YouTube Channel API
Returns a YouTube channel's public profile: subscriber count on author.followers (rounded above 1,000), video and view totals, description, banner and avatar URLs, and author.ext.public_email.
GET /v1/youtube/channelLast updated November 2026Maintained by the SocialCrawl team
When to use the YouTube Channel API
Use it when you have a handle, channel id, or channel URL and want an account snapshot before pulling its videos.
From the API reference
Returns public channel information for a YouTube channel including subscriber count, total video count, total view count, channel description, banner URL, and avatar URL. author.followers is YouTube's publicly published subscriber figure. Above 1,000 subscribers YouTube rounds that figure to three significant figures, and author.ext.followers_approximate is true. When the channel publishes a contact email in its public description, it is returned as author.ext.public_email; otherwise that leaf is null.
Searching 69 platforms in parallel
What can you do with the Channel API?
The Channel endpoint gives you structured YouTube data with computed fields in a single request. No scraping infrastructure to build or maintain.
Example Request
# GET /v1/youtube/channel: 1 credit per call. Cache hits are free and failed calls are refunded.
# Check the price first for 0 credits: add dry_run=1 to the query. Nothing is fetched or charged.
# --max-time 10: this endpoint's measured p99 latency x 1.5.
# --retry 3: retries timeouts, 429 and 5xx, honoring Retry-After.
# -o response.json keeps only the final attempt's body.
# One Idempotency-Key per request, reused on every retry, so a retried call is never charged twice.
IDEMPOTENCY_KEY=$(od -An -N16 -tx1 /dev/urandom | tr -d ' \n')
curl -sS --max-time 10 --retry 3 -o response.json \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: $IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel?handle=MrBeast" && cat response.json# GET /v1/youtube/channel: 1 credit per call. Cache hits are free and failed calls are refunded.
# Check the price first for 0 credits: add dry_run=1 to the query. Nothing is fetched or charged.
import os
import random
import time
import uuid
import requests
API_KEY = os.environ.get("SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY", "YOUR_API_KEY")
TIMEOUT_S = 10 # this endpoint's measured p99 latency x 1.5.
MAX_RETRIES = 3
URL = "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel"
def backoff(attempt):
# Exponential backoff with jitter: about 1 s, 2 s, then 4 s.
return 2 ** attempt * (0.5 + random.random() / 2)
def socialcrawl(params):
# One Idempotency-Key per request, reused on every retry, so a retried call is never charged twice.
idempotency_key = str(uuid.uuid4())
for attempt in range(MAX_RETRIES + 1):
try:
res = requests.get(
URL,
params=params,
headers={"x-api-key": API_KEY, "Idempotency-Key": idempotency_key},
timeout=TIMEOUT_S,
)
body = res.json()
except (requests.RequestException, ValueError):
# A timeout, a dropped connection or a non-JSON gateway page: retry with the same key.
if attempt == MAX_RETRIES:
raise
time.sleep(backoff(attempt))
continue
if body["success"]:
return body
error = body["error"]
# Branch on error["type"], never on the message text.
if error["type"] == "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND":
return None # refunded: nothing to read
retry_after = res.headers.get("Retry-After")
# SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE without Retry-After is a withdrawn endpoint: permanent.
permanent = error["type"] == "SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE" and retry_after is None
if not error.get("retryable") or permanent or attempt == MAX_RETRIES:
raise RuntimeError(f"{error['type']}: {error['message']} (request_id {body['request_id']})")
# Retry-After (seconds) wins; otherwise back off.
time.sleep(float(retry_after) if retry_after else backoff(attempt))
params = {
"handle": "MrBeast",
}
body = socialcrawl(params)
if body is not None:
print(body["data"])// GET /v1/youtube/channel: 1 credit per call. Cache hits are free and failed calls are refunded.
// Check the price first for 0 credits: add dry_run=1 to the query. Nothing is fetched or charged.
const API_KEY = process.env.SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY ?? "YOUR_API_KEY";
const TIMEOUT_MS = 10_000; // this endpoint's measured p99 latency x 1.5.
const MAX_RETRIES = 3;
type Page = { next_cursor: string | null; has_more: boolean };
type SocialCrawlResponse =
| { success: true; data: any; pagination?: Page; credits_used: number; request_id: string }
| { success: false; error: { type: string; message: string; retryable: boolean }; request_id: string };
const sleep = (ms: number) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
// Exponential backoff with jitter: about 1 s, 2 s, then 4 s.
const backoffMs = (attempt: number) => 2 ** attempt * 1000 * (0.5 + Math.random() / 2);
async function socialcrawl(url: URL) {
// One Idempotency-Key per request, reused on every retry, so a retried call is never charged twice.
const idempotencyKey = crypto.randomUUID();
for (let attempt = 0; ; attempt++) {
let res: Response;
let body: SocialCrawlResponse;
try {
res = await fetch(url, {
headers: {
"x-api-key": API_KEY,
"Idempotency-Key": idempotencyKey,
},
signal: AbortSignal.timeout(TIMEOUT_MS),
});
body = (await res.json()) as SocialCrawlResponse;
} catch (error) {
// A timeout, a dropped connection or a non-JSON gateway page: retry with the same key.
if (attempt >= MAX_RETRIES) throw error;
await sleep(backoffMs(attempt));
continue;
}
if (body.success) return body;
// Branch on error.type, never on the message text.
if (body.error.type === "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND") return null; // refunded: nothing to read
const retryAfter = res.headers.get("Retry-After");
// SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE without Retry-After is a withdrawn endpoint: permanent.
const permanent = body.error.type === "SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE" && retryAfter === null;
if (!body.error.retryable || permanent || attempt >= MAX_RETRIES) {
throw new Error(`${body.error.type}: ${body.error.message} (request_id ${body.request_id})`);
}
// Retry-After (seconds) wins; otherwise back off.
