignores the date filter and may mix content kinds; filter client-side there too. For an EXACT date window rather than these coarse buckets, use `/v1/youtube/search/advanced`, whose `published_after`/`published_before` take RFC-3339 bounds and are genuinely applied. (today | this_week | this_month | this_year) |
| sortBy | No | Sort order: relevance or popular. `popular` cannot be combined with `type=shorts` (rejected with a 400. YouTube serves that combination unreliably); it also caps the page at ~20 results. It is also NOT a strict view-count sort: `popular` is a popularity-weighted ranking, and results do not come back in descending view order. Measured on 4 of 4 test keywords: a `new york` search returned 9.5M, then 502.9M, then 66K views in that order. If you need a view-faithful ordering, use `/v1/youtube/search/advanced` with `order=viewCount` and `includeExtras=true`: its ranking leads with the true top results, and the returned `engagement.views` lets you sort the page exactly client-side. (relevance | popular) |
| type | No | Type of content to return. NOTE for `type=shorts`: the Shorts shelf item carries NO channel object upstream, so every Shorts result has `post.author.*` and `post.ext.channel_id` null: measured 0 of 98 items across 3 keywords (2026-08-10), on the raw upstream too, and `includeExtras=true` does not add them. Video results are unaffected (20/20 carry both). To attach a creator to Shorts results in the same call, send `include=engagement` (the per-video lookup fills `post.ext.channel_id` and `post.author.display_name` on every one, at most 5 credits a page) and add `channel` (`include=engagement,channel`) for the subscriber count; `/v1/youtube/search/advanced` also carries `channel_id` on every result at 1 credit, though it has no Shorts filter. (videos | shorts | channels | playlists) |
| duration | No | Video duration filter. KNOWN UPSTREAM ISSUE: currently not applied by the provider and it can degrade the `type` filter; prefer filtering client-side on `post.content.duration_seconds`. (under_3_min | between_3_and_20_min | over_20_min) |
| region | No | 2-letter country code of the country to put the proxy in. |
| continuationToken | No | Continuation token to get more results. Get `continuationToken` from a previous response. |
| includeExtras | No | Set to `true` to add the like count and comment count (`post.engagement.likes` / `.comments`) and the video description (`post.ext.description`) to each video result. Left off, those three are null. IT IS ALSO WHAT MAKES `post.published_at` EXACT, on every result type. Without it the upstream re-derives the date from a relative label such as "4 months ago" at request time: the time-of-day is fabricated, every row on the page shares it, and the date itself was measured 17, 79 and 125 days off the true instant on three videos. Send this flag for any recency-sensitive work, or use `/v1/youtube/search/advanced`, which carries an exact date on every result without a flag. For Shorts results it additionally supplies `post.content.duration_seconds`, which those items never carry otherwise. Costs latency and page depth: measured 2387ms and 20 rows without, 9763ms and 16 rows with, on the same query. It does NOT add channel identity to Shorts results (see `type`) and it never adds a subscriber count. For both, send `include=engagement,channel` instead: the video join supplies every row's channel id and exact date, and the channel join adds the subscriber count, in this same call. For full per-video details use `/v1/youtube/video`. |
| include | No | Set to `engagement`, `channel`, or both (`engagement,channel`) to fill more of every row in this one call. `engagement` fills `post.engagement.views`, `.likes` and `.comments`, `post.content.duration_seconds`, `post.ext.channel_id` and `post.author.display_name` where the row lacks them, and replaces a date derived from a label such as "4 months ago" with the exact publish time (removing `post.ext.published_precision`). `channel` puts the channel's subscriber count on `post.ext.author_followers` (YouTube's own figure, which it rounds to three significant figures above 1,000) and fills the channel's `post.author.display_name`, `.avatar_url` and `.username` where missing. Send both to cover rows that arrive without a channel id: the video join supplies it and the channel join then uses it. Each join costs 1 credit per distinct video or channel it filled, and never more than 5 per 50; ids that could not be filled are refunded. Channel and playlist result rows are not videos: the video join skips them. Each join adds 0.2 to 0.7 seconds on a fresh page (one lookup per 50 ids, never more than 8 seconds). Read `data.hydration` for the rows, lookups, credits held and kept, and the time. |
