Search YouTube

search(query, options?): SearchResponse

GET

https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/search

1 Credit

Search videos, channels, playlists, movies, or Shorts. Does not consume YouTube Data API quota.

Security

API Key

All requests require a valid API key from the developer dashboard.

Headers: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEYorX-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY

See Authentication for headers and rate limits.

Query Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`q`query	`string`	Yes	Search keyword or phrase.
`limit`query	`number`	No	Max results to return, from 1 to 50. Default `20`.
`type`query	`string`	No	`video`, `channel`, `playlist`, `movie`, or `shorts`. Default `video`.
`upload_date`query	`string`	No	`hour`, `today`, `week`, `month`, or `year`.
`duration`query	`string`	No	`short` (under 4m), `medium` (4~20m), or `long` (over 20m).
`sort_by`query	`string`	No	`relevance` (default), `rating`, `upload_date`, or `view_count`.
`cursor`query	`string`	No	Opaque pagination token for retrieving the next page.

Response (HTTP 200)

{
  "query": string,               // Echoed search string
  "type": string,                // Search target filter applied
  "has_more": boolean,           // Whether additional search results are available
  "next_cursor": string | null,  // Cursor token to fetch the next page of results
  "items": [                     // Array of search result hits
    {
      // Fields that do not apply to a result's type are left out.
      "id": string,              // Video ID, channel ID, or playlist ID
      "type": string,            // "video", "channel", "playlist", or "shorts"
      "title": string,           // Result title
      "description": string,     // Snippet / description
      "author": string,          // Channel name
      "channel_id": string,      // Channel ID
      "length_seconds": number,  // Duration in seconds (for videos)
      "length_text": string,     // Formatted duration string (e.g. "20:40")
      "view_count_text": string, // Formatted view count (e.g. "89K views")
      "published_text": string,  // Relative upload date (e.g. "2 weeks ago")
      "thumbnails": [            // Artwork at one or more sizes
        { "url": string, "width": number, "height": number }
      ],
      "handle": string,          // Channel results: handle (e.g. "@TED")
      "subscriber_count_text": string, // Channel results: e.g. "27.8M subscribers"
      "video_count_text": string,      // Playlist results: e.g. "11 videos" or "9 episodes"
      "badges": string[]         // e.g. ["Verified"]
    }
  ]
}

Search YouTube

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  q: "AI Agents",
  type: "video",
  upload_date: "month",
  limit: "10",
});

const response = await fetch(`https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/search?${params}`, {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.YT_API_KEY}`,
  },
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.has_more, data.next_cursor);
console.log(data.items.map((item: { title: string }) => item.title));

import os
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/search",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['YT_API_KEY']}"},
    params={
        "q": "AI Agents",
        "type": "video",
        "upload_date": "month",
        "limit": 10,
    },
)

data = response.json()
print("Has more:", data.get("has_more"))
for item in data.get("items", []):
    print(item["title"])

curl -X GET "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/search?q=AI+Agents&type=video&upload_date=month&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YT_API_KEY"

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	url := "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/search?q=AI+Agents&type=video&upload_date=month&limit=10"
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("YT_API_KEY"))

	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	fmt.Println(resp.Status)
}