YouTube Data API v3

Name: YouTube Data API v3 API
Brand: YouTube Data API v3
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecMediaVideo Processingoauth282 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Search YouTube videos, retrieve channel and playlist data, manage comments and captions, and control live broadcasts. Supports 82 endpoints covering video upload, search, rating, subscription management, and live chat moderation.

Quickstart

Get started with YouTube Data API v3 in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"search for youtube videos by keyword"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with YouTube Data API v3 API.

Search YouTube's video catalog by keyword, topic, location, or channel with customizable filters and pagination

Upload videos with metadata, thumbnails, captions, and configurable privacy settings

Retrieve detailed channel statistics including subscriber counts, view totals, and content metadata

Moderate comment threads with spam detection, approval queues, and batch status updates

GET STARTED

Start building with YouTube Data API v3 API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use YouTube Data API v3 API for, with concrete tasks.

★ AI Agent Video Research and Discovery

AI agents search YouTube's video catalog to find relevant content for research, competitive analysis, or content recommendations. Through Jentic, an agent can query the YouTube search endpoint by keyword, filter by upload date and duration, and retrieve video metadata including view counts, like ratios, and descriptions — all without navigating OAuth flows manually. Integration through Jentic takes under an hour compared to 2-3 days for direct API setup with quota management.

Search YouTube for videos about 'machine learning tutorials' uploaded in the last month, filter for videos longer than 10 minutes, and return the top 5 results with titles, view counts, and channel names

Channel Analytics and Performance Monitoring

Track YouTube channel growth metrics including subscriber counts, total views, video counts, and content metadata across multiple channels. The YouTube Data API provides channel statistics through the channels.list endpoint with configurable part parameters to retrieve only the data needed. Agents can monitor competitor channels, track influencer metrics, or build dashboards aggregating data from dozens of channels in a single session.

Retrieve channel statistics for channel ID 'UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw' including subscriber count, total view count, video count, and channel description

Automated Playlist Curation

Build and maintain YouTube playlists programmatically by searching for videos matching criteria and adding them to curated collections. The API supports creating playlists, inserting items at specific positions, reordering entries, and removing outdated content. Useful for content aggregation platforms, educational course builders, and automated content feeds that need to stay current with new uploads.

Create a new private playlist titled 'AI Research Papers', then search for the 10 most recent videos tagged 'arxiv paper review' and add them to the playlist in order of view count

Comment Moderation and Community Management

Moderate YouTube video comments at scale by listing comment threads, marking spam, setting moderation status, and replying to viewer questions. The API exposes comment threads with nested replies, supports batch moderation status updates (heldForReview, published, rejected), and allows automated spam flagging. Channels with high comment volumes can process hundreds of comments per API call with pagination.

List all comments on video ID 'dQw4w9WgXcQ' from the last 24 hours, identify comments containing URLs, and set their moderation status to 'heldForReview'

Live Stream Management and Chat Monitoring

Configure and control YouTube live broadcasts including scheduling streams, binding them to live stream resources, inserting cuepoints for ad breaks, and transitioning broadcast states from testing to live to complete. The live chat endpoints enable real-time message retrieval, moderator assignment, and viewer ban management during active broadcasts. Supports both manual and automated stream lifecycle control.

Create a live broadcast scheduled for tomorrow at 14:00 UTC with title 'Weekly Q&A', bind it to an existing stream key, then monitor the live chat and ban any user sending more than 5 messages per minute

Key Endpoints

82 endpoints — access and manage youtube video content, channels, playlists, comments, live streams, and captions programmatically.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/youtube/v3/search

Search for videos, channels, and playlists

GET

/youtube/v3/videos

Retrieve video details, statistics, and status

POST

/youtube/v3/videos

Upload a new video resource

GET

/youtube/v3/channels

Retrieve channel metadata and statistics

GET

/youtube/v3/playlists

List playlists for a channel or by ID

POST

/youtube/v3/playlistItems

Add a video to a playlist

GET

/youtube/v3/commentThreads

List top-level comment threads on a video

POST

/youtube/v3/liveBroadcasts

Create a new live broadcast event

GET

/youtube/v3/search

Search for videos, channels, and playlists

GET

/youtube/v3/videos

Retrieve video details, statistics, and status

POST

/youtube/v3/videos

Upload a new video resource

GET

/youtube/v3/channels

Retrieve channel metadata and statistics

GET

/youtube/v3/playlists

List playlists for a channel or by ID

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

YouTube OAuth 2.0 tokens and API keys are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault (MAXsystem). Agents receive scoped access tokens for specific OAuth scopes (youtube.readonly, youtube.upload, youtube.force-ssl) — raw client secrets and refresh tokens never enter the agent's context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g., 'search youtube videos by keyword' or 'upload a video to youtube') and Jentic returns matching YouTube Data API operations with their input schemas, required OAuth scopes, and quota costs, so the agent can call the right endpoint without browsing Google's documentation.

