YouTube Channel Shorts API
Returns the Shorts published by a channel, each with title, view count, like count, and thumbnail.
GET /v1/youtube/channel/shortsLast updated November 2026Maintained by the SocialCrawl team
When to use the YouTube Channel Shorts API
Use it when you want only a channel's Shorts; channel/videos returns its regular uploads instead.
From the API reference
Returns a list of YouTube Shorts published by a channel, read from the channel's own Shorts shelf. Each short includes view count, like count, comment count, title, thumbnail, duration and exact publish date (measured 100% coverage on all six across 96 items, 2026-08-11), and unlike /v1/youtube/search?type=shorts every item carries channel identity. This is the Shorts complement to /v1/youtube/channel/videos, which is long-form only: the two sets are disjoint, so calling both and concatenating gives the channel's full catalogue for 2 credits. Every item carries post.ext.content_type (short here, video there) so the merged list stays separable. Send include=channel to add the channel's subscriber count, name, avatar and channel id to every row in the same call (1 credit). TITLES: the free per-video lookup swaps YouTube's English machine-translated listing title for the creator's own; a title not swapped carries post.ext.title_maybe_translated: true (exact_dates=false skips the lookup).
Searching 69 platforms in parallel
What can you do with the Channel Shorts API?
The Channel Shorts 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/shorts: Metered: holds 1 credit per page up front and refunds what the call does not use. 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 60: the API's own time limit for this endpoint.
# --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.
# Next page: send pagination.next_cursor back as cursor until pagination.has_more is false.
IDEMPOTENCY_KEY=$(od -An -N16 -tx1 /dev/urandom | tr -d ' \n')
curl -sS --max-time 60 --retry 3 -o response.json \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: $IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel/shorts?since=2026-09-01&handle=MrBeast" && cat response.json# GET /v1/youtube/channel/shorts: Metered: holds 1 credit per page up front and refunds what the call does not use. 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 = 60 # the API's own time limit for this endpoint.
MAX_RETRIES = 3
URL = "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel/shorts"
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 = {
"since": "2026-09-01",
"handle": "MrBeast",
}
# Walk the list: send pagination.next_cursor back as cursor until has_more is false.
MAX_PAGES = 10 # each page is one call
items = []
for _ in range(MAX_PAGES):
body = socialcrawl(params)
if body is None:
break
items.extend(body["data"]["items"])
page = body.get("pagination") or {}
if not page.get("has_more") or not page.get("next_cursor"):
break
params["cursor"] = page["next_cursor"]
print(f"{len(items)} items")// GET /v1/youtube/channel/shorts: Metered: holds 1 credit per page up front and refunds what the call does not use. 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 = 60_000; // the API's own time limit for this endpoint.
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 ${body.request_id})`);
}
// Retry-After (seconds) wins; otherwise back off.
await sleep(retryAfter ? Number(retryAfter) * 1000 : backoffMs(attempt));
}
}
const url = new URL("https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/youtube/channel/shorts");
url.searchParams.set("since", "2026-09-01");
url.searchParams.set("handle", "MrBeast");
// Walk the list: send pagination.next_cursor back as cursor until has_more is false.
const MAX_PAGES = 10; // each page is one call
const items: unknown[] = [];
for (let page = 0; page < MAX_PAGES; page++) {
const body = await socialcrawl(url);
if (!body) break;
items.push(...body.data.items);
const next = body.pagination?.next_cursor;
if (!body.pagination?.has_more || !next) break;
url.searchParams.set("cursor", next);
}
console.log(`${items.length} items`);Parameters worth sending
since=2026-09-01Returns only posts after this date, so a daily poll pays only for the pages with new posts.
Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| since | No | Only shorts published on or after this date: YYYY-MM-DD (midnight UTC) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Older shorts are left off the page, and the page that reaches one ends the walk: `next_cursor` is not returned and `pagination.stopped_at` is `since`. Pinned shorts sit out of date order and never end the walk. The page still costs what a page costs, so a daily poll pays for the pages it walks and no more. |
| stop_at_id | No | The id (`post.id`) or URL (`post.url`) of the newest short you already hold. The page stops just before it: that short and everything after it are left off, `next_cursor` is not returned, and `pagination.stopped_at` is `known_id`. A pinned short never counts as the stop point. If it is not on this page the page is returned in full with its cursor, so keep walking. `pagination.stopped_at` is `end` when the list ran out first and `null` while there is more to walk. |
| handle | No | YouTube channel handle without the @ symbol |
| channelId | No | Can pass channelId or handle |
| sort | No | Sort by newest (descending publish date) or popular (descending view count). Both orderings are genuinely applied, unlike `/v1/youtube/search`'s `popular`, which is a popularity-weighted ranking rather than a view sort. (newest | popular) |
| continuationToken | No | Continuation token to get more videos. Get 'continuationToken' from previous response. |
| include | No | Set to `channel` (one token only) to add the channel's subscriber count to every row (`post.ext.author_followers`, YouTube's own figure, rounded to three significant figures above 1,000) plus `post.author.display_name`, `.avatar_url` and `post.ext.channel_id` where missing, and the country the channel's owner set as an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code on `post.ext.author_country` (null when the channel sets none). Every row is the same channel, so this is one channel lookup for the whole page: 1 credit, refunded if the channel could not be read, and free when the channel was looked up recently. Adds well under a second (never more than 8). Read `data.hydration` for what it did. (channel) |
