YouTube Transcript, Video, Search & Comments API · No 10,000 Quota Cap, No Cloud IP Blocks
YouTube Transcript & Data API at$1.00 per 1K transcripts.
Extract timed video transcripts + plain-text RAG corpora, full video metadata, 50-per-call keyword search results, 100-per-call video comments, and @handle channel feeds via one synchronous REST gateway.
- Timed Transcripts (RAG)
- $1.00
- Search & Comments
- $0.10
- Gateway Latency
- ~240ms
- Empty / Failed Calls
- 0 Credits
per 1,000 videos (10 Credits/call)
per 1,000 items (1 Credit/item)
L1 Redis cache + PG 16 LZ4 mirror
Charge-Before-Return guarantee
Live Debugger · Real YouTube Payloads
Test all 8 core endpoints in your browser.
Switch endpoints below, inspect video_id=dQw4w9WgXcQ or handle=@MrBeast, and click Test API Live.
{
"code": 0,
"provider": "https://youtubeapi.io",
"status": "ok",
"msg": "success",
"data": {
"videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
"channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
"channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
"language": "en",
"languageLabel": "English",
"isAutoGenerated": false,
"isTranslatable": true,
"availableLanguages": [
{
"code": "en",
"name": "English",
"isAutoGenerated": false
},
{
"code": "es",
"name": "Spanish",
"isAutoGenerated": false
}
],
"segmentsCount": 8,
"totalDurationSec": 53.6,
"wordCount": 68,
"fullTranscriptText": "We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye",
"segments": [
{
"text": "We're no strangers to love",
"startSec": 18.6,
"durationSec": 3.72,
"endSec": 22.32
},
{
"text": "You know the rules and so do I",
"startSec": 22.32,
"durationSec": 4.44,
"endSec": 26.76
}
]
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "9f8c2b10-6112-4a2b-9d1a-8f42ed904989",
"endpoint": "/v1/youtube/transcript",
"cached": true,
"source": "pg",
"items_count": 1,
"credits_charged": 10,
"latency_ms": 6
}
}8 Production-Verified Endpoints
Every YouTube dataset, one unified gateway.
All endpoints use standard GET https://api.youtubeapi.io/v1/youtube/* requests authenticated with x-api-key: yt_live_....
- 01
GET /v1/youtube/transcriptTimed Video Transcript & Plain-Text RAG Corpus
Extract millisecond-accurate subtitle segments (offset_ms, duration_ms, start_seconds) plus a pre-concatenated full_transcript_text string and available_languages[] from any public YouTube video or Short.
- 02
GET /v1/youtube/videoFull Video Metadata, Views, Likes & Chapters
Resolve any 11-character video_id or watch/Shorts URL into view_count, like_count, comment_count, duration_seconds, chapters[], keywords[], and channel metadata.
- 03
GET /v1/youtube/searchYouTube Video & Shorts Keyword Search
Search up to 50 videos or Shorts per call sorted by relevance, upload date, view count, or rating—without burning 100 Google quota units per search.
- 04
GET /v1/youtube/commentsVideo Comments Feed (Top & Newest + Cursor)
Extract up to 100 comments per call with comment_id, author_name, like_count, reply_count, is_pinned, and continuation cursor pagination.
- 05
GET /v1/youtube/channelChannel Profile Lookup by @handle or Channel ID
Retrieve subscriber_count, video_count, view_count, description, banner/avatar URLs, verified badge, and country using either ?handle=@MrBeast or ?channel_id=UC...
- 06
GET /v1/youtube/channel/videosChannel Uploaded Videos Feed
Paginate through any YouTube channel's uploaded long-form videos sorted by newest, popular, or oldest with continuation cursors.
- 07
GET /v1/youtube/channel/shortsChannel Shorts Feed
Fetch a creator's dedicated YouTube Shorts feed with view counts, thumbnails, and continuation pagination.
- 08
GET /v1/youtube/trendingRegional Trending Videos (Now, Music, Gaming)
Stream real-time trending YouTube videos for any ISO country code (US, GB, JP, DE, IN, BR) filtered by now, music, gaming, or movies.
High-Margin Developer Economics
Monthly plans or Pay-As-You-Go. Your credits, your choice.
Start free with 2,000 Credits (200 full video transcripts). Upgrade to a monthly plan for maximum discount or buy one-time Pay-As-You-Go credit packs that never expire.
Unified Credit System: $1 = 10,000 Credits (1 Credit = $0.0001)
Free Trial
2,000 Credits
No credit card required
Instant sandbox access to test all 8 YouTube Transcript, Video, Search, Comment & Channel endpoints with zero upfront commitment.
