Collectors · Social & communities

YouTube video data API in Python

Full metadata per video id — exact views and likes, length, category, captions. One POST from Python with videos, rows back as JSON with 31 fields, $0.005 per delivered video. 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_video collector returns one dict per video, at $0.005 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_video/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "videos": ["dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
        "max_results": 1,
    },
    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("video_id"), row.get("url"), row.get("title"), row.get("channel"))

Python: one YouTube video details run (Un video), printing video_id, url, title, channel

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 video details collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`videos`	array	yes	Video ids or watch/shorts/youtu.be URLs.
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code — proxy exit geo and Google locale (gl). Omit for the default pool.
`max_results`	integer	no (default 5)	How many videos to deliver at most (1–20). You pay only for delivered videos.

Response fields

31 fields per video.

Fields of each row (video)
Field	Type	What it holds
`video_id`	string	11-char video id.
`url`	string	Canonical watch URL.
`title`	string	Video title.
`channel`	string, nullable	Channel name.
`channel_id`	string, nullable	Channel id (UC…).
`channel_url`	string, nullable	Channel URL.
`views`	integer, nullable	Exact view count.
`likes`	integer, nullable	Exact like count (when public).
`length_seconds`	integer, nullable	Duration in seconds.
`publish_date`	string, nullable	Publish date.
`upload_date`	string, nullable	Upload date.
`category`	string, nullable	YouTube category.
`keywords`	string[]	Video keywords/tags.
`description`	string, nullable	Description (first 1500 chars).
`thumbnail`	string, nullable	Largest thumbnail URL.
`is_live`	boolean	Live content flag.
`family_safe`	boolean	Family-safe flag.
`captions_available`	boolean	Whether captions exist.
`caption_languages`	string[]	Caption language codes.
`rank`	integer	1-based delivery order.
`description_full`	string, nullable	Description with line breaks kept (up to 5 000 chars).
`hashtags`	string[]	Hashtags used in the description.
`channel_subscribers`	integer, nullable	Channel subscribers (4.55M → 4550000).
`is_short`	boolean	Eligible as a Short.
`is_unlisted`	boolean	Unlisted video.
`is_private`	boolean	Private video.
`allow_ratings`	boolean	Likes enabled.
`live_started_at`	string, nullable	Live broadcast start (ISO 8601).
`live_ended_at`	string, nullable	Live broadcast end (ISO 8601).
`embed_url`	string, nullable	Embed player URL.
`available_countries`	integer, nullable	Number of countries where the video is available.

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_video/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"videos":["dQw4w9WgXcQ"],"max_results":1}, "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

$0.005 per delivered video.

What YouTube video details rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.005
1,000	$5.00
10,000	$50.00

Up to 20 videos per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 400 videos. 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 video details API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 400 videos of this collector at $0.005 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 20 videos 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. $0.005 per delivered video, no subscription.

Get an API key YouTube video data API