YouTube Search API
YouTube search API — find videos, channels, and playlists with filters for date, duration, and type. Structured JSON results from $0.01/call.
Search YouTube programmatically and get back structured results including video titles, thumbnails, view counts, channel info, and pagination tokens. Filter by type, duration, upload date, and more.
Try it live
Fill in the fields and hit Run to see a real response.
{
"ok": true,
"data": {
"estimatedResults": "673110",
"data": [
{
"type": "video",
"videoId": "ZVnjOPwW4ZA",
"title": "Next js Tutorial for Beginners | Nextjs 13 (App Router)",
"channelTitle": "Programming with Mosh",
"viewCount": "1269183",
"publishedTimeText": "2 years ago",
"lengthText": "1:02:55"
}
]
}
}Features
Set type to video, channel, or playlist to target exactly what you need. The same /v1/youtube/search call returns videos by default, with channelTitle and videoId on each result.
Pass sort=upload_date, view_count, or rating to reorder results, and narrow by duration and upload window. Leave sort empty for YouTube's default relevance ranking.
Localize results with a country and language code so a query like 'nextjs tutorial' returns the rankings a user in that region would actually see.
Every response carries a continuation token to walk past the first page, so you can pull hundreds of results for a single query without re-running it.
Each hit ships with title, channelTitle, viewCount, lengthText, publishedTimeText, and thumbnails — enough to rank or display results without a second call.
Use cases
Content Research
Find top-performing videos for any topic to inform your content strategy and identify trending formats.
Competitor Analysis
Track competitor channels' new uploads, view counts, and publishing frequency automatically.
Video Aggregator
Build curated video feeds for your app by searching and filtering YouTube content programmatically.
Trend Monitoring
Monitor search results for trending topics in your industry to stay ahead of the curve.
Market Research
Analyze video content volume and engagement for any niche to validate market opportunities.
Quick start
Copy this snippet and start making calls.
const res = await fetch('https://api.yepapi.com/v1/youtube/search', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"query": "nextjs tutorial",
"type": "video"
}),
});
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);The YouTube Search API for structured, paginated results
The YepAPI YouTube Search API turns a query string into structured JSON: send query="nextjs tutorial" to /v1/youtube/search and get back an estimatedResults count plus an array of hits, each with videoId, title, channelTitle, viewCount, lengthText, and publishedTimeText. It's the building block for any tool that needs to find YouTube content by keyword rather than by known ID.
Unlike the official YouTube Data API, where a single search burns 100 of your 10,000 daily quota units, this endpoint bills a flat $0.01 per call with no daily ceiling. Pair it with the Video Details, Comments, or Transcript endpoints on the same key to enrich any result you find.
What is a YouTube Search API?
A YouTube Search API takes a keyword query and returns the videos, channels, or playlists that match it as structured data — the programmatic version of typing into the YouTube search bar. Instead of HTML you get clean JSON: an estimatedResults figure and an array where each entry carries videoId, title, channelTitle, viewCount, lengthText, and publishedTimeText. You control the result set with a type filter (video, channel, playlist) and a sort order (relevance, upload_date, view_count, rating). It's the entry point for content research, aggregators, and any workflow that starts with a search term rather than a known video ID.
Build your own YouTube search tool
Wire query and sort=view_count into a backend route and you have a ranked-by-popularity discovery tool for any niche. Loop the continuation token to pull the top few hundred results, then fan each videoId out to the Video Details endpoint for likes and keywords, or to the Transcript endpoint to index what the video actually says. Because results include publishedTimeText, you can also build an alerting tool that re-searches a query on a schedule and flags newly uploaded videos for competitor monitoring.
YouTube Search API pricing — $0.01/call
Each search costs a flat $0.01, and one call returns a full page of results with the continuation token to fetch more. There's no daily quota to manage — the official Data API gives you 10,000 units a day but charges 100 units per search, capping you at roughly 100 searches before you're throttled. At $0.01 a call you can run thousands of searches a day on the same key that covers every other YepAPI endpoint.
Search vs. trending vs. suggest
Search answers "what matches this keyword?" — it's intent-driven. If you instead want what's hot without a query, use the Trending or Hype endpoints; if you want to expand a partial keyword into popular completions for SEO research, use the Suggest endpoint. Many tools chain them: pull autocomplete from Suggest, run each completion through Search, then sort by view_count to find the highest-performing video for every keyword variant.
Try the YouTube Search API free
Sign up and get $5 in free credit — no card required. That's 500 searches to test query terms, sort orders, and pagination against live YouTube data before you commit to anything.
Start making API calls in 30 seconds
$5 free credit on signup. No credit card required. Pay per call.
What developers say
“Switched from SerpAPI and cut our SERP costs by 80%. Same data quality, way simpler billing.”
“One API key for AI models, SERP data, and web scraping. Saved us from managing 4 separate providers.”
“The $5 free credit let us prototype our entire rank tracking feature before committing. No other API does that.”
Frequently asked questions
Search YouTube programmatically and get back structured results including video titles, thumbnails, view counts, channel info, and pagination tokens. Filter by type, duration, upload date, and more.
Each API call costs $0.01. No monthly minimums or subscriptions — you only pay for what you use.
Sign up for a free API key, then send a POST request to /v1/youtube/search. Check the code example above for a ready-to-use snippet in JavaScript, cURL, or Python.
YepAPI bundles SEO, AI, and web scraping APIs under one key with no monthly minimums. You get lower per-call pricing, a unified dashboard, and one billing account instead of managing multiple providers.
Ready to integrate?
Get your API key and start making calls in 30 seconds. $5 free credit on signup — no credit card required.
More youtube api endpoints
Video Details
$0.02Full YouTube video metadata — title, views, likes, description, keywords, thumbnails, and available formats. Video intelligence from $0.02/call.
Comments
$0.01YouTube comments API — fetch top-level comments and replies with author info, likes, and timestamps. Sentiment analysis and engagement research from $0.01/call.
Related Videos
$0.01YouTube related videos API — discover recommended videos for any video ID. Content suggestion and competitor video research from $0.01/call.