await sleep(retryAfter ? Number(retryAfter) * 1000 : backoffMs(attempt));
}
}
const url = new URL("https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel");
url.searchParams.set("handle", "MrBeast");
const body = await socialcrawl(url);
if (body) console.log(body.data);Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| channelId | No | YouTube channel ID. Can pass a channelId, handle or url |
| handle | No | YouTube channel handle without the @ symbol |
| url | No | YouTube channel URL. Can pass a channelId, handle or url |
| hl | No | Preferred response language for localized text (ISO 639-1, e.g. 'en', 'es', 'fr'). |
| forUsername | No | Legacy YouTube username (pre-handle) to look up. |
| contact_email | No | Optional. When 1, also returns author.ext.contact_email: when the bio lists two or more email addresses, the one the creator gives for contacting them personally, copied verbatim from the bio. Null when there is one address or none, when every address belongs to a manager, agency or brand, or when the choice was not confident. author.ext.public_email is unchanged. No extra credits. (1) |
What does the YouTube Channel API return?
Every response follows one unified schema. Here is a real, unmodified response body, so you can see the exact fields you get back before spending a credit.
Example response
{
"success": true,
"platform": "youtube",
"endpoint": "/v1/youtube/channel",
"data": {
"author": {
"id": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
"username": "@mrbeast",
"display_name": "MrBeast",
"avatar_url": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/nxYrc_1_2f77DoBadyxMTmv7ZpRZapHR5jbuYe7PlPd5cIRJxtNNEYyOC0ZsxaDyJJzXrnJiuDE=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
"bio": "SUBSCRIBE FOR A COOKIE!\nNew MrBeast or MrBeast Gaming video every single Saturday at noon eastern time!\nAccomplishments:\n- Raised $20,000,000 To Plant 20,000,000 Trees\n- Removed 30,000,000 pounds of trash from the ocean\n- Helped 2,000 people walk again\n- Helped 1,000 blind people see\n- Helped 1,000 deaf people hear\n- Built wells in Africa\n- Built and gave away 100 houses\n- Adopted every dog in a shelter (twice)\n- Given millions to charity\n- Started my own snack company Feastables\n- Started my own software company Viewstats\n- Gave away a private island (twice)\n- Gave away 1 million meals\n- I counted to 100k\n- Ran a marathon in the world's largest shoes\n- Survived 50 hours in Antarctica\n- Recreated Squid Game in real life\n- Created the largest competition show with 1000 people (Beast Games)\n- Gave $5,000,000 to one person\n- Raised $40,000,000 To Bring Clean Water To Millions Of People\n- Granted 100+ Dream Wishes for Kids Fighting Cancer\n- Gave Away Another $5,000,000 On Beast Games S2\n",
"verified": null,
"followers": 519000000,
"following": null,
"posts_count": 1004,
"likes_count": null,
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
"private": null,
"joined_at": "2012-02-20",
"ext": {
"country": "US",
"public_email": null,
"followers_approximate": true,
"keywords": "mrbeast6000 beast mrbeast Mr.Beast mr",
"total_views": 141401695682,
"joined_at_timestamp": "2012-02-20T00:43:50Z",
"topicCategories": [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_(sociology)"
],
"bannerExternalUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/mHMO_eEMp0dPvh0ADwXhPXNYb_GnjSVsLI8biqF1CpxT8OPl7izhNQsDPD3JHhd5y5Mg9GrP",
"madeForKids": false,
"hiddenSubscriberCount": false,
"related_playlists": {
"likes": "",
"uploads": "UUX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA"
},
"topic_ids": [
"/m/02jjt",
"/m/019_rr"
],
"unsubscribed_trailer": "v9QtM6qnG50"
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": null,
"language": "en",
"content_category": "gaming",
"estimated_reach": null
}
},
"credits_used": 1,
"request_id": "req_example000000",
"cached": false,
"credits_remaining": 9999,
"source": "captured",
"captured_at": "2026-10-02T15:41:11.379Z",
"redacted": true
}Live sample illustrating the unified response shape. Field values reflect the record you query.
How does the YouTube Channel API work?
Send a GET request with your API key and get back clean, structured JSON in our unified schema. Supported computed fields are populated when the source provides the required inputs.
Method
GET
Response
JSON
How do you scrape social media data in seconds?
The fastest social media scraping API for developers. Scrape profiles, posts, comments, and analytics from 69 platforms covering 10B+ monthly active users.
One schema, every platform
Query 69 platforms with identical response structures. Write your integration once.
Computed fields, not just scraped
When an endpoint supports these metrics and the source provides the required inputs, the normalized record includes engagement_rate, estimated_reach, content_category, and language. Ready to use.
See your data before you code
Visual Data Explorer. Paste any URL, get rich result cards, sortable tables, CSV export.
import requests
response = requests.get(
'https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/tiktok/profile',
params={'handle': 'charlidamelio'},
headers={'x-api-key': 'sc_YOUR_API_KEY'}
)
data = response.json(){
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"data": {
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"followers": 152400000
},
"engagement": {
"likes": 12400000000,
"engagement_rate": 0.087
},
"metadata": {
"language": "en",
"content_category": "lifestyle"
}
}
}Have a question? We got answers
Find answers to frequently asked questions about SocialCrawl's API, pricing, and capabilities.
Contact usHow do I get a YouTube channel's subscriber count via API?
Can I look up a YouTube channel by @handle?
What fields does GET /v1/youtube/channel return?
Does this endpoint count against YouTube Data API quota?
How fast is the YouTube Channel API?
Does the YouTube Channel API return the exact subscriber count?
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