YouTube Search
Search YouTube and fetch transcripts via TranscriptAPI.com.
Setup
If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.
Required Headers
Every request needs two headers:
- Authorization:
Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
- User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g.
HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.
API Reference
Full OpenAPI spec: transcriptapi.com/openapi.json — consult this for the latest parameters and schemas.
GET /api/v2/youtube/search — 1 credit/page
Search YouTube globally for videos, channels, playlists, or movies.
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
| Param | Required | Default | Validation |
|---|
q | conditional | — | 1-200 chars (trimmed), first page |
type | no | video | video, channel, playlist, movie (first page) |
sort | no | relevance | relevance or views (first page) |
upload_date | no | — | hour, today, week, month, year — videos, first page |
duration | no | — | short (<4m), medium (4-20m), long (>20m) — videos, first page |
features | no | — | comma-separated: hd, subtitles, cc, live, 4k, hdr, etc. |
limit | no | 20 | 1-50 |
continuation | conditional | — | token from a previous response (subsequent pages) |
Provide exactly one of q (first page) or continuation (next pages) — the token already encodes the filters. sort/upload_date/duration/features apply to the first page only.
Find recent, most-viewed videos:
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=innovation&sort=views&duration=long&upload_date=month
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
Search for playlists on a topic:
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=react+tutorial&type=playlist
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
Video search response:
{
"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": "...", "width": 120, "height": 90 }]
}
],
"result_count": 20
}
Channel search response (type=channel):
{
"results": [{
"type": "channel",
"channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
"title": "Rick Astley",
"handle": "@RickAstley",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstley",
"description": "Official channel...",
"subscriberCount": "4.2M subscribers",
"verified": true,
"rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC...",
"thumbnails": [...]
}],
"result_count": 5
}
GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/search — 1 credit
Search videos within a specific channel. Accepts channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID.
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
| Param | Required | Validation |
|---|
channel | yes | @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID |
q | yes | 1-200 chars |
limit | no | 1-50 (default 30) |
Returns up to ~30 results (YouTube limit). Same video response shape as global search.
GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve — FREE
Convert @handle to channel ID:
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
Workflow: Search → Transcript
# 1. Search for videos
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=python+web+scraping&type=video&limit=5
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
# 2. Get transcript from result
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
Errors
| Code | Meaning | Action |
|---|
| 401 | Bad API key | Check key |
| 402 | No credits | transcriptapi.com/billing |
| 403/1010 | Cloudflare block | Add or fix User-Agent header |
| 404 | Not found | Resource doesn't exist |
| 408 | Timeout | Retry once |
| 422 | Invalid param | Check param format |
Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.
Copy-paste examples
Every request in this file as a ready-to-run one-liner: references/curl-examples.md