YouTube Scraper API

Search YouTube, pull full video and Shorts detail, fetch comments and replies, export transcripts (SRT/VTT/plain text), enumerate a channel’s videos, shorts, streams, playlists, and community posts, and retrieve trending feeds, hashtags, and playlists — from the world’s largest video platform. The API handles authentication, anti-bot bypass, and region routing automatically.

Key Features

Widest Coverage

39 endpoints — videos, Shorts, channels, playlists, comments, transcripts, trending, hashtags, community posts, and music search.

Transcripts & Captions

The /v1/youtube/videos/{id}/transcript endpoint returns timed segments plus ready-to-use SRT, VTT, and full-text exports.

Anti-Bot Bypass

Automatic session management, Chrome TLS impersonation, and fingerprint rotation to avoid blocks.

Rich Video Data

Views, likes, chapters, heatmap (most-replayed), keywords, hashtags, live details, and streaming formats.

Region & Language

Target any content region with gl and any UI language with hl for accurate, localized results.

SDK Support

First-class support via the ScrapeBadger Node.js and Python SDKs.

Regions & Languages

YouTube results are localized by content region and UI language. Two query parameters control this on most endpoints:

Parameter	Meaning	Example
`gl`	Content region (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code)	`US`, `GB`, `DE`, `JP`
`hl`	UI / interface language (BCP-47 language code)	`en`, `de`, `fr`, `ja`

If omitted, gl defaults to US and hl defaults to en. Use the free /v1/youtube/regions and /v1/youtube/languages reference endpoints to fetch the full list of valid codes programmatically.

Pagination

YouTube list endpoints do not use page numbers. Every paginated response includes a continuation token; pass it back as the continuation query parameter to fetch the next page. When continuation is null, you have reached the end.

Quick Start

import ScrapeBadger from "scrapebadger";

const client = new ScrapeBadger({ apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY" });

const results = await client.youtube.search({
  query: "lofi hip hop",
  gl: "US",
  hl: "en",
});

console.log(results.results);

from scrapebadger import ScrapeBadger

client = ScrapeBadger(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

results = client.youtube.search(
    query="lofi hip hop",
    gl="US",
    hl="en",
)

print(results.results)

curl "https://scrapebadger.com/v1/youtube/search?query=lofi+hip+hop&gl=US&hl=en" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Endpoints

Search & Discovery

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/v1/youtube/search`	GET	Search videos, channels, playlists, or movies
`/v1/youtube/autocomplete`	GET	Keyword autocomplete suggestions
`/v1/youtube/trending`	GET	Trending feed (Now / Music / Gaming / Movies)
`/v1/youtube/trending/shorts`	GET	Trending Shorts shelf
`/v1/youtube/hashtags/{tag}`	GET	Videos under a hashtag
`/v1/youtube/home`	GET	Guest home / recommendations feed
`/v1/youtube/music/search`	GET	YouTube Music search (songs, albums, artists)

Videos & Shorts

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}`	GET	Full video detail
`/v1/youtube/videos/batch`	POST	Up to 50 videos in one request
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}/related`	GET	Related / recommended videos
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}/comments`	GET	Top-level comments
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}/comments/{comment_id}/replies`	GET	Replies to a comment
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}/transcript`	GET	Timed transcript (SRT / VTT / text)
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}/captions`	GET	Available caption tracks
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}/streams`	GET	Streaming formats (best-effort URLs)
`/v1/youtube/videos/{video_id}/live_chat`	GET	Live chat / chat replay messages
`/v1/youtube/shorts/{video_id}`	GET	Full Shorts detail
`/v1/youtube/shorts/by_sound/{sound_id}`	GET	Shorts using a given sound

Channels

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}`	GET	Full channel detail (accepts `UC…`, `@handle`, or custom URL)
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/videos`	GET	A channel’s videos
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/shorts`	GET	A channel’s Shorts
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/streams`	GET	A channel’s live streams
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/playlists`	GET	A channel’s playlists
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/community`	GET	A channel’s community posts
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/about`	GET	Lightweight channel about payload
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/subscriber_count`	GET	Fast subscriber-count-only lookup
`/v1/youtube/channels/{channel_id}/search`	GET	Search within a channel
`/v1/youtube/channels/resolve`	GET	Resolve a handle / URL to canonical ids

Playlists

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/v1/youtube/playlists/{playlist_id}`	GET	Full playlist detail + first item page
`/v1/youtube/playlists/{playlist_id}/items`	GET	A page of playlist items
`/v1/youtube/mixes/{mix_id}`	GET	An auto-generated mix

Community & Reference

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/v1/youtube/posts/{post_id}`	GET	A community post
`/v1/youtube/posts/{post_id}/comments`	GET	Comments on a community post
`/v1/youtube/oembed`	GET	Public oEmbed metadata for a URL
`/v1/youtube/categories`	GET	Video category reference list
`/v1/youtube/languages`	GET	Supported UI languages (`hl`)
`/v1/youtube/regions`	GET	Supported content regions (`gl`)
`/v1/youtube/markets`	GET	Supported markets reference

Credit Costs

Endpoint	Cost
Search	5 credits
Trending / hashtag / home	5 credits
Music search	5 credits
Video detail	10 credits
Batch videos	10 credits per video
Related / comments / replies / live chat	5 credits
Transcript	5 credits
Streams	15 credits
Captions	2 credits
Short detail / shorts by sound	5 credits
Channel detail	5 credits
Channel videos / shorts / streams / playlists / community / search	5 credits
Channel about / subscriber count / resolve	2 credits
Playlist / playlist items / mix	5 credits
Community post / post comments	5 credits
Autocomplete / oEmbed	1 credit
Categories / languages / regions / markets	0 credits
Failed requests	0 credits

Authentication

All requests require your API key in the X-API-Key header:

curl "https://scrapebadger.com/v1/youtube/videos/dQw4w9WgXcQ" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Anti-Bot Handling

YouTube protects its data with IP-reputation scoring, TLS/HTTP-2 fingerprinting, bot-guard challenges, and PO-token requirements on media. ScrapeBadger clears these automatically using Chrome TLS impersonation on sessions matched to the target region. You never need to manage proxies, sessions, or tokens.

For accurate, localized results, requests are routed through proxies in the gl region. This is handled automatically. Some fields (such as dislike_count and direct media urls) are restricted by YouTube platform-wide and may be null.

Overview

Search & Discovery

Videos & Shorts

Channels

Playlists & Community

YouTube Scraper Overview

YouTube Scraper API

Key Features

Widest Coverage

Transcripts & Captions

Anti-Bot Bypass

Rich Video Data

Region & Language

SDK Support

Regions & Languages

Quick Start

Endpoints

Search & Discovery

Videos & Shorts

Channels

Playlists

Community & Reference

Credit Costs

Authentication

Anti-Bot Handling

Next Steps

Search YouTube

Get Video Detail

​YouTube Scraper API

​Key Features

Widest Coverage

Transcripts & Captions

Anti-Bot Bypass

Rich Video Data

Region & Language

SDK Support

​Regions & Languages

​Pagination

​Quick Start

​Endpoints

​Search & Discovery

​Videos & Shorts

​Channels

​Playlists

​Community & Reference

​Credit Costs

​Authentication

​Anti-Bot Handling

​Next Steps

Search YouTube

Get Video Detail

YouTube Scraper API

Key Features

Regions & Languages

Pagination

Quick Start

Endpoints

Search & Discovery

Videos & Shorts

Channels

Playlists

Community & Reference

Credit Costs

Authentication

Anti-Bot Handling

Next Steps