Collectors · SEO & keywords

YouTube autocomplete API in Python

What people type in the YouTube search box for a seed, optionally expanded a–z. One POST from Python with query, rows back as JSON with 6 fields, $0.0002 per delivered suggestion. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the youtube_autocomplete collector returns one dict per suggestion, at $0.0002 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/youtube_autocomplete/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "query": "web scraping",
        "country": "us",
        "lang": "en",
        "max_results": 10,
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("suggestion"), row.get("seed"), row.get("probe"), row.get("mode"))

Python: one YouTube Autocomplete run (Web scraping, United States), printing suggestion, seed, probe, mode

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the YouTube Autocomplete collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`query`	string	yes	The query to complete, e.g. "web scraping".
`modes`	string[]	no (default seed)	Which probe families to run: the seed alone (default), seed + a to z, question words, prepositions, comparison words.
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code: whose YouTube suggestions you read. Default us.
`lang`	string	no	Interface language (hl), e.g. en, it, de.
`max_results`	integer	no (default 20)	How many suggestions to deliver at most (1–500). You pay only for delivered suggestions.

Response fields

6 fields per suggestion.

Fields of each row (suggestion)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based delivery order: YouTube's order within each probe, probes in order.
`suggestion`	string	The suggested query, as the YouTube search box shows it.
`seed`	string	The seed it was expanded from.
`probe`	string	The query sent to autocomplete that returned this suggestion first.
`mode`	string	Probe family: seed, alphabet, questions, prepositions, comparisons.
`country`	string	Country the suggestions were read for.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/youtube_autocomplete/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"query":"web scraping","country":"us","lang":"en","max_results":10}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.0002 per delivered suggestion.

What YouTube Autocomplete rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.0002
1,000	$0.20
10,000	$2.00

Up to 500 suggestions per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 10,000 suggestions. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free YouTube Autocomplete API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 10,000 suggestions of this collector at $0.0002 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 500 suggestions per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.0002 per delivered suggestion, no subscription.

Get an API key YouTube autocomplete API