Time to first call

Direct YouTube API integration: 3-5 days for OAuth consent screen setup, quota configuration, and handling token refresh. Through Jentic: under 1 hour — search, load schema, execute with pre-configured credentials.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

Vimeo API

Professional video hosting platform with advanced privacy controls and customizable players

Choose Vimeo when the use case requires ad-free embedding, password-protected videos, or domain-level privacy controls not available on YouTube

Alternative

Twitch API

Live streaming platform focused on gaming and interactive real-time content

Choose Twitch when the use case is specifically about live gaming content, real-time interactive streams with chat integration, or streamer analytics

Complementary

Google Analytics API

Web analytics that can correlate YouTube traffic with website conversions

Use alongside YouTube Data API when you need to track how YouTube video embeds or links drive traffic and conversions on external websites

Complementary

Mux Video API

Video infrastructure for custom players, transcoding, and delivery analytics

Choose Mux when you need your own video infrastructure with custom player UI, detailed QoS metrics, or programmatic transcoding outside YouTube's ecosystem

FAQs

Specific to using YouTube Data API v3 API through Jentic.

What authentication does the YouTube Data API v3 use?

The YouTube Data API v3 uses OAuth 2.0 with both implicit and authorization code flows. Public data (video search, channel info) can be accessed with an API key, but write operations (upload, comment, subscribe) require OAuth 2.0 tokens with specific scopes like youtube, youtube.force-ssl, or youtube.upload. Through Jentic, OAuth tokens are stored in the MAXsystem vault and agents receive scoped access without handling token refresh directly.

Can I search for videos and filter by duration and upload date using the YouTube Data API?

Yes. The GET /youtube/v3/search endpoint accepts parameters including q (search query), publishedAfter, publishedBefore, videoDuration (short, medium, long), type (video, channel, playlist), order (date, rating, viewCount, relevance), and regionCode. You can combine these to find, for example, all long-form videos about a topic uploaded in the last week sorted by view count.

What are the rate limits for the YouTube Data API v3?

The YouTube Data API v3 uses a quota system rather than simple rate limits. Each project receives 10,000 quota units per day by default. Different operations cost different amounts: a search.list call costs 100 units, a video.list costs 1 unit, and a video.insert (upload) costs 1,600 units. You can request higher quotas through the Google Cloud Console audit process.

How do I upload a video to YouTube through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'upload a video to youtube' to discover the youtube.videos.insert operation. The POST /youtube/v3/videos endpoint accepts multipart requests with video file data and a JSON body specifying snippet (title, description, tags, categoryId), status (privacyStatus, publishAt), and recordingDetails. Through Jentic, the agent loads the operation schema, constructs the request with required OAuth youtube.upload scope, and executes without manual auth configuration.

Can I moderate comments in bulk with the YouTube Data API v3?

Yes. Use POST /youtube/v3/comments/setModerationStatus with the id parameter (comma-separated comment IDs) and moderationStatus set to published, heldForReview, or rejected. The banAuthor parameter optionally bans the commenter from future comments on your channel. Combine with GET /youtube/v3/commentThreads to retrieve comments for review, filtering by moderationStatus to find held comments.

How do I manage live broadcasts and live chat via the YouTube Data API?

Create a broadcast with POST /youtube/v3/liveBroadcasts specifying the scheduled start time and privacy. Bind it to a stream with POST /youtube/v3/liveBroadcasts/bind. Transition states using POST /youtube/v3/liveBroadcasts/transition (testing, live, complete). Monitor chat via GET /youtube/v3/liveChat/messages with the liveChatId from the broadcast resource, and moderate with POST /youtube/v3/liveChat/bans.

Is the YouTube Data API v3 free to use?

The YouTube Data API v3 is free within the default quota of 10,000 units per day per Google Cloud project. There are no per-request charges. For applications requiring higher throughput, you can apply for a quota extension through the YouTube API Services audit process, which involves demonstrating compliance with YouTube's Terms of Service and API policies.