YouTube API endpoint

Search YouTube

Returns normalized YouTube search results using YouTube's InnerTube search API. Pass `continuation_token` from a previous response to retrieve the next page. Use `q` as the primary query parameter; `search_query` is accepted as an alias.

GETapiKey3 credits/requestyoutube.searchResponseDoc/youtube/search

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Enum	Example	Description
q	query	string	No		gpt	Search query
search_query	query	string	No		gpt	Alias for q
continuation_token	query	string	No			Pagination token returned by a previous request
type	query	string	No	video, channel, playlist, movie		Filter by type
sort_by	query	string	No	relevance, upload_date, view_count, rating		Sort results
upload_date	query	string	No	last_hour, today, this_week, this_month, this_year		Filter by upload date
duration	query	string	No	short, medium, long		Filter by duration
features	query	string	No		hd,subtitles	Comma-separated feature filters
params	query	string	No			Raw protobuf-encoded search filter (base64)
x-api-key	header	string	Yes			API key required

Authentication

Send your scraping API key in the x-api-key header. Use the console API Keys page to rotate or select the active key.

Billing

Endpoint usage is metered in credits. The plan prices, included credits, limits, and overage rates below match the active backend billing configuration.

Credit cost: 3 credits/request
Charged response: Successful 2xx responses

Plan	Price	Included credits	Daily cap	Rate limit	Overage
Free	$0/mo	2,000	500 daily credits	5/min	No overage
Starter	$9/mo	20,000	5,000 daily credits	15/min	$0.75/1,000 overage credits when enabled
Growth	$29/mo	100,000	25,000 daily credits	45/min	$0.45/1,000 overage credits when enabled
Pro	$79/mo	400,000	No daily cap	120/min	$0.30/1,000 overage credits
Business	$199/mo	1,200,000	No daily cap	300/min	$0.20/1,000 overage credits
Enterprise	$499/mo	5,000,000	No daily cap	1,000/min	$0.12/1,000 overage credits

Failure responses

Status	Description	Schema
400	Missing or invalid parameters	#/definitions/app.Response
429	Rate limit exceeded	#/definitions/app.Response
500	Internal server error	#/definitions/app.Response

Example response

{
  "code": 200,
  "msg": "OK",
  "data": {
    "query": "gpt",
    "estimated_results": 9895225,
    "items": [
      {
        "type": "video",
        "position": 1,
        "title": "ChatGPT Explained",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz89",
        "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/abc123xyz89/hq720.jpg",
        "video_id": "abc123xyz89",
        "channel_title": "OpenAI",
        "channel_id": "UCXZCJLdBC09xxGZ6gcdrc6A",
        "duration": "12:34",
        "duration_seconds": 754,
        "published_text": "2 days ago",
        "view_count": "123,456 views",
        "short_view_count": "123K views",
        "description_snippet": "A concise walkthrough of GPT features.",
        "channel_thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/channel-thumb",
        "is_verified": true,
        "badges": [
          "HD",
          "CC"
        ]
      },
      {
        "type": "channel",
        "position": 2,
        "title": "OpenAI",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@OpenAI",
        "thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/channel-avatar",
        "channel_id": "UCXZCJLdBC09xxGZ6gcdrc6A",
        "handle": "@OpenAI",
        "subscriber_count": "1.93M subscribers",
        "description_snippet": "OpenAI's mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.",
        "is_verified": true
      },
      {
        "type": "playlist",
        "position": 3,
        "title": "Python Language Full Course (2026)",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1234567890abcdef",
        "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pl123/hqdefault.jpg",
        "playlist_id": "PL1234567890abcdef",
        "channel_title": "Shradha Khapra",
        "channel_id": "UC1XBh-m27kkgwLAwu_SRJBg",
        "video_count": "9 lessons"
      }
    ],
    "continuation_token": "NEXT_TOKEN"
  }
}

Request schema

No body schema

Response schema

#/definitions/youtube.searchResponseDoc

Field	Type	Required	Example
code	integer	No	200
data	youtube.SearchResponse	No
data.continuation_token	string	No	NEXT_TOKEN
data.estimated_results	integer	No	9895225
data.items	array	No
data.items[].badges	array	No	HD,CC
data.items[].channel_id	string	No	UCXZCJLdBC09xxGZ6gcdrc6A
data.items[].channel_thumbnail	string	No	https://yt3.ggpht.com/example=s68-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj
data.items[].channel_title	string	No	OpenAI
data.items[].description_snippet	string	No	A concise walkthrough of GPT features.
data.items[].duration	string	No	12:34
data.items[].duration_seconds	integer	No	754
data.items[].handle	string	No	@OpenAI
data.items[].is_live	boolean	No
data.items[].is_short	boolean	No
data.items[].is_verified	boolean	No
data.items[].playlist_id	string	No	PL1234567890abcdef
data.items[].position	integer	No	1
data.items[].published_text	string	No	2 days ago
data.items[].short_view_count	string	No	123K views
data.items[].subscriber_count	string	No	1.93M subscribers
data.items[].thumbnail	string	No	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/abc123/hq720.jpg
data.items[].title	string	No	ChatGPT Explained
data.items[].type	string	No	video
data.items[].url	string	No	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123
data.items[].video_count	string	No	9 lessons
data.items[].video_id	string	No	abc123xyz89
data.items[].view_count	string	No	123,456 views
data.query	string	No	gpt
msg	string	No	OK

Example request

curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/youtube/search?q=gpt&search_query=gpt&features=hd%2Csubtitles" -H "x-api-key: <api-key>"

TypeScript fetch

const url = new URL("https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/youtube/search");
url.searchParams.set("q", "gpt");
url.searchParams.set("search_query", "gpt");
url.searchParams.set("features", "hd,subtitles");
const headers = new Headers();
headers.set("x-api-key", "<api-key>");
const response = await fetch(url, {
  method: "GET",
  headers,
});
const payload = await response.json();

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