YouTube Data API v3 Reference

Authentication

All requests require key={API_KEY} parameter.

Get API key: Google Cloud Console

1. Create project → Enable YouTube Data API v3 → Create credentials → API Key

Channels Endpoint

GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels

Parameters

Param	Required	Description
part	Yes	snippet,statistics,contentDetails,brandingSettings
id	One of	Channel ID (UC...) - can be comma-separated for multiple
forUsername	One of	Legacy username
key	Yes	API key

Response Fields

{
  "items": [{
    "id": "UC...",
    "snippet": {
      "title": "Channel Name",
      "description": "...",
      "customUrl": "@handle",
      "publishedAt": "2020-01-01T00:00:00Z",
      "country": "US",
      "thumbnails": { "default": {}, "medium": {}, "high": {} }
    },
    "statistics": {
      "viewCount": "1000000",
      "subscriberCount": "50000",
      "hiddenSubscriberCount": false,
      "videoCount": "200"
    },
    "contentDetails": {
      "relatedPlaylists": {
        "uploads": "UU..."
      }
    },
    "brandingSettings": {
      "channel": {
        "keywords": "keyword1 keyword2"
      }
    }
  }]
}

Search Endpoint (Channel Discovery)

GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search

Parameters

Param	Required	Description
part	Yes	snippet
q	Yes	Search query (keywords, channel names)
type	Yes	channel (for competitor discovery)
order	No	relevance (default), viewCount
maxResults	No	1-50 (default 5)
pageToken	No	For pagination
key	Yes	API key

Response

{
  "nextPageToken": "...",
  "items": [{
    "id": {
      "kind": "youtube#channel",
      "channelId": "UC..."
    },
    "snippet": {
      "channelId": "UC...",
      "title": "Channel Name",
      "description": "...",
      "thumbnails": {}
    }
  }]
}

Videos Endpoint

GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos

Parameters

Param	Required	Description
part	Yes	snippet,statistics,contentDetails
id	Yes	Comma-separated video IDs (max 50)
key	Yes	API key

Response Fields

{
  "items": [{
    "id": "videoId",
    "snippet": {
      "publishedAt": "...",
      "channelId": "...",
      "title": "...",
      "description": "...",
      "tags": ["tag1", "tag2"],
      "categoryId": "22"
    },
    "statistics": {
      "viewCount": "10000",
      "likeCount": "500",
      "commentCount": "50"
    },
    "contentDetails": {
      "duration": "PT10M30S",
      "definition": "hd"
    }
  }]
}

Quota Costs

Operation	Cost
search.list	100
channels.list	1
videos.list	1
playlistItems.list	1

Daily quota: 10,000 units (default)

Optimization for competitor analysis:

• Batch channel IDs (comma-separated) to reduce calls
• Limit initial discovery searches to essential keywords
• Get detailed video data only for top-ranked competitors

Error Codes

Code	Meaning
400	Bad request (invalid params)
403	Forbidden (quota exceeded, API not enabled)
404	Not found
429	Too many requests

Channel ID Formats

Format	Example	Resolution
Direct ID	UC...	Use directly
@handle	@channelname	Search API with handle as query
/channel/ URL	youtube.com/channel/UC...	Extract ID from URL
/c/ URL	youtube.com/c/name	forUsername parameter
/user/ URL	youtube.com/user/name	forUsername parameter

Duration Format (ISO 8601)

Format: PT{hours}H{minutes}M{seconds}S

Examples:

• PT1H30M = 1 hour 30 minutes
• PT10M30S = 10 minutes 30 seconds

Parse: /PT(?:(\d+)H)?(?:(\d+)M)?(?:(\d+)S)?/