Example Response
What does the YouTube Search 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": "tiktok",
"endpoint": "/v1/tiktok/profile/videos",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"post": {
"id": "7658005300657638669",
"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio/video/7658005300657638669",
"content": {
"text": "dc @lara.joanna ",
"media_urls": "https://v19.tiktokcdn-eu.com/4a08329b68e24d90b840a05c9244ba65/6a498c37/video/tos/alisg/tos-alisg-ve-37c799-sg/ocXRU4saOAVGYeJRAAygAjFIzOGsgRf4peSeXk/?a=1233&bti=MzU8OGYpNHYpNzo5ZjEuLjpkLTptNDQwOg%3D%3D&&bt=1135&ft=ERfCkaZWD00Q12Nvr-HxzIxRA7lGF3_45SY&mime_type=video_mp4&rc=OTg8NGkzZTQ8PDo1NmQ2O0BpanEzd205cmRlPDMzZzczNEAvNWM0NDFfNi8xMjExNF5eYSNmMGwyMmQ0LzBhLS1kMS9zcw%3D%3D&vvpl=1&l=20260703224143F66ABC3BD3A97DB0685C&btag=e000b0000",
"thumbnail_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-useast5-p-0068-tx/owxEmiGPia440JkI3PgALU3bB7aBAlzdBEsKB~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:300:400:q70.heic?dr=9232&refresh_token=bf18ce44&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=8AANrRWOCWfS6xtQ9JJiHB77vxo%3D&t=bacd0480&ps=933b5bde&shp=d05b14bd&shcp=132edbea&idc=no1a&biz_tag=tt_video&s=PUBLISH&sc=cover",
"duration_seconds": 16.903
},
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"display_name": "charli d’amelio",
"avatar_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-maliva-avt-0068/ee31de49ddf64b45c5b2e3c55fbd0ea4~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:1080:1080:q70.heic?dr=9608&idc=no1a&ps=87d6e48a&refresh_token=e0b099bd&s=PUBLISH&sc=avatar&shcp=132edbea&shp=d05b14bd&t=223449c4&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=9SsuimlpGdsdlerisiaqvDVLV3c%3D",
"verified": true
},
"engagement": {
"views": 3417578,
"likes": 501973,
"comments": 2618,
"shares": 6304,
"saves": 22989
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": false,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-07-02T18:51:58.000Z",
"ext": {
"music_id": "7656080164593437471",
"published_at_epoch": 1783018318
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.14949,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 4101094
}
},
{
"post": {
"id": "7657606229484670221",
"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio/video/7657606229484670221",
"content": {
"text": "@Alexa Davis ",
"media_urls": "https://v19.tiktokcdn-eu.com/07ada727f60ed77f8504c4c9aee6f992/6a498c31/video/tos/alisg/tos-alisg-ve-37c799-sg/oAmE41FRfIDnKlQAZjDgfcEsqFENRqYDSBGUSB/?a=1233&bti=MzU8OGYpNHYpNzo5ZjEuLjpkLTptNDQwOg%3D%3D&&bt=857&ft=ERfCkaZWD00Q12Nvr-HxzIxRA7lGF3_45SY&mime_type=video_mp4&rc=NWU8OTg2aTw6ODlpNDU1PEBpanlrNmw5cmxuPDMzZzczNEBfLTEtMy8tXzYxLzYvYTNfYSNlbGVvMmRrYC9hLS1kMS9zcw%3D%3D&vvpl=1&l=20260703224143F66ABC3BD3A97DB0685C&btag=e000b0000",
"thumbnail_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-useast5-p-0068-tx/ooZRDflKEE2SIFSfsAqgFBcFEORUAY4jBDl2Yc~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:300:400:q70.heic?dr=9232&refresh_token=0ee7ce0e&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=DiqCJ1sMgLvKp5k1aK2lKgBm7CU%3D&t=bacd0480&ps=933b5bde&shp=d05b14bd&shcp=132edbea&idc=no1a&biz_tag=tt_video&s=PUBLISH&sc=cover",
"duration_seconds": 10.123
},
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"display_name": "charli d’amelio",
"avatar_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-maliva-avt-0068/ee31de49ddf64b45c5b2e3c55fbd0ea4~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:1080:1080:q70.heic?dr=9608&idc=no1a&ps=87d6e48a&refresh_token=e0b099bd&s=PUBLISH&sc=avatar&shcp=132edbea&shp=d05b14bd&t=223449c4&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=9SsuimlpGdsdlerisiaqvDVLV3c%3D",
"verified": true
},
"engagement": {
"views": 7205601,
"likes": 739100,
"comments": 1943,
"shares": 6268,
"saves": 28516
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": false,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-07-01T17:03:22.000Z",
"ext": {
"music_id": "7656080164593437471",
"published_at_epoch": 1782925402
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.103713,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 8646721
}
},
{
"post": {
"id": "7657287641641143565",
"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio/video/7657287641641143565",
