YouTube Channels

YouTube channel tools via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read 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.

All channel endpoints accept flexible input — @handle, channel URL, or UC... channel ID. No need to resolve first.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve — FREE

Convert @handle, URL, or UC... ID to canonical channel ID.

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

Response:

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

If input is already UC[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{22}, returns immediately.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/latest — FREE

Latest 15 videos via RSS with exact stats.

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

Response:

{
  "channel": {
    "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "title": "TED",
    "author": "TED",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "published": "2006-04-17T00:00:00Z"
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
      "title": "Latest Video Title",
      "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
      "author": "TED",
      "published": "2026-01-30T16:00:00Z",
      "updated": "2026-01-31T02:00:00Z",
      "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00",
      "description": "Full video description...",
      "thumbnail": { "url": "https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/.../hqdefault.jpg" },
      "viewCount": "2287630",
      "starRating": {
        "average": "4.92",
        "count": "15000",
        "min": "1",
        "max": "5"
      }
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 15
}

Great for monitoring channels — free and gives exact view counts + ISO timestamps.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/videos — 1 credit/page

Paginated list of a channel's feed (~100 per page). Use tab to pick uploads (default), Shorts, or live streams, and the optional sort to order the Videos tab by latest, popular, or oldest.

# First page
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA&tab=videos" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Most-viewed first (channel Videos tab, ~30 per page)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA&sort=popular" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Next pages (repeat the same tab AND sort)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?continuation=TOKEN&sort=popular" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation, not both. When paginating, pass the same tab and sort on every page.

Sorting. Add sort=latest, popular, or oldest to channel/videos to get a channel's videos in the order you want, for example its most-popular uploads first. A sorted page returns about 30 videos (an unsorted page returns about 100), and every page costs the same 1 credit.

When paging, send the same sort on each request.

Per-item fields by feed:

members_only is true only when YouTube badges the item "Members only". Such items carry no viewCountText, because YouTube does not publish view counts for membership content.

Response:

{
  "results": [{
    "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
    "title": "Video Title",
    "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "channelTitle": "TED",
    "channelHandle": "@TED",
    "lengthText": "15:22",
    "viewCountText": "3.2M views",
    "publishedTimeText": "2 years ago",
    "thumbnails": [...],
    "index": "0",
    "members_only": false
  }],
  "playlist_info": {"title": "Uploads from TED", "numVideos": "5000", "ownerName": "TED"},
  "continuation_token": "4qmFsgKlARIYVVV1...",
  "has_more": true
}

Keep calling with continuation until has_more: false.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/search — 1 credit

Search within a specific channel.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/info — 1 credit

A channel's profile: title, handle, verified flag, subscriber/video counts, description, tags, thumbnails, banners, and the tabs it exposes.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/info?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Response:

{
  "channelId": "UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
  "title": "TED",
  "handle": "@TED",
  "verified": true,
  "subscriberCountText": "23.8M subscribers",
  "videoCountText": "4,300 videos",
  "description": "The TED Talks channel features ...",
  "tags": ["TED", "TED Talks"],
  "thumbnails": [...],
  "banners": [...],
  "availableTabs": ["videos", "shorts", "playlists", "community"]
}

Counts are display strings and null when YouTube hides them — never 0. Check availableTabs before calling channel/sections or channel/videos with a tab.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/playlists — 1 credit/page

List the playlists shown on a channel — useful for finding a playlist ID to feed into playlist/videos.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/playlists?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation, not both. Returns results (playlistId, title, url, videoCountText, thumbnails), continuation_token, has_more.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/posts — 1 credit/page

List a channel's community (Posts tab) content — text, publish time, like counts, and any attachment (image, video, playlist, or poll).

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/posts?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation, not both. Channels with no community tab return an empty results list (not an error).

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/sections — 1 credit

The curated shelves on a channel's Home page (or its podcasts/releases pages) — each shelf holds videos, playlists, shorts, or featured channels, in the channel's own order. Not paginated.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/sections?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

podcasts and releases only exist on channels that have them (empty results otherwise — check availableTabs from channel/info first).

Typical workflow

# 1. Check latest uploads (free — pass @handle directly)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# 2. Get transcript of recent video
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Errors

Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min. Free endpoints (resolve, latest) require auth but don't consume credits.