| exact_dates | No | On by default and free: every row is joined to the per-video lookup, one lookup per page (two on a page past 50 rows, side by side), adding about 0.2 to 0.7 seconds (never more than 3). The same lookup swaps the listing title, often YouTube's English machine translation, for the creator's own, and `computed.language` follows it; a title not swapped carries `post.ext.title_maybe_translated: true`. Set to `false` to skip the lookup and keep the listing title, marked by `post.ext.title_maybe_translated`. A row the lookup could not resolve keeps the listing title and the marker, and `_warnings` carries `original_titles_partial` (some rows) or `original_titles_unavailable` (none). The dates on this endpoint are exact either way. (true | false) |
| until | No | Only rows published on or before this date: YYYY-MM-DD (that whole UTC day is included) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Newer rows are left off each page and the walk does not stop, so older pages follow. A row with no date is kept. `published_before`, `end_date` and `to_date` are accepted and applied as `until`. |
| max_pages | No | 1 to 50 (default 1, or 50 when `max_items` or `max_credits` is sent). Walk up to this many pages in one call and return the rows from all of them. Each page walked is billed exactly as one call to this endpoint (a cached page is free) and counts against your rate limit; its charge and any refund are recorded under the page's own request id, listed in `data.walk.request_ids`. The walk stops early at the last page, or when the request's time budget runs low; `data.walk.stopped` says why (`end`, `max_pages`, `max_items`, `max_credits`, `time_budget`, `page_error`) and `pagination.next_cursor` continues from where it stopped. |
| max_items | No | 1 to 5000. Get more in one call: keep walking pages until the response holds at least this many rows, then stop with `data.walk.stopped: "max_items"`. The last page is returned whole (it was billed), so `data.items` can hold up to one page more than this, and `pagination.next_cursor` resumes right after it without skipping a row. Walks up to 50 pages unless `max_pages` says fewer; each page is billed as one call (a cached page is free). Add `max_credits` to cap the spend. A long walk can stop on the time budget first (`"time_budget"`): send the returned cursor with the same params to continue. |
| max_credits | No | 1 to 100000. The most this call may spend, across every page it walks. A page starts only while the credits already spent plus that page's price (or, when higher, the most any page of this walk has cost) still fit, so the call never goes past it; the walk then stops with `data.walk.stopped: "max_credits"` and the cursor to resume. Sent alone, it walks as far as the budget goes (up to 50 pages). A value below the price of one page is a free 400 whose `error.details.page_credits` names that price. Credits a row join (`include=`) adds are known only once a page has run, so page 1 is checked against its own price. |
What does the YouTube Channel Shorts 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/shorts",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"post": {
"id": "CEJXqm2eiJ0",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEJXqm2eiJ0",
"content": {
"text": "What’s Inside My Briefcase?",
"media_urls": null,
"thumbnail_url": "https://img.youtube.com/vi/CEJXqm2eiJ0/maxresdefault.jpg",
"duration_seconds": 40
},
"author": {
"username": "user_e32d6a",
"display_name": null,
"avatar_url": null,
"verified": null
},
"engagement": {
"views": 28866975,
"likes": 580691,
"comments": 13000,
"shares": null,
"saves": null
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": null,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-09-27T16:00:14.000Z",
"ext": {
"content_type": "short",
"categoryTitle": "Entertainment",
"description": null
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.020566,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 34640370,
"vs_creator": {
"ratio": 1.32,
"metric": "views",
"reason": null
}
}
},
{
"post": {
"id": "T_SMf9j50uc",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_SMf9j50uc",
"content": {
"text": "Can We Build an Entire Village?",
"media_urls": null,
"thumbnail_url": "https://img.youtube.com/vi/T_SMf9j50uc/maxresdefault.jpg",
"duration_seconds": 39
},
"author": {
"username": "user_e32d6a",
"display_name": null,
"avatar_url": null,
"verified": null
},
"engagement": {
"views": 21817759,
"likes": 788700,
"comments": 16000,
"shares": null,
"saves": null
},
"flags": {
"nsfw": null,
"spoiler": null,
"pinned": null,
"deleted": false
},
"published_at": "2026-09-18T16:00:01.000Z",
"ext": {
"content_type": "short",
"categoryTitle": "Entertainment",
"description": null
}
},
"computed": {
"engagement_rate": 0.036883,
"language": null,
"content_category": "other",
"estimated_reach": 26181311,
"vs_creator": {
"ratio": 0.76,
"metric": "views",
"reason": null
}
}
}
],
"total": null,
"creator_baseline": {
"baseline": null,
"reason": "fewer_than_eight",
"rows_used": 2,
"cadence": "omitted"
},
"dropped": 0
},
"credits_used": 1,
"request_id": "req_example000000",
"cached": false,
"pagination": {
"next_cursor": null,
"has_more": false,
"page_size": 2,
"stopped_at": "since"
},
"credits_remaining": 9999,
"source": "captured",
"captured_at": "2026-10-02T07:29:58.564Z",
"redacted": true
}Live sample illustrating the unified response shape. Field values reflect the record you query.
How does the YouTube Channel Shorts 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
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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 list a YouTube channel's Shorts?
Can I sort Shorts by newest or popular?
What fields come back for each Short?
How do I paginate through all Shorts on a channel?
Why is this a separate endpoint from channel videos?
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