youtube-data

YouTube Data

YouTube data access via TranscriptAPI.com — lightweight alternative to Google's YouTube Data API.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read [references/auth-setup.md](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.

Video Data (transcript + metadata) — 1 credit

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

Response:

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers to love", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
    "author_name": "Rick Astley",
    "author_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstley",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg"
  }
}

Search Data — 1 credit

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Video result fields: videoId, title, channelId, channelTitle, channelHandle, channelVerified, lengthText, viewCountText, publishedTimeText, hasCaptions, thumbnails

Channel result fields (type=channel): channelId, title, handle, url, description, subscriberCount, verified, rssUrl, thumbnails

Channel Data

Channel endpoints accept channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID. No need to resolve first.

Resolve handle to ID (free):

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

Returns: {"channel_id": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q", "resolved_from": "@TED"}

Latest 15 videos with exact stats (free):

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

Returns: channel info, results array with videoId, title, published (ISO), viewCount (exact number), description, thumbnail

All channel videos (paginated, 1 credit/page):

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

Returns 100 videos per page + continuation_token for pagination.

Search within channel (1 credit):

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search?channel=@TED&q=QUERY&limit=30
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Playlist Data — 1 credit/page

Accepts playlist — a YouTube playlist URL or playlist ID.

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

Returns: results (videos), playlist_info (title, numVideos, ownerName, viewCount), continuation_token, has_more

Credit Costs

| Endpoint | Cost | Data returned |

| --------------- | -------- | -------------------------- |

| transcript | 1 | Full transcript + metadata |

| search | 1 | Video/channel details |

| channel/resolve | free | Channel ID mapping |

| channel/latest | free | 15 videos + exact stats |

| channel/videos | 1/page | 100 videos per page |

| channel/search | 1 | Videos matching query |

| playlist/videos | 1/page | 100 videos per page |

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 | Validation error | 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](references/curl-examples.md)