What this buys you
- →200 full video transcripts or video metadata lookups
- →2,000 video search items or channel feed videos
- →2,000 video comments with author & like metadata
Included
- ✓2,000 Free Credits on sign-up ($0.20 value)
- ✓All 8 /v1/youtube/* endpoints unlocked
- ✓No Google Cloud OAuth or 10,000-unit daily quota cap
- ✓Up to 30 requests / minute
- ✓0 Credits charged on failed or empty calls
Starter
Or $25 one-time PAYG
250,000 Credits
+25% Bonus Credits ($25 value)
Built for AI note-taking apps, RAG pipeline builders, and indie creator analytics tools.
What this buys you
- →25,000 full timed YouTube transcripts or video details
- →250,000 video/Shorts search items or channel videos
- →250,000 video comments with continuation pagination
Included
- ✓250,000 Credits ($25 value)
- ✓120 RPM high-speed concurrency
- ✓PAYG balance never expires
- ✓Unlimited deep cursor pagination
Pro
Most PopularOr $89 one-time PAYG
1,200,000 Credits
+40% Bonus Credits ($120 value)
For LLM knowledge ingestion, video summarization SaaS, and multi-channel brand intelligence.
What this buys you
- →120,000 full YouTube transcripts ($0.575 / 1K effective)
- →1,200,000 search items, channel videos, or comments
- →Multi-language subtitle track discovery + plain-text RAG output
Included
- ✓1,200,000 Credits ($120 value)
- ✓300 RPM burst concurrency
- ✓PAYG balance never expires
- ✓MCP Server & AI agent ready
Business / Scale
Or $249 one-time PAYG
5,000,000 Credits
+65% Bonus Credits ($500 value)
High-volume throughput for multimodal AI labs, creator economy platforms, and enterprise media monitors.
What this buys you
- →500,000 full YouTube transcripts ($0.398 / 1K effective)
- →5,000,000 search items, channel videos, or comments
- →Multi-upstream failover + local PG 16 mirror
Included
- ✓5,000,000 Credits ($500 value)
- ✓600 RPM dedicated key pool routing
- ✓PAYG balance never expires
- ✓Priority engineering support
Unified Credit Rate Card ($1 = 10,000 Credits · 1 Credit = $0.0001)
| Endpoint Category | Batch Size | Credit Rate | Effective Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
Timed Video Transcript & Full Plain-Text RAG Corpus + Subtitle Track Discovery/v1/youtube/transcript | 1 full video transcript + all language tracks / call | 10 Credits / request | $1.00 / 1,000 transcripts |
Full Video Metadata, Views, Likes, Chapters, Keywords & Channel Info/v1/youtube/video | 1 full video object / call | 10 Credits / request | $1.00 / 1,000 lookups |
YouTube Video & Shorts Keyword Search (relevance, date, views, rating)/v1/youtube/search | Up to 50 videos / call | 1 Credit / video (min 10 Credits) | $0.10 / 1,000 videos |
Video Comments Extraction (top or newest + continuation cursor)/v1/youtube/comments | Up to 100 comments / call | 1 Credit / comment (min 10 Credits) | $0.10 / 1,000 comments |
Channel Profile Lookup & Regional Trending Feed/v1/youtube/channel, /v1/youtube/trending | 1 channel profile or regional trending feed / call | 10 Credits / request | $1.00 / 1,000 requests |
Channel Uploaded Videos & Shorts Feeds/v1/youtube/channel/videos, /v1/youtube/channel/shorts | Up to 60 videos or Shorts / call | 1 Credit / video (min 10 Credits) | $0.10 / 1,000 videos |
Estimate your monthly workload.
Compare YouTubeAPI.io credit pricing against the Official YouTube Data API v3 and legacy scraping platforms.
- YouTubeAPI.io (Pro Bonus Rate)
- $28.75
- YouTube Data API v3 / Legacy Scrapers
- $175.00
- Your Monthly Savings
- $146.25
Base PAYG: $50.00
$3.50 per 1,000 transcripts
Up to 83%+ cost reduction
Engineered for Scale
Why AI & data teams switch to YouTubeAPI.io.
Stop fighting 10,000-unit daily Google quota walls, cloud IP bot challenges, and broken yt-dlp subprocesses.
AI Agent & No-Code Ready
Connect Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf in 30 seconds via our MCP configuration, or run no-code YouTube transcript & channel exports on Apify.
- 01
$1.00 / 1,000 full transcripts & $0.10 / 1,000 search items or comments
Unified credit pricing ($1 = 10,000 Credits): 10 Credits per transcript/video/channel lookup and 1 Credit per search/comment/channel-video item (min 10 Credits). Failed or empty calls cost 0 Credits.
