YouTube search API

Q: Which errors can it return?

invalid_params (do not retry), not_found (do not retry). Account and platform errors from the errors list can also happen. A failure always costs 0 credits.

Q: How do I get more than one page?

Send the same request with cursor set to the cursor you received, until has_more is false . Each page costs its own price. See pagination .

Q: Is there an SDK call for it?

The preview Python client has client.youtube.search(...) and the TypeScript client client.youtube.search() . Both return the same envelope as the HTTP API. The packages are not published yet; plain HTTP works today in any language.

Videos, channels, playlists, Shorts and live streams for a query.

GETapi.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/search

Cost: 1 credit
Cached repeats: 0 creditssend max_age_days, results kept 30 days
Failed requests: 0 credits
Status: Betashape may still gain fields

Shorts and live results are Posts of type short and live. For stricter title matching use YouTube's intitle: operator.

You send query.

Request

Send your key in the x-api-key header.

curl

curl -G "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'query=lofi hip hop' \
  --data-urlencode 'type=playlist'

Python

import os
import requests

params = {
    "query": "lofi hip hop",
    "type": "playlist",
}
res = requests.get(
    "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/search",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY"]},
    params=params,
    timeout=60,
)
body = res.json()

if body["ok"]:
    print(body["data"])
else:
    print(body["error"]["code"], body["error"]["message"])

TypeScript

const url = new URL("https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/search");
url.search = new URLSearchParams({
  query: "lofi hip hop",
  type: "playlist",
}).toString();
const res = await fetch(url, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY! },
});
const body = await res.json();

if (body.ok) {
  console.log(body.data);
} else {
  console.error(body.error.code, body.error.message);
}

n8n

{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "name": "SocialScrape YouTube search",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4.2,
      "position": [
        0,
        0
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/search",
        "sendQuery": true,
        "queryParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "query",
              "value": "lofi hip hop"
            },
            {
              "name": "type",
              "value": "playlist"
            }
          ]
        },
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "x-api-key",
              "value": "={{ $env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY }}"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {}
}

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	yes	Search terms. Also accepted as `keyword`, `q`.
`type`	string		Kind of result. Also accepted as `filter`.
`upload_date`	string		Upload date filter. Also accepted as `uploadDate`.
`duration`	string		Video length (videos only, not Shorts).
`sort`	string		Order of results. YouTube now answers `latest` and `rating` in relevance order, so they are refused with invalid_params; use `relevance` or `popular` (view count) and narrow with `upload_date`. Also accepted as `sort_by`, `sortBy`, `order`.
`include_extras`	boolean		Also fetch likes, comment count and description per video (slightly slower). Also accepted as `includeExtras`.
`cursor`	string		Opaque cursor from the previous page; pass it back unchanged. Also accepted as `continuationToken`, `continuation_token`, `next_max_id`, `max_id`, `max_cursor`, `min_time`, `after`, `page_token`, `pageToken`, `paginationToken`, `next_page_id`, `page`.
`region`	string		Two-letter country code (ISO 3166-1) for results that vary by country. Also accepted as `country`, `geo`.

Every request also accepts trim, raw and max_age_days.

Response

Sample from a recorded response, shortened. Values are public data, not yours.

Status 200Sample

{
  "ok": true,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "credits_remaining": 4999,
  "cached": false,
  "cached_at": null,
  "request_id": "req_3838b9f141b89fb3defc3c92",
  "data": {
    "object": "list",
    "items": [
      {
        "object": "collection",
        "platform": "youtube",
        "id": "PLF3eNE6vR-4WsBf8qnJLqBywqX39QczxJ",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF3eNE6vR-4WsBf8qnJLqBywqX39QczxJ",
        "kind": "playlist",
        "title": "1 Hour of Lofi Hip Hop",
        "description": null,
        "owner": {
          "id": null,
          "handle": null,
          "name": "the bootleg boy 2",
          "url": null,
          "avatar_url": null,
          "verified": null
        },
        "item_count": 75,
        "cover_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1TVlO05Ugjw/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCNAFEJQDSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLD21TbNM4alSYIuPb7svRS8e_47Ug",
        "updated_at": null,
        "extra": null
      },
      {
        "object": "collection",
        "platform": "youtube",
        "id": "PLeY3OWvWpq2NZ1yVqYevCYIN5AQwsWXtj",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeY3OWvWpq2NZ1yVqYevCYIN5AQwsWXtj",
        "kind": "playlist",
        "title": "The-Simpsons-Chill-Music",
        "description": null,
        "owner": {
          "id": null,
          "handle": null,
          "name": "B1G T3A",
          "url": null,
          "avatar_url": null,
          "verified": null
        },
        "item_count": 30,
        "cover_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iicfmXFALM8/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCNAFEJQDSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLDmeuvnlUc6oCTTZIH_Rouwm-HK7g",
        "updated_at": null,
        "extra": null
      }
    ],
    "cursor": "o20",
    "has_more": true,
    "parent": null
  },
  "cursor": "o20",
  "has_more": true
}

