YouTube Channel API
Subscribers, total views, video count, country and description for up to ten channels per call.
Guides · YouTube
YouTube API quota exceeded? What the limits are and what to do.
You have three options: spend fewer units per answer, apply for more quota through Google's audit form, or read public YouTube data from a per-record API instead. As of October 2026 the default is 10,000 units a day, with search.list and uploads in their own buckets of 100 calls each.
- Shared pool
- 10,000 units / day
- Searches
- 100 / day
- List calls
- 1 unit each
- Reset
- Midnight Pacific
Updated 21 October 2026
Ways past the quota
Quota figures from Google's YouTube Data API documentation, seen 21 October 2026.
| Stay on the YouTube Data API | API for Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| How you get more | Apply through the Audit and Quota Extension Form | Top up your balance |
| Searching | 100 search.list calls a day by default | Not offered for YouTube; read channels you already know |
| Comments at volume | 1 unit per commentThreads.list page | $0.00045 per record |
| Who can get access | Google account and Cloud project | Anyone. An agent signs itself up in one call and starts on a $0.10 trial |
| Price model | Quota; the docs list no prices | Pay as you go, from $0.00045 per record |
| Setup | Cloud project, key, then the audit for more | One API key. No YouTube account or app review |
Stretch the quota you have
- Use list calls by id (videos.list, channels.list) where you can: they cost 1 unit each.
- Batch ids into one request instead of one call per video.
- Each extra page of a paged result is another call, so ask only for the pages you need.
- Cache what you already fetched and refresh it on a schedule, inside what YouTube's terms allow.
When to stay on the official API
Stay if your app uploads, edits or moderates for a channel owner, or if your reads fit in the default quota. The audit is worth doing for a long-lived product built on YouTube.
A per-record API fits when you need public data on many channels or deep comment threads now, and an agent should not stop when a daily counter runs out.
What you can get here
YouTube Videos API
A channel's recent videos with views, likes, comments, duration and publish date.
YouTube Comments API
Top comments on videos and Shorts by URL or id, with author, text, likes and replies.
Operation pages
Questions people ask.
What happens when I exceed the YouTube API quota?
Calls that need quota fail until the quota resets at midnight Pacific Time. Google's docs show the quota per project in the Cloud console.
Does a search still cost 100 units?
No. Since 1 June 2026 search.list has its own bucket of 100 calls a day at 1 unit each, per Google's revision history.
Can I create more projects to get more quota?
Check the current YouTube API Services terms before you try. The documented route to more quota is the audit and extension form.
Can this API search YouTube by keyword?
Not today. It reads channels, their recent videos and the comments on videos you name. Use the Google Search API with a site filter to find channels first.
Sources (4)
- YouTube Data API: Quota calculator, seen 21 October 2026
- YouTube Data API: Revision history (1 June 2026), seen 21 October 2026
- YouTube API Services: Quota and compliance audits, seen 21 October 2026
- YouTube Data API: Obtaining authorization credentials, seen 21 October 2026
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