- 02
No 10,000-unit daily Google Cloud quota cap or OAuth audit
YouTube Data API v3 charges 100 units per search (capping you at 100 searches/day) and blocks third-party caption downloads. YouTubeAPI.io works immediately with a single x-api-key: yt_live_... header.
- 03
Zero 'Sign in to confirm you're not a bot' cloud IP blocks
Self-hosted youtube-transcript-api and yt-dlp scripts get blocked on AWS, GCP, Hetzner, and Vercel IPs. Our gateway handles residential proxy rotation and timedtext XML/JSON3 parsing automatically.
- 04
Multi-upstream failover + L1 Redis + PostgreSQL 16 permanent mirror
Every public transcript, video, channel, and comment is cached in L1 Redis and stored in our PostgreSQL 16 LZ4 mirror for ~15ms repeat queries.
Questions.
How does the Unified Credit System work?
$1 equals 10,000 Credits (1 Credit = $0.0001). Single entity & transcript lookups (/v1/youtube/transcript, /v1/youtube/video, /v1/youtube/channel, /v1/youtube/trending) cost 10 Credits ($1.00 / 1,000 requests). List endpoints (/v1/youtube/search, /v1/youtube/comments, /v1/youtube/channel/videos, /v1/youtube/channel/shorts) deduct 1 Credit per returned item ($0.10 / 1,000 items) with a minimum floor of 10 Credits ($0.001) per non-empty response.
Do I need a Google Cloud Project, OAuth 2.0 consent screen, or 10,000-unit quota audit?
No. Unlike the Official YouTube Data API v3—which caps every project at 10,000 units/day (only 100 search.list calls per day!), blocks public caption track downloads via captions.download unless you own the channel, and requires weeks of Google compliance audits—YouTubeAPI.io works immediately with a single x-api-key: yt_live_... header.
How does /v1/youtube/transcript return timed captions and RAG-ready plain text?
GET /v1/youtube/transcript?video_id=dQw4w9WgXcQ&lang=en returns both a millisecond-accurate segments[] array ({ text, offset_ms, duration_ms, start_seconds }) AND a pre-concatenated full_transcript_text string ready for LLM prompts, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or vector embeddings, plus available_languages[] for multi-language discovery.
Am I charged when a request fails, returns 404, or a video has captions disabled?
Never. We strictly enforce Charge-Before-Return & Zero-Charge on Error/Empty: only HTTP 200 responses with non-empty data deduct credits. Upstream errors, deleted/private videos (HTTP 404), videos with disabled transcripts, rate-limited requests (HTTP 429), and empty search results cost 0 Credits.
Should I choose a Monthly Plan or Pay-As-You-Go (One-Time Top-Up)?
Both credit your account with the exact same bonus credit packages (Starter 250,000 Credits, Pro 1,200,000 Credits, Business 5,000,000 Credits). Pay-As-You-Go top-ups have no recurring billing and your purchased credit balance never expires. Monthly subscriptions save up to 24% more for continuous AI video ingestion and channel monitoring workloads.
What are the concurrency, pagination, and RPM rate limits?
Free Trial accounts include 2,000 Credits, 30 RPM, and full access to all 8 endpoints for evaluation. Paid accounts unlock unlimited deep continuation token pagination and scale from 120 RPM (Starter) and 600 RPM (Pro) up to 600 RPM (Business).
What payment methods are accepted?
You can top up or subscribe instantly with 0%-fee Cryptocurrency via NOWPayments (USDT or USDC on Solana, Tron, Polygon, Arbitrum, BNB Smart Chain, and Ethereum, plus BTC, ETH, and SOL) with an automatic +5% bonus credit reward.
Can I use YouTubeAPI.io inside Claude Desktop, Cursor, or LangChain?
Yes. Configure our MCP Server in Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf using your yt_live_... API key to give AI agents real-time YouTube video transcript extraction, semantic video search, channel feed analysis, and comment sentiment tools.
How does YouTubeAPI.io compare to youtube-transcript-api (Python) and yt-dlp?
Running youtube-transcript-api or yt-dlp from AWS, GCP, Hetzner, or Vercel datacenter IPs triggers YouTube's 'Sign in to confirm you're not a bot' PO-token and HTTP 429 blocks. YouTubeAPI.io handles residential proxy rotation, multi-key pool failover, L1 Redis caching, and permanent PostgreSQL 16 storage behind a sub-250ms REST endpoint.
Is YouTubeAPI.io affiliated with YouTube or Google LLC?
No. YouTubeAPI.io is an independent developer infrastructure provider for publicly available web data and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google LLC.