Fields

A page of results. Each entry in items is one of these models. cursor and has_more page through the rest.

A field the platform does not give is null, never made up. Extra platform details are in extra.

Post

Field	Type	Always
`object`	`"post"`
`platform`	Platform	yes
`id`	string	yes
`url`	string or null
`type`	`"video"` or `"short"` or `"reel"` or `"image"` or `"carousel"` or `"story"` or `"live"` or `"clip"` or `"text"` or `"link"` or `"tweet"` or `"pin"` or `"community_post"` or `"episode"` or `"unknown"`
`author`	Author or null
`title`	string or null
`text`	string or null
`published_at`	string (ISO 8601 date-time) or null
`duration_seconds`	number or null
`language`	string or null
`hashtags`	string[] or null
`mentions`	string[] or null
`stats`	Stats

Show the other 6 fields

Field	Type	Always	Notes
`media`	Media
`song`	SongRef or null
`location`	Place or null
`is_pinned`	boolean or null
`is_sponsored`	boolean or null
`extra`	object or null

Profile

Field	Type	Always	Notes
`object`	`"profile"`
`platform`	Platform	yes
`id`	string or null
`handle`	string or null
`name`	string or null
`headline`	string or null		a short tagline apart from the bio (LinkedIn's headline)
`url`	string or null
`kind`	`"person"` or `"creator"` or `"channel"` or `"page"` or `"company"` or `"artist"` or `"organization"` or `"shop"` or `"unknown"`
`bio`	string or null
`avatar_url`	string or null
`banner_url`	string or null
`verified`	boolean or null
`is_private`	boolean or null
`external_url`	string or null

Show the other 6 fields

Field	Type	Always	Notes
`links`	Link[] or null
`location`	string or null
`category`	string or null
`created_at`	string (ISO 8601 date-time) or null
`stats`	ProfileStats
`extra`	object or null

Collection

Field	Type	Always
`object`	`"collection"`
`platform`	Platform	yes
`id`	string	yes
`url`	string or null
`kind`	`"playlist"` or `"board"` or `"podcast"` or `"highlight"` or `"topic"` or `"collection"` or `"unknown"`
`title`	string or null
`description`	string or null
`owner`	Author or null
`item_count`	integer or null
`cover_url`	string or null
`updated_at`	string (ISO 8601 date-time) or null
`extra`	object or null

Community

Field	Type	Always	Notes
`object`	`"community"`
`platform`	Platform	yes
`id`	string or null
`url`	string or null
`kind`	`"subreddit"` or `"group"` or `"community"` or `"channel"` or `"unknown"`
`name`	string or null		the slug, "python" for r/python
`title`	string or null
`description`	string or null
`avatar_url`	string or null
`banner_url`	string or null
`member_count`	integer or null
`online_count`	integer or null
`is_nsfw`	boolean or null
`is_private`	boolean or null

Show the other 3 fields

Field	Type	Notes
`verified`	boolean or null	the platform's verified badge (Telegram channels)
`created_at`	string (ISO 8601 date-time) or null
`extra`	object or null

Full field list in the reference for this endpoint and the data models. Errors are listed under Errors.

Questions

Which errors can it return?

invalid_params (do not retry), not_found (do not retry). Account and platform errors from the errors list can also happen. A failure always costs 0 credits.

How do I get more than one page?

Send the same request with cursor set to the cursor you received, until has_more is false. Each page costs its own price. See pagination.

Is there an SDK call for it?

The preview Python client has client.youtube.search(...) and the TypeScript client client.youtube.search(). Both return the same envelope as the HTTP API. The packages are not published yet; plain HTTP works today in any language.

Can an AI agent call it?

Yes. The MCP server reaches every built endpoint, with the same prices.

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