Search YouTube

Search for videos or channels with rich metadata.

The Search endpoint runs a query against YouTube and returns either video or channel results in a single JSON envelope. Authenticate with Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY. Each successful 200 response charges 1 credit; 4xx errors, 5xx errors, and 429 rate-limits never debit. Set type=video for videos with videoId, channelTitle, lengthText, and hasCaptions; set type=channel for channels with channelId, handle, and subscriberCount. Limit is 1–50 per call.

GET/api/v2/youtube/search1 credit

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
qreq	string	—	Search query, 1–200 characters.
type	string	video	Either video or channel.
limit	integer	20	Max results (1–50).

Example — video search

bash

curl -X GET "https://youtubetranscriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=python+tutorial&type=video&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

json

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
      "channelHandle": "@RickAstley",
      "channelVerified": true,
      "lengthText": "3:33",
      "viewCountText": "1.5B views",
      "publishedTimeText": "14 years ago",
      "hasCaptions": true,
      "thumbnails": [
        { "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/default.jpg", "width": 120, "height": 90 }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 20
}

Example — channel search

bash

curl -X GET "https://youtubetranscriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=ted+talks&type=channel&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

json

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "channel",
      "channelId": "UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
      "title": "TED",
      "handle": "@TED",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@TED",
      "description": "Official channel...",
      "subscriberCount": "26M subscribers",
      "verified": true,
      "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
      "thumbnails": []
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 5
}