YouTube API

YouTube data access via TranscriptAPI.com — no Google API quota needed.

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.

Endpoint Reference

All endpoints: https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/...

Channel endpoints accept channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID. Playlist endpoints accept playlist — a playlist URL or ID.

Endpoint	Method	Cost
/info?video_url=ID	GET	free
/video/metadata?video_url=ID	GET	1
/transcript?video_url=ID	GET	1
/search?q=QUERY&type=video	GET	1
/channel/resolve?input=@handle	GET	free
/channel/info?channel=@handle	GET	1
/channel/latest?channel=@handle	GET	free
/channel/videos?channel=@handle	GET	1/page
/channel/search?channel=@handle&q=Q	GET	1
/channel/playlists?channel=@handle	GET	1/page
/channel/posts?channel=@handle	GET	1/page
/channel/sections?channel=@handle	GET	1
/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_ID	GET	1/page

search also takes type=playlist or type=movie, plus first-page-only filters sort (relevance/views), upload_date, duration, and features. channel/videos takes tab=videos (default), shorts, or streams, plus an optional sort (latest/popular/oldest).

Naming: /video/metadata was previously /video/info. The old path still works but is deprecated — use /video/metadata.

Quick Examples

Search videos:

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=python+tutorial&type=video&limit=10
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Get transcript:

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Check video info & transcript languages (free, before spending a credit):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/info?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Get rich video metadata (views, likes, description, tags):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/video/metadata?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ&include=details
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Get a channel's profile (subscriber count, tags, tabs):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/info?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Also available with the same channel parameter: /channel/playlists (a channel's playlists), /channel/posts (community tab), and /channel/sections (its curated Home-page shelves).

Resolve channel handle (free):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Latest videos (free):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Browse channel uploads (paginated):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

# Most-viewed first (channel Videos tab, ~30 per page)
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA&sort=popular
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

# Use continuation token from response for next pages, repeating the same tab and sort

Sorting. Add sort=latest, popular, or oldest to channel/videos to get a channel's videos in the order you want, for example its most-popular uploads first. A sorted page returns about 30 videos (an unsorted page returns about 100), and every page costs the same 1 credit.

When paging, send the same sort on each request.

Item fields. Every item carries members_only, true only when YouTube badges it "Members only", and those items have no viewCountText. tab=streams items carry lengthText and publishedTimeText (for example Streamed 2 years ago); tab=shorts returns null for both, because YouTube's Shorts grid publishes neither. On the channel-tab feeds (tab=videos with sort, tab=shorts, tab=streams) channelId, channelTitle, channelHandle and index are null.

Browse playlist (paginated):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_PLAYLIST_ID
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Parameter Validation

Field	Rule
channel	@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID
playlist	Playlist URL or ID (PL/UU/LL/FL/OL prefix)
q (search)	1-200 chars
type (search)	video (default), channel, playlist, movie
tab (channel/videos)	videos (default), shorts, streams
sort (channel/videos)	latest, popular, oldest (omit for the uploads feed)
tab (channel/sections)	featured (default), podcasts, releases
include (video/metadata)	details, related (comma-separated)
limit	1-50
continuation	non-empty string

Why Not Google's API?

	Google YouTube Data API	TranscriptAPI
Quota	10,000 units/day (100 searches)	Credit-based, no daily cap
Setup	OAuth + API key + project	Single API key
Transcripts	Not available	Core feature
Pricing	$0.0015/unit overage	$5/1000 credits

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/retryable	Retry once after 2s
422	Validation error	Check param format
429	Rate limited	Wait, respect Retry-After

Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min. Starter ($5/mo): 1,000 credits.

Copy-paste examples

Every request in this file as a ready-to-run one-liner: references/curl-examples.md