YouTube Live Data

Discover current YouTube topics, paginate search results, and fetch channel, video, and transcript data.

The YouTube live endpoints cover topic discovery, channel research, video validation, and transcripts. Search is designed for bounded discovery jobs: choose filters, inspect one page, and continue with the returned cursor only when you need more candidates.

Before you start	Details
Auth	API key or OAuth; supported payment rails also available
Resource	YouTube query, handle, or video ID
Cost	0.18 credits per resource, source page, or returned transcript
Limits	Choose page/video limits; use endpoint-specific bounds in the reference

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Endpoints and pricing

Endpoint	Returns	Credits
GET /v1/raw/youtube/search	One filtered result page and next_cursor	0.5/page
GET /v1/raw/youtube/typeahead	Localized query suggestions	0.5/request
GET /v1/raw/youtube/video/{video_id}	Fresh video metadata and engagement	0.5/video
GET /v1/raw/youtube/channel/{handle}	Channel identity, metrics, and optional videos	0.5/channel
GET /v1/raw/youtube/transcript/{video_id}	One normalized transcript	0.5/transcript
GET /v1/raw/youtube/channel-transcripts/{handle}	Selected channel-video transcripts	0.5/transcript returned

One credit is $0.01. API-key and OAuth requests are charged only when they succeed. See Pricing for the payment-rail rules.

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Search for emerging videos

Use topic phrases or entities in q. Hashtags are accepted as ordinary query text, but phrases usually cover more of the language people use in titles and descriptions.

curl --get 'https://api.influship.com/v1/raw/youtube/search' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $INFLUSHIP_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'q=mini documentary urban planning' \
  --data-urlencode 'upload_date=this_week' \
  --data-urlencode 'sort_by=popular' \
  --data-urlencode 'content_type=videos' \
  --data-urlencode 'duration=long' \
  --data-urlencode 'country_code=US' \
  --data-urlencode 'language_code=en' \
  --data-urlencode 'limit=20'

Search supports these controls:

Parameter	Values
upload_date	any, last_hour, today, this_week, this_month, this_year
sort_by	relevance, popular
content_type	all, videos
duration	any, short, medium, long
country_code	Two-letter country code, such as US or GB
language_code	Language code, such as en or en-GB
limit	1 to 50 results per page

Video search results include channel identity, duration, view count, thumbnail, and relative and approximate publication data. Use the video endpoint when exact publication data or current likes and comments affect your ranking.

Search also includes Shorts shelves. A Shorts shelf may omit channel identity, duration, or publication data; those fields are null when unavailable. Displayed view counts can be rounded, so use view_count_text to retain the source label and the video endpoint for exact observed counters.

Channel verification is also null when a Shorts shelf omits the channel badge. Channel keywords preserve quoted multi-word phrases as individual entries.

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Continue to the next page

Each successful search returns next_cursor. Treat it as opaque and return it unchanged with the original query and filters.

When a source page has more results than your limit, the cursor retains the unused results before advancing upstream. Those results keep the source page’s original scraped_at. These cursors expire after 15 minutes and may contain up to 16,000 characters; URL-encode them. An invalid or expired cursor returns 400; restart without it.

Temporary pagination unavailability returns 503. Retry the same cursor with bounded backoff while it is valid; preserve results already collected. Repeated retries or an immediate search restart may not restore availability. A failed request does not mean pagination is complete.

When paying with MPP, a payment may already be settled when a later service error occurs. Keep its payment receipt; another paid attempt requires another payment. Do not assume a 503 reverses an MPP payment.

If a search page cannot be validated or is too large to return with complete pagination, the request returns 502 with error.code: upstream_contract_broken. Stop automatic retries and preserve results already collected. This error does not establish that the search is finished or that no matching videos exist. Contact support if it persists.

curl --get 'https://api.influship.com/v1/raw/youtube/search' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $INFLUSHIP_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'q=mini documentary urban planning' \
  --data-urlencode 'upload_date=this_week' \
  --data-urlencode 'sort_by=popular' \
  --data-urlencode 'content_type=videos' \
  --data-urlencode 'duration=long' \
  --data-urlencode 'cursor=PASTE_NEXT_CURSOR_HERE'

Every continuation request is another 0.5-credit page. Set a page ceiling in scheduled jobs so a changing result set cannot create unbounded work.

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Expand a topic seed

Typeahead returns current localized suggestions for a partial phrase.

curl --get 'https://api.influship.com/v1/raw/youtube/typeahead' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $INFLUSHIP_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'q=why do cities' \
  --data-urlencode 'country_code=US' \
  --data-urlencode 'language_code=en'

Use a small set of distinct suggestions as search seeds, then deduplicate videos by video_id before scoring them.

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Fetch exact video details

curl 'https://api.influship.com/v1/raw/youtube/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $INFLUSHIP_API_KEY"

The response includes views, likes, comments, duration, tags, categories, channel identity, and published_at when YouTube supplies an exact timestamp.

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Resolve a channel

Channel routes accept a bare handle, an @handle, a UC-prefixed channel ID, or a full channel URL.

curl --get 'https://api.influship.com/v1/raw/youtube/channel/@techreviews' \
  -H "X-API-Key: $INFLUSHIP_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'include_videos=true' \
  --data-urlencode 'video_limit=12'

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Caption availability and retries

YouTube caption requests return distinct outcomes:

Response	Meaning	Action
403 scraping_failed, error.details.upstream_error: content_unavailable	YouTube did not make the video available to this request. availability_confirmed: false preserves that uncertainty.	Stop automatic retries. Preserve any known video record; this response does not confirm deletion.
503 service_unavailable, error.details.upstream_error: content_not_ready	The scheduled video has not started and captions are not ready.	Honor Retry-After: 300 and set a limit on later attempts.
404 not_found	The requested captions are missing, or the video is private or removed.	Choose another accessible video or caption track.
Other temporary 503	The request could not complete within the service’s availability or time budget.	Honor Retry-After when present and use bounded backoff.

Failed API-key and OAuth caption requests do not incur usage charges. Keep payment receipts for x402 or MPP requests; another paid attempt requires another payment.

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MCP and no-code access

The six workflows are available through the Influship MCP server as search_youtube, get_youtube_typeahead, get_youtube_video, get_youtube_channel, get_youtube_video_transcript, and get_youtube_channel_transcripts.

Use these REST endpoints from any workflow platform that supports HTTP requests. Zapier users can call them from a Webhooks step.