Search YouTube.
No sign-up. Just results.
ytapis is a free tool that searches YouTube and returns the results as neat, organized information. Find videos, check views and live status, and read captions. Nothing to sign up for. Try it in your browser, or use it in your own apps.
const res = await fetch('https://ytapis.djalokyt27.workers.dev/?q=cats&limit=5');
const videos = await res.json(); // plain array of videos
console.log(videos[0].title, videos[0].viewCount);Start here: what is ytapis?
ytapis is a free helper. It lets a computer program ask YouTube a question, like “find videos about cats”, and get a clean, organized answer back. You don’t need an account, a password or any payment.
What it does
Finds videos, shows titles, view counts and whether a stream is live, and fetches captions. All as plain organized text that apps can read.
Who it’s for
Students, creators and anyone building a small app, a dashboard or an AI tool. You can start even if you have never written code before.
What it costs
Nothing. There is no sign-up and no API key. Just open the playground and try it.
Built for real projects
Every endpoint returns clean JSON with the same video shape. Use them from a browser, a server, a script or an AI agent.
Search
Search YouTube with a query and a limit. Returns a plain JSON array of videos with thumbnails, views, duration and channel.
Video metadata & stats
Full video info with 18 fields, plus views, likes, comment count and live-viewer status for any video ID or URL.
Channels & playlists
Channel metadata, channel uploads and playlist videos. Some of these can return empty lists right now (see status below).
Comments & related
Comment threads and sidebar recommendations. Shapes are documented on the Endpoints page.
Transcripts & Shorts
Timestamped captions with a language code, plus a Shorts search that returns short-form videos only.
Live & trending
Check if a stream is live, read viewer counts and scheduled start times, or pull the trending feed.
Browser-ready
CORS is open for all origins, so you can call the API straight from a web page.
Cache & retry
The TypeScript SDK ships an LRU cache and exponential-backoff retry helper.
Stable shape
Every SDK returns the same VideoResult fields, so code you write once keeps working across languages.
Three steps to your first result
Pick an endpoint
Start with /?q=your+query. It is the most reliable endpoint right now.
Call it from anywhere
Use fetch, curl, requests or an SDK. No headers or keys are needed.
Handle empty and error states
Lists can be empty and some endpoints are currently empty upstream. Check the errors page for the patterns that keep an app stable.
Let Claude, OpenCode or Cursor build with ytapis
We wrote a complete master prompt that teaches any AI coding agent every endpoint, field, limit and gotcha. Copy it once, paste it into your agent, and describe the app you want.
Ideas that work today
Real starting points with code and the endpoints each one uses.
AI video summarizer
Search, pick a video and feed its transcript to an LLM for summaries and chapters.
Trend & keyword dashboard
Track what ranks for a keyword, compare view counts and export to a spreadsheet.
Live stream alert bot
Poll a channel's streams and post to Discord or Telegram the moment one goes live.
What works right now
We tested every endpoint on 9 October 2026. The status below is a snapshot. Use the playground for live checks.
Working
Returns dataEmpty right now
Returns []The app handles empty lists gracefully. When upstream data returns, these endpoints will fill in with no code changes.