New YouTube API — videos, channels, playlists, and Shorts as JSON
One managed endpoint for YouTube's search page, returning videos, channels, playlists, Shorts shelves, and ads as structured JSON.
A new dedicated endpoint scrapes YouTube's search page and returns every visible surface as structured JSON: videos, channels, playlists, Shorts shelves, ads, and the discovery rails YouTube interleaves alongside the results. No JavaScript rendering, no headless browser, no protobuf decoding.
What you get back
Every response carries result arrays you can dispatch on:
| Array | Populated when |
|---|---|
video_results | Always (returns [] when no videos match) |
channel_results | When the channels filter is set (sp=EgIQAg==) or the query surfaces channel cards |
playlist_results | When the playlists filter is set (sp=EgIQAw==) |
shorts_results | When YouTube interleaves a Shorts shelf |
ads_results | When the page renders a promoted entry |
people_also_watched / from_related_searches / channels_new_to_you / explore_more | When the matching discovery rail renders |
related_searches | Refinement chips above the result list |
pagination | When a continuation cursor exists |
Views come back as parsed integers (1.2M views → 1200000), extensions: ["4K"] is already extracted on every video, and the channel object carries the verified-badge flag and avatar URL.
One token for filters and pagination
sp is YouTube's opaque token. Short values control sort (rating, upload date, view count), result type (videos / channels / playlists), duration (under 4 min, 4–20 min, over 20 min), features (4K, HD, LIVE, CC), and upload date (last hour through this year). Long values are continuation cursors emitted in pagination.next_page_token. The plugin routes both automatically.
Localization
hl controls the language of published_date, length, and view-count suffixes; gl influences ranking and which shelves render. Match them (e.g., hl=de&gl=de) for the cleanest locale experience.
Each request costs 10 credits. See the YouTube API documentation for the full parameter list, response schema for every result type, and the complete sp token table.