"content": {
"text": null,
"media_urls": "https://v19.tiktokcdn-eu.com/24d5a0ceaf069ce4435f27d4a1fb7fa5/6a498c2d/video/tos/alisg/tos-alisg-ve-37c799-sg/o4IuEqzEKBC3UgRghYEA5FEDZJDB2RL2JfePpS/?a=1233&bti=M0BzMzU8OGYpNzo5Zi5wIzEuLjpkNDQwOg%3D%3D&&bt=939&ft=ERfCkaZWD00Q12Nvr-HxzIxRA7lGF3_45SY&mime_type=video_mp4&rc=O2Q8M2k1Nzo7ODkzPGQ2NkBpM3VrZmo5cm01PDMzZzczNEBiYC0yLjU0XjQxNTMxX2FhYSNjZy5mMmRzYC9hLS1kMS9zcw%3D%3D&vvpl=1&l=20260703224143F66ABC3BD3A97DB0685C&btag=e000b0000",
"thumbnail_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-useast5-p-0068-tx/oEEehFBRSDqxRYEZJgMgAQpzEf2PJiDEJNI7CB~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:300:400:q70.heic?dr=9232&refresh_token=7ef5f605&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=10x4mFTkwGHZf2I3P%2FcRrZr6vTo%3D&t=bacd0480&ps=933b5bde&shp=d05b14bd&shcp=132edbea&idc=no1a&biz_tag=tt_video&s=PUBLISH&sc=cover",
"duration_seconds": 6.467
},
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"display_name": "charli d’amelio",
"avatar_url": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn-eu.com/tos-maliva-avt-0068/ee31de49ddf64b45c5b2e3c55fbd0ea4~tplv-tiktokx-cropcenter-q:1080:1080:q70.heic?dr=9608&idc=no1a&ps=87d6e48a&refresh_token=e0b099bd&s=PUBLISH&sc=avatar&shcp=132edbea&shp=d05b14bd&t=223449c4&x-expires=1783202400&x-signature=9SsuimlpGdsdlerisiaqvDVLV3c%3D",
"verified": true
},
"engagement": {
"views": 5941789,
"likes": 941067,
"comments": 3165,
"shares": 17173,
"saves": 18760
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": false,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-06-30T20:27:04.000Z",
"ext": {
"music_id": "7530783142774065975",
"published_at_epoch": 1782851224
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.161804,
"language": null,
"content_category": null,
"estimated_reach": 7130147
}
}
],
"next_cursor": "1782516110000",
"total": 10,
"dropped": 0
},
"credits_used": 1,
"credits_remaining": 9999,
"request_id": "req-8Kq2ZmR4vT9xLb3P",
"cached": false,
"pagination": {
"next_cursor": "sc.eyJ2IjoyLCJjIjoiMTc4MjUxNjExMDAwMCIsInAiOiJtYXhfY3Vyc29yIn0",
"has_more": true,
"page_size": 10
}
}Example captured from the TikTok API. Every SocialCrawl endpoint returns this same unified schema, so your YouTube Search response has the same fields.
API Details
How does the YouTube Search 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
Developer First
How do you scrape social media data in seconds?
The fastest social media scraping API for developers. Scrape profiles, posts, comments, and analytics from 65 platforms covering 10B+ monthly active users.
One schema, every platform
Query 65 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()[ .JSON ]
{
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"data": {
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"followers": 152400000
},
"engagement": {
"likes": 12400000000,
"engagement_rate": 0.087
},
"metadata": {
"language": "en",
"content_category": "lifestyle"
}
}
}FAQ
Have a question? We got answers
Find answers to frequently asked questions about SocialCrawl's API, pricing, and capabilities.
Contact usHow do I search YouTube with a keyword via API?
Send a GET request to /v1/youtube/search with query=your keyword. The response is a list of matching videos with titles, view counts, channel info, thumbnails, and publish dates. Add include=engagement for like and comment counts, the duration and the exact publish time, and include=channel for each channel's subscriber count.
Can I filter search results by upload date?
Yes. Pass uploadDate=today, this_week, this_month, or this_year to narrow results. Combine with sortBy=popular to find the most-viewed videos uploaded this week, for example.
How do I only search for YouTube Shorts?
Pass filter=shorts in the query parameters. Note the filter only works when you search by keyword. It's incompatible with uploadDate and sortBy, which apply to long-form results.
Can I search from a specific country's perspective?
Yes. Pass region=US, region=KR, region=GB, or any 2-letter country code to route the request through a proxy in that country. This surfaces regionally ranked results.
Do I need the YouTube Data API for search?
No. SocialCrawl's search endpoint does not consume Google Cloud quota and does not require an API key from Google. One key, one endpoint, 1 to 11 credits per request, no OAuth.
Ask AI about SocialCrawl
Ready to scrape YouTube Search data?
Get your API key and start pulling YouTube data in under